1 9 7 3 – 1 9 7 7 (UK)
26 x 60 minute episodes
26 x 30 minute episodes
Beryl Humphries (Carmel McSharry) was the wife of Battersea milkman, Tom (Mark Kingston). She worked as a charlady and seemed content with her lot. Until, that is, her 40th birthday loomed large.
As her fortieth birthday approaches, Beryl realises that there must be more to life than running the family home, being a mother of three (Rosie, Jack and Babs), and milkman’s wife, and decides to improve her ‘lot’, enrolling for philosophy evening classes and otherwise breaking her conventions.
Trev and Vi Tonks (played by Tony Caunter and Barbara Mitchell respectively) were the Humphries’ next-door neighbours.
Beryl and Tom had a lodger called Fred (Robin Askwith) who worked for local bookmaker Wacky Waters and ended up marrying their daughter Rosie at the end of the second series.
Blending comedy with drama, the series from Yorkshire Television was inspired by the life of cook Margaret Powell – who, in her sixties, was transformed, seemingly overnight, from household servant to best-selling author and explosively giggly celebrity – and she served as script consultant during the first series.
The main writer, Kevin Laffan, created the rural soap Emmerdale Farm in 1972.
Beryl Humphries
Carmel McSharry
Tom Humphries
Mark Kingston (1)
George Selway (2)
Vi Tonks
Barbara Mitchell
Trev Tonks
Tony Caunter
Horace Harris
Robert Keegan
Wully Harris
Annie Leake
Fred Pickering
Robin Askwith
Freda
Queenie Watts
Charlie Mills
Norman Mitchell
Rosie Humphries
Verna Harvey
Jack Humphries
Brian Capron
Babs Humphries
Anita Carey
