The Lovers: Sardine Sandwiches (Seventies TV Season)

Content warning: rape

The introduction to this series of posts on 1970s TV shows can be found here:

I commented in the introductory post to this series that 1970s TV can be incredibly problematic, featuring sexism, racism, all kinds of sexual offences and so on. Regular readers will know my long-term policy is that I only blog about TV which I consider good, and will not platform entertainment featuring racism, sexism, etc. Nonetheless I was very aware that there was quite a lengthy list of shows that I wouldn't be blogging about and was slightly worried that this series of posts would end up being a series of three or four.

For that reason I was delighted to discover this 1970-71 series, about the toings and froings in love of a young couple played by legendary and much-loved actors Richard Beckinsale (Geoffrey Scrimshaw) and Paula Wilcox (Beryl Battersby). Beckinsale is probably best known for Porridge and Rising Damp before his tragically early death and all I can say is that I can't overstate the affection in which he is held. Wilcox is just as well known and her credits include Man About the House (obviously not frightened of the sexy stuff) and Emmerdale. Nothing could possibly go wrong with these two much-loved characters in a show which has a 12 certificate on its Network DVD release.

So it hit me like a lorry when, two minutes and twenty seconds in to this the first episode, Geoffrey is eyeing Beryl across a market and thinking about her before audibly saying, 'Oh God, I want to rape her!', followed by a laugh track.

WHAT.

And that was how, four posts in, this series crashed straight into the rock which is 1970s sexual attitudes. Don't get me wrong, I love all the sexy stuff from the seventies: I love sex comedies, I love the Confessions films, I love dirty jokes, my inner world makes the baby-eating bishop of Bath and Wells look naive. I was fully expecting to be dealing with sexy stuff in posts about the TV of the decade that goes with sex like fish goes with chips, but, come on. Rape? But then this was the age in which Peter Wyngarde released a record in which he 'sang' about rape.

I don't even think that something so wrong that early in the show is the reason I had never heard of it until I came across it down the back of the Internet Archive. Bearing in mind that this show was made in the age when pretty much everything was about getting 'it', and if it wasn't about getting 'it', it was about what you did once you'd got it to get more of 'it', there's something that doesn't sit right about this series.

To avoid any further beating about the bush the problem is that for a show called The Lovers, Geoffrey and Beryl aren't actually making love at all. I haven't watched the entire series so have no idea how it progresses, but a whole TV show about a young couple who obviously want sex, and the way each of them takes it in turn to sabotage the other's attempts to get to the point, frankly isn't the best viewing. It should really be called 'Self-Sabotage', rather than The Lovers.

There is a problem with this episode (again, I have no idea how this plays out over the whole series, but have seen one other episode and suspect that this may have changed as the series progressed) which is that this episode gives a vibe that it is Beryl stopping any sex happening and that she should just give it up to him. There, I've said it. It gives the impression that she is 'playing hard to get' and should just put it out for him and leap into bed. You will gather that I'm really finding this show quite distasteful. In fact the reason it's appearing here is mainly because it's an unusual character for Richard Beckinsale which I think readers might like to see, but as a whole the show is a terrible misstep.

I watch every TV episode I blog about here at least twice and of course I've found myself thinking about how I wish this show could have been. Obviously they should have got rid of the reference to rape, because that wasn't entertaining even in 1970. Other shows manage to have two protagonists who combine incredible sexual chemistry with never getting to the point (I mean, look at Steed and Mrs Peel), but they usually are shows about something other than the protagonists' relationship. This would have been good set in a workplace, hospital, or even university and that would have provided an additional subject for the show. I haven't seen this said anywhere, so I'm guessing, but this feels like the show is trying to be about the relationship, but is ending up being about the couple's wanting sex and that's where it goes wrong. It could have been all about how their relationship developed; for example we are told in the first episode that they've obviously known each other some time and had some sort of tiff or disagreement, and there we potentially have a whole episode of a show all about a relationship.

So I wouldn't necessarily suggest anyone watches this except for a different Beckinsale role, and a quite magnificent collection of 1970s decor, for example that wallpaper forming the background to Beckinsale smooching a life-size cut-out of Brigitte Bardot. If you slept with that wallpaper you absolutely would dream about Brussels sprouts.

The seventies were obviously a different age, and I'm glad they're gone.

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