The Galton and Simpson Playhouse

Henry Duckworth would never have imagined that he would be trapped in a cable car with a German couple when he set off on his Alpine holiday.

Henry (Richard Briers) is a married middle-aged man who discovers that he has a wandering eye; but when your secretary is none other than Linda Hayden, in all honesty who can blame you? Henry expresses his concerns at the ‘nubile girls wandering around the office’. However, he tries to convince himself that he’s ‘not the slightest bit interested’. Later, he tries to persuade his secretary to have an affair with him: ‘What’s the use of having a tin opener if you can’t go shopping’, he tells her.

Charles (Gray) instantly knows something is wrong when his friend Peter (Jones) orders a Tequila Sunrise instead of his usual Pink Gin. Peter reveals that he is getting married on Saturday, to which Charles declares ‘You can’t get married on Saturday, because we’ve got the laundrette to do’. Peter has tired of their ritualistic life together, telling Charles his marriage is ‘for the best. We’ve been together far too long. Living in each other’s pockets, always seen together. As it is, people think we’re a couple of puffs’. Charles tells him, ‘I don’t believe it; I don’t look anything like a puff’; to this, Peter replies, ‘Do you know what they call us in here? Pinky and Perky’.

Roy Kinnear plays Richard Burton, an airline purser. Upon returning from a trip to the continent, Burton unpacks his bag full of duty free goodies, cigarettes and a bottle of Johnnie Walker Red Label; upon opening the cupboard in his sitting room, we are shown that he already has more than enough bottles of Johnnie Walker and packets of cigarettes than he would need to open a shop–immediately, we are told that like many of Galton and Simpson’s creations, Burton is a man of habit and comforting rituals.

Frances De La Tour and John Bird play a couple who meet at a bench in a park. De La Tour greets Bird with the declaration, ‘Robert’s found out’.

Beginning in a family home, the disruption in this episode occurs with the arrival of Uncle Jim (Leonard Rossiter). As Jim makes his presence known, the kids go upstairs and the other family members prepare themselves: it is clear that they find Jim abrasive. Upon entering the sitting room, Jim immediately offends the lodger Eric by accusing him of being lazy (‘Are you still “resting”, as they say in your profession?’) and then moans that ‘You could die of thirst in this house’.

In this episode, Warren Mitchell plays a gambler who is returning home on a train after a ‘good day’ at York racetrack. Sitting in a carriage, drinking beer and brandy miniatures, Mitchell soon finds the carriage filled with all manner of characters, including a bishop.