''Marriage Lines'' is a British television sitcom first broadcast between 1963 and 1966. The series gave

Richard Briers Richard David Briers (14 January 1934 – 17 February 2013) was an English actor whose five-decade career encompassed film, radio, stage and television. Briers first came to prominence as George Starling in ''Marriage Lines'' (1961–66), but ...

and

Prunella Scales Prunella Margaret Rumney West Scales (''née'' Illingworth; born 22 June 1932) is an English former actress, best known for playing Sybil Fawlty, wife of Basil Fawlty (John Cleese), in the BBC comedy '' Fawlty Towers'', her nomination for a ...

, its lead stars, a significant boost in their careers. At first titled ''The Marriage Lines'', the programme was written by

Richard Waring Richard Waring (born Richard Waring Stephens; 27 May 1911 – 18 January 1993) was an English-American actor. He is perhaps best remembered for his role in the film ''Mr. Skeffington'' (1944). Biography Richard Waring was born Richard Ste ...

, and was later adapted for radio.

Cast

as George Starling *

as Kate Starling *

Edward de Souza Edward James de Souza (born 4 September 1932) is a British character actor and graduate of RADA, who is of Portuguese-Indian and English descent. Early life De Souza was the only child of Annie Adeline Swift (née Calvert) and Edward Valentine De ...

as Miles *

Ronald Hines Ronald Charles Andrew Hines (20 June 1929 – 28 March 2017) was a British television actor. He had a lengthy career, but possibly his most prominent roles were as Henry Corner in three of the four series of '' Not in Front of the Children'' ...

as Peter * Christine Finn as Norah * Diana King as Mrs Starling *

Geoffrey Sumner Geoffrey Sumner (20 November 1908, Ilfracombe, Devon – 29 September 1989, Alderney, Channel Islands) was a British actor. As well as appearing in a number of films, he was also a commentator for British Movietone News., His parents were Edmu ...

as Mr Starling * Dorothy Black as Kate's mother

Background

When Richard Waring was writing ''Marriage Lines'', he had Richard Briers in mind, and also worked with him on '' Brothers in Law''. Graeme Muir, the producer of ''Marriage Lines'', also worked on ''Brothers in Law''. In early episodes, ''The Marriage Lines'' was subtitled ''A Quizzical Look at the Early Days of Married Life''.

Plot

George and Kate Starling were a newly married couple, and the comedy came from many ordinary domestic situations. George was a junior clerk in an office and wanted the

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...

camaraderie of the single man in his office, while Kate got increasingly frustrated by her domestic duties. In the third series, Kate gave birth to a daughter, Helen. The last episode of the fourth series, "Goodbye George – Goodbye Kate", showed the couple going to live in

Lagos Lagos ( Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national capital of Nigeria until December 1991 f ...

, Nigeria because of George's job. 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.

Episodes

All episodes were 25 minutes, except the fifth series, when the episodes were 30 minutes long. Many episodes are missing from the television archives."Missing or incomplete episodes for programme MARRIAGE LINES"
lostshows.com

Series One (1963)

#"The Threshold" (16 August 1963) #"Trial Separation" (23 August 1963) #"The Bed" (30 August 1963) #"The Parting" (6 September 1963) #"Four-Part Harmony" (13 September 1963) #"The Old Flame" (20 September 1963) #"The Good Neighbours" (27 September 1963) #"Party Mood" (4 October 1963) #"The Anniversary" (11 October 1963) #"The Old Place" (18 October 1963)

Christmas Special (1963)

*Short special as part of ''

Christmas Night with the Stars ''Christmas Night with the Stars'' is a television show broadcast each Christmas night by the BBC from 1958 to 1972 (with the exception of 1961, 1965 and 1966). The show was hosted each year by a leading star of BBC TV and featured specially made s ...

'' (25 December 1963, missing)

Series Two (1964)

Entire series not known to survive. #"The Job" (22 May 1964) #"The Loan" (29 May 1964) #"Among Our Souvenirs" (5 June 1964) #"The Move" (12 June 1964) #"The Convention" (19 June 1964) #"Happy Birthday" (26 June 1964) #"Celebration Night" (28 June 1964) #"The Patient" (5 July 1964) #"The Martyr" (12 July 1964) #"Holiday Attractions" (19 July 1964) #"Financial Consideration" (26 July 1964) #"The Divorce" (2 August 1964) #"A Nice Surprise" (9 August 1964)

Christmas Special (1964)

*Short special as part of ''Christmas Night with the Stars'' (25 December 64)

Series Three (1965)

#"The Cuckoo" (5 January 1965) #"The Waiting Game" (12 January 1965) #"And Baby Makes Three" (19 January 1965) #"Nest of Starlings" (26 January 1965) #"The Ladies' Man" (2 February 1965) #"The Homecoming" (9 February 1965) #"Night of Nostalgia" (16 February 1965)

Series Four (1965)

Entire series not known to survive. #"What's in a Name" (22 August 1965) #"The Dinner" (29 August 1965) #"Serenade in Two Flats" (5 September 1965) #"Tropical Magic" (12 September 1965) #"Migration of Starlings" (19 September 1965) #"Goodbye George – Goodbye Kate" (26 September 1965)

Series Five (1966)

Entire series not known to survive, except where noted. #"The New Start" (22 April 1966) #"Back to the Beginning" (29 April 1966) #"Home Market" (6 May 1966) #"Big Business" (13 May 1966, sequence(s) exist) #"Alarums and Excursions" (20 May 1966) #"First House" (27 May 1966) #"And Then There Were Five" (3 June 1966)

DVD releases

Series One & Three were released on 4 February 2013.

Radio series

''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. The series was repeated on

BBC Radio 4 Extra BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7) is a British Digital radio in the United Kingdom, digital radio broadcasting, radio station from the BBC, broadcasting archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes nationally, 24 hours a ...

from 13 October 2014 onwards.

References

Mark Lewisohn Mark Lewisohn (born 16 June 1958) is an English historian and biographer. Since the 1980s, he has written many reference books about the Beatles and has worked for EMI, MPL Communications and Apple Corps.

, "Radio Times Guide to TV Comedy",

BBC Worldwide BBC Worldwide Ltd. was the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in January 1995. The company monetises BBC brands, selling BBC and other British programming for broadca ...

2003
British TV Comedy Guide for ''Marriage Lines''

External links

* * {{Richard Waring 1960s British sitcoms 1961 British television series debuts 1966 British television series endings BBC Radio comedy programmes BBC television sitcoms Lost BBC episodes Black-and-white British television shows English-language television shows