by Garnet Benzie ©
Missed opportunities are no strangers in the world of television, but the 1990s time travel sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart is a unique exception.
Created by Maurice Gran and Laurence Marks, Goodnight Sweetheart centred on Gary Sparrow (Nicholas Lyndhurst), a time traveller leading a double life between the 1990s, married to his wife Yvonne (played by Michelle Holmes originally and then by Emma Amos for the final three series), and the 1940s World War Two London and girlfriend Phoebe (played by Dervla Kirwan originally and then by Elizabeth Carling for the final three series).
During the series, Gary could easily claim that he had written songs by the Beatles and posed as a spy, obviously similar to James Bond when he travelled to the 1940s. Goodnight Sweetheart ended on a mature note with Gary being trapped in the past to be a full-time husband to his wife Phoebe and a full-time father to his son Michael.
From 1993 to 1999, Goodnight Sweetheart ran for six series, and after the final series, it was officially over, and Maurice Gran and Laurence Marks had no plans for a revival. In 2016, the BBC ran a series of new episodes of classic sitcoms for the Sitcom season and Maurice Gran and Laurence Marks were asked to write a new episode of Goodnight Sweetheart. It was set in the period between 1962 and 2016.
“We were approached by a man who ran a comedy arm of Fremantle called John Rolf, and he said he’d been asked by the head of comedy at BBC who was doing a series of what you might call vintage BBC comedy hits and one of them he had discussed was Goodnight Sweetheart, and then he asked us, ‘would you be prepared to bring it up to date’. We said, as I recall, we would do it, but we must get the original cast. That was a good stroke of fortune because the other three shows they did didn’t have any of the original cast. So, we probably knew at that time that if they were going to go to series, they would go with the one with the original cast,” said Laurence Marks [below right].
“When John Rolf came to us and said, ‘I think we can place a Goodnight Sweetheart episode in this BBC mini-season’, we said that the reason we stopped doing Goodnight Sweetheart in 1945 was because we felt that the jeopardy of the war was integral to the show and without the jeopardy of the war what was going to be that motor if we came back to what was going to be 1962? And John Rolf, who was a very smart cookie – I hope he doesn’t see this because he might want a drink out of it – said, ‘Well, if we go back to 1962 any minute, ‘Love Me Do’ is going to come on the wireless, and then what is Gary going to do about the Beatles? That’s your jeopardy’. And that was what excited me to get involved,” said Maurice Gran [above left].
In the 2016 episode of Goodnight Sweetheart, entitled “Many Happy Returns”, Gary can return to his present-day life seventeen years later after being trapped in the past. His return to 2016 comes with a surprise that he wasn’t expecting, which was that his wife Yvonne has a daughter, Ellie, aged sixteen and that he is the father. Yvonne forbids Gary from telling Ellie the truth about his absence from Ellie’s life. After Gary leaves Yvonne’s residence, he catches up with Ellie outside, and she confides in him that she will look for her father when she turns eighteen, but she doubts that he may want to know her. Respecting Yvonne’s wishes, Gary doesn’t tell Ellie his real identity but tells her that he bet he would want to know her. Ellie asks if she’ll see him around, and Gary says he hopes so. Gary returns to 1962 and is relieved that he can return to the present.
“Many Happy Returns” was met with critical acclaim and ratings to match, with over four million people tuning in to watch it. With the story elements of the episode, there was a lot left to explore, but a new series wasn’t produced.
Here are two reviews for “Many Happy Returns”, Daily Express and Digital Spy.
In 2018, a stage musical of Goodnight Sweetheart was produced with moderate success and didn’t have a West End run as it was performed at the Brookside Theatre in Romford, Essex.
But there is a new chance for a Goodnight Sweetheart revival as a book, and its success depends on a Kickstarter campaign that will explore the potential left behind by “Many Happy Returns”. At the time of this writing, it has reached over twenty-five per cent of its goal, and it is scheduled to conclude in less than six from now.
A book would be the perfect medium to explore the potential of the story left behind by “Many Happy Returns”, as it’s been nine years since it was aired to loyal fans of Goodnight Sweetheart.
