LISA PARKER on YOU RANG, M'LORD?

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on June 28th 2026.

This week, LISA PARKER, one of the regular contributors to VISION ON SOUND who hasn’t been on the show for far too long returns to tell me all about one of her favourite sitcoms, YOU RANG, M’LORD?

Created and written by the legendary television writing duo JIMMY PERRY and DAVID CROFT with twenty-six fifty minute episodes being broadcast across four series between 1988 and 1993, this popular series took three of the lead actors from another of their hit series HI-DE-HI, PAUL SHANE, SU POLLARD and JEFFREY HOLLAND, alongside many other actors who had appeared their other series, and placed them in a similar situation to that of the hit drama UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS almost two decades earlier.

PAUL SHANE plays ALF STOKES, the scheming butler to the MELDRUM family, SU POLLARD plays his daughter, the maid IVY TEASDALE, with JEFFREY HOLLAND playing the pompous footman JAMES TWELVETREES. They are all in the service of LORD MELDRUM and his younger brother TEDDY as played by the familiar duo from IT AIN”T HALF HOT MUM, DONALD HEWLETT and MICHAEL KNOWLES. Other familiar faces included BILL PERTWEE, FRANK WILLIAMS, BARBARA NEW, MAVIS PUGH, and JOHN HORSLEY, and there’s a memorable theme song featuring none other than BOB MONKHOUSE.

Despite its high production values, and a longer running time that meant it slotted very nicely into the traditional Sunday evening viewing schedule, it wasn’t exactly seen as a roaring success at the time it was made, and was seldom repeated on the main BBC channels. It remains, therefore, one of PERRY and CROFT’S lesser-known works, although, rather surprisingly, it has recently been revived as a radio series more than thirty years after it ended its TV run, which probably shows that it may have been more enduring than people might have thought.

PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.