Season 4 • Episode 6
LatestSusan and Lily have put their differences aside and decide to get their hair done together, for some special occassions. Susan will be acompanying Jeremy to a work dinner and Wally is taking Lily out to a ball at the local.
Romany Jones is a British sitcom created and written by Ronald Chesney and Ronald Wolfe for LWT. Broadcast between 1973 and 1975, the programme follows the comic misadventures of two layabout families living on a caravan site. Originally designed as a starring vehicle for James Beck (Dad's Army), the 1972 pilot and 1973 first series centred on Bert and Betty Jones (Jo Rowbottom), newlywed after seven years, who spend their wedding night in their rickety caravan, natural to Bert but distinctly alien to Betty, born and bred in Streatham. Most of the humour focused on life in theirs and a neighbouring caravan housing Lily and Wally Briggs (Queenie Watts and Arthur Mullard, although Arthur English was cast in the pilot). Following Beck's death after completion on the second series, Bert and Betty were written out, and replaced with a city gentleman and his debutante wife, both of whom remain blissfully oblivious to the Briggs' antics.
Acting
Queenie Watts and Arthur Mullard's gloriously unpolished double act.
Production
Authentic caravan site sets that reek of damp upholstery and regret.
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
James Beck completed Series 2 then died suddenly at 44; the show scrambled to reinvent itself with posh replacements, accidentally creating a rare sitcom that documented Britain's class anxiety through casting trauma.
The Chesney-Wolfe writing duo also created On the Buses, making this essentially that show's country cousin—same DNA, fewer vehicles, equally questionable gender politics.
GB
