Take Three Girls

Last updated

Take Three Girls
Take three girls series two.jpg
Carolyn Seymour (left), Liza Goddard (centre) and Barra Grant – the leading players in series two – outside Holland Park tube station
Genre Comedy
Drama
Written by
Directed by
Starring
Theme music composer Pentangle
Opening theme"Light Flight"
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series2
No. of episodes24 (14 missing)
Production
Producer
Michael Hayes
Production locationsLondon, England, United Kingdom
Running time50 minutes
Production company BBC
Release
Original network BBC1
Picture format PAL (576i),
Audio format Mono
Original release17 November 1969 (1969-11-17) 
1 January 1971 (1971-01-01)

Take Three Girls is a television drama series broadcast by BBC1 between 1969 and 1971 that follows three young women sharing a flat in "Swinging London" (located at 17 Glazbury Road, West Kensington, W14). It was BBC1's first colour drama series. [1]

Contents

The first series featured cellist Victoria (Liza Goddard), single mother Kate (Susan Jameson), and Cockney art student Avril (Angela Down). For the second series, Kate and Avril were replaced by journalist Jenny (Carolyn Seymour) and American psychology graduate Lulie (Barra Grant). [2]

Two series, each of 12 episodes, were shown on BBC1 between 1969 and 1971, with selected repeats between the series. Only 10 episodes of the original 24 still exist. [3]

A four-episode sequel, Take Three Women, broadcast on BBC2 in 1982, shows the original three characters later in their lives. Victoria is a widow with a young daughter, and Avril an art gallery owner, while Kate is sharing her life with her son and his teacher.

The theme music – "Light Flight" by the British folk rock group Pentangle – was a British chart hit in February 1970. Pentangle also contributed music to Take Three Women.

A tie-in novel, Victoria, by scriptwriters Terence Brady and Charlotte Bingham, was published in 1972 by W. H. Allen Ltd.

Episodes

All episodes were made on colour videotape, with the exception of Season 1, episode 10, which was shot entirely on 35mm film.

Take Three Girls - Season 1

EpTitleWriterDirectorUK
Transmission
dates
Archive
1Kate: Stop Acting Hugo Charteris Tristan de Vere Cole 17 November 1969, BBC1
3 June 1970, BBC2
Colour 625-line VT
2Avril: Devon Violets Julia Jones John Matthews24 November 1969, BBC1
15 September 1982, BBC2
Colour 625-line VT
3Victoria: Requiem For Cello in SW3 Charlotte Bingham and Terence Brady Mark Cullingham1 December 1969, BBC1Lost
4Kate: Start WorkingHugo CharterisTristan de Vere Cole8 December 1969, BBC1Colour 625-line VT
5Avril: Heart's EaseJulia JonesJohn Matthews15 December 1969, BBC1Lost
6Victoria: Rhapsody for Misplaced PersonsCharlotte Bingham and Terence BradyMark Cullingham22 December 1969, BBC1Lost
7Kate: Try LovingHugo CharterisTristan de Vere Cole29 December 1969, BBC1Lost
8Avril: Sweet BasilJulia JonesJohn Matthews5 January 1970, BBC1Lost
9Victoria: Variations of May and SeptemberCharlotte Bingham and Terence BradyMark Cullingham12 January 1970, BBC1
10 June 1970, BBC2
Colour 625-line VT
10Kate: Keep HopingHugo CharterisTristan de Vere Cole19 January 1970, BBC1
17 June 1970, BBC2
Colour 35mm film
11Avril: Roses Round the DoorJulia JonesJohn Matthews26 January 1970, BBC1Colour 625-line VT
12Victoria: Gloria for First OffenceCharlotte Bingham and Terence BradyMark Cullingham2 February 1970, BBC1Lost

Take Three Girls - Season 2

EpTitleWriterDirectorUK
Transmission
dates
Archive
1Victoria: Coda and Resolution Charlotte Bingham and Terence Brady Mark Cullingham24 March 1971, BBC1Lost
2Lulie: The Private Sector Carey Harrison Barry Davis31 March 1971, BBC1Colour 625-line VT
3Jenny: Closed Circuit Robert Muller Michael Hayes 7 April 1971, BBC1Lost
4Victoria: Duet for Two Left FeetCharlotte Bingham and Terence BradyMark Cullingham14 April 1971, BBC1Lost
5Lulie: The Company of MadmenCarey HarrisonBarry Davis21 April 1971, BBC1Lost
6Jenny: Kitsch, or Protocols in a Chinese LaundryRobert MullerMichael Hayes28 April 1971, BBC1Colour 625-line VT
7Victoria: Prelude to a New ArrangementCharlotte Bingham and Terence BradyMark Cullingham7 May 1971, BBC1Lost
8Lulie: A Little BlindnessCarey HarrisonBarry Davis14 May 1971, BBC1Lost
9Jenny: FreelanceRobert MullerMichael Hayes21 May 1971, BBC1Lost
10Victoria: Composition Out of DiscordCharlotte Bingham and Terence BradyMark Cullingham28 May 1971, BBC1Lost
11Lulie: A School for GrievancesCarey Harrison Christopher Morahan 4 June 1971, BBC1Colour 625-line VT
12Jenny: ReleaseRobert MullerMichael Hayes11 June 1971, BBC1Colour 625-line VT

Take Three Women

EpTitleWriterDirectorUK
Transmission
dates
Archive
1KateHuy MeredithRichard Martin21 September 1982, BBC2Colour 625-line VT
2Avril Julia Jones Roger Bamford28 September 1982, BBC2Colour 625-line VT
3VictoriaCharlotte Bingham and Terence BradyLes Chatfield5 October 1982, BBC2Colour 625-line VT
4Victoria, Kate and AvrilLee LangleyJulian Amyes12 October 1982, BBC2Colour 625-line VT

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Saunders</span> English actress

Jennifer Jane Saunders is an English actress, comedian, singer and screenwriter. Saunders originally found attention in the 1980s, when she became a member of The Comic Strip after graduating from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama with her best friend and comedy partner, Dawn French. With French, she co-wrote and starred in their eponymous sketch show, French and Saunders, for which they jointly received a BAFTA Fellowship in 2009. Saunders later received acclaim in the 1990s for writing and playing her character Edina Monsoon in her sitcom Absolutely Fabulous.

<i>The Black and White Minstrel Show</i> British light entertainment show

The Black and White Minstrel Show was a British light entertainment show that ran for twenty years on BBC prime-time television. Running from 1958 to 1978, it was a weekly variety show that presented traditional American minstrel and country songs, as well as show tunes and music hall numbers, lavishly costumed. It was also a successful stage show that ran for ten years from 1962 to 1972 at the Victoria Palace Theatre, London. This was followed by tours of UK seaside resorts, together with Australia and New Zealand.

<i>Steptoe and Son</i> British TV sitcom

Steptoe and Son is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about a father-and-son rag-and-bone business in 26a Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherd's Bush, London. Four series were broadcast by the BBC in black and white from 1962 to 1965, followed by a second run from 1970 to 1974 in colour. The lead roles were played by Wilfrid Brambell and Harry H. Corbett. The theme tune, "Old Ned", was composed by Ron Grainer. The series was voted 15th in a 2004 poll by the BBC to find Britain's Best Sitcom. It was remade in the United States as Sanford and Son, in Sweden as Albert & Herbert, in the Netherlands as Stiefbeen en zoon, in Portugal as Camilo & Filho, and in South Africa as Snetherswaite and Son. Two film adaptations of the series were released in cinemas, Steptoe and Son (1972) and Steptoe and Son Ride Again (1973).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pentangle (band)</span> British folk rock band

Pentangle are a British folk band, formed in London in 1967. The original band was active in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and a later version has been active since the early 1980s. The original line-up, which was unchanged throughout the band's first incarnation (1967–1973), was Jacqui McShee (vocals); John Renbourn ; Bert Jansch ; Danny Thompson ; and Terry Cox (drums).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swinging Sixties</span> Youth-driven cultural revolution centred in London in the 1960s

The Swinging Sixties was a youth-driven cultural revolution that took place in the United Kingdom during the mid-to-late 1960s, emphasising modernity and fun-loving hedonism, with Swinging London denoted as its centre. It saw a flourishing in art, music and fashion, and was symbolised by the city's "pop and fashion exports", such as the Beatles, as the multimedia leaders of the British Invasion of musical acts; the mod and psychedelic subcultures; Mary Quant's miniskirt designs; popular fashion models such as Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton; the iconic status of popular shopping areas such as London's King's Road, Kensington and Carnaby Street; the political activism of the anti-nuclear movement; and the sexual liberation movement.

<i>Triangle</i> (1981 TV series) BBC television series

Triangle is a BBC Television soap opera broadcast in the early 1980s, set aboard a North Sea ferry that sailed from Felixstowe to Gothenburg and Gothenburg to Amsterdam. A third imaginary leg existed between Amsterdam and Felixstowe to justify the programme's title, but this was not operated by the ferry company. The show ran for three series before being cancelled, but is still generally remembered as "some of the most mockable British television ever produced". The scripts involved clichéd relationships and stilted dialogue, making the show the butt of several jokes—particularly on Terry Wogan's morning Radio 2 programme—which caused some embarrassment to the BBC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bert Jansch</span> Scottish folk musician (1943–2011)

Herbert Jansch was a Scottish folk musician and founding member of the band Pentangle. He was born in Glasgow and came to prominence in London in the 1960s as an acoustic guitarist and singer-songwriter. He recorded more than 28 albums and toured extensively from the 1960s to the 21st century.

<i>Comedy Playhouse</i> 1961–1975 British television series

Comedy Playhouse is a long-running British anthology series of one-off unrelated sitcoms that aired for 127 episodes from 1961 to 1975. Many episodes later graduated to their own series, including Steptoe and Son, Meet the Wife, Till Death Us Do Part, All Gas and Gaiters, Up Pompeii!, Not in Front of the Children, Me Mammy, That's Your Funeral, The Liver Birds, Are You Being Served? and particularly Last of the Summer Wine, which is the world's longest running sitcom, having run from January 1973 to August 2010. In all, 27 sitcoms started from a pilot in the Comedy Playhouse strand.

<i>Play for Today</i> British television anthology series

Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration. A handful of these plays, including Rumpole of the Bailey, subsequently became television series in their own right.

<i>Bad Girls</i> (TV series) TV series set in a womens prison

Bad Girls is a British television drama series that was broadcast on ITV from 1 June 1999 until 20 December 2006. It was created by Maureen Chadwick and Ann McManus of Shed Productions, who initiated the idea of developing a series primarily focusing on the inmates and staff of the fictional women's prison, Larkhall, located in the South London region. Following the success of previous series Within These Walls and the Australian-imported Prisoner: Cell Block H, both of which screened on ITV, Bad Girls was commissioned by the network and was viewed as a realistic, modern portrayal of life in a women's prison. The series featured a large ensemble cast, including Linda Henry, Claire King, Simone Lahbib, Mandana Jones, Debra Stephenson, Jack Ellis, Alicya Eyo, Helen Fraser, Kika Mirylees, Victoria Alcock, James Gaddas, Victoria Bush, Dannielle Brent and Liz May Brice.

<i>The Flying Doctors</i> Australian 1988-1996 television series

The Flying Doctors is an Australian drama TV series produced by Crawford Productions that revolves around the everyday lifesaving efforts of the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia, starring Andrew McFarlane as the newly arrived Dr. Tom Callaghan. The popular series ran for nine seasons and was successfully screened internationally.

<i>Basket of Light</i> 1969 studio album by Pentangle

Basket of Light is a 1969 album by the folk rock group Pentangle. It reached no. 5 on the UK Albums Chart. A single from the album, "Light Flight", the theme from BBC1's first colour drama series Take Three Girls, reached no. 43 on the UK Singles Chart. Another single from the album, "Once I Had a Sweetheart", reached no. 46 in the charts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cultural depictions of Queen Victoria</span>

Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India has been portrayed or referenced many times.

Vanessa Howard, later known as Vanessa Chartoff, was a British film actress and professional backup singer.

This is a list of British television related events from 1971.

This is a list of British television related events from 1970.

This is a list of British television related events from 1969.

<i>The Forsyte Saga</i> (1967 TV series) 1967 UK television series

The Forsyte Saga is a 1967 BBC television adaptation of John Galsworthy's series of The Forsyte Saga novels, and its sequel trilogy A Modern Comedy. The series follows the fortunes of the upper middle class Forsyte family, and stars Eric Porter as Soames, Kenneth More as Young Jolyon and Nyree Dawn Porter as Irene.

<i>Paul Temple</i> (TV series) British-German television series

Paul Temple is a British-German television series which originally aired on BBC1 between 1969 and 1971. 52 episodes were made over four seasons, each episode having a running time of around 50 minutes.

Maureen Chadwick is a British screenwriter, dramatist and television producer responsible, alone and with her writing partner Ann McManus, for a number of popular award-winning and sometimes controversial British television series including Bad Girls (1999–2006), Footballers' Wives (2002–2006) and Waterloo Road. With McManus she wrote the book for the stage musical Bad Girls: The Musical (2006–2007). She was a co-founder and creative director of the independent television production company Shed Productions (1998–2010). She is now a freelance writer.

References

  1. The Pentangle, Basket of Light LP sleeve notes, Transatlantic Records 1969
  2. IMDb - Take Three Girls (TV Series 1969–1971)
  3. Take Three Girls, lostshows.com