Gary Sparrow
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Gary Sparrow (Nicholas Lyndhurst) was the lead character in Goodnight Sweetheart: a six series British sitcom that ran between 1993 and 1999
[edit] Plot
A thirty-something, disenchanted TV repairman living an ordinary life in 1990's Cricklewood, Gary Sparrow accidentally discovers a portal (on 'Duckett's Passage') into 'a far more tranquil' time; the war torn East End of 1940's London. With the gift of being able to flit between the past and the present, Gary is able to lead an exciting double-life, and start a cross-time affair with pretty East End barmaid Phoebe Bamford (Dervla Kirwan/Elizabeth Carling). However, Gary's new life is not without its stresses; his attractive, 1990's wife Yvonne (Michelle Holmes/Emma Amos) still wants him to get a better job and start a family, and on top of that, he now has to invent a seemingly endless array of excuses to prevent his time traveling secret from being discovered on either side of the time portal.
Gary's sole confidant about his exploits into the world of brown tape and ration cards is his modern day best friend and printer, Ron Wheatcroft (Victor McGuire). Ron is able to replicate WWII items that help Gary get by in the past (such as identity papers and period money) and he is also recruited by Gary to help tell 'cover stories' to Yvonne which, he does, if rather unwillingly.
In the 1940's, Gary exploits his obvious advantage as a man from the future by claiming to be a 'secret agent' with access to 'classified' information about the war, and by playing well known post-war era songs on the piano and then claiming he wrote them (for example, Beatles songs). His luck runs out, however, when George Formby wants to cover "Gary's" song, When I'm Sixty-Four. Gary realises that allowing George Formby to be the first to record this song, instead of the Beatles, is 'messing with history', and liable to have a 'knock on effect'. He then proceeds the stressful process of trying to present George Formby with "legitimate" reasons why he shouldn't go ahead with the idea.
Due to his constant trips back and forth between the past and present day, Gary finds it difficult to meet the needs of both Phoebe and Yvonne. This is most apparent around series 4, when both wife and girlfriend are pregnant at the same time. While Phoebe goes on to have a son called Michael (her and Gary get married while she is still pregnant), Yvonne's pregnancy ends in miscarriage. At first, Yvonne suffers depression, but then she goes on to start a highly successful natural beauty aids business. Gary too has success, by selling mint condition 1940's 'memorabilia' at a huge profit in the 90's. However, his relationships with both Phoebe and Yvonne remain strained, mainly due to his constant absences from each wife.
The science fiction scenarios of the show gradually become more complex as the series goes along. For example, in one later episode, Gary meets his baby son (Michael) in the present day, but by now Michael is a man much older than Gary. At some point during this episode, Gary even briefly contemplates the possibility that he may be his own grandfather! Another episode has Gary using the portal for what he thinks will be a routine trip back to WWII, but instead, finding himself transported back to Victorian London and being stitched up for the crimes of Jack the Ripper. He manages to escape safely back to the present day, but not without discovering that the real Jack the Ripper has been hiding out in the yard of his memorabilia shop!
Gary and Phoebe eventually move to the upper-class area of Mayfair and become friends with Noel Coward. Phoebe becomes a successful nightclub singer and eventually, her and Gary become the owners of a nightclub called The Blue Door. Meanwhile, Ron's fortunes have once again begun to slide (earlier in the series his marriage to 'Stella' ends in divorce) when his socialite girlfriend Flic decides to leave him after a brief relationship. Ron also expresses chagrin at having to invent so many cover-stories for Gary over the years, and even speculates that giving so much time to Gary's exploits may have been what led to his divorce. Several of the later episodes of Goodnight Sweetheart have Gary being made to answer to his conscience, particularly regarding being a four dimensional bigamist.
In the final episode, Gary thwarts an assassination attempt on future Prime Minister, Clement Atlee and thus, the time portal closes forever. He now must face the reality that he can no longer flit between the past and future, but must stay permanently in the 1940's. He races over to the Mayfair apartment he owns with Phoebe and strips back a panel of wallpaper. He then writes an explanatory message on the wall to Ron and Yvonne, knowing that as Ron lives in the same apartment in the present day, they will see it.
