''Beggar My Neighbour'' is a British

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

starring

Reg Varney Reginald Alfred Varney (11 July 1916 – 16 November 2008) was an English actor, entertainer and comedian. He is best remembered for having played the lead role of bus driver Stan Butler in the LWT sitcom ''On the Buses'' (1969–73) and its thr ...

, Peter Jones,

June Whitfield Dame June Rosemary Whitfield (11 November 1925 – 29 December 2018) was an English radio, television, and film actress. Her big break was a lead in the radio comedy ''Take It from Here'', which aired on the BBC Light Programme in 1953. ...

Pat Coombs Patricia Doreen Coombs (27 August 1926 – 25 May 2002) was an English actress. She specialised in the portrayal of the eternal downtrodden female, comically under the thumb of stronger personalities. She was known for many roles on radio, ...

and (later)

Desmond Walter-Ellis Desmond Walter-Ellis (16 September 1914 – 16 September 1994) was an English actor. He was active in a range of genres, from classic drama to cabaret, revue and musicals. He played a major part in the development of BBC Television when it restart ...

. Made in

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

, it was broadcast from 1966 to 1968 and was written by Ken Hoare and Mike Sharland.

Cast

* Peter Jones – Gerald Garvey ''(pilot and series 1)'' *Desmond Walter-Ellis – Gerald Garvey ''(from series 2)'' *

– Rose Garvey *

– Harry Butt *

– Lana Butt *Rosemary Faith – Deidre Garvey ''(from series 2)''

Plot

Rose Garvey, and her husband Gerald, live next door to her sister Lana Butt, and her husband Harry, in the fictional Larkworthy Road,

Muswell Hill Muswell Hill is a suburban district of the London Borough of Haringey, north London. The hill, which reaches over above sea level, is situated north of Charing Cross. Neighbouring areas include Highgate, Hampstead Garden Suburb, East Finchl ...

North London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshire. The term ''nort ...

. Gerald is an underpaid junior executive, while Harry is a well-paid fitter. The slightly snobbish Gerald makes sure that he and Rose keep up a pretence of doing well even though they are not. Meanwhile, the Butts' relative wealth encourages Lana to put on airs and graces, although Harry remains down to earth.

Episodes

Only eight episodes of the original run of 23 have survived: episode one and two from the first series and all six episodes from series two."Missing or incomplete episodes for programme ''Beggar My Neighbour''"
lostshows.com

Pilot (1966)

*''Beggar My Neighbour'' (24 May 1966) (part of ''

Comedy Playhouse ''Comedy Playhouse'' is a long-running British anthology series of one-off unrelated sitcoms that aired for 120 episodes from 1961 to 1975. Many episodes later graduated to their own series, including ''Steptoe and Son'', '' Meet the Wife'', ...

'')

Series one (1967)

#''Have Car, Won't Travel'' (13 March 1967) #''Lay Down Your Arms'' (20 March 1967) #''Episode three'' (27 March 1967) #''An Education in Itself'' (3 April 1967) #''Gone But Not Forgotten'' (10 April 1967) #''At Home on Saturday'' (17 April 1967) #''Marriage Muswell'' (24 April 1967) #''Keep Taking The Tablets'' (1 May 1967)

Series two (1967)

#''Let Them Eat Cake'' (2 July 1967) #''A Host of Friends'' (9 July 1967) #''No Bed of Rose's'' (16 July 1967) #''Laying Down the Law'' (23 July 1967) #''My Fair Harry Butt'' (30 July 1967) #''For Better, for Worse'' (6 August 1967)

Special (1967)

*Short Special as part of '' Christmas Night with the Stars''

Series three (1968)

#''Old Before My Time'' (30 January 1968) #''Ask Me No Questions'' (6 February 1968) #''Is There Anybody There?'' (13 February 1968) #''Whiter Shade of Yellow'' (20 February 1968) #''Let Sleeping Dogs Lie'' (27 February 1968) #''Grey Flannel Love Suit'' (5 March 1968) #''What About the Workers?'' (12 March 1968) #''Whose Baby Are You?'' (19 March 1968) #''Drink To Me Only'' (26 March 1968)

Surviving episodes

References

Mark Lewisohn Mark Lewisohn (born 16 June 1958) is an English historian and biographer. Since the 1980s, he has written many reference books about the Beatles and has worked for EMI, MPL Communications and Apple Corps.

, "Radio Times Guide to TV Comedy", BBC Worldwide Ltd, 2003
British Sitcom Guide for ''Beggar My Neighbour''

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0061236, Beggar My Neighbour 1966 British television series debuts 1968 British television series endings 1960s British sitcoms BBC television sitcoms Comedy Playhouse Lost BBC episodes Television shows set in London