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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Television»Comedy
    Comedy TV Shows - 1980s 2 Mins Read

    Fine Romance, A

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    1 9 8 1 – 1 9 8 4 (UK)
    26 x 25 minute episodes

    Laura Dalton (Judi Dench) is a translator by profession: brainy, content to accept that she’s single, entering middle-age with dignity and her own agenda.

    afineromanceReluctantly – because she knows that her younger sister Helen (Susan Penhaligon) and her husband Phil (Richard Warwick) are incurable matchmakers – she goes to one of their parties and there, sure enough, is force-introduced to bachelor Mike Selway (Michael Williams), also in his forties, a landscape gardener who drives around in a van.

    Laura thinks Mike is short, shy, nervous and boring but the pair agree to feign interest in one another in order to fool Helen and Phil and escape the party as soon as possible.

    As the first series develops so the couple are drawn to one another, as much through boredom as anything else, but soon they begin a real relationship that starts off strange, becomes estranged (at the end of the third series) and then clicks again, finally, with wedding bells in the air, at the last minute.

    fineromance_2A Fine Romance was a fine sitcom, made so by its two stars, real-life husband and wife Michael Williams and Judi Dench. This was Dench’s first TV comedy series, her stage and film CV already so impressive that soon it would garner her a damehood.

    The international television executive Don Taffner attempted to sell the format of A Fine Romance to American TV, partially succeeding in that CBS aired a one-off pilot there on 20 July 1983 with the same title as the British version.

    Laura was now Laura Prescott and was played by Julie Kavner (best known as Brenda Morgenstern, sister of Rhoda and the voice of Marge in The Simpsons), Mike Selway was played by Leo Burmester, Helen and Phil by Kristin Meadows and Kevin Conroy. No series developed.

    Laura Dalton 
    Judi Dench
    Mike Selway 

    Michael Williams
    Helen Barker

    Susan Penhaligon
    Phil Barker

    Richard Warwick
    Harry 

    Geoffrey Rose
    Charlie 

    George Tovey
    Terry 

    Karl Howman
    Elaine 

    Mary Maddox
    Mr Dalton 

    Richard Pearson
    Mrs Dalton 

    Lally Bowers
    Mr Robinson 

    Michael Lees

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    www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64442824 ... See MoreSee Less

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    Put some beefiness into your mid-week menu with these recipe ideas published in a Birds Eye advertisement from the Radio Times on 30 September 1965.

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    They were awful. An overpowering savoury flavour that lingered in your mouth for hours. Heaven knows what unmentionable parts of a bull went into making them 😳

    More sad news 😪

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    US rock legend David Crosby dies aged 81

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    Crosby, who co-founded both the Byrds and Crosby, Stills and Nash, had been ill for some time.
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    This is what they promised us when I was a kid. What happened? 

All I have is 700 channels of rubbish on the TV in High Def, TikTok, Facebook and a phone I can take photographs with . . .

    This is what they promised us when I was a kid. What happened?

    All I have is 700 channels of rubbish on the TV in High Def, TikTok, Facebook and a phone I can take photographs with . . .
    ... See MoreSee Less

    1 week ago
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    I thought we would have moving pavements by now when I was a kid 😂

    Totally agree!!!

    The new Tesla, 4.6 next century.

    We got transvestite story hour instead

    We appear to be going backwards

    There's actually a very good David Graeber essay on this very topic: thebaffler.com/salvos/of-flying-cars-and-the-declining-rate-of-profit

    The Jetsons strike again.

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    Renowned Australian singer Renee Geyer is dead at 69 following complications from hip surgery. Such a fabulous voice. RIP😢

https://nostalgiacentral.com/music/artists-l-to-z/artists-r/renee-geyer/

    Renowned Australian singer Renee Geyer is dead at 69 following complications from hip surgery. Such a fabulous voice. RIP😢

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    That is so sad to hear 😥 rest in peace 🙏 🕊 xx

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    😍😍😍😍

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