Oh joy Butterflies is back

BlueSapphire

Had to come on to say that I'm thoroughly enjoying the re-run of Ever Decreasing Circles, my very favourite sit-com. Think Richard Briers is brilliant in this, much more so than in The Good Life. In fact all the characters are superb.

Richard Briers and Felicity Kendall were utterly unbearable in The Good Life.
Whereas Penelope Keith and Paul Eddington were glorious.

Just caught some of last night’s episode.

Sorry, all you fans, but it came across after nearly 45 years as a load of twaddle.

Are you still allowed to capture butterflies? Surely not!

Had to come on to say that I'm thoroughly enjoying the re-run of Ever Decreasing Circles, my very favourite sit-com. Think Richard Briers is brilliant in this, much more so than in The Good Life. In fact all the characters are superb.

For those of you with no access to the Drama channel or the uktvplay app, you can also watch online on the website. I often watch programmes on here on my laptop if my other half is watching a boring sport of some kind

uktvplay.uktv.co.uk/shows/butterflies/watch-online

I watched Butterflies every week. I used to watch it while doing the ironing. I had 3 young children at the time and envied Ria her lifestyle but also thought she was very ungrateful.

Apologies Redhead, thought you were talking about Ria, I can see now that you meant Carla.

Calendargirl I was referring to Carla Laine herself a down to earth woman with no airs or graces. She lived about a mile away and was often seen at the local village shops.
The character played by Wendy Craig was a ditsy woman rather bored with everyday routine. I thought if she would have cooked and cleaned herself she wouldn’t have the time to be bored! I loved the series especially the character Geoffrey Palmer played with a very dry sense of humour. They don’t make programmes like that anymore it’s all reality rubbish.

HurdyGurdy I loved Solo.
I was only a little girl at the time, and Felicity Kendall’s character seemed so glamorous.
I remember she had a house rabbit.
Carla Laine must have had a thing about rabbits, as Lucien in The Liver Birds kept rabbits too.

I also loved Robin’s Nest; especially the one armed washer upper played by the brilliant actor David Kelly.
Kelly also played one of my favourite ever characters; the useless builder, Mr OReilly in Fawlty Towers.
The bain of Sybil’s life!

I've just upset my husband by saying he's a bit like Martin from Ever Decreasing Circles. But he is. Only a bit though!

On the recommendation from here I (re)watched the first episode of Butterflies and found it awful! Not funny at all ?

I like Wendy Craig ,but her character in Butterflies was so insipid .She drove me mad - having a cleaner ,being unable to cook and having such nice things ,but moaning all the time .

I liked her hubby -grumpy as he was .
Who wouldn't be living with an airhead ?

Ever Decreasing Circles is one of my all time favourites .

My old neighbour is just like him only rather aggressive .
And my father has a neighbour like him too.
His obsession with security means that he's videoing our section of the street 24/7 .
They both walk around with clip boards, write reports and phone up the council all the time !

Great series. Mr. S. bought me the complete series on DVD a couple of years ago; love it.

Yes indeed Chestnut. The poor man has been unwell for years.

Robin's Nest was also Richard O'Sullivan.

My favourite of all time was Man About The House with lovely Richard O'Sullivan. They repeated it recently. Oh the memories, the fashions. I was constantly saying 'Oo I had a dress/trousers/shoes like that'. I met Richard once back then. He was delightful.

argymargy

Thank you Floradora! Can we name check Carla Lane, the writer? As a child I loved Butterflies and her other series, The Liver Birds and Bread. She was a brilliant writer for women.

Do you remember "Solo" with Felicity Kendall. I'm sure that was also Carla Lane.

In our house, we still shout "Butterflies" when the car at the front of the drive needs to get out, and is blocked in by one or two other cars

I wish they would show The Liver Birds again.

It would be terribly dated but interesting to see how we used to be before social media etc.

P.S. Perhaps you might find some of these programmes on YouTube?

I watch it on the Drama channel. Freesat 158

Just for info from the web

'Don't miss out on Britain's best-loved drama. Whether it's a series you enjoyed first time around or a TV drama you missed that you're keen to catch from the start in its entirety.

Drama brings you the nation's favourite series so you need never be stuck for programmes to enthral you. If you don't have Drama at Freeview channel 20 you may need to retune your Freeview TV or box.

What do I need to do?

On your remote, press the menu button.

Select the 'set up' or 'installation' option. If you see picture icons, select the tool box, satellite dish or spanner. If you are prompted for a code, try 0000 or 1234.

Select the full retune option. This may be called 'first time installation', 'factory reset', 'default settings' or 'shipping conditions'. Do not select 'channel update' or 'add channels'.

Kim19

How I wish I had access to the Drama channel. I do have a smart tv but, unfortunately, it doesn't have an equally smart owner. I loved Butterflies. Their constant slick and sharply witty lines were a joy. Oh yesss.........

I think the Drama channel is available on the ordinary freeview channels. You don't need a subscription for it.

Not 100% sure though. Perhaps others would know. Gold (also freeview) also has some good programmes on it e.g. Dinnerladies.

There are some great old films on the Talking Pictures channel. I watched Penny Serenade the other day with Cary Grant. Made well before I was born but I love the old films

I loved Butterflies. I was a young teenager when it was on. I agree that Ria was a bit hopeless and didn't really help herself. Would be curious to watch it again

Precisely Kate1949. It's just a situation comedy, and great in my opinion. As is Ever Decreasing Circles.

I watched them both and loved them. Who cares that Ria is scatterbrained and has little to do? It's not real!

I watched these yesterday tea time and enjoyed both.
I also discovered that they are on every day this week at tea-time.

Beechnut

I’ll have a look in on Butterflies again and see what locations I can spot. DD used to live in Cheltenham.

I lived in Cheltenham all the time Butterflies was showing, and it used to really annoy me the way they messed with the geography of the town. They'd walk into Sandford park from one end and exit on to the far side of the town. Mind you , I did see the mini around the town at times.