Barney is My Darling was a BBC1 sitcom which starred Irene Handl and Bill Fraser and lasted for one series of 6 episodes in December 1965 and January 1966. 

 

Barney Is My Darling was written by the great writing team of Marty Feldman and Barry Took, then having just finished the first series of hit BBC radio comedy Round The Horne, between March and June 1965. The pair had written many episodes of Bill Frasers' last TV sitcom Bootsie & Snudge for Granada (1960-1963) since which Fraser had been turning down TV comedy offers as he felt most of them were simple variations on Snudge. Instead he turned to straight theatre until Feldman & Took offered him this, what he thought a very different character to Snudge. Irene Handl had guest starred in TV sitcoms and variety but this was her first regular starring sitcom.

 

The sitcom saw them star as Barney and Ramona Pank, married for 25 years since 1940 but having spent little time together, they have been physically separated without seeing each other at all the past 12 years as Barney has spent his working life as Chief Steward in the Merchant Navy aboard the SS Addis Ababa, working between Tasmania and Sumatra. He hasn't bothered coming home on leave since 1953. During that time Ramona had set herself up in a hairdressing salon in Willesden to support herself. Now Barney has retired from the Merchant Navy and finally returned home to be looked after and the married couple, practically strangers after all these years, have to get to know each other all over again and find they have very little in common. The other regular characters are Cissie Ludgrove (Angela Crow), who is Ramona's hairdressing assistant, and Miss Hobbitt (Pat Coombs), Ramona's friend and confidante. Whilst Barney might expect to be his wife's new priority he finds that the independent by necessity Ramona focuses her attention between her business and her beloved pet Pekingese dog Scampi, who Barney comes to hate (Irene Handl was a big dog lover herself, often seen in  the 60s carrying her two small dogs around with her). The Panks also have an adult son who Ramona will insist is away "farming on the Isle of Wight" (actually in prison which Barney finds out about in the fifth episode). The son gets out of prison in the last episode and is played by Colin Spaull.

 

The series ran on BBC1 as follows;

 

1.1 Home Is The Sailor - 17/12/1965*

1.2 The £2000 A Year Man - 23/12/1965*

1.3 The Twenty-Six Year Itch - 31/12/1965*

1.4 Weddings, Funerals And Christenings - 07/01/1966*

1.5 My Son! My Son! - 14/01/1966*

1.6 The Prodigal Son - 21/01/1966*

 

* Sadly all six episodes were wiped from the archives and nothing survives of the series today.

 

Unfortunately, despite Bill Fraser finding the character rather different to Snudge the critics thought it very much the same sort of character and critic reviews weren't impressed with the series. A lot of the complaints were about the endless bedroom scenes much like Meet The Wife with Freddie Frinton and Thora Hird, critics complaining that younger viewers aren't interested in all these middle aged marriage and domestic shenanigans. Some critics also complained that this series was rather crude and double-entendre laden. Given Feldman & Tooks brilliant work on Round The Horne personally I'd find that a highlight not something to moan about! But Barney Is My Darling was not recommissioned and not repeated and was also entirely wiped from the archives within a couple of years with no episodes surviving so it's one we'll never get to judge ourselves today. A huge shame as I've always liked Fraser's blustering character and Irene Handl is a sheer delight in everything!

 

It had a decent guest cast line-up throughout too; Peter Cleall, 2 years before Please Sir, guests in the first two episodes, Warren Mitchell and Ronnie Barker also appear in the second episode, Dudley Foster in the third, Kenneth Cope in the fourth, Robert Raglan and George Tovey in the fifth and Colin Spaull in the sixth.

 

Music and theme tune by Max Harris.

 

I have the Radio Times of 2nd-8th December 1965 which gave the front cover over to the series with a one-page feature inside.