Edith (BBC-1 2017, Alison Steadman, John Cleese)

For Edith (Alison Steadman), life is pretty good. She’s been a widow for some years now, but her children live locally and drop by regularly, and she enjoys daily visits from Phil (John Cleese), an old boyfriend who now lives across the road.

Phil dreams of marrying Edith, and the pair of them upping sticks and moving abroad to the sunshine. But after months of turning him down, on the happy day Edith finally says “yes”, there’s a knock on the door – and there on the step, with a large suitcase, is her 50 year old son Roger (Jason Watkins). He announces that he’s left his wife, his kids and his good job at the bank, and come home in an attempt to find his lost happiness again. And in a blink, to Edith’s dismay and Phil’s fury, all dreams are on hold.

The cast also includes Jessica Hynes as Roger’s abandoned wife Wendy, Anne Reid as the interfering housekeeper Mrs Gale, Rosie Cavaliero as Roger’s money-driven sister Sandra, James Cosmo as Edith’s troublesome ex-boyfriend Bob and Peter Egan as the confrontational local resident Mr Dugdale.

John Cleese said of the production “These are the most enjoyable scripts I’ve been sent in the last 100 years. It will also be particularly nice to work with Alison again since we joined forces in Clockwise all that time ago.”

cast
Alison Steadman as Edith
John Cleese as Phil
Jason Watkins as Roger
Jessica Hynes as Wendy
Anne Reid as Mrs Gale
Rosie Cavaliero as Sandra
James Cosmo as Bob
Peter Egan as Mr Dugdale

key behind the scenes crew
Charles McKeown as Writer
Chris Sussman as Executive Producer
Moira Williams as Executive Producer
Humphrey Barclay as Producer
Sandy Johnson

show type
sitcom

broadcast from
In production for broadcast 2017

network and production companies
BBC One – BBC Studios