In the oddly titled A Merry Chinese Christmas advertising executive Mike Harris (Norman Bowler) is planning to spend Christmas with his wife in Majorca but finds events conspiring against him in the shape of Emma Appleby (Phyllis Calvert) who arrives at Mike’s home to pick up a report she is due to type for him.
Phyllis Calvert had been one of the most popular British actresses of the 1940’s but by this stage in her career was mostly taking the odd TV role, she would go on to score a big TV hit a few years later with Kate (around the same time as her Gainsborough co-star Margaret Lockwood did with the series Justice.)
Norman Bowler had already begun playing Harry Hawkins in Softly Softly in 1966 and would stay with the series until it ended in 1976 (by that stage it had been renamed Softly Softly: Task Force). He is still probably best known though for his role as Frank Tate in Emmerdale.
There was a small role for Deborah Grant, this was in fact her TV debut, she became a popular TV name almost a decade later thanks to the controversial A Bouquet of Barbed Wire but is best remembered for playing Jim’s ex-wife in the long running Bergerac.
production details
UK / ITV – ATV / 1×50 minute episode / Broadcast Thursday 27 July 1967 at 9.00pm
Series: Love Story Season 5 Episode 4
Writer: Lewis Greifer / Production Design: Colin Andrews / Director: Graham Evans
cast
Norman Bowler as Mike Harris
Phyllis Calvert as Emma Appleby
Ernst Walder as Guido
Maggie Flint as Mary
Deborah Grant as Receptionist
Susan Lefton as Girl