..: AFTER HENRY :..

This show was written by Simon Brett. Brett was a staff producer in the light entertainment department of the BBC between the years 1968 and 1977, and clocked up work on Week Ending, The Burkiss Way and The News Huddlines, where he was the shows first producer. Other work includes the co-writing, with Frank Muir, of all the Frank Muir Goes into... series, and his own Dear Diary series on Radio 4. If this was not enough for a man's CV, he also worked on the pilot of The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy before moving on to London Weekend Television as a producer.

After Henry is a very neat comedy about three generations of women in the same house. Sarah France, lost her GP husband, Henry, to a car accident two year ago, but left her well provided for with a large Edwardian house outside London. Sarah has an eighteen year old daughter, who is as headstrong as most teenage girls are, and lives in the basement of the house. whilst her seventyish mother Eleanor lives in the flat upstairs. Henry assured Sarah that between then they would be able to all cope with the set-up, however, with Henry now gone, she is now sandwiched between the two generations. Respite is at hand in the form of work, and this is in the tranquil surroundings of Bygone Books, run by the homosexual Russell. This allows frankness as there is not going to be any romantic complications.

There were a total of 4 series on Radio 4 in the mid to late eighties with 2 Christmas specials, with the TV versions starting just as the last series was being broadcast on the radio. The TV series was not taken up by the BBC (a foolish mistake) and the former London region ITV company, Thames TV snapped this up producing 4 episodes more than the radio!

:: Radio

Susan was played by Prunella Scales, Eleanor by Joan Sanderson, Clare by Gerry Cowper, and Russell by Benjamin Whitrow. There were a total of 34 episodes, broadcast on Radio 4 in the early evenings.

:: Series 1

B/cast date	Title
17.4.85	The Older Man
24.4.85	Moving
1.5.85	The Cowboy
8.5.85	The Dinner Party
15.5.85	Gossip
22.5.85	Mr Right
29.5.85	The Spectre at the Feast
5.5.85	Going Away

:: Christmas Special

B/cast date	Title
22.12.85	A Week of Sundays

:: Series 2

B/cast date	Title
16.8.86	Memory Games
23.8.86	The Romantic Approach
30.8.86	The Cold
6.9.86	Beside Manners
13.9.86	The Kitten
20.9.86	The Married Man
27.9.86	The Other Married Man
4.10.86	The Teapot

:: Series 3

Originally broadcast of a Tuesday evening at 6.30pm.

B/cast date	Title
22.9.87	Wedding Bells
29.9.87	Poor Relations
6.10.87	Guilty Secrets
13.10.87	Lines of Comminications
20.10.87	Interlectual Asperations
27.10.87	A Box of Chocolates
3.11.87	Different Viewpoints
10.11.87	The End of a Chapter

:: Christmas Special

B/cast date	Title
25.12.87	The Season of Relatively Goodwill

:: Series 4

Originally broadcast of a Tuesday evening at 6.30pm.

B/cast date	Title
17.1.88	Dependant Relatives
24.1.88	Relative Movement
31.1.88	A Fully Extended Family
7.2.88	Sunday Lunch
14.2.88	Little Women
21.2.88	Family Album
28.2.88	Keeping Faith
6.3.88	Positive Thinking

:: Television

Prunella Scales and Joan Sanderson resumed their roles of Sarah and Eleanor, however, Clare was now played by Janine Wood and Russell by Jonathon Newth. Others to appear were Peggy Anne Wood as Vera Poling (Eleanor's sort of partner in crime), Anne Priestly as Mary (in the second series) and Edward De Souze (The Man In Black) as Sam Greenland (series 2, and 3).

:: Series 1

Broadcast on a Monday evening at 8pm from the 4th January to 8th February 1988 - 6 episodes.

B/cast date	Title	Synopsis
4.1.88	The Older Man	Sarah hears from her mother’s geriatric gossip network that Clare is secretly meeting an "older man" and feels that she has to find out what’s really going on...
11.1.88	Phone Calls	Sarah thinks she has finally found the perfect way to stop her mother from snooping in her part of the house. Unfortunately, she hasn’t reckoned with Eleanor’s deviousness.
18.1.88	The Teapot	Eleanor is undecided about the terms of her will, and, of course, sees this as a wonderful opportunity to play her daughter off against her granddaughter.
25.1.88	Security	A lapse of security forces Sarah to install a burglar alarm, but Eleanor - needless to say - has other ideas as to how their property should be protected.
1.2.88	Romantic Complications	Sarah finds herself caught in the middle of both her daughter and her mother as she has to listen to endless confidences about their love-lives...
8.2.88	The Birthday	A major celebration is approaching for Eleanor, and Sarah has secret plans for making the occasion memorable. But is it actually possible to keep anything secret from her mother?

:: Christmas Special

Broadcast on Monday the 26th December 1988 at 9.30pm.

Series 2

Broadcast on Tuesdays evenings from the 10th Januray to 11th April 1989 at 8.30pm. This series consisted of 12 episodes.

B/cast date	Title
10.1.89	Intellectual Aspirations
17.1.89	Open Secrets
24.1.89	Memory Games
31.1.89	The Cold
7.2.89	Wedding Bells
28.2.89	Lines Of Communication
7.3.89	Gossip
14.3.89	Out On A Limb
21.3.89	Upstagers
28.3.89	Idle Speculation
4.4.89	Efficiency
11.4.89	Going Away

:: Christmas Special

A Week Of Sundays - Broadcast on Monday the 25th December 1989 at 8.30pm.

:: Series 3

A further 12 episodes broadcast on Tuesdays evenings at 8.30pm from the 23rd Januray to the 17th April 1990.

B/cast date	Title
23.1.90	Mr Right
30.1.90	Curiosity
6.2.90	Home Comforts
13.2.90	Relative Movement
20.2.90	The Dinner Party
27.2.90	Mr Fixit
6.3.90	Charity
13.3.90	The Mysterious Affair At Bygone Books
20.3.90	Party Politics
27.3.90	Unforeseen Circumstances
3.4.90	Family Album
17.4.90	Last Chances

:: Series 4

The last 6 episodes broadcast between the 20th July and 24th August 1992 on a Monday evening at 8pm.

B/cast date	Title
20.7.92	Dangerous Relatives
27.7.92	Poor Relations
3.8.92	A Fully Extended Family
10.8.92	Yes And No
17.8.92	The Married Man
24.8.92	The Other Married Man

I would like to thank Penny Fabb for help in compiling this page.