Goodnight Sweetheart is a popular BBC sitcom that ran for six series between 1993 and 1999. It stars Nicholas Lyndhurst as the accidental time traveller Gary Sparrow, who discovers he can travel between 1990s London and World War II London. The show was created by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran; also creators of Birds of a Feather and The New Statesman.
Cast
Plot
Gary Sparrow is an underachieving TV repairman, unhappily married to the loud and often mocking Yvonne Sparrow. However Gary's life is changed forever upon discovering a time portal taking him back to a war-torn London, leading to an East End pub (the Royal Oak) and an attractive barmaid named Phoebe, who becomes his girlfriend. From then on, Gary leads a double life, going back and forth across time to please the two women in his life closest to his heart, but furthest apart. Gary finds it an ever increasing strain to keep his wife Yvonne and girlfriend Phoebe happy, constantly flitting between the time zones, getting tangled in webs of lies and deceit in the process.
The lead character often turns to his best friend Ron Wheatcroft-an unlucky in love printer, separated from his wife Stella- to help him out of the predicaments his double life has got him into. This often involves Gary creating "cover stories" to tell Yvonne, and Ron having both to relay these and to take the blame when Yvonne finds them unacceptable or disappointing. Ron uses his printing expertise to create defunct bank notes Gary can use in the 1940s.
In war-torn London, Gary is a talented singer-song writer and a secret agent called away on urgent war work. He claims he has written songs that are in fact from the future (such as Beatles songs). Gary is Phoebe’s ray of sunshine, bringing her pleasures that war deprives her of, including chocolates, stockings, and bananas. Posing as a secret agent, Gary above suspicion returns to his life in the nineties with Yvonne. When in the forties, Yvonne believes Gary is away on business, first repairing TVs, and post-series three collecting stock for a World War Two memorabilia shop, “Blitz and Pieces”, that is inconveniently built in front of the time portal (thus Sparrow has to buy it).
Gary becomes a bigamist in series four when marrying Phoebe-he also fathers her son. Yvonne becomes the co-creator of a successful organic beauty products company, and for most of the show is less dependent on Gary than Phoebe is, however, post-series five, the latter also becomes less dependant on the protagonist when becoming a successful singer.
Episodes
-
As in Marks and Gran's sitcom Get Back, most episodes of Goodnight Sweetheart - and the programme itself - were named after popular song titles. The show is named for the song Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight. Due to a script-editing error, two different episodes (1.6 and 4.2) were both titled "In the Mood". There is no special connection between those two episodes.
Historical figures
Although the main characters are fictional, some real people have been portrayed in the wartime sequences. These include "Ludo" (the young Robert Maxwell), King George VI, Wilfred Pickles, Winston Churchill, Ed Murrow, Guy Burgess, George Formby, Noel Coward (played by David Benson), Celia Johnson, the Kray Twins, Trevor Howard, Alfred Lennon, David Lean, Clement Attlee and Cecil Beaton. Rolf Harris also appeared as himself in a daydream sequence.
DVD releases
All six series and the 1995 Christmas Special have been released on DVD in the UK (Region 2), the Christmas special was released on the third series DVD. Series One was released in August 2008 in Australia (Region 4), with Series 2 to be released in November 2008.
External links
|
.jpg)
