''Rosie'' is a

British sitcom A British sitcom or a Britcom is a situational comedy programme produced for British television. British sitcoms have predominantly been recorded on studio sets, while some include an element of location filming. Live audiences and multi-camera ...

written by

Roy Clarke Royston Clarke (born 28 January 1930) is an English comedy writer, best known for creating the sitcoms ''Last of the Summer Wine'', ''Keeping Up Appearances'', ''Open All Hours'' and its sequel series, ''Still Open All Hours''. Early life Cla ...

that was broadcast between 1977 and 1981. It was set in the fictitious

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

town of Ravensbay, a name most probably derived from a combination of Ravenscar and

Robin Hood's Bay Robin Hood's Bay is a village in North Yorkshire, England. It is south of Whitby and north of Scarborough on the Yorkshire Coast. It is an ancient chapelry of Fylingdales in the wapentake of Whitby Strand. It is on the Cleveland Way nati ...

, seaside villages near the seaside town of

Scarborough, North Yorkshire Scarborough () is a seaside town and civil parish in North Yorkshire District, the district and North Yorkshire, county of North Yorkshire, England. With a population of 61,749, Scarborough is the largest town on the Yorkshire Coast and the No ...

where the series was filmed. The central character was PC Penrose ("Rosie"), a young and inexperienced

police officer A police officer (also called policeman or policewoman, cop, officer or constable) is a Warrant (law), warranted law employee of a police, police force. In most countries, ''police officer'' is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. ...

, played by

Paul Greenwood Paul Greenwood (born 2 August 1943) is a British film, television and theatre actor. He is best known for his role as PC Michael "Rosie" Penrose in the sitcom ''The Growing Pains of PC Penrose'' and its successor ''Rosie (TV series), Rosie'', ...

. The titular character is a nod towards Charles Penrose, who famously recorded the comedy song " The Laughing Policeman". ''Rosie'' was preceded by an earlier series of seven episodes, broadcast in 1975, called ''The Growing Pains of PC Penrose'' which was set in the fictitious

town of Slagcaster and filmed in Clarke's native

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...

, with the majority of the opening scenes of series one filmed in the village of New

Rossington Rossington is a civil parish and former mining village in the City of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England and is surrounded by countryside and the market towns of Bawtry and Tickhill. Geography Historically part of the West Riding of Yorks ...

, although the colliery shown in episode one is possibly

Hatfield Colliery Hatfield Colliery, also known as Hatfield Main Colliery, was a colliery in the South Yorkshire Coalfield, mining the High Hazel coal seam. The colliery was around northwest of Hatfield, South Yorkshire, adjacent north of the railway line from D ...

. The series then underwent a revamp with a new title (''Rosie''), setting and signature tune.

Cast

as PC 'Rosie' Penrose *

Tony Haygarth George Anthony Haygarth (4 February 1945 – 10 March 2017) was an English television, film and theatre actor. Life and career After leaving Marlborough College, Liverpool, Haygarth worked unsuccessfully in 1963 as a lifeguard in Torquay, and a ...

as PC Wilmot * Frankie Jordan as Gillian * Penny Leatherbarrow as WPC Brenda Whatmough * Paul Luty as Chief Inspector Dunwoody *

Avril Elgar Avril Elgar Williams (1 April 1932 – 17 September 2021) was an English stage, radio and television actress. Early life and career Avril Elgar Williams was born on 1 April 1932 at barracks in Halifax, West Riding of Yorkshire, England to Joh ...

as Millie Penrose (series 1–3) * Patricia Kneale as Millie Penrose (series 4) * Lorraine Peters as Aunt Ida *

Allan Surtees Allan Joseph Surtees (31 December 1924 – 1 November 2000) was an English actor who appeared in many television productions and films over a 30-year period. Television appearances His television appearances included roles on ''Coronation S ...

as Uncle Norman *

Don McKillop Donald Harley "Don" McKillop (15 February 1928 – 19 December 2005) was an English actor who trained at RADA. Notable roles include Bert the Landlord in the ''Doctor Who'' fifth and final serial of the eighth season, '' The Dæmons'' in 1971, ...

as Bill (series 1–3) * Maggie Jones as Glenda (series 1–3)

Episodes

''(first airdate in parentheses)''

Series 1

* "Woman Pressure" (5 January 1977) * "A Smile from Antonio" (12 January 1977) * "I Wish They Wouldn't Call Me Son" (19 January 1977) * "Sunday" (26 January 1977) * "Wholesale Fish" (2 February 1977) * "The Cheese and Wine" (9 February 1977)

Series 2

* "Mirror, Mirror on the Floor" (18 May 1978) * "Wilmot Gets a Bad Case of Big Cyril's Second Wife" (25 May 1978) * "Wilmot Gets an Even Worse Case of Big Cyril's Second Wife" (1 June 1978) * "The Eyes of the Law" (8 June 1978) * "Complications" (15 June 1978) * "Further Complications" (22 June 1978) * "Our Intrepid Birdmen" (29 June 1978)

Series 3

* "Those Wonderful People in the C.I.D." (7 June 1979) * "Free Sample" (14 June 1979) * "The Worm that Turns Us All" (21 June 1979) * "Happy Birthday, Mr Chizlehurst" (28 June 1979) * "Looking for Herbie" (5 July 1979) * "Turn Left at the Parrot" (12 July 1979) * "A Day in the Country" (19 July 1979)

Series 4

* "Tune on a Silent Dog Whistle" (18 September 1981) * "Arresting Gordon by Instalments" (25 September 1981) * "You're Beautiful, Miss Parkinson" (2 October 1981) * "The Eight-Foot Goat" (9 October 1981) * "Big Night at Freezi-Pops" (16 October 1981) * "An Informer for Engelbert" (23 October 1981) * "Caught in the Act" (30 October 1981)

DVD release

The complete series (seven episodes) of ''The Growing Pains of PC Penrose'' was previously released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

in 2007; however, , ''Rosie'' has not yet been released.

External links

* * {{Roy Clarke 1977 British television series debuts 1981 British television series endings 1970s British sitcoms 1980s British sitcoms BBC television sitcoms British English-language television shows Television shows set in Yorkshire Scarborough, North Yorkshire