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"Butterflies" (1978-83) and Wendy Craig

Did anyone else watch this British show when it was on PBS? I loved it. I was reminded of it, because the guy who played Wendy Craig's lover just died, but he didn't even warrant an obituary in the Daily Mail. Wendy Craig is great in it - she's still around, I wonder why I never hear anything about her? Geoffrey Palmer was great as always, as were the two teenage sons. I think Nicholas Lyndhurst is more famous for "Only Fools and Horses" in the UK, but I don't think that's ever been shown in the US, I haven't seen it. The only problem I had with this series was that it was getting a bit old at the end, since the "affair" hardly went beyond the talking stage.

Wendy Craig should be known to the gays at least as the mother in "The Nanny" with Bette Davis.

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by Anonymousreply 27August 20, 2022 11:14 AM

I used to watch it. The strange thing was that she always mused about how hot her two twentysomething sons were, but they were both weird-looking. Otherwise I really liked it. Wendy Craig was very good.

Wasn't it implied by the very end of the series she did have sex with the businessman who followed her around?

by Anonymousreply 1August 19, 2022 12:21 AM

One thing I always liked was her strange relationship with her outspoken Cockney housekeeper, who would always say funny vulgar things like (when it was raining), "It's pissin' down outside."

by Anonymousreply 2August 19, 2022 12:22 AM

I liked how she was such a disaster in the kitchen.

by Anonymousreply 3August 19, 2022 12:24 AM

That irritating Wendy Craig and her perky nose looked like a superannuated pixie.

She was the fly in the ointment of that very-sombre, psychologically suspect movie called 'The Servant'.

by Anonymousreply 4August 19, 2022 12:27 AM

[quote]Wendy Craig is great in it - she's still around, I wonder why I never hear anything about her?

She was HUGELY popular in England for so many years. She's rather disappeared into the background and doesn't promote herself on the nostalgia circuit. I grew up with her. She did shows for children when I was a kid. I always loved her and still do.

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by Anonymousreply 5August 19, 2022 12:31 AM

Wendy talking about her career. She worked constantly for decades.

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by Anonymousreply 6August 19, 2022 12:33 AM

One time they showed her pulling down her panties and taking a piss in the kitchen waste basket. I was flabbergasted.

by Anonymousreply 7August 19, 2022 12:34 AM

Her nose is more extreme than Julie Andrews'.

by Anonymousreply 8August 19, 2022 12:35 AM

I love that movie, r4!

The lead, Fox, was at the absolute peak of his beauty. Perfection. How he devolved into a troll, I’ll never understand.

by Anonymousreply 9August 19, 2022 1:03 AM

Julie andrews has a really annoying face and way of speaking.

Very grating to me.

by Anonymousreply 10August 19, 2022 1:04 AM

[quote] I’ll never understand.

It's called the passage of time.

by Anonymousreply 11August 19, 2022 1:05 AM

80s gays should remember Nanny which I think was on PBS. She devised the series. I liked it at the time but it hasn't worn well.

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by Anonymousreply 12August 19, 2022 1:10 AM

R12 - I don't remember that series being on PBS, wonder how I missed it.

by Anonymousreply 13August 19, 2022 1:19 AM

I loved this show, though I got tired of her endless bored housewife complaints. Yes, it was the 70s and women were liberating themselves from their homes, but they never let up on that point.

Its final scene, where she ends it with her boyfriend and his heart is breaking (as does his voice) was a great (and serious) conclusion for what was a comedy series.

by Anonymousreply 14August 19, 2022 2:17 AM

I wish this would rerun - I loved the theme song.

by Anonymousreply 15August 19, 2022 2:23 AM

I loved Butterflies - especially Geoffrey Palmer, who I'd grown to love in The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin.

I didn't like the romantic sitcom with Judi Dench (can't put my finger on why but I've never been too fond of her.)

But I loved Wendy like crazy. She didn't really have to do anything - just 'be' - well, they were both like that. A special kind of charisma (and in her case, beauty). He was odd looking but also oddly sexy.

by Anonymousreply 16August 19, 2022 2:39 AM

Oh and Dolly Parton wrote the theme song "Butterflies" but I don't think she sang it in the opening.

There's another woman I love to bits - but when she did a variety show, I wasn't that keen on it. I think either the genre (or I) had aged out. Now everybody give a hand for our guest Merle Haggard or Steve and Eydie or whatever...

by Anonymousreply 17August 19, 2022 2:41 AM

I saw a few episodes on PBS and I remember the theme song but I wasn't into the story.

Doesn't Geoffrey Palmer have the same sort of face as Nicholas Farrell.

by Anonymousreply 18August 19, 2022 3:19 AM

Dailymotion has a scattering of episodes available.

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by Anonymousreply 19August 19, 2022 3:19 AM

Yes he does, R18 - kind of bloodhound dog droopy look.

But kinda charming anyhow. With Geoffrey, I think his personality saved him, droll? that delicious resignation or ennui? ...don't know how to describe it (obviously) but I could almost watch him read the phone book - god what an ageing expressing....

- not as familiar with Farrell.

by Anonymousreply 20August 19, 2022 4:15 AM

Farrell has been in a ton of things, mostly guest starring in a series. First saw him in Jewel in the Crown.

by Anonymousreply 21August 19, 2022 12:15 PM

Farrell's face isn't quite as droopy as that old guy.

by Anonymousreply 22August 20, 2022 12:16 AM

I loved Butterflies and find it one of the most charming family sitcoms that I've seen. Plus I had a huge crush on Andrew Hall.

by Anonymousreply 23August 20, 2022 12:24 AM

There's an episode of Butterflies in which Wendy's character Ria is alone and fantasizing aloud about her sexual needs and suddenly shouts, "I want to be raped!" It startled the hell out of me every time I saw that episode. The program was written by Carla Lane, a well-known female British writer. It's possible that line would be bleeped if the episode aired now. In fact, I was surprised that it wasn't bleeped when I saw it for the first time on PBS in the 1970s.

by Anonymousreply 24August 20, 2022 2:08 AM

[quote] "I want to be raped!"

The dolly bird in a job interview in this trendy movie says she likes her employers to be 'predatory'.

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by Anonymousreply 25August 20, 2022 9:14 AM

from Play It Again Sam:

ALLEN: Well, why dwell on morbid subjects? Odds are, you'll never get raped.

KEATON: No, not with my luck.

by Anonymousreply 26August 20, 2022 10:07 AM

I remember the series well from when I was a kid (it definitely played on Channel 13), and I enjoyed it, but I didn't remember the name. Butterflies.

Oddly, what I remember most vividly is that the Ria character had a mini (the original type, not the steroided version BMW markets now). I'd never seen a car like that.

by Anonymousreply 27August 20, 2022 11:14 AM
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