Watching

Watching
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Jim Hitchmough
Starring	Paul Bown Emma Wray Liza Tarbuck Patsy Byrne Perry Fenwick
No. of series	7
No. of episodes	56
Production
Producer(s)	Granada Television
Running time	30mins x 54 60mins x 2
Broadcast
Original channel	ITV
Original run	5 July 1987 (1987-07-05) – 4 April 1993 (1993-04-04)
External links
Website

Watching is a British television sitcom, produced by Granada Television for the ITV network and broadcast for seven series and four specials between 1987 and 1993.

The series was written by Jim Hitchmough and starred Paul Bown and Emma Wray as mismatched couple Malcolm Stoneway and Brenda Wilson.

Plot

Watching was set in Merseyside, with Brenda from Liverpool and Malcolm from Meols on the Wirral, the "posh" part of Merseyside on the other side of the River Mersey. The title refers to Brenda and her sister Pamela's hobby of "people watching", and to Malcolm's hobby of birdwatching, which initially Brenda endures rather than enjoys, but later comes to appreciate.

Quiet biker Malcolm, who lived with his domineering mother (played by Patsy Byrne - Nursie from Blackadder), was accompanied on his birdwatching trips by loud scouser Brenda, who was forced to ride in the sidecar of his Norton motorbike. The series followed their on/off relationship, during which Malcolm married Lucinda (played by Elizabeth Morton).

Brenda and Malcolm married each other in the final episode, "Knotting", broadcast on 4 April 1993.

Episode List

Series One

Series Two

Series Three

Series Four

Series Five

Series Six

Series Seven

Production notes

Watching was originally conceived as a comedy sketch about a shy birdwatcher and a lively girl, written by Hitchmough during a drama workshop at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool. He submitted the sketch for the BBC satirical series Not the Nine O'Clock News but it was rejected. Undeterred by this, Hitchmough developed the sketch into a hit stage play and later won a commission from Granada Television to produce a seven-part series for broadcast on Sunday nights at 10:00 pm (a timeslot which was usually reserved for satirical comedy such as Yorkshire TV's The New Statesman and Central TV's Spitting Image). After a successful first series and subsequent Christmas special, Watching was recommissioned and moved to an earlier timeslot of 8:00 pm on Friday nights. Up until the end of its final run (broadcast at 7 pm on Sunday), the series would win audiences of over 17 million viewers.

Originally, the series was produced by David Liddiment (later to become Director of Programming at ITV) and directed by Les Chatfield, a senior director at Granada. Chatfield directed all 56 episodes and took over producing duties from series 3 onwards. Liddiment became the series' executive producer.

Emma Wray sang the theme song, "What Does He See in Me?", which was written by Charles Hart. Incidental music was written and composed by Richie Close.

Book and video releases

A novel based on the first series of Watching and written by Jim Hitchmough was published in 1990 by Bantam Books.

A video featuring the first two episodes, "Meeting" and "Wrestling", was released by CastleVision in August 1993.

DVD releases

All seven series and four specials have been released on DVD. The complete first series, including the 1987 Christmas special ("Seasoning"), was released on DVD in February 2006; also released was Watching: Series 1 -Selected Episodes, which comprised three first season episodes: "Meeting", "Outing" and "Hiding". The complete second series was released in March 2008. The complete third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh series including the 1988, 1991 and 1993 Christmas and New Year specials ("Twitching", "Slipping" and "Reverting"), especially a nine-disc set of the complete series, were released in April, May, July, October and November 2009. All releases are distributed by Network.

Cast

• Emma Wray - Brenda Wilson
• Paul Bown - Malcolm Stoneway
• Liza Tarbuck - Pamela Wilson
• Patsy Byrne - Mrs Marjorie Stoneway, Malcolm's Mum
• Perry Fenwick - Terry Milton
• Philip Fox - Sydney Clough (series 1 only)
• John Bowler - David Lynch (series 2 on)
• Elizabeth Spriggs - Aunt Peggy (from series 2 on)
• Liz Crowther - Susan Roberts (series 2 and 3 only)
• Ken Jones - Uncle Bernard (series 3)
• Russell Boulter - Chris Cameron (series 4 only)
• Noreen Kershaw - Joyce Wilson, Brenda's Mum (series 5 on)
• Andrew Hilton - Gerald Wilson, Brenda's young brother (series 5 on)
• Elizabeth Morton - Lucinda Davis/Stoneway
• Richard Good- Jonathan MacMillan
• Ally Vuli - Roz, the Nanny
• Al T. Kossy - Harold, landlord of the Grapes
• Dave Dutton - Oswald the cafe owner
• Bill Moores - "Cedric", regular at the Grapes
• Anita Petrof - "Mary", regular at the Grapes

Note: "Cedric" and "Mary" are the names given to the characters by Brenda during her people-watching days, Cedric's "real" name is unknown, but in series one episode Repenting Brenda reveals that she has talked to her and that "Mary"'s real name is Freda.

External links

• Watching at the Internet Movie Database
• Watching at TV.com
• Watching at the British Comedy Guide
• Watching - Contains the latest News about this British Comedy Award-winning sitcom
• Watching at British TV Comedy
• Programme Fansite
• wHom - Watching
• Tributes to Watching: Add Yours