Britain's second ever TV sitcom, Friends and Neighbours, came a fair old long 7 years after the first, lasting one series of 7 episodes from January to April 1954 (like the earlier Pinwright's Progress broadcast every other week).

 

Made by the BBC, still Britain's sole television channel at that time (until the following year). Although only Britain's second ever attempt at a sitcom it was also the very first domestic sitcom about family life at home, with the earlier Pinwright's Progress being a work based sitcom.

 

Friends And Neighbours came about for two reasons. The first was that by this time the BBC were having big successes on radio with shows both comedic and serial dramas about domestic bliss and domestic strife including on the comedy front Ray's A Laugh, Meet The Huggetts and Life With the Lyons and on the serialised drama front The Archers and Mrs. Dale's Diary, and they wanted to try to replicate this successful format on television. The second reason was that the Americans were already proving it to be a successful format with their hit sitcom I Love Lucy, which had started in 1951 and ran until 1957. Although the US had done a few earlier sitcoms in a 15 minute format, I Love Lucy was the first scripted half hour sitcom filmed in front of a studio audience and became the most watch show in the US and around the world at that time in the early 50s so was much replicated in format if not success. The BBC's attempt for the UK was Friends And Neighbours, which starred real life married couple Peter Butterworth and Janet Brown along with Benny Lee and Avril Angers.  Peter and Janet played married couple George & Constance Bird whilst Benny and Avril (not married or together in real life) played married couple Arthur & Maisie Honeybee (the Birds and the 'Bees...) The two couples move into same floor neighbouring 2-room flats in a converted large Victorian townhouse (in early publicity it was a converted Georgian townhouse but all the later info once it was broadcasting said Victorian).

 

The series was co-created and written by future Carry On writers Sid Colin (who co-wrote Carry On Spying with Rothwell and Carry On Again Christmas for TV) and Talbot Rothwell (Carry On Cabby to Carry On Dick). The pair were already writing together having recently finished the Terry-Thomas hit comedy sketch series How Do You View? (1949-1953) then starting on the Arthur Askey sketch series Before Your Very Eyes (1953-1958). In fact the writers and Friends And Neighbours cast were all familiar to each other from all working on Terry-Thomas's How Do You View? as Peter Butterworth, Janet Brown, Benny Lee and Avril Angers were the regular support characters for Terry-Thomas in that Sid Colin and Talbot Rothwell penned show. Although ironically by various acts of fate Friends & Neighbours would be the first time husband and wife team Peter & Janet worked together onscreen as their sketches for Terry-Thomas in How Do You View? rarely coincided in the same episodes and never in the same sketches although not through any intentional act. They were just never needed together. So this was a first for them, at this point Peter Butterworth was mainly known for character work in children's series whereas Janet Brown was an impressionist on comedy and variety shows. Peter and Janet also have another connection to writer Talbot Rothwell in that they were very close friends. Peter and Talbot were both interned in Stalag Luft III during the war, putting on shows for the prisoners to make a noise to cover the sound of the tunnel digging. They toured a POW show after the war back home, and it was Talbot Rothwell who introduced Peter Butterworth and Janet Brown. So they were all practically family. It was Rothwell who would later bring Butterworth into the Carry Ons from Carry On Cowboy in 1965 once Rothwell became the Carry On writer.

 

But to get back on topic in 1954, actual details about the content of Friends And Neighbours is pretty scant, the Radio Times and newspaper listings of the time gave no plot synopsis. It was just billed as 'A glimpse into the lives of the Birds and the Honeybees'. Reviews of the first episode say it started out well but descended into dated slapstick with Butterworth tripping over a vacuum cleaner and contending with a collapsing card table. Most reviews agreed it had potential but needed better scripts for the capable performers. There was also complaints about the noise generated from the studio audience, still being a new thing for television. But audience laughter would stick around for some time yet. 

 

There's no real info on the storylines covered and I sadly don't have any scripts for this series so this is a much briefer overview than the detail I like to provide! :)

 

The flats were two sets built at Lime Grove studios made to be as real as possible with running hot water and gas. 

 

The series had a live orchestra, the Malcolm Locker Orchestra directed by Eric Robinson, on hand in the studio to perform the theme tune and the musical interludes. The popular theme tune Friends and Neighbours was released as a 78rpm record by several performers including Billy Cotton & His Band, Max Bygraves, Wally Dunn and finally, last of all of them released, by the shows' stars Peter, Janet, Benny and Avril. Sadly I don't have the actors one but here's Billy Cotton's cover which charted in April 1954 reaching No. 3;

 

https://youtu.be/43-rNXpP9T8?si=8ZRXnv_J3krI9dYL

 

There was talk at the BBC briefly of commissioning a second series of Friends And Neighbours but they quickly decided to explore other projects apart for the stars. As Avril Angers got particular praise she was the first quickly given her own sitcom just 3 months later from July, called Dear Dotty, the first British television comedy built around a sole comedienne (Dear Dotty can also be found in this Forgotten Sitcom section).

 

Friends & Neighbours ran on BBC Television as follows (there were no episode titles);

 

1.1 27/01/1954*

1.2 10/02/1954*

1.3 24/02/1954*

1.4 10/03/1954*

1.5 24/03/1954*

1.6 07/04/1954*

 

* Sadly, and somewhat typically of the era, the series was broadcast live, not pre-recorded and although telerecording existed by this time it was still not widely used and Friends And Neighbours was never telerecorded so like Pinwright's Progress not so much wiped as never kept in the first place, immediately disappearing into the ether as it was performed! Nothing survives of the series today, not even audio recordings of the soundtracks.

 

Below are various magazine and newspaper clippings I have connected to the show plus some other bits for the stars from around this era.