Married (radio series)
Encyclopedia
Married is a BBC
radio comedy with science fiction
themes, first aired on BBC Radio 4
. The main character is Robin Lightfoot, a confirmed bachelor with a successful architectural practice, who wakes up one day in a parallel universe
in which he is married with two children. Unfortunately his counterpart in the parallel universe, who has evidently been swapped into our universe, is a cad, a womanizer, a swindler and possibly a murderer. Only the younger of the two children, Ned, believes Robin's story, largely because he reads about parallel universes in comic books.
Apart from his previously unknown wife Leslie, and the children Maxine and Ned, Robin finds the new universe populated by people he already knows, but who are different. His former business partner Dirk is still his partner in this universe, but the business is writing greeting card messages, and Dirk, who is married in our universe, is an unmarried sexual addict
in the alternate one.
The ruling monarch is a King John, son of King Richard who dies during the first series. Richard was apparently the son of Edward VIII who got cold feet at the last minute when about to abdicate. King John, however, is openly gay so the prospects for an immediate heir are not good. While as Prince John he was known as an adventurer, setting records for ballooning, soon after his coronation he abandons the Royal spouse in favour of his gay lover, who was also his partner in his adventures.
The place where Robin lives, an alternate Surrey
, is economically depressed while North East England
is prosperous. Some forms of alcohol are illegal, while marijuana is legal.
Famous people in our universe are re-imagined for satirical effect. Tony Blair
is the leader of the Conservative Party
which is currently out of power, the government being in the hands of the Liberal Democrats
. Stephen Fry
is a Royal Biographer, and Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark
is a homeless waif who sets fire to telephone boxes. Art critic Brian Sewell
is the celebrated designer and manufacturer of ultra-modern "S-plan" furniture. TV presenter John Humphrys
is an outrageous performance artist who likes to perform naked.
The show was written by Tony Bagley
.
In the opener, Robin returns from visiting a client to tell Dirk that he has decided to decline the contract. The partnership's main line of business is nursery schools and day care centres for the prosperous families of Surrey. The client in question was demanding more parking for SUV's. Dirk suggests that Robin's generally curmudgeonly outlook is due to not having a happy family life like him. Robin responds that he doesn't need other people in his life and that the person he most respects is himself.
Next morning Robin wakes up in his house, to find Leslie next to him and "his" children Ned and Maxine arguing over access to the bathroom. He decides that Leslie and the kids are ingenious squatters, but abandons that when he sees that "his" kitchen looks entirely different. He then thinks that it is all an elaborate practical joke created by Dirk. This theory crumbles bit by bit, the coup de grace being delivered when the local police and emergency services are called to the house of their neighbours, the Needhams. In Robin's universe the family are irritatingly perfect. In this universe they are dysfunctional alcoholics whose children are well known to the local magistrates. In addition, the constable in charge of the situation is Robin's dentist in the other universe. Even Robin's mother Julia is changed: in his universe she is married to his father and is inclined to let fly with a shotgun at anything that moves on her land, but in the new universe she is a serial monogamist who marries and divorces younger men. Robin also has two new half-brothers, both called Ian.
As the series proceeds Robin begins to warm to his sudden family, especially "his" precocious son Ned who believes him and even has some theories about alternate universes. Just as Robin and Leslie have begun to have marital relations, which ironically convinces Leslie that he really is not her Robin, women begin showing up demanding that Robin acknowledge paternity of their children.
Robin engages a children's entertainer for Ned's birthday, who turns out to be comedian Arthur Smith
. Robin tries to launch Arthur's career with the material created by the Arthur Smith in his universe. Arthur seems more interested in dating Maxine at first, but rejects her as soon as he begins to become successful.
ologist" from Scotland called Murdo.
Comedian Arthur Smith
appears as himself, both as the "original" and as an alternate version who steals his alter ego's material, becoming a fabulously rich resident of the select enclave of Worthing
, West Sussex
.
In one episode, Robin realizes that antique collecting is unknown in the new universe, so he can buy fine old furniture for a song and sell it to the prosperous citizens of Newcastle-upon-Tyne at a high profit. Unfortunately his alter-ego's problems with the Inland Revenue
mean that he is told to either stop the business or pay all the back taxes he owes.
As the second series ends, universes collide resulting in two Tony Blairs indulging in fisticuffs on television, while the evil Robin returns, only to dissolve into green goo. Robin Lightfoot returns to his "family", Leslie gives birth to twins and daughter Maxine pops out a baby as well, the father being one of the Arthur Smiths. Bliss is forestalled when the Leslie whom Robin knew is replaced by one from our universe. Her only encounter with him resulted in a trip to the hospital. She abandons the home and leaves Robin in charge. Maxine rejects Arthur, as she preferred the other one who rejected her.
and Carol Smillie
.
Robin goes through personality changes as Leslie becomes an artist while Dirk, who had always coveted the other Leslie, ingratiates himself with her. A new character, Alan, was Maxines best female friend before the universes collided, but has changed into a boy who wants a boy-girl relationship with Maxine. Temporal and spatial anomalies keep springing surprises which are used to drive plots, such as the episode where the King's gay lover suddenly materializes, having been trapped in a pink bubble since the Universes collided.
The fourth episode of the third series was not broadcast until 2007. This episode involes an adventure in a time anomaly where Robin and Leslie were imprisoned in a Surrey ruled by Americans, while Dirk was their gaoler. The episode was presumably omitted due to the events and aftermath of September 11, 2001
(the scheduled transmission date was September 21, 2001), and not reinstated until the series' third repeat run on BBC7, with a slightly shorter run-time than the other episodes suggesting some small cut(s) had been made.
The third season ends with Robin using a time portal in his bath, leading from his birthday in 2001 to the day of his birth in 1955, in our universe. He finds himself sharing "his" house with Muriel and Archie, a perfect 1950s couple who have all the right things and regularly drink themselves senseless to alleviate the boredom.
Robin tries to return when all the other members of his household follow him to 1955, but discovers that the time portal is no longer there as it is after midnight, and no longer his "birth" day. He is trapped with the Lightfoot children and grandchildren, the "wrong" Leslie, and Arthur Smith, who is several decades too early for "alternative" comedy. Dirk attempts to go to 1955, but instead ends up in 1978, a time which he thinks he will enjoy.
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
radio comedy with science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
themes, first aired on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
. The main character is Robin Lightfoot, a confirmed bachelor with a successful architectural practice, who wakes up one day in a parallel universe
Parallel universe (fiction)
A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...
in which he is married with two children. Unfortunately his counterpart in the parallel universe, who has evidently been swapped into our universe, is a cad, a womanizer, a swindler and possibly a murderer. Only the younger of the two children, Ned, believes Robin's story, largely because he reads about parallel universes in comic books.
Apart from his previously unknown wife Leslie, and the children Maxine and Ned, Robin finds the new universe populated by people he already knows, but who are different. His former business partner Dirk is still his partner in this universe, but the business is writing greeting card messages, and Dirk, who is married in our universe, is an unmarried sexual addict
Sexual addiction
Sexual addiction is a popular model to explain hypersexuality—sexual urges, behaviors, or thoughts that appear extreme in frequency or feel out of one's control...
in the alternate one.
The ruling monarch is a King John, son of King Richard who dies during the first series. Richard was apparently the son of Edward VIII who got cold feet at the last minute when about to abdicate. King John, however, is openly gay so the prospects for an immediate heir are not good. While as Prince John he was known as an adventurer, setting records for ballooning, soon after his coronation he abandons the Royal spouse in favour of his gay lover, who was also his partner in his adventures.
The place where Robin lives, an alternate Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, is economically depressed while North East England
North East England
North East England is one of the nine official regions of England. It covers Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, and Teesside . The only cities in the region are Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne and Sunderland...
is prosperous. Some forms of alcohol are illegal, while marijuana is legal.
Famous people in our universe are re-imagined for satirical effect. Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
is the leader of the Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
which is currently out of power, the government being in the hands of the Liberal Democrats
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...
. Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
is a Royal Biographer, and Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark
Kirsty Wark
Kirsteen Anne Wark is a British journalist and television presenter best known for fronting the BBC Two's news and current affairs programme Newsnight since 1993, and its weekly arts annexe Newsnight Review which is now relaunched as "The Review Show".-Biography:Wark was born in Dumfries to Jimmy...
is a homeless waif who sets fire to telephone boxes. Art critic Brian Sewell
Brian Sewell
Brian Sewell is an English art critic and media personality. He writes for the London Evening Standard and is noted for artistic conservatism and his acerbic view of the Turner Prize and conceptual art...
is the celebrated designer and manufacturer of ultra-modern "S-plan" furniture. TV presenter John Humphrys
John Humphrys
Desmond John Humphrys , is a Welsh-born British author, journalist and presenter of radio and television, who has won many national broadcasting awards...
is an outrageous performance artist who likes to perform naked.
The show was written by Tony Bagley
Tony Bagley
Tony Bagley is a British writer. He has written, among other scripts, the radio comedies Married and Rubbish. He also wrote for the television series Specials....
.
Main cast
- Robin Lightfoot - Hugh BonnevilleHugh BonnevilleHugh Richard Bonneville Williams, known professionally as Hugh Bonneville , is an English stage, film, television and radio actor.-Education:...
- Leslie Lightfoot - Josie LawrenceJosie LawrenceJosie Lawrence is a British comedienne and actress best known for her work with the Comedy Store Players improvisational troupe, the television series Whose Line Is It Anyway? and more recently her role as Manda Best in EastEnders....
- Dirk - Stephen FrostStephen FrostStephen Frost , also known as Steve Frost, is an English comedian.Frost is known for his work in the 1980s with Mark Arden as part of the double act The Oblivion Boys on Saturday Live...
- Ned Lightfoot - Sam Bradley
- Maxine Lightfoot - Ann GoslingAnn GoslingAnn Gosling is a British actress.According to her Imdb page her first role was on Tracy Ullman: A Class Act in 1992, followed by a role as Joanna Tate in Chandler & Co in 1994....
- Arthur SmithArthur Smith (comedian)Brian Arthur John Smith is an English alternative comedian and writer. He was born in Bermondsey, South London, brother to Richard Smith...
- himself - Julia Lightfoot - Barbara MurrayBarbara MurrayBarbara Ann Murray is an English actress. She was married to the actor John Justin and had three daughters, but they divorced in 1964....
Production details
- Signature music: "I'll Never Get Out of This World AliveI'll Never Get Out of This World Alive"I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive" is a song written by Fred Rose and American country music singer-songwriter Hank Williams, released by Williams in 1952. The last single to be released during Williams' lifetime, it reached #1 on the Billboard Country Singles chart posthumously in January...
" sung by Hank Williams.
Series 1
Dealing with the fallout from the activities of the other Robin, and wondering if he'd like to keep this new life, form much of the plot of the first series of six episodes, first broadcast in 1999. Another series aired the following year.In the opener, Robin returns from visiting a client to tell Dirk that he has decided to decline the contract. The partnership's main line of business is nursery schools and day care centres for the prosperous families of Surrey. The client in question was demanding more parking for SUV's. Dirk suggests that Robin's generally curmudgeonly outlook is due to not having a happy family life like him. Robin responds that he doesn't need other people in his life and that the person he most respects is himself.
Next morning Robin wakes up in his house, to find Leslie next to him and "his" children Ned and Maxine arguing over access to the bathroom. He decides that Leslie and the kids are ingenious squatters, but abandons that when he sees that "his" kitchen looks entirely different. He then thinks that it is all an elaborate practical joke created by Dirk. This theory crumbles bit by bit, the coup de grace being delivered when the local police and emergency services are called to the house of their neighbours, the Needhams. In Robin's universe the family are irritatingly perfect. In this universe they are dysfunctional alcoholics whose children are well known to the local magistrates. In addition, the constable in charge of the situation is Robin's dentist in the other universe. Even Robin's mother Julia is changed: in his universe she is married to his father and is inclined to let fly with a shotgun at anything that moves on her land, but in the new universe she is a serial monogamist who marries and divorces younger men. Robin also has two new half-brothers, both called Ian.
As the series proceeds Robin begins to warm to his sudden family, especially "his" precocious son Ned who believes him and even has some theories about alternate universes. Just as Robin and Leslie have begun to have marital relations, which ironically convinces Leslie that he really is not her Robin, women begin showing up demanding that Robin acknowledge paternity of their children.
Robin engages a children's entertainer for Ned's birthday, who turns out to be comedian Arthur Smith
Arthur Smith (comedian)
Brian Arthur John Smith is an English alternative comedian and writer. He was born in Bermondsey, South London, brother to Richard Smith...
. Robin tries to launch Arthur's career with the material created by the Arthur Smith in his universe. Arthur seems more interested in dating Maxine at first, but rejects her as soon as he begins to become successful.
Series 2
In the second series, Robin seems to be trapped in the alternate universe despite an occasional fall through into ours and back. His life in our universe has been wrecked by the other Robin, who has liquidated all his assets and absconded with the money. To add insult to injury, his "wife" Leslie divorces him in the alternate universe, forcing him to leave the house he owned in both universes for a damp basement flat. From time to time, however, the evil Robin slips back to add mayhem, as when he kills Leslie's lover, a "puffinPuffin
Puffins are any of three small species of auk in the bird genus Fratercula with a brightly coloured beak during the breeding season. These are pelagic seabirds that feed primarily by diving in the water. They breed in large colonies on coastal cliffs or offshore islands, nesting in crevices among...
ologist" from Scotland called Murdo.
Comedian Arthur Smith
Arthur Smith (comedian)
Brian Arthur John Smith is an English alternative comedian and writer. He was born in Bermondsey, South London, brother to Richard Smith...
appears as himself, both as the "original" and as an alternate version who steals his alter ego's material, becoming a fabulously rich resident of the select enclave of Worthing
Worthing
Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...
, West Sussex
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
.
In one episode, Robin realizes that antique collecting is unknown in the new universe, so he can buy fine old furniture for a song and sell it to the prosperous citizens of Newcastle-upon-Tyne at a high profit. Unfortunately his alter-ego's problems with the Inland Revenue
Inland Revenue
The Inland Revenue was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government responsible for the collection of direct taxation, including income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, corporation tax, petroleum revenue tax and stamp duty...
mean that he is told to either stop the business or pay all the back taxes he owes.
As the second series ends, universes collide resulting in two Tony Blairs indulging in fisticuffs on television, while the evil Robin returns, only to dissolve into green goo. Robin Lightfoot returns to his "family", Leslie gives birth to twins and daughter Maxine pops out a baby as well, the father being one of the Arthur Smiths. Bliss is forestalled when the Leslie whom Robin knew is replaced by one from our universe. Her only encounter with him resulted in a trip to the hospital. She abandons the home and leaves Robin in charge. Maxine rejects Arthur, as she preferred the other one who rejected her.
Series 3
The third series opens with England recovering from the devastating effects of the collision of universes. Whole towns have disappeared, BBC reporters are being killed and eaten in the countryside, and there is a campaign to help all the "glops", people who find themselves sharing a body with a personality from the other universe. One such has the personalities of TV presenters Mariella FrostrupMariella Frostrup
Mariella Frostrup is a Norwegian-born journalist and television presenter, well known on British TV and radio, mainly for arts programmes. Her 'gravelly' voice was once voted the sexiest female voice on TV, and research to find 'the perfect voice' has indicated that Frostrup's voice is one of the...
and Carol Smillie
Carol Smillie
Carol Patricia Smillie is a Scottish television personality, model and actress. Smillie is well-known for presenting the award winning BBC series Changing Rooms, which won her a National Television Award for Most Popular Factual Programme in 1998.She became the hostess of the British version of...
.
Robin goes through personality changes as Leslie becomes an artist while Dirk, who had always coveted the other Leslie, ingratiates himself with her. A new character, Alan, was Maxines best female friend before the universes collided, but has changed into a boy who wants a boy-girl relationship with Maxine. Temporal and spatial anomalies keep springing surprises which are used to drive plots, such as the episode where the King's gay lover suddenly materializes, having been trapped in a pink bubble since the Universes collided.
The fourth episode of the third series was not broadcast until 2007. This episode involes an adventure in a time anomaly where Robin and Leslie were imprisoned in a Surrey ruled by Americans, while Dirk was their gaoler. The episode was presumably omitted due to the events and aftermath of September 11, 2001
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
(the scheduled transmission date was September 21, 2001), and not reinstated until the series' third repeat run on BBC7, with a slightly shorter run-time than the other episodes suggesting some small cut(s) had been made.
The third season ends with Robin using a time portal in his bath, leading from his birthday in 2001 to the day of his birth in 1955, in our universe. He finds himself sharing "his" house with Muriel and Archie, a perfect 1950s couple who have all the right things and regularly drink themselves senseless to alleviate the boredom.
Robin tries to return when all the other members of his household follow him to 1955, but discovers that the time portal is no longer there as it is after midnight, and no longer his "birth" day. He is trapped with the Lightfoot children and grandchildren, the "wrong" Leslie, and Arthur Smith, who is several decades too early for "alternative" comedy. Dirk attempts to go to 1955, but instead ends up in 1978, a time which he thinks he will enjoy.