A Fine Romance was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 situation comedy

Situation comedy

A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...

 starring husband-and-wife team Judi Dench

Judi Dench

Dame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English film, stage and television actress.Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo...

 and Michael Williams. Dench's sister was played by Susan Penhaligon

Susan Penhaligon

Susan Penhaligon is a British actress and writer, she is probably best known for her appearances in the controversial 1976 drama Bouquet of Barbed Wire and several ongoing roles in UK television series.-Early days:...

. It was produced by London Weekend Television

London Weekend Television

London Weekend Television was the name of the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties including south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Warwickshire, east Dorset and...

 and written by Bob Larbey

Esmonde and Larbey

John Gilbert Esmonde and Bob Larbey were a British television comedy scriptwriting duo from the 1960s to the 1990s, creating popular situation comedies such as Please Sir! and The Good Life.-Larbey's life:Larbey was born in Clapham, South London in 1934 and made his writing debut for...

. It was first broadcast on 8 November 1981. It lasted for 26 episodes over four series; the final episode being broadcast on 17 February 1984. The series takes it name from a song

A Fine Romance (song)

"A Fine Romance" is a popular song composed by Jerome Kern with lyrics by Dorothy Fields, published in 1936.The song was written for the musical film, Swing Time, where it was co-introduced by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers...

 in the 1936 film Swing Time

Swing Time

Swing Time is a 1936 RKO musical comedy film set mainly in New York City and stars Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Helen Broderick, Victor Moore, Eric Blore and Georges Metaxa, with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Dorothy Fields...

, starring Fred Astaire

Fred Astaire

Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...

 and Ginger Rogers

Ginger Rogers

Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....

, which Dench recorded as the theme music.

The series was nominated for nine BAFTA British Academy Television Awards

British Academy Television Awards

The British Academy Television Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts . They have been awarded annually since 1954, and are analogous to the Emmy Awards in the United States.-Background:...

 and a winner of two, both for Dench's performance in 1982 and 1985.

Plot

The series involves Laura Dalton, played by Dench, a single, middle-aged translator

Translation

Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...

 who is somewhat socially inept. Her glamorous younger sister Helen, played by Penhaligon, who is first seen in Janet Reger

Janet Reger

Janet Reger was an English lingerie designer who became famous in the 1960s and 1970s for her opulent lingerie designs.-External links:* Daily Telegraph * BBC News...

 lingerie, and her husband Phil (Richard Warwick

Richard Warwick

Richard Warwick was a British actor.He was born Richard Carey Winter, at Meopham, Kent and made his film debut in Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 production of Romeo and Juliet in the role of Gregory...

) pair her up with Mike Selway (Williams), a shy landscape gardener. The story follows their awkward romance and insecurities. Bad luck seems to follow them everywhere, from the ferry to Calais

Calais

Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....

 to an attempted romantic evening watching television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

.

Laura constantly dwells on her beautiful sister's fairy-tale marriage while still retaining an attitude of a child, locking herself in cupboards when things do not go her way. Though immature and tending to fly off the handle, she assists Mike in organizing his struggling business, volunteering her time to type his correspondence and do the bookkeeping

Bookkeeping

Bookkeeping is the recording of financial transactions. Transactions include sales, purchases, income, receipts and payments by an individual or organization. Bookkeeping is usually performed by a bookkeeper. Bookkeeping should not be confused with accounting. The accounting process is usually...

. Phil and Helen often regret ever bringing the two together, because they are nearly always involved in the couple's squabbles. Overall, however, Mike and Laura find they cannot live without one another, though they are not able to put it into words.

Series One (1981)

• 1.1. First Meeting (1 November 1981)
• 1.2. Different Answers (8 November 1981)
• 1.3. The Restaurant (15 November 1981)
• 1.4. Unlucky In Love (22 November 1981)
• 1.5. How To Avoid Bankruptcy (29 November 1981)
• 1.6. Keep Them Apart (6 December 1981)
• 1.7. Playing Games (13 December 1981)

Series Two (1982)

• 2.1. A Helping Hand (17 January 1982)
• 2.2. A Trip To The Dentist (24 January 1982)
• 2.3. Was That A Proposal? (31 January 1982)
• 2.4. The New Secretary (7 February 1982)
• 2.5. Boulogne (14 February 1982)
• 2.6. Furniture (21 February 1982)

Series Three (1983)

• 3.1. Missing (4 November 1983)
• 3.2. The Hotel (11 November 1983)
• 3.3. The Dinner Party (18 November 1983)
• 3.4. Business Problems (25 November 1983)
• 3.5. Parenthood (2 December 1983)
• 3.6. Extreme Measures (9 December 1983)

Series Four (1984)

• 4.1. The Telephone Call (6 January 1984)
• 4.2. In Hiding (13 January 1984)
• 4.3. Mike's New Girlfriend (20 January 1984)
• 4.4. A Weekend Away (27 January 1984)
• 4.5. Problems (3 February 1984)
• 4.6. A Romantic Meal (10 February 1984)
• 4.7. Happy Ever After? (17 February 1984)

DVD releases

All four series of A Fine Romance have now been released on DVD by Network

Network DVD

Network DVD is a DVD publishing company that specialises in classic British television. In particular, it has the rights to a number of well-known ITV programmes...

.

DVD	Release date
The Complete Series 1	23 January 2006
The Complete Series 2	17 April 2006
The Complete Series 3	14 August 2006
The Complete Series 4	16 October 2006
The Complete Series 1 to 4 Box Set	6 October 2008