Depending on your point of view, Telford’s Change was either a serial about the menopausal mid-life muddle of a moping bank manager or a ten-week campaign to prove that bankers aren’t as boring as we thought.
Either way, Peter Barkworth had a hit on his hands.
A high-achieving international banker with a major City bank, Mark Telford decided to downshift to a provincial bank manager’s job in Dover, but his London-loving wife, Sylvia (Hannah Gordon) – with her sights on a showbiz career – and son Peter (Michael Maloney), refused to go.
Episodes subsequently followed the resultant strain on their marriage, exacerbated by Sylvia’s new employer, theatre impresario Tim Hart (Keith Barron).
The very provincialism of the series gave it an air of believability, enforced by Peter Barkworth’s just-so performance as Telford.
A largely forgettable series in the grand scheme of dramatic output on British television throughout the 1970s, middle-class ladies revelled in it and Mary Whitehouse found it “very sexy” but (and this must be a record) “liked it”.
Mark Telford
Peter Barkworth Sylvia Telford Hannah Gordon
Tim Hart
Keith Barron
Julie
Nula Conwell
Peter Telford
Michael Maloney
