The Liver Birds

For the symbolic bird of Liverpool, see Liver bird.

The Liver Birds
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Carla Lane Myra Taylor
Written by	Carla Lane Myra Taylor Lew Schwarz Jack Seddon David Pursall
Starring	Polly James Pauline Collins Nerys Hughes Elizabeth Estensen
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	10
No. of episodes	86
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Original release
Network	BBC1
Release	Original Series: 14 April 1969 – 5 January 1979 Revival Series: 6 May – 24 June 1996

The Liver Birds was a British sitcom set in Liverpool in the 1970s that aired on BBC1 from 1969 to 1979 and in 1996. It was created by Carla Lane and Myra Taylor. The two Liverpool housewives had met at a local writers club and decided to pool their talents. Having been invited to London by Michael Mills, (Head of Comedy at the BBC), and asked to write about two women living together , flat sharing, Mills brought in sitcom expert Sydney Lotterby to work with the writing team. Lotterby had previously worked with Eric Sykes, Sheila Hancock and on The Likely Lads. Carla Lane in fact wrote most of the episodes, Taylor co-writing only the first two series. The pilot was shown as an episode of Comedy Playhouse, the BBC's breeding ground for sitcoms, in April 1969.

Plot

The series charted the ups and downs of two "dolly birds" sharing a flat on Huskisson Street, on Merseyside. The series concentrated on the problems encountered by the two young single women when dealing with boyfriends, work, parents and each other. Dressed in the best 1970s fashions, they looked for romance in a loose female equivalent of The Likely Lads.

The pilot and Series 1 starred Dawn (Pauline Collins) and Beryl Hennessey (Polly James). In Series 2, Sandra Hutchinson (Nerys Hughes) replaced Dawn for the rest of the programme's run. The Beryl and Sandra pairing is generally regarded as the programme's heyday. Beryl was the more common one, while Sandra was soft-spoken and refined. This was mainly due to the influence of her snobbish and overbearing mother played by Mollie Sugden. Carla Lane drew on her own mother for the character - "Mrs. Hutchinson, I think she was my mother. I'm sure she was my mother." Beryl's (common) mother was played by Sheila Fay. Carol Boswell (Elizabeth Estensen) replaced Beryl from Series 5 onwards.

The title derives from the name given to two sculpted birds perched atop the Royal Liver Building at Pier Head in the city of Liverpool. Michael Mills, the BBC Head of Comedy, came up with the title - a title which Carla Lane did not initially like. The title song for the series was sung by The Scaffold. The group included Mike McCartney (brother of former Beatle Paul McCartney) and the poet Roger McGough.

Episodes

Pilot

• 1 The Liver Birds (missing)

Series 1 (1969)

• 1 Potent Perfume aka An Interesting Condition (25 Jul 69)
• 2 The Photographer (1 Aug 69) (missing)
• 3 Aristocracy And Crime (8 Aug 69) (missing)
• 4 Torremolinos, Costa Del Sol Or Southport? (15 Aug 69) (missing)

After four episodes of the first series it was stopped because Polly James' hectic schedule, working every evening on Anne of Green Gables in the West End, and then rehearsing all day for the TV show, was proving too much. By the time Polly James was available again, Pauline Collins had moved to LWT's Upstairs Downstairs. The producer Sydney Lotterby remembered having worked with Nerys Hughes on The Likely Lads and, wrongly believing the Welsh actress was from Liverpool, asked her to read for a part in The Liver Birds. (In fact neither actress really had a Liverpool accent - Polly James was from Blackburn and Nerys Hughes from Rhyl.) Impressed with Nerys Hughes' reading he offered her the part of Sandra, and the new series, in colour this time , began. The first episode of the second series aired on 7 January 1971. The actresses got on well together. "The rapport between Polly and myself was fairly instant. It was excellent. It happened in a twinkling really" said Nerys Hughes later, and Polly James added - "We just fitted together. We learned our lines sipping Pernod milkshakes."

Series 2 (1971)

• Episode 1 : The girls find themselves arguing, blame their cramped conditions, and try moving to a bigger property in Allerton. Then they find they need a third flat-sharer to help pay the rent. They end up back in Huskisson Street. Ken Platt, Nicholas Smith, Patricia Shakesby and Veronica Doran all appear in this episode.
• Episode 2 The Good Samaritans : Sandra and Beryl agree to look after another tenant's cat while he visits his parents for the weekend. And reading Bertrand Russell's Sceptical Essays leads Sandra to vow to be 'considerate and understanding and ready to serve humanity.' But the effort to be Good Samaritans makes life very awkward for them.
• Episode 3 The Holiday Fund : Sandra and Beryl find their 'Holiday Fund' is short of the money they'll need to get to Spain, and 'ten days in torrid Torremolinos, ten nights of madness in the Mediterranean.' They decide that selling Beryl's antique night commode might raise the money. Ken Jones appears in this episode. (In this episode Polly James fell victim to Carla Lane's eccentric choice of set décor. Polly James: 'We had in our flat, we had a commode. Things would go wrong and we were not allowed to stop.' Nerys Hughes : 'She was meant to have sat down on the commode and I'd forgotten to put the lid down.' Polly James: 'And I sat down and went right down into it.' Nerys Hughes momentarily cracks up but they carry on with the scene.)
• Episode 4 : Sandra has had a misunderstanding with boyfriend Peter (Derek Fowlds), and is depressed. Beryl's worried she might do something stupid and tries to 'help'.
• Episode 5 The Wedding: Beryl's sister Gloria (Paula Wilcox), is meant to be marrying Ernie Titlark (Barrie Rutter) - but she's having second thoughts. She tells her mother 'It didn't work for you, why should it work for me?' 'Because I married a slob' her mother replies.(Beryls father, played by Cyril Shaps). 'How do you know Ernie isn't a slob?' 'Well, they're all slobs - but you've got to marry them to find out' her mother tells her. Carla Lane said she , "always liked writing weddings because they're really funny arent they? - and ridiculous, let's face it." In the BBC programme Comedy Connections the producer Sydney Lotterby had said, ' we weren't even allowed to talk about the pill - which is quite ridiculous, I mean , it was happening, but there we are.' In fact , in this episode it is mentioned. Sandra says 'Remember your Mama when Gloria got engaged, "Oh my daughter! my innocent little daughter." And Beryl replies saying ; 'Yeah, and there was our Gloria scoffin' her pill with her elevenses.'
• Episode 6 Three's a Crowd : Sandra's actress friend Victoria comes for a visit. She likes their place, 'it's so beautifully tatty', but her demands get on Beryl's nerves. Christopher Timothy and Joe Gladwin appear in this episode.
• Episode 7 : Sandra thinks she's in love with Danny (Tim Wylton), and wants Beryl to be out of the way when he's around. Beryl tries going to the cinema, then decides to take pity on fellow tenant Jerry - 'All he ever does is go to the laundrette, or talk to his cat' - and visits him. Sandra is disappointed meanwhile that Jerry seems interested in only one thing. "I'd like to think that you weren't just physical - but, well, mental," she tells him. And Jerry gets the wrong idea about Beryl's feelings for him, and thinks she fancies him.
• Episode 8 : A suave man, Derek, (Ronald Allen) moves into the house, and excites Beryl's and Sandra's interest. They waste no time introducing themselves and when they learn that he spends his weekends in Llandudno, at his parents guest-house, they each decide, separately, to follow him there. Carol Cleveland appears in this episode. (In this episode Sandra says to Beryl at one point: " I'm the handle with care sort, and you're the smash and grab sort." According to Carla Lane this reflected the Lane/Taylor writing team. "We knew we had to have one, one way, and one the other, and you had it on a plate. Myra/Carla. Polly was Myra, full of the devil, said what she thought. I was from a nice family and a little bit sort of Oh no you can't do that. I became Sandra. We used each other as characters.")
• Episode 9 The Dog
• Episode 10 Grandad
• Episode 11 Mother's Day
• Episode 12 Promotion

At the end of the second series Myra Taylor, who missed her family, stopped writing for the show. With 13 episodes commissioned for the third series, Michael Mills, the BBC Head of Comedy, felt that the writing duties would be too much for Lane to handle alone and so handed six episodes to the writing duo of Jack Seddon and David Pursall. 'They wrote like fellas. They had no idea how a woman thought' Lane said later, and Nerys Hughes observed, ' They weren't empathetic, they were...voyeuristic!' "They were, tonally, not the same" conceded the producer, Sydney Lotterby. This writing arrangement finished at the end of the third series.

Series 3 (1972)

• 1 One's a Crowd
• 2 Birds on the Dole
• 3 Good Little Girls should be in Bed
• 4 Birds on Strike
• 5 Fella - A - Day Girl
• 6 Birds and Bottom Drawers
• 7 The Christening
• 8 Birds on Horseback
• 9 St Valentine's Day
• 10 Birds in the Club
• 11 The Driving Test
• 12 Liverpool or Everton
• 13 The Parrot

Carla Lane became sole writer for the fourth series. She felt it was now time for the Liver Birds to start thinking about longer term relationships with boys. John Nettles played Paul, Sandra's (frustrated) boyfriend, and Jonathan Lynn played Robert , Beryl's boyfriend. 'I always wanted The Liver Birds', said Lane, ' not to be too keen about marriage - not to down it - but not to be out to get a boyfriend to marry.' Beryl's mother, (Sheila Fay), voiced the critical view; ' Man is the dog, and woman is the bone. He eats the best of you, and buries the rest of you, and when his dish is empty - he'll dig you up again.' This would be the last series with Beryl. Polly James explained : "The reason I left the programme in the end was that I felt I was in danger of caricaturing what was already a pretty outrageous character.'

Series 4 (1974)

• 1 Anybody Here Seen Thingy?
• 2 Friends at First Sight
• 3 Life Is Just A Bowl Of Sugar
• 4 Where's Beryl?
• 5 Girl Saturday
• 6 Pack Up Your Troubles
• 7 Have Hen Will Travel
• 8 Love Is...
• 9 Anyone For Freedom?
• 10 Follow That Ring
• 11 The Bride That Went Away
• 12 Let Sleeping Dogs Lie
• 13 And Then There Was One

The producer Sydney Lotterby had to find a new leading actress to keep the series going after the departure of Polly James. He'd done it in 1971 , replacing Pauline Collins with Nerys Hughes. And in fact it was Hughes herself who first spotted her potential new flat-mate. ' I went to see a musical in town - Willy Russell's, John. Paul, George, Ringo..and Bert, and saw Elizabeth Estensen.' Lotterby saw the performance at Hughes' suggestion, and asked Estenson to audition for the part. " She was loud, and abrasive, and exactly what I wanted," said Lotterby. So Beryl, the bouncy blonde was replaced by feisty, flame-haired Carol. Now into the fifth series, Carla Lane expanded her range from single life to family life and introduced Carol's relatives - the Boswells. 'They were a close family - they were a dysfunctional family' said Estenson, and they included Lucien, Carol's brother, played by Michael Angelis, a native Liverpudlian.

Series 5 (1975)

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7

Christmas Special (1975)

• 1

Series 6 (1976)

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

Series 7 (1976)

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8

Christmas Special (1976)

• 1

Series 8 (1977)

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7

Christmas Special (1977)

• 1

Series 9 (1978-79)

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6

Series 10 (1996)

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7

The Liver Birds missing episodes

Both the pilot and 3 of the 4 episodes from series 1 are missing presumed wiped in their entirety

• Pilot - The Liver Birds
• The Photographer
• Aristocracy and Crime
• Torremolinos, Costa del Sol or Southport?

Revival

In 1996, 17 years after the final episode of the show broadcast the BBC revived the series, with Beryl and Sandra reunited and now both coping with the aftermath of their respective failed marriages.

As the BBC's own website admits, some liberties were taken with continuity: Carmel McSharry who had played Carol's mother in Seasons 5–9, returned as the same character but now transformed into Beryl's mother, and Carol's rabbit-obsessed brother Lucien, played by Michael Angelis, became Beryl's brother. The revival was not a ratings success, and only lasted one series.

DVD releases

Only the second series has been released on DVD, but only for 50 Hz TV systems (PAL, SECAM); there are no known plans for it to be released for 60 Hz (NTSC) television. The rest of the shows series have not yet been released on DVD,as the Pilot & first series are thought to have been wiped. Cinema Club has bought the rights to the series and are re-releasing series 2 with the rest of the series 3-9 to follow including the 1996 sequel on DVD, especially a boxed set titled The Liver Birds Collection (containing all complete colour series 2-9 the surviving first episode of series 1 including the 1996 sequel) by 2010.

External links

• BBC Comedy Guide
• Information from Carla Lane's website
• The Liver Birds at the BFI's Screenonline
• The Liver Birds at IMDb
• The Liver Birds at British TV Resources