''Two Up, Two Down'' 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

Paul Nicholas Paul Nicholas (born Paul Oscar Beuselinck; 3 December 1944) is an English actor and singer. He started out with a pop career, but soon changed to musical theatre, playing the lead role in ''Jesus Christ Superstar'' at the West End’s Palace ...

and

Su Pollard Susan Georgina Pollard (born 7 November 1949) is an English actress and singer. Her career has spanned over 45 years; she is most famous for her role in the sitcom ''Hi-de-Hi!''. She also appeared in '' You Rang, M'Lord?'' and ''Oh, Doctor Beec ...

. It aired for one series in 1979 and marked the television comedy debut of Su Pollard, later to become well known as Peggy in ''

Hi-de-Hi! ''Hi-de-Hi!'' is a BBC television sitcom shown on BBC1 from 1 January 1980 to 30 January 1988. Set in 1959 and 1960 in Maplins, a fictional holiday camp, the show was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, who also wrote ''Dad's Army'' and ...

''. It was written by Janey Preger.

Cast

- Jimmy *

- Flo * Norman Tipton - Stan *Claire Faulconbridge - Sheila

Plot

When Stan and Sheila, both fairly strait-laced, move into their new house in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, they discover a pair of

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...

s, Jimmy and Flo,

squatting Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...

in their bedroom. As the law will not remove them quickly, they decide to share the house. Stan and Sheila are soon fascinated by Jimmy's and Flo's relaxed lifestyle and philosophy.

Episodes

The series aired for six episodes broadcast on Fridays on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

at 8.30pm between 11 May 1979 and 15 June 1979.

Theme

The theme song, also called "Two Up, Two Down", was written by Dominic Bugatti and

Frank Musker Frank John Musker (born 1951) is a British songwriter and composer. Most prolific in the 1980s and 1990s, he worked with artists such as Sheena Easton, the Babys, Robert Miles, Jennifer Rush, Bucks Fizz, Air Supply, Lucio Battisti, Zucchero, Lisa ...

. It was sung by Paul Nicholas, and released as a single.

Reception

Hazel Holt Hazel Holt (nee Young, 3 September 1928 – 23 November 2015) was a British novelist. She studied at King Edward VI High School for Girls in Birmingham, England, and then Newnham College, Cambridge. She went on to work at the International Afric ...

, writing in ''

The Stage ''The Stage'' is a British weekly newspaper and website covering the entertainment industry and particularly theatre. It was founded in 1880. It contains news, reviews, opinion, features, and recruitment advertising, mainly directed at those wh ...

'', said it was "full of high spirits and innocent amusement. Perhaps Miss Preger's comedic view is too gentle and kind, a keener cutting edge might have sharpened the satire which, here, was inclined to collapse into a sort of woolly benevolence. Nevertheless, it is an original theme and has got off to a promising start." The ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ...

'' called it, "A yawn in the bedroom," and said, " tcould have been funny, but the script by Janey Preger, was far from that...

he cast He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

tried very hard to make this trite offering as funny as possible, but it was the great bore of the evening". In 2013, Su Pollard said, "Shows stand or fall on whether the people who produce them can sell the idea properly or not. They billed it as a 'comedy drama', which was ludicrous".

Crew

* Writer: Janey Preger * Director: Roger Cheveley * Producer: Tara Prem * Costume designer: Gill Hardie * Set designer: Ian Rawnsley

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 TV Comedy Guide for ''Two Up, Two Down''

External links

* {{Squatting 1979 British television series debuts 1979 British television series endings 1970s British sitcoms BBC television sitcoms