First watched : Early 1976
This series first ran in 1974 but I don't think I saw it until it followed Top of the Pops on a Thursday.
The series stemmed from a Comedy Playhouse pilot and starred Terry Scott and June Whitfield as a middle-aged , middle class couple whose two daughters have left home which, in those days of student grants, left Terry free to pursue some harebrained schemes while June looked on in mildly sceptical disapproval, ( a comic persona that sustained Whitfield for decades ). Her sister Lucy played by Beryl Cook moved in with her mynah bird to add to the mayhem.
I remember it as actually being pretty funny and I recall getting caught out for re-cycling one of the storylines ( I can't remember what it was ) in a school essay the next day. Unfortunately I hadn't really factored in that teachers watched the telly too !
The series ran aground in 1979 when writer Eric Merriman fell out with the BBC but refused to be bought out with regards to the format. The BBC then decided to uproot Scott and Whitfield to a new location , ditch the rest of the family and re-brand as Terry and June since Merriman could hardly lay claim to the actors' real names.
Terry and June went on for another eight years and became a bit of a byword for safe, unchallenging and stale viewing in the age of alternative comedy. It's a shame that that's prevented much appreciation of the original series.
The partnership was finally broken up in 1987 when Scott was diagnosed with cancer although he lived on for another seven years and continued voicing the character Penrose in Danger Mouse until 1992. The seemingly indestructible Whitfield turns 90 later this year.
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