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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Television»Shows by Decade»1960s Television
    1960s Television Drama Shows Y UK TV 2 Mins Read

    You Can’t Win

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    1 9 6 6 (UK)
    7 x 55 minute episodes

    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

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