Bill Maynard and William Franklyn sitcom Paradise Island ran for one series of 7 episodes in 1977.

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Made by Thames for ITV, Paradise Island starred Bill Maynard as the Reverend Alexander Goodwin and William Franklyn as Cuthbert Fulworthy. The Rev. Goodwin won a 'Spot the Archbishop' competition in the Church Times winning himself a Pacific cruise. Unfortunately, the cruise ship sinks and the Rev Goodwin is one of only two survivors of the disaster who wash up on a deserted Pacific island which they come to name Paradise Island for lack of knowing its real name. The other survivor is the ships' Entertainment Officer Cuthbert Fulworthy, a carefree womaniser at total odds with the character of the devout, pious even puritanical Reverend. But opposites though the two may be, they have to learn to live together with no other company.

 

The series made for an unusual set-up in that not only are they confined to a very limited set but it's rare in a sitcom that there are not only just two stars as leads but just two people seen at all throughout with no guest or supporting characters. No Pacific Islander locals, no other survivors, no passing ships, no one. The 60s US sitcom Gilligan's Island had 7 survivors and so many people stopping by for guest roles they were barely describable as stranded! A happy medium may have worked better as with just the two characters there was little scope for development. The public and TV critics agreed and hated it. It got terrible reviews and was described as very unfunny by almost everyone. One critic even unkindly suggested leaving Maynard and Franklyn on the desert island to save us from more of it!

 

Bill Maynard accepted the role because one of his big fears was typecasting, he didn't want to be associated with any one character or role for too long. This fear stemmed from the failure of his career in the early 60s. He'd found fame and popularity in a double act with Terry Scott in the 50s culminating in their hit series Great Scott - It's Maynard! But following this he found himself typecast and offers dried up in the 60s and it took until the 70s for him to recover his career. Consequently he made sure he interspersed the comedy with dramatic roles and refused to take on sitcoms that were carbon copies of previous hit characters. Notably once Selwyn Froggitt became a big hit in the mid 70s he again found producers were only offering him TV and stage work that were basic variations on the popular Selwyn, all of which he refused. When he was offered Paradise Island by Thames in 1976, with them expecting him to play the Entertainments Officer not a million miles away from Selwyn he would only agree to do it if he could instead play the pious Reverend role whilst the prim and proper William Franklyn, then famous for his popular Schweppes adverts, took on the other role. Whilst this decision may have helped avoid typecasting it wasn't really playing to Maynards strengths and there wasn't much humour to be gleaned from the character. Not that Franklyn had any more luck with his limited character.

 

The series was created by Michael Haley, for whom this is his only IMDB credit, but he only wrote one episode of the series himself, with each episode having a different writer, 7 writers for one 7 episode series, again quite unusual for a British sitcom. I guess one writer couldn't think up enough ideas to cover such a limited setting and couple of characters and keep it funny, not that it seems 7 writers accomplished that either! The other writers once-apiece were Brian Cooke, John Junkin, Alan Melville, Vince Powell, Jon Watkins and Bernie Sharp. The series was produced and directed by Bless This House stalwart William G. Stewart.

 

The Thames pilot for Paradise Island was recorded in February/March 1976 for the summer schedules but it ended up not being shown that summer, instead once Maynard committed to a 6 episode series which began filming in December 1976 they chose to show the whole 7 episode series with the pilot as the first episode in one continuous run in Spring 1977. The intended pilot was filmed entirely in studio in early 1976 but in the December of 1976 the two cast and full crew went out to Ibiza to film the outdoor material for the rest of the series which was supposed to take a couple of weeks but it turned out to be a washout with terrible rain and other disasters including Bill Maynard being knocked unconscious by a cricket ball and various issues with animals which I'll go into below, but instead due to the weather they chose to abandon Ibiza and return to the UK, where they went down to film on the coast in Cornwall but further rain and storms made that just as difficult to get useful material.

 

The other incidences that befell the production in Ibiza seem even more comical than what was scripted! In what would be the third episode where the two characters end up playing cricket to relieve the boredom, Bill Maynard was knocked fully unconscious by the cricket ball. The routine involved Bill bowling the ball at an imaginary batsman with Bill throwing himself to the ground as the ball came whistling back past him. But the programme assistant tasked with lobbing the ball back threw it at a very low trajectory so that as Bill dived for the ground instead of going over him it conked him on his head knocking him out. Bill had to be taken to a Spanish hospital and production was halted for the day. For another episode whilst in Ibiza Bill was meant to handle a lizard as per script but a lizard couldn't be obtained so the production brought in a supposedly "docile" baby crocodile as a substitute but Maynard flatly refused to handle it! On another occasion they went to Madrid Zoo to film with a chimpanzee that Bill was supposed to play with but on seeing it he again didn't like the look of it and refused which turned out to be a wise choice as whilst they were there the chimpanzee went berserk and attacked its zoo keeper, injuring his face and neck and tearing his coat to shreds, and that was someone the chimp was familiar with!

 

Fortunately, given the weather issues thanks to the time of year filmed, the bulk of the action was always intended to be filmed indoors in Thames' Teddington studios so there was limited use of the outside material when the beach was required. Instead Thames built a special desert island set in studio which cost them a not insubstantial £6000 to build with the sand, palm trees and bamboo furniture required as well as fake rocks that were specially sculpted for them.

 

The series ran on ITV as follows;

 

1.1 Paradise Island (Pilot) - 21/04/1977

The Rev Goodwin and Cuthbert Fulworthy find themselves washed ashore a desert island in the Pacific and meet for the first time, finding they have little in common but must learn to share their primitive surroundings.

 

1.2 A Stranger in Paradise - 28/04/1977

Goodwin & Fulworthy find footprints in the sand that are too small to be either of theirs and go in search hoping there are locals or other survivors.

 

1.3 Is Anybody There? - 05/05/1977

To pass the time Goodwin & Fulworthy decide to play a game of cricket but they disagree about the rules of the game. Cold War ensues and the Reverend builds a barrier across the beach.

 

1.4 Happy Birthday Cuthbert - 12/05/1977

Fulworthy is depressed at the thought of spending his birthday without the things he usually enjoys but Goodwin comes up with a suggestion he hopes will make Cuthbert happy.

 

1.5 The Great Pig Hunt - 19/05/1977

Goodwin and Fulworthy discover there are pigs on the island and go on a hunt to bring home the bacon.

 

1.6 Who Do You Do...? - 26/05/1977

To relieve the monotony of only having each others' company Entertainment Officer Fulworthy comes up with an idea that will allow them to spend time with other people, they must each impersonate other people.

 

1.7 Here Is The News - 18/07/1977*

The castaways discover a radio in working order and the news bulletin they hear on the radio alters their whole relationship.

 

* Note the last episode was delayed a month and a half as should have gone out on the weekly on 2nd June but didn't air until 18th July. I don't know why it was held up.

 

Despite the negative critical assessment each week the series managed to garner an audience of 15 million viewers initially, putting it just within the Top 20 for the weeks, no doubt helped by Maynard's then success with Selwyn Froggitt attracting an audience but despite the viewing figures with the critical reception it got a second series was not commissioned and Maynard returned to Selwyn Froggitt despite his typecasting fears. Paradise Island has never been repeated nor commercially released. It's one I've not seen myself either but would like to, despite what the critics said it sounds intriguing.

 

I've very little to share from this series, no video material not even opening credits. I have the TV Times for 23rd-29th April 1977, for week of the second episode plus one colour photo and a newspaper review.