Potter was a 1979 BBC sitcom written by Roy Clarke. Running for three series, it originally starred Arthur Lowe as Redvers Potter, a busybody former sweet manufacturer ("Pottermints - the hotter mints") with time on his hands following retirement. Set in suburban South London, the series followed Potter in his various attempts to keep himself occupied by interfering in other people's business.
The series co-starred Noel Dyson as his wife Aileen, John Barron as the Vicar and John Warner as "Tolly" Tolliver, his next-door neighbour. Characters in later series included Harry H. Corbett as the comic ex-gangster Harry Tooms and Brenda Cowling as Jane.[1] Lowe died in 1982, and as plans for the third series were already advanced, he was replaced by Robin Bailey, after which the series was discontinued.[2]
Mark Lewisohn notes that although many of the characters (long-suffering wife, vicar, neighbour) were sitcom clichés "they seemed less so in the skilled hands of writer Roy Clarke, who had already proved a master of naturally humorous dialogue".[2]
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