This series of plays from Granada featured four stories adapted from the novel Scenes From Provincial Life by William Cooper, and three stories from his novel, Scenes From Married Life.
Beginning in 1939, a rambling story follows disaffected physics teacher and would-be novelist Joe Lunn (Ian McShane) through a desultory affair with Myrtle (Patricia Garwood), gets him worrying about whether to emigrate to America, takes him on a return visit to Oxford to see Robert Watson (John Humphry) an older friend and mentor who had encouraged him to write, and leaves him, still wondering about Myrtle and America.
By December 1949, Joe is working as a senior civil servant in Whitehall and in a relatively happy marriage – but to Elspeth (Jennie Linden) not Myrtle.
Inspired by Elspeth, he writes his best novel to date, only to find that his publisher finds it too improper to publish.
The series aired in July and August 1966 on Thursday nights in the London area and on Friday nights in the North. Each episode presented a self-contained story.
Joe Lunn
Ian McShane Robert Watson
John Humphry Steve
Anton Darby Elspeth
Jennie Linden Jennifer
Anna Sweeney Shirley
Heather Spratt Harry
Roger Hammond Tom
Peter Birrel Frank
David Robinson Annette
Ann Curthoys Sybil
Elizabeth Weaver Trevor
Andrew Rimmer Daphne
Janet Norman Froggatt
Rosemary Frankau Mrs Harrison
Marie Hopps Myrtle
Patricia Garwood Virginia
Gillian Lewis Spinks
Ray Gatenby
Episodes
Who’s for America? | In at the Deep End | Chaos Is Come | Goodbye Myrtle Goodbye | The New Look | Learning the Law | The Stream of Life
By December 1949, Joe is working as a senior civil servant in Whitehall and in a relatively happy marriage – but to Elspeth (Jennie Linden) not Myrtle.
