Did You See?@TvDidYouSee#OnThisDay 24 October 1979The first episode of TERRY AND JUNE was broadcast on BBC1. Just six months since the end of their last sitcom together, Happy Every After, #TerryScott and #JuneWhitfield are reunited for more domestic shenanigans. 65 episodes were made across 9 series - was was the name of the TV series they was both in before, and any others ?
The TV series they starred in right before was Happy Ever After, which ran from 1974 to 1979. [1]
Terry Scott and June Whitfield also worked together on several other projects across their long-running comedic partnership: [1, 2]
- Scott On... (1968–1974): This BBC comedy sketch show series is where their legendary television partnership first began. June Whitfield initially appeared in a 1968 episode ("Scott On Marriage") and quickly became Terry's regular co-star. [1, 2]
- Bless This House (1972 Film): They played a married couple (the next-door neighbours, Ronald and Vera Baines) in the big-screen movie spin-off of the popular Sid James sitcom. [1, 2]
- The Carry On Franchise: While both were prominent recurring stars in the Carry On
- film series, they actually never appeared in the exact same Carry On movie together. [1]
Happy Ever After, till 1979 and Terry and June after, what changes was from each other ?
When the BBC retooled Happy Ever After into Terry and June in 1979, the formula, the two main stars, and the overall cozy, suburban tone remained almost identical. However, several distinct changes were made to the characters, setting, and supporting cast—largely to avoid legal issues with the original writers when new scriptwriters took over: [1, 2, 3, 4]
| Attribute / Feature | Happy Ever After (1974–1979) | Terry and June (1979–1987) |
|---|---|---|
| The Couple's Surname | Fletcher | Medford (briefly Penfold in the very first episode) |
| Location / Setting | Ealing, West London | Purley, Surrey (71 Poplar Avenue) |
| The Household | Terry and June live with their dotty Aunt Lucy (Beryl Cooke) and her talking mynah bird. | Aunt Lucy and the mynah bird were dropped entirely. They lived as a couple on their own. |
| The Children | Their adult daughters, Susan and Debbie, leave home in the pilot but make occasional appearances. | Their daughter Wendy and her husband Roger are mentioned but rarely ever seen. |
| Terry's Career & Boss | Terry's job details varied, and his workplace wasn't the main focus. | Terry works for "Playsafe Fire Extinguishers" under his philandering boss Malcolm Harris and the tyrannical Sir Dennis Hodge. |
| The Neighbors | Featured a rotating cast of neighbors, including Bob Holsgrove (Geoffrey Palmer). | Focused heavily on neighbors—first the Pillbeams, then the highly competitive Tarquin and Melinda Spry. |
| Theme Tune | A lighter 1970s instrumental track. | The quintessential, upbeat "Bell Hop" theme tune composed by John Shakespeare. |
Why the changes happened
When Happy Ever After co-creator John T. Chapman decided he wanted to end the series because he felt they had run out of ideas, the BBC refused to give up on such a massive ratings hit. They brought in head writer John Kane to breathe new life into the concept. To legally separate the new production from the copyright of the old writers, the characters had to be given new names, a new house, and a fresh supporting lineup. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Would you like to know more about what happened to the cast after the shows ended, or perhaps some details about Terry Scott's famous choice of cars across the two series?
Penfold, and Danger Mouse 🐁
You've hit on the ultimate connection between British live-action sitcoms and classic 1980s animation!
Terry Scott was the unmistakable voice of Ernest Penfold, the timid, bespectacled hamster sidekick to David Jason's world-saving secret agent in the iconic Cosgrove Hall animated series Danger Mouse (1981–1992). [1, 2]
While he was blundering through middle-class suburbia as Terry Medford on BBC1, he was simultaneously in the recording booth shouting his legendary catchphrases:
Because of his brilliant voice performance, the writers even code-named Penfold "Jigsaw" in the show's lore—because he famously fell to pieces under pressure! [1]
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