The Olympian Way

Last updated

The Olympian Way was a BBC comedy drama series set in a health club that was written by Tara Prem and directed by Lovett Bickford. [1] The plot centres around the successful and ambitious millionaire Stan Wilson has invested heavily in a health club and his son Terry (played by Hugh Fraser (actor) [2] ) and wife Stella (played by Lois Daine), [3] who run the health club and try not to let Stan down. [4] The series also starred among others Alan Lake, Sharman Macdonald, Ian Brimble, Christopher Ryan, Paul Brooke, Mike Berry (singer), Miles Fothergill and Adrienne Posta and the theme tune was composed by Lynsey De Paul. Each episode was 45 minutes long and there were 6 episodes in total. [5] It was shown on BBC 1 in 1981, with episode 1 ("Happy Birthday") airing on the first of July that year [6] and the last episode ("Public Appearance") on 12 August. [7]

Related Research Articles

<i>Till Death Us Do Part</i> British television sitcom (1965–1975)

Till Death Us Do Part is a British television sitcom that aired on BBC1 from 1965 to 1975. The show was first broadcast as a Comedy Playhouse pilot, then in seven series until 1975. In 1981, ITV continued the sitcom for six episodes, calling it Till Death.... The BBC produced a sequel from 1985 until 1992, In Sickness and in Health.

Eric Sykes English writer and actor

Eric Sykes was an English radio, stage, television and film writer, comedian, actor, and director whose performing career spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and performed with many other leading comedy performers and writers of the period, including Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Tommy Cooper, Peter Sellers, John Antrobus, and Johnny Speight. Sykes first came to prominence through his many radio credits as a writer and actor in the 1950s, most notably through his collaboration on The Goon Show scripts. He became a TV star in his own right in the early 1960s when he appeared with Hattie Jacques in several popular BBC comedy television series.

Beyond Our Ken is a BBC radio comedy programme first broadcast between 1958 and 1964. It starred Kenneth Horne, with Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick, Betty Marsden Bill Pertwee, and, as announcer, Douglas Smith. The title is a play on the name Kenneth and the familiar expression "beyond our ken".

Hugh Laurie English actor, comedian, director, musician, writer, and producer

James Hugh Calum Laurie is an English actor, comedian, writer, and musician, best known for starring on the medical drama series House (2004–2012). He received two Golden Globe Awards and many other accolades for portraying Dr. Gregory House on the Fox television show. He was listed in the 2011 Guinness World Records as the most watched leading man on television and was one of the highest-paid actors in a television drama, earning £250,000 ($409,000) per episode of House. His other television credits include arms dealer Richard Onslow Roper in the miniseries The Night Manager (2016), for which he won his third Golden Globe Award, and Senator Tom James in the HBO sitcom Veep (2012–2019), for which he received his 10th Emmy Award nomination.

Timothy West English film, stage, and television actor

Timothy Lancaster West, CBE is an English actor and presenter. He has appeared frequently on both stage and television, including stints in both Coronation Street and EastEnders, and also in Not Going Out, as the original Geoffrey Adams. He is married to the actress Prunella Scales; since 2014 they have been seen travelling together on British and overseas canals in the Channel 4 series Great Canal Journeys.

<i>Hancocks Half Hour</i> Comedy radio series

Hancock's Half Hour was a BBC radio comedy, and later television comedy series, broadcast from 1954 to 1961 and written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. The series starred Tony Hancock, with Sidney James; the radio version also co-starred, at various times, Moira Lister, Andrée Melly, Hattie Jacques, Bill Kerr and Kenneth Williams. The final television series, renamed simply Hancock, starred Hancock alone.

Hugh Dennis British comedian

Peter Hugh Dennis is an English comedian, presenter, actor, writer, impressionist and voice-over artist who has appeared in the comedy double act Punt and Dennis with partner Steve Punt. He played Dr Piers Crispin in the sitcom My Hero from 2000 to 2006, Pete Brockman, the father in the sitcom Outnumbered, and since 2014 has played Toby in the long-running sitcom Not Going Out, all for BBC One. From 2020 he has indulged his long-standing love of geography and social history by presenting the light-hearted community archaeology television show The Great British Dig on Channel 4.

<i>The News Quiz</i> British topical radio panel show

The News Quiz is a British topical panel game broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

<i>Due South</i> Canadian crime drama series

Due South is a Canadian crime comedy-drama television series created by Paul Haggis, and produced by Alliance Communications from its premiere on April 26, 1994, to its conclusion after four seasons on March 14, 1999. The series starred Paul Gross, David Marciano, Gordon Pinsent, Beau Starr, Catherine Bruhier, Camilla Scott, Ramona Milano, and Callum Keith Rennie. The show follows the adventures of Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer Benton Fraser, who first came to Chicago on the trail of the killers of his father, and has remained, attached as liaison with the Canadian Consulate. He works alongside a detective of the Chicago Police Department to solve crimes. Both are aided at times by Fraser's deaf white wolf, Diefenbaker.

<i>Crossroads</i> (British TV series) British soap opera

Crossroads is a British television soap opera that ran on ITV over two periods – the original 1964 to 1988 run, followed by a short revival from 2001 to 2003. Set in a fictional motel in the Midlands, Crossroads became a byword for cheap production values, particularly in the 1970s and early 1980s. Despite this, the series regularly attracted huge audiences during this time, with ratings as high as 15 million viewers.

<i>Arena</i> (British TV series)

Arena is a British television documentary series, made and broadcast by the BBC since 1 October 1975. Voted by TV executives in Broadcast magazine as one of the top 50 most influential programmes of all time, it has produced over six hundred episodes directed by, among others, Frederick Baker, Jana Boková, Jonathan Demme, Nigel Finch, Mary Harron, Vikram Jayanti, Vivian Kubrick, Paul Lee, Adam Low, Bernard MacMahon, James Marsh, Leslie Megahey, Volker Schlondorff, Martin Scorsese, Julian Temple, Anthony Wall, Leslie Woodhead, and Alan Yentob.

<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 120 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.

Jesse Birdsall is an English actor, known for his roles as Marcus Tandy in the BBC1 soap opera Eldorado, Nick Beckett in the adventure series Bugs (1995–1999), football manager Roger Webb in Footballers' Wives between 2004 and 2006, and Fraser Black in Hollyoaks, as well as for villain Ron Gregory in a few episodes of The Bill.

Oliver James is a British psychologist, author, journalist, television producer and broadcaster.

Hugh Fraser is an English actor, theatre director and author. He is best known for his portrayal of Captain Hastings in the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot opposite David Suchet as Hercule Poirot and for his role as the Duke of Wellington in the Sharpe television series.

Moyra Fraser Australian-born English actress and ballet dancer

Moyra Fraser was an Australian-born English actress and ballet dancer, who is best known for playing Penny in the long-running sitcom As Time Goes By. Her sister was the actress Shelagh Fraser. She married author Douglas Sutherland, with whom she had a daughter, and Roger Lubbock, by whom she had two sons.

The Russ Abbot Show is a British television sketch comedy series which stars Russ Abbot and ran for 16 years on television before moving over to Radio 2 for a further five years.

Paul Rose is a British television presenter who mainly works for the BBC. He is an accomplished diver, mountaineer and explorer whose skills and interests led to his role as a documentary presenter. Rose made frequent expeditions to Antarctica, supporting scientists engaged in research, and for eight 6-month seasons was base commander of Rothera Research Station.

Toonatics is a children's television program that was first broadcast on Children's BBC between the summers of 1997 and 1998. The show was created, directed and presented by Paul Burnham. The show broadcast cartoons, which included Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes, and played games in between each cartoon.

City Central was a British television police procedural drama series, written and created by Tony Jordan, that first broadcast on BBC One on April 4, 1998.

References

  1. https://seriesepisode.com/the-olympian-way_28308
  2. "Hugh Fraser | The Artists Partnership". www.theartistspartnership.co.uk. Archived from the original on 16 May 2021.
  3. "The Olympian Way - Season 1 - Video Detective". July 1981.
  4. The Guardian, 27 June 1981
  5. Radio Times, issue 3007, 25 June 1981
  6. "BBC Programme Index".
  7. "BBC Programme Index".