''Rooms'' is a

drama series In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular su ...

produced by

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Thames Television broa ...

for the

ITV Network ITV, legally known as Channel 3, is a British free-to-air public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television network. It is branded as ITV1 in most of the UK except for central and northern Scotland, where it is b ...

between 1974 and 1977. As the name suggests it focused on the lives of people renting rooms in a rather down-at-heel London house of multiple occupancy. Set in a Victorian former town house on the fictional Mafeking Terrace, the format of the series differed from

soap opera A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...

in that the stories were largely distinct, occupying just a few episodes at a time. As a result, and in keeping with the transitory nature of the setting, most of the cast changed after a few appearances, with only a handful of cast members appearing as regulars, sometimes featuring only as secondary characters.

Semi-regular cast

* Sylvia Kay (1974-76) *

Bryan Marshall Bryan Marshall (19 May 1938 – 25 June 2019) was a British actor, with a number of major credits in film and television to his name, in both Britain and Australia. Early life Marshall was born in Battersea, south London. He was educated at th ...

(1974-76) * Ian Redford (1975-77) * Anne Dyson (1977) * William Marlowe (1977) *

Jill Gascoine Jill Viola Gascoine (11 April 1937 – 28 April 2020) was an English actress and novelist. She portrayed Detective Inspector Maggie Forbes in the 1980s television series ''The Gentle Touch'' and its spin-off series '' C.A.T.S. Eyes''. In the 1 ...

(1977)

Guest cast

The guest cast included many actors who went on to find fame in film and television, including Brian Cox, Bernard Hill, Nigel Havers, Lewis Collins,

Annette Crosbie Annette Crosbie (born 12 February 1934) is a Scottish actress.Annette Crosbie fi ...

, Jan Francis, John Duttine, Maureen Lipman and Tessa Wyatt.

Writers

A number of distinguished writers worked on the series in their early careers, including Fay Weldon, Willis Hall, Christopher H. Bidmead, Leslie Duxbury,

Adele Rose Adele Rose (8 December 1933 – 28 December 2020) was an English television writer. She was the longest-serving scriptwriter for the soap opera ''Coronation Street,'' writing 457 scripts over a period of 37 years from 1961, and was the first woma ...

, Donald Churchill and

Robert Banks Stewart Robert Banks Stewart (16 July 1931 – 14 January 2016) was a Scottish screenwriter, television producer and former journalist. He was sometimes credited as Robert Stewart early in his career. Banks Stewart contributed extensively to drama for th ...

Broadcast

It was broadcast twice-weekly in a mid-afternoon slot on ITV, with some scheduling variations in different broadcast regions. Consequently was never intended to be a huge ratings winner. After it was shown in the 70s it went unrepeated until it was picked up by the

Talking Pictures TV Talking Pictures TV (TPTV) is a British free-to-air vintage film and nostalgia television channel. It was launched on 26 May 2015 on Sky. Later it also became available on Freeview, Freesat and Virgin Media. It is on air 24 hours a day and fe ...

archive channel in 2019.

External Links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rooms (TV series) 1974 British television series debuts 1977 British television series endings 1970s British drama television series British English-language television shows ITV television dramas Television shows produced by Thames Television Television shows set in London