''Not in Front of the Children'' is a

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...

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 ...

, which ran for four series from 1967 to 1970. It starred

Wendy Craig Anne Gwendolyn "Wendy" Craig (born 20 June 1934) is an English actress who is best known for her appearances in the sitcoms ''Not in Front of the Children (TV series), Not in Front of the Children'', ''...And Mother Makes Three'', ''...And M ...

as Jennifer Corner, a rather scatterbrained middle-class housewife. Her husband Henry was a school art teacher, played by

Paul Daneman Paul Frederick Daneman (29 October 1925 – 28 April 2001) was an English film, television, and theatre actor. He was successful for more than 40 years on stage, film and television. Early life Paul Daneman was born in Islington, London. He att ...

in the ''

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'', ...

'' pilot "House in a Tree" and the first series, and

Ronald Hines Ronald Charles Andrew Hines (20 June 1929 – 28 March 2017) was a British television actor. He had a lengthy career, but possibly his most prominent roles were as Henry Corner in three of the four series of ''Not in Front of the Children'', ...

subsequently. They had three children, a boy in his early teens (played by Hugo Keith-Johnston) and two girls who were slightly younger (played by Roberta Tovey and Jill Riddick).

Charlotte Mitchell Charlotte Mitchell (born Edna Winifred Mitchell; 23 July 1926 – 2 May 2012) was an English actress and poet. Biography In the 1950s she provided lyrics, sketches, and occasionally acted in revues on London's West End. She was especially ...

played her friend Mary. In later series, she had a baby, and they moved from the London suburb of

Battersea Battersea is a large district in south London, part of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross and extends along the south bank of the River Thames. It includes the Battersea Park. History Batter ...

to the country. It is significant mainly as Wendy Craig's first role as a scatty housewife; she played similar roles in several other series over the next 15 years.

Surviving episodes

*Series 1 **Episode 3: "The Word" (8 September 1967) *Series 2 **Episode 2: "Religious Revival" (1 March 1968) **Episode 5: "The Iron Hand" (22 March 1968) **Episode 6: "The George Washington Complex" (29 March 1968) **Episode 7: "Home Chat" (5 April 1968) **Episode 8: "Change of Policy" (12 April 1968) *Series 4 **Episode 4: "A Babe Around The House" (3 October 1969) **Episode 13: "Pastures New" (5 December 1969)

Radio adaptation

A radio adaptation of the programme was broadcast on

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...

in 1969 and 1970, with Wendy Craig and Francis Matthews in the leading roles. Charlotte Mitchell was Mary, Roberta Tovey was Trudi and Hugo Keith-Johnston played Robin. The scripts were adapted from the TV scripts by

Richard Waring Richard Waring (born Richard Waring Stephens; 27 May 1911 – 18 January 1993) was an English-American actor. He is perhaps best remembered for his role in the film ''Mr. Skeffington'' (1944). Biography Richard Waring was born Richard Ste ...

. Since 2015 both series have been broadcast on

BBC Radio 4 Extra BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7) is a British digital radio station from the BBC, broadcasting archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes nationally, 24 hours a day. It is the sister station of BBC Radio 4 and the p ...

DVD release

The eight surviving episodes were released on DVD for the first time on Monday, 8 September 2014.

References

External links

* 1967 British television series debuts 1970 British television series endings BBC television sitcoms Comedy Playhouse Lost BBC episodes 1960s British sitcoms 1970s British sitcoms Television series by BBC Studios {{BBC-tv-prog-stub