1 9 7 5 – 1 9 7 7 (UK)
1 9 8 0 (UK)
26 x 30 minute episodes
If not quite three-in-a-bed, this Granada would-be rival to Man About The House cast three-in-a-bedsit, with newlyweds Chris (David Roper) and ‘Fliss’ (Diane Keen) Hawthorne sharing their sparsely furnished Chorlton-cum-Hardy (Manchester) accommodation with lodger Gavin Rumsey (Lewis Collins), who calls himself Chris’s best friend.
The trouble is, while Chris is a young northern newspaper reporter, typing his fingers to the bone to pay off the mortgage, and living with his pretty bride – who has delivered them twins – with little more than two pennies to rub together, Gavin (pictured) is a wealthy young air-freight executive used to the luxury life and lavish spending sprees; the original medallion man.
Forced to leave his matrimonial home when he splits from his wife Carol, Gavin moves his fancy furniture, Scalextric, hi-fi, abundantly stocked wardrobe, drinks cabinet and fast cars chez Hawthorne – at first only for a couple of days but then, it seems, indefinitely.
Gavin behaves like a cad, flaunting his wealth and suggesting romance with the disinterested Fliss – who, herself, is wondering what has happened to her life: three A-levels to her name and she’s up to her hands in nappy-rash cream.
Also closely involved in Chris and Fliss’s lives are their eccentric neighbour Austen Tweedale and Fliss’s prudish, interfering and materially-obsessed mother Connie.
Three such series were made, at which point Lewis Collins went off to become a star in ITV’s dashing-and-daring cop series The Professionals, and The Cuckoo Waltz seemed to be at an end.
Three years later, however, a final series was made – by this time the twins were of school age, Chris and Fliss had a little more money to spend and there was a new lodger to contend with, Adrian Lockett.
Like his predecessor, Adrian was something of a scoundrel, and he made abundantly clear his appreciation for Fliss.
Chris Hawthorne
David Roper
Felicity ‘Fliss’ Hawthorne
Diane Keen
Gavin Rumsey
Lewis Collins
Connie Wagstaffe
Clare Kelly
Austen Tweedale
John McKelvey
Carol Rumsey
Rachel Davies
Adrian Lockett
Ian Saynor
Harriet Paulden
Joanna Lumley
