''Watching'' is a

British television Television broadcasts in the United Kingdom began in 1932, however, regular broadcasts would only begin four years later. Television began as a public service which was free of advertising, which followed the first demonstration of a transm ...

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

, produced by

Granada Television ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV (TV network), ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire on weekdays only, as ABC Weekend TV, ...

for the ITV network and broadcast for seven series and four Christmas 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 Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

, with Brenda from

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

and Malcolm from Meols on the Wirral, the "posh" part of Merseyside on the other side of the

River Mersey The River Mersey () is a major river in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it h ...

. The title refers to Brenda and her sister Pamela's hobby of "people watching", and to Malcolm's hobby of

birdwatching Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device such as binoculars or a telescop ...

, which initially Brenda endures rather than enjoys, but later comes to appreciate. Following the idea, the episode titles are verbs in the ‘-ing’ form. Quiet biker Malcolm, who lived with his domineering mother (played by Patsy Byrne), was accompanied on his birdwatching trips by loud

scouse Scouse ( ), more formally known as Liverpool English or Merseyside English, is an Accent (dialect), accent and dialect of English language, English associated with the city of Liverpool and the surrounding Merseyside. The Scouse accent is h ...

r Brenda, who was forced to ride in the sidecar of his Norton motorbike and had a habit of rubbing his mother up the wrong way. Other key characters in the series were Brenda's sister Pamela ( Liza Tarbuck), her boyfriend (later husband) David ( John Bowler – Series 2 onwards) and Brenda and Pam's mother Joyce (played by Noreen Kershaw) in the last few series. The series followed Malcolm and Brenda's on/off relationship, during which Malcolm married another woman called Lucinda (played by Elizabeth Morton). However, Brenda and Malcolm finally married each other in the final episode, "Knotting", which was broadcast on 4 April 1993. The series ran for 54 30-minute episodes over 7 series, plus two 60-minute special extended episodes. ''Watching'' was later repeated on Granada Plus during the early 2000s and on BFBS' Forces TV from March 2022 until the channel ceased broadcasting four months later. It was also broadcast in Australia in the early 90s on the ABC and in New Zealand on TV One.

Series overview

Episodes

Series 1 (1987)

Christmas Special (1987)

Series 2 (1988)

Christmas Special (1988)

Series 3 (1989)

Series 4 (1989–90)

Series 5 (1990–91)

Christmas Special (1991)

Series 6 (1992)

New Year Special (1993)

Series 7 (1993)

Cast

* Emma Wray as Brenda Wilson * Paul Bown as Malcolm Stoneway * Liza Tarbuck as Pamela Wilson/Lynch * Patsy Byrne as Mrs. Marjorie Stoneway * Perry Fenwick as Terry Milton (series 1–3, 7) * Philip Fox as Sidney Clough (series 1) * John Bowler as David Lynch (series 2 onwards) * Elizabeth Spriggs as Aunt Peggy (series 2, 4–5) * Liz Crowther as Susan Roberts (series 2–3) *Ann Rye as Mrs. Riley (series 3–5) * Russell Boulter as Chris Cameron (series 4) * Ken Jones as Uncle Bernard (series 5) * Noreen Kershaw as Joyce Wilson (series 5 onwards) *Andrew Hilton as Gerald Wilson (series 5 onwards) * Elizabeth Morton as Lucinda Davis/Stoneway (series 5–7) *Richard Good as Jonathan MacMillan (series 6) *Ally Vuli as Roz (series 7) *Jonathan Hackett as Julian (series 7) *Al T. Kossy as Harold * Dave Dutton as Oswald Parkins (series 1–5) *Bill Moores as "Cedric", regular at the Grapes *Anita Petrof as "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.

Production

''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

. 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 stage play, adapted into an afternoon play for

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

. Later, Watching won a commission from

to produce a seven-part series for broadcast on Sunday nights at 10pm, which was a timeslot that was usually reserved for satirical comedy such as

Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

's '' The New Statesman'' and Central's '' Spitting Image''. After a successful first series and subsequent

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

special, ''Watching'' was recommissioned and moved to an earlier timeslot of 8pm on Friday nights. Up until the end of the final run (broadcast at 7pm on Sunday), the series would have audiences of over 13 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 most of the episodes and took over producing duties from series 3 onwards. Liddiment became the series' executive producer. Emma Wray sang both the opening and closing versions of the

theme song Theme music is a musical composition which is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at ...

, ''What Does He See in Me?'', which was written by Charles Hart. Incidental music was written and composed by Richie Close.

Books

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

Home releases

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

References

External links

* * *{{British Comedy Guide, tv, watching ITV sitcoms 1987 British television series debuts 1993 British television series endings 1980s British sitcoms 1990s British sitcoms Television shows set in Liverpool Television series by ITV Studios Television series about couples Television shows produced by Granada Television British English-language television shows 1980s British romantic comedy television series 1990s British romantic comedy television series Television shows shot in Liverpool