Dear John (UK TV series)

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For the American sitcom of the same name, see Dear John (US TV series)

Dear John is a British sitcom, written by John Sullivan. Fourteen episodes and one "special" were broadcast in 1986-7.

This sitcom's title was a reference to letters sent by girls to their boyfriends breaking off the relationship, known as "Dear John" letters. In the opening episode of the series, John discovers that his wife is leaving him for a friend, and he is forced to find lodgings. In desperation, he begins attending meetings of the 1-2-1 Singles Club, and finds the other assorted members to be mostly social misfits.

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[edit] Major characters

John Lacey (Ralph Bates) John is a secondary school teacher whose wife leaves him for his best friend Mike. He is thrown out of his own home and has to continue paying the mortgage while living in a bedsit. Although John's wife is clearly a highly manipulative woman and John is the victim of a betrayal, he also admits on occasion that he somewhat neglected his wife emotionally. He feels cut off at times from his son who he has access to only on Sundays. They often end up at the zoo because it's the only place open, resulting in his son saying that they've seen one penguin so many times that the first time they came "he was an egg". A lot of John's problems come from an inability or unwillingness to confront someone or from being too nice - situations often rebound on him in the most unexpected ways.

Kate (Belinda Lang) - A "frigid" woman with three failed marriages behind her. She is constantly sparring with Kirk whose unrequited lust for her becomes a recurring theme of the series. At one point she ends up in bed with John although it is suggested that there was no actual sex as they were both very drunk. Eventually she goes on an extended holiday to Greece with her new boyfriend (much to the chagrin of Kirk) only to reappear in the final episode.

Ralph (Peter Denyer) - A nerdish misfit who married a Polish immigrant who left him as soon as she got a British passport. He has a very close friendship with Kirk despite the fact Kirk seems to hold him in obvious disdain. He often gives Kirk a lift home on his motorcycle combination. In series two, Ralphy (as Kirk calls him) surprises everyone by becoming Dazzlin' Darren the Night Club DJ. Unfortunately his microphone patter is not quite as glitzy as his name suggests.

Kirk St Moritz / Eric Morris (Peter Blake) - Dressed in the style of John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, the repulsively crass, chauvinist and tactless Kirk (who claims when questioned about his employment to be a spy) is shown at the end of series one to actually be a completely fictional personality created by someone called "Eric" who, though mid-thirties, still lives in squalor with an overbearing mother who refers to him as "big ears". His room is filled with toy guns and A Team posters. The long, rambling and often preposterously fictitious anecdotes of Kirk about his "experiences" seducing nuns and the Vietnam War are clearly meant to contrast with our knowledge that Eric is most likely a virgin and has done next to nothing with his life.

Eric claims to John in private that Kirk is the representation of all he aspires to in other men and also that he has other personas as well as Kirk and Eric - suggesting that perhaps even Eric has become simply a persona (the persona he presents to his mother, just as Kirk is the persona he presents to the 1-2-1 Club) - while Kirk explains away Eric in public as an undercover persona of Kirk's and his mother as his controller in disguise.

In the final episode, Eric is returning home with Kirk's dry-cleaned outfit when he sees his friends about to be beaten up by a group of Hells Angels. In a homage of the Superman films, he retreats into the pub toilet and (after the Superman theme is played) emerges as Kirk. Kirk single-handedly beats all of the Hells Angels up. While he is clearly not working for MI6 he is not without physical prowess.

Eric has an ongoing fascination with "Tiger" Kate who he roundly insults and who roundly insults him back, although he claims that under the surface he is "kind of fond of her" and even goes so far as to try to get John to organise a date with her for him.

Louise (Rachel Bell) The leader of the group divorced her husband because of his strange fetishistic tendencies and remains endlessly obsessed with other people's sex lives - this may be her reason for organising the group and certainly the cause of her catchphrase "Were there any sexual problems?"

Mrs. Arnott (Jean Challis) Quiet, hat-wearing Mrs Arnott (who it is implied has depression or mental issues) sits at the back dressed in dowdy, functional clothing occasionally chipping in with usually bizarre or unexpected comments such as that her husband used to make her play hoopla with ring doughnuts. Eventually she leaves to look after her daughter's children when her daughter goes to work in Africa for VSO.

Mrs. Lemenski (Irene Prador) An older Polish woman who occupies the bedsit next to John's and constantly catches him in bizarre and humiliating circumstances such as hitting his head on the wall in frustration. She refers to him as "you loony person" or "fruitcake person". She eventually reveals herself to be an extremely lonely woman who lost her husband in the Second World War.

Ken (Terence Edmond) Ken is John's work colleague who, in contrast to John's desire to have a loyal partner, clearly desires to spread his wild oats and has nothing but envy for what he imagines is John's new-found lifestyle of complete and exciting sexual freedom. He and his wife have a large number of children whose upkeep and company he clearly finds a drain. It is insinuated that they have not mastered contraception and eventually she forces him to have a vasectomy.

Wendy (Wendy Alnutt) John's sexually manipulative and bossy ex-wife.

Sylvia (Lucinda Curtis) A late addition to the series, Sylvia was a highly nervous woman with an irritating laugh who divorced her husband because of his transvestism.

[edit] Minor characters

Toby Lacey (William Bates) Ralph Bates' real-life son portrays his on screen son, Toby.

Maggie (Sue Holderness) Ken's long-suffering wife.

Ricky Fortune (Kevin Lloyd) One-hit-wonder (in Iceland) Ricky Fortune joins the group only to be cruelly mocked by Kirk for his clear anonymity, and leaves.

Mrs. Morris (Sheila Manahan) Kirk/Eric's overbearing, suffocating and rude Irish mother

Mike Taylor (Darren Traynor) Wendy's live-in lover.

The British production was brought to a premature end by the illness and eventual death from cancer of its star, Ralph Bates, who played John. It was later re-made for the American market.

[edit] VHS & DVD Releases

"Dear John" first appeared on video in 2002, the set contained three cassettes with both series and the Christmas special, the set was released under Playback Entertainment. There are no plans to release a DVD set.

[edit] External links