Romany Jones (1972)★ 6.5/10

GB · 30 min · June 8, 1973 · 4 seasons

• Comedy

Directed by: Stuart Allen

Written by: Ronald Chesney, Ronald Wolfe, Jon Watkins, Myles Rudge, Chris Boucher

Originally intended as a comedy vehicle for the star of series 1 + 2, James Beck, more famous as Private Walker in "Dad's Army": Bert Jones and his wife Betty live on a caravan site in economic crisis-hit 1970s Britain. Betty (Jo Rowbottom) has ideas above her station, including telling her mother she lives a life of luxury instead of squalor. Her mother is equally shocked by her daughter's living conditions. On her first visits, they feed her their neighbour Wally's pet chicken Florey. The series follows the misadventures of the Joneses and their busybody neighbours, Wally and Lil Briggs (Arthur Mullard and Queenie Watts). The layabout families live side by side; the neighbour spats come fast and plenty. From series three, following Beck's untimely death, two new characters were brought in: Jeremy and Susan Crichton-Jones. Mullard and Watts went on to a spin-off, "Yus, My Dear", from the creators of "On the Buses."