Happy Ever After

1 9 6 9 – 1 9 7 0 (UK)
14 x 50 minute episodes

This 14-part drama anthology series was produced by ATV.

The debut episode. ‘Feeling The Pinch’, which aired on 18 November 1969, was a darkly humorous tale of friction between Mrs Woodcock (Hilda Barry) and her son, Tom (Alfred Marks), and daughter-in-law, Barbara (Zena Walker). Mum occupies the only spare room, clings to a smelly 30-year-old mattress, and is the cause of considerable domestic discord. But after the dustmen call, Mum disappears!

‘The Fifty-First State’ introduced a girl (Judy Geeson) who finds a briefcase containing secret papers that a Foreign Secretary has jettisoned as his car headed for a fatal crash. She reads the documents which contain information that Britain will become the 51st state of America in the event of war. She is now a significant security risk.

‘The Loophole’ (by Fay Weldon) starred Norman Rodway as Neville Streeter – a trendy, suave, arrogant womanising husband who keeps his wife, Vanetia (Daphne Slater) at home as a drudge while he lechers his way around town.  Patricia Maynard co-stars as the cynical office tart who divides her favours between the husband and her boss.

‘The Party Piece’ had the beautiful and clever Joanna Bulstrode (Rachel Roberts) using a young man (Phillip Hinton) for her own (misguided) revenge in a fit of pique against her (innocent) husband Tony (Peter Bowles).

A rather nasty Christmas party joke was the background for ‘The Prank’. Two members of staff – Sarah (Ann Lynn), the personal assistant to the Managing Director, and Ernie (William Marlowe), the office wolf, are locked in an unheated attic and then, in a general alcoholic haze, forgotten about. The two unlikely companions surprisingly find understanding and friendship.

‘Fowler’s Day’ (by New Zealand writer Alexander Guyan) featured struggling playwright Joe Fowler (Anthony Jackson) who suddenly – to his own great surprise – finds success within his grasp. But his professional progress is complicated by a zany domestic experience.

In ‘The Woman at the Door‘, Sue Malone (Jennifer Hilary) faces a terrible dilemma on the brink of an affair with her boss. While waiting for him to arrive and begin their tryst, Sue witnesses an argument that ends in suicide. Not wishing her presence to be revealed, she says nothing until it becomes apparent that a man is being held for questioning. Should she tell the police all she knows and save the man, or should she keep quiet and preserve the reputations of her husband and her boss?

‘What’s the Matter, Darling, Can’t You Sleep?’ had hard-up newly-wed wife Sarah Grant (Kika Markham) landing a modelling job in a TV commercial for indigestion tablets.  But her marriage to Brian (John Alkin) is already under strain, and this could be the last straw.

The first of the new series, ‘Come Back Stranger’, starred Michael Jayston and Joe Lynch in the story of a jailed scientist who tries to escape his Russian and British tormentors.

In ‘The Ambassador’, an ambitious bachelor ambassador of some nameless European state (Peter Bowles) takes a girl from the embassy typing pool (Angela Douglas) to dinner and gets her pregnant. Her respectable, English suburban father (Anthony Sagar) forces a marriage between the two, at which point the ambassador, in revenge, ignores his wife and continues his amorous adventures at the apartment of a titled Minister in the British Foreign Office.

Jack Hocking (Johnny Wade) is a carpenter, coffin maker and member of the Rockmullion Lifeboat crew in ‘The Marriage Vow’.  He is in love with Sally Maer (Janet Key), and she loves him. All he needs to do is pop the question, and they will live happily ever after. But Sally insists he gives up the lifeboat service if the wedding is to go ahead.

In ‘With the Cherry Blossom, the Dawn’, David Nichols (Richard Gale) is a businessman returning from the “cherry blossom” land of Japan, laden with presents for his wife Mary (Ann Bell). But her pleasure is short-lived as David’s underlying intense obsession frightens her. David’s best friend, Dick (John Carson), is also frightened – he is Mary’s lover.

There was a feeling of tension in the Simpson household in ‘Family Weekend’ – Mark (Corin Redgrave) is coming home with a wife (Kika Markham). The life of his over-possessive mother (Margery Mason) revolves around her son, and her mind refuses to cope with the unwelcome fact that mummy’s little boy now has a wife of his own.

Shy and reserved Mary Wilshaw, aged 38 (Hildegard Neil), meets Eric (Iain Gregory), a much younger man in a wintry seaside resort in ‘Don’t Walk Away’, and their relationship forces her to reassess her position (she lives with her elderly mother (Avice Landone) and crippled brother (John Thaw) who depend on her).

Episodes

Feeling the Pinch | The Fifty-First State | The Loophole | The Party Piece | The Prank | Fowler’s Day | The Woman at the Door | What’s the Matter Darling, Can’t You Sleep? || Come Back Stranger | The Ambassador | The Marriage Vow | With the Cherry Blossom, the Dawn | Family Weekend | Don’t Walk Away