Marriage Lines | |
---|---|
Genre | Sitcom |
Starring | Richard Briers Prunella Scales Edward de Souza |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
No. of episodes | 44 + 2 shorts |
Production | |
Running time | 37x25 minutes 7x30 minutes |
Broadcast | |
Original channel | BBC One |
Original run | 14 May 1961 – 3 June 1966 |
Marriage Lines was a popular black-and-white British sitcom that aired from 1961 to 1966 which launched the careers of its lead stars, Richard Briers and Prunella Scales. It was originally entitled The Marriage Lines. The programme was written by Richard Waring and was later adapted for radio.
Contents |
When Richard Waring was writing Marriage Lines, he had Richard Briers in mind, having previously worked with him on Brothers in Law. Graeme Muir, the producer of Marriage Lines had also worked on Brothers in Law. In early episodes, Marriage Lines was subtitled A Quizzical Look at the Early Days of Married Life.
George and Kate Starling are a newly-married couple, and the comedy came from many ordinary domestic situations. George was a junior clerk in an office and wanted the pub camaraderie of the single men in his office, while Kate gets increasingly frustrated by her domestic duties. In the third series, Kate gives birth to a daughter Helen. The last episode of the fourth series, Goodbye George - Goodbye Kate, showed the couple going to live in Lagos, Nigeria because of George's jobs. This was meant to be the last episode, however a fifth series was commissioned. The Starlings' returned to England as Kate was pregnant again, and gave birth in the final episode.
All episodes were 25 minutes, except the fifth series when the episodes were 30 minutes long. Many of the original 43 episodes are still known to be missing from television archives.
Marriage Lines was adapted for radio from 1965 to 1967, with Richard Briers and Prunella Scales once again starring. The scripts were also written by Richard Waring. The first series, of 13 episodes, ran from 21 May to 13 August 1965 and the second series, of 13 episodes, from 19 March to 11 June 1967.
|