The setting in this comedy series from Yorkshire Television was Paradise Lodge, ‘superior residence for retired gentlefolk’, a large detached house – proprietress Miss Milton (Charmian May) – wherein lived four women of independent means: Ageing film actress, Dolly (Lally Bowers); motorbike-riding Mildred (Diana King); dotty Cissie (Pat Coombs); and the irascible Flora.
This last-named character was the clear star of the show, affording yet one more battleaxe role for the redoubtable Peggy Mount.
Always complaining, ever dominant, Flora sported a hairstyle to match her severe character and was more than a match for anyone, most especially Cissie, over whom she lorded life from the first episode to the last.
Mount and Pat Coombs had previously worked together in the ITV comedy series Lollipop Loves Mr Mole and, in 1984, after You’re Only Young Twice, reunited for a single-episode TV sitcom It’s Never Too Late.
Flora Petty Peggy Mount
Cissie Lupin
Pat Coombs
Dolly Love
Lally Bowers
Miss Milton
Charmian May
Mildred Fanshaw
Diana King
Miss Finch (‘Finchy’)
Georgina Moon
Roger
Johnny Wade
