The eyes have it in this Eighties comedy with laughs aplenty
t’s amazing, given my obvious youthfulness, just how well I remember the TV shows of the 1980s and 90s. Perhaps I was some kind of child genius blessed with total recall.
At which point, I hope you’re thinking – isn’t he clever?
Though in reality, I suspect you’re surmising that genius is evidently something one grows out of.
Perhaps the shows were simply more memorable.
The focus of today’s column particularly so. First broadcast on July 5, 1987 and regularly pulling in 13 million viewers,
ITV’s ran for seven series until April 4, 1993.
Set in Merseyside, the premise was simple: Mild-mannered bird watching enthusiast Malcolm Stoneway (Paul Brown) meets people-watching lover and full-on Scouser Brenda Wilson (Emma Wray). Hence the show’s title.
The seemingly diametric duo finding themselves in a temperamental, on-and-off relationship.
If you’re familiar with the programme, what I’m about to impart will ring true. If you’re not, you need to be.
Written by Liverpool based Jim Hitchmough, the plots bounced along at pace, the dialogue sparkled and the laughs came thick and fast. It was sharp, insightful, tremendously warm and at times genuinely touching. The soap-like character development displaying the craft the writer mastered scripting episodes of
Interweaving plot strands abound and the more Hitchmough wove the more we watched and the more we cared about the fate of the main players.
This was true talent. A gift for us – the wizardry wielded with aplomb. And while Liverpudlian wordsmith Carla Lane –
Iis rightly lauded, I fear that Hitchmough is often forgotten. Well not in this household.
The red part of the city had Keegan and Toshack leading the line, but had a more than able ‘front two’, capable of delivering a winning performance, ensuring the on-screen shenanigans had a watchability of its own.
Originally broadcast as an afternoon play on BBC Radio 4 but never developed by the Beeb for TV, the Granada production was Emma Wray’s first TV role. A rough diamond in the show but a true gem when set in a prime time viewing slot.
Her presence and chemistry with Paul Brown, be it luck or consummate skill, shone like a beacon – one to which the viewers were inevitably drawn, to this tale of a shy and retiring mummy’s boy and the garrulous gossiper.
The barbed banter was a joy and was often on display in their local, the Grapes, where the pair indulged their people-watching skills.
Speculating on short-sighted barman Harold’s past, Brenda asks; “So what do you reckon then?” with Malcolm suggesting: “Ex-army.”
“Regular or Salvation?” Brenda’s quizzical response.
“He was the first soldier in the Formby Fusiliers to have his rifle fitted with Braille sights” is Malcolm’s revelation.
The show’s opening and closing title theme is sung by Wray. Written by Charles Hart, its title reveals an insecurity Brenda hides via her out-there outfits and attitude.
Unapologetically brash and loud, her antics often had Malcolm sweating more heavily than an Evertonian doing Sudoku. She was in love, she was scared but chiefly she was funny.
On accompanying her beau bird watching, Malc offers: “I’ve a little canvas stool.” “Have you mentioned it to your doctor?” is one of Brenda’s many smart comebacks.
And so the funnies flowed. “I hate doing nothing. You don’t know when you’re finished.” Another Brenda nugget of comedic wisdom.
After being abandoned for 5 minutes in a nightclub; “I can’t think of a better way of spending an evening than being stuck here, on my own, being ignored by everybody. I’m like the condom machine at a Cliff Richard concert.” On a previous date’s qualities: “We were incompatible. I don’t believe in the Yeti and he was one.”
And so it went on – for six years, in fact. Thrown together by fate, they caught the mood and ran with it. Ably assisted by Lisa Tarbuck, as Brenda’s longsuffering sister Perry Fenwick – who would later become an
regular, and Patsy Byrne – Nursey – as Malcolm’s mum. Wray went on to star in Yorkshire Television’s
alongside Dennis Waterman.
She gave up acting 25 years ago to travel the world and went on to become a nanny. No doubt the time spent playing babysitter to Malcolm finally came in handy.