By Elliott West
Introduction
Written by James Saunders, the 1979 BBC comedy Bloomers will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. With a cast consisting of Richard Beckinsale, Anna Calder-Marshall, June Ritchie, David Swift, Paul Curran and Pat Gorman, the script centres around Stan played by Beckinsale, a jobbing actor, more out of work than in. Stan rattles around in a cramped studio flat with his girlfriend Lena. A man who is clueless about how to make a pot of tea, throws half a box of tea bags into boiling water and then realising the strength, lines up the soggy tea bags on a tray to dry for a second use. Someone who is baffled as to why his digestive biscuit won’t fit to dunk in his mug of tea. A man who forever calls his agent for work, only to receive a disappointing response.
Stan has a fractious relationship with his girlfriend Lena. One where many of the household items are thrown at each other in the heat of an argument and only cooled by making love. Yet little did they know that the demise of Stan’s rubber plant would lead to them both visiting a flower business to purchase a new plant. A visit that would not only lead to the purchase of new greenery but also in-depth conversations with Dingley the shop owner played by David Swift of Drop the Dead Donkey fame.
The Menagerie
This shop is no ordinary one. It has a hidden backyard bursting, a hunched father-in-law, George, who often ends up running the show, a floral life and a sneaky bottle of whisky stashed under the counter which ends up in a job offer for Stan. A man who has an eye for the ladies even though he is going steady. So perhaps a career change working for a bearded pipe smoker will be a wise move? A job offer that allows Stan to be a joint partner in the business. A shop that Dingley admits doesn’t make any profit. A business that they decide to call Bloomers after a drunken conversation with George, sealed with another glass of whisky.
So ensues a colourful journey for this small London floral firm. One that carries out odd jobs in gardens in and around London and the scrapes they get into as a result. With Stan’s roving eye that was alluded to in episode one, this might as well have been a tamed version of a Confessions film with the bedhopping Stan lighting up the lives of lonely housewives, musing with them additionally on philosophy and the woes of life.
A Sudden End
“O’Shaughnessy asks Stan if he and his fiance could stay at Stan’s flat for a few hours, but Lena’s mother is visiting. Meanwhile, Stan attempts to do a good deed for an elderly woman.”
Episode six storyline.
Having seen this comedy in its entirety, I would say it did have the potential to be recommissioned for a second series. However, the tragedy of this series was that the first series was never completed. Shortly before episode six was due to be filmed, Richard Beckinsale died from a heart attack at the age of 31. An unfinished work from an actor who was magical in Porridge and Rising Damp. Bloomers was a more mature comedy but it retained the cheekiness that Richard was so well known for.
Bloomers were only ever repeated once when four of the episodes were shown again on BBC1 in August 1980 after originally being shown on BBC2 in October 1979. It was also shown on ABC in Australia in 1983. However, it has never been aired again to date by the BBC. The only available episodes are on YouTube and like so many unfinished BBC programmes, lies deep in the BBC archives. A sad end to Richard’s brilliant career and a comedy that not many will remember. A series given a sprinkle of remembrance in my piece.
