328 Maggie and Her

First  viewed :  January  1978

I  may  well  have  seen  the  first*  episode  of  this  sitcom  which  was  broadcast  at  7.30  pm on  Friday  13th  January  1978  but  I  can't  be  sure  because  I  heartily  disliked  the  show.

Maggie  ( Julia  McKenzie )  was  a  divorced  schoolteacher  in  her  mid-thirties  living   in  the  same  block  of  flats  as  Mrs  Perry  ( Irene  Handl ), an  outrageous  outspoken  pensioner  who  unilaterally  took  on  a  maternal  role  in  relation  to  her  flatmate. Maggie  generally  found  her  intrusions  a  blasted  nuisance  but  did  have  some  affection  for  her. With  Handl's  Jewish  roots  , Maggie  and  Her  did  have  some  resemblance  to  the  American  sitcom  Rhoda .

I  had  two  main  problems  with  the  show. One  was  McKenzie;  with  her  carrot-coloured  perm , frumpy  frame  and  bird like  features,  I  couldn't  believe  that  she  would  have  as  many  male  admirers  as  the  storylines  required. The  other  was  that  although  Handl  was  a  good  actress , Mrs  P's  behaviour  was  just  too  extreme  to  be  either  believable  or  endearing e.g. the  second  episode  where  she  gets  a  job  as  a  dinner  lady  in  Maggie's  school  and  starts  insulting  the  headmistress  during  their  first  meeting.

It  lasted  for  two  short  series, Handl  continued  working  right  up  to  her  death  in  1987  aged  85. McKenzie  looks  likely  to  at  least  equal  that  with  a  long  string  of  credits  on  both  stage  and  TV  screen.    











* There  was  a  pilot  episode  entitled  Poppy  and  Her  in  1976.