Queenie's Castle | |
---|---|
Genre | Sitcom |
Written by | Keith Waterhouse Willis Hall |
Starring | Diana Dors Freddie Fletcher Brian Marshall Barrie Rutter Tony Caunter Lynne Perrie Bryan Mosley |
Theme music composer | Cliff Twemlow |
Opening theme | "The Greatest Show on Earth" |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of series | 3 |
No. of episodes | 18 |
Production | |
Producers | Graham Evans (Series 1) Ian Davidson (Series 2-3) |
Editor | Tim Ritson |
Production company | Yorkshire Television |
Original release | |
Network | ITV |
Release | 5 November 1970 – 5 September 1972 |
Queenie's Castle is a British sitcom set in early 1970s Leeds, West Yorkshire. The series was made for the ITV by Yorkshire Television and aired from 1970 to 1972. The series starred British actress Diana Dors. [1]
Starring Diana Dors as the eponymous Queenie Shepherd, the series revolved around the lives and, often illegal, activities of the residents of a Social Housing Development in early 1970s Leeds, West Yorkshire. Queenie's husband Lionel never appears, leaving the neighbours and viewers alike to assume he is in prison. [2] Various excuses are made, such as "He's working on the motorway in Carlisle", but this changed throughout the series.
Queenie shared her flat with four men - her shady brother-in-law Jack, and her sons: labourer Raymond, van driver Bunny, and the unemployed Douglas.
The family's archenemy, Mrs Petty, lives on a ground floor flat and runs a cake shop in a row of shops at the bottom of the flats. Mrs Petty's main friend is Mrs Blakely who also dislikes the Shepherds. Although Mrs Petty is seen to live in a ground floor flat—and this is made perfectly obvious throughout the series—on more than one occasion she claims to live next door to the Shepherds, who quite clearly live several floors up.
Produced by Yorkshire Television, the scripts were written by Keith Waterhouse (author of Billy Liar ) and Willis Hall. [3] The remaining four episodes of series one were recorded in black and white due to the ITV colour strike.
Although the location was unspecified on screen, parts of the series were filmed in Quarry Hill, Leeds. The council flats, where it was filmed have since been demolished. [2] They were notable as the first council flats of their kind, built in art deco style in the 1930s.
Series 1
Note: episodes three to six of series 1 were shown in black-and-white due to the ITV Colour Strike.
Series 2
Series 3
According to the BFI, "Dors proved so popular as the brassy Queenie that after the third and final series, she and Caunter essentially reprised their characters under different names for the rugby league sitcom All Our Saturdays (ITV, 1973)." [2]
All three series of Queenie's Castle were released (separately) by Simply Media in May 2009. Network has released a three-disc box set of the complete series in August 2009.
DVD | Year(s) | Release date |
---|---|---|
The Complete Series 1 | 1970 | 18 May 2009 |
The Complete Series 2 | 1971 | 18 May 2009 |
The Complete Series 3 | 1972 | 18 May 2009 |
The Complete Series 1 to 3 Box Set | 1970- 1972 | 10 Aug 2009 |
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This is a list of British television related events from 1978.
This is a list of British television related events from 1972.
This is a list of British television related events from 1970.
This is a list of British television related events from 1969.
This is a list of British television related events from 1968.
This is a list of British television related events from 1967.
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