You Never Can Tell (BBC Play of the Month 1977, Cyril Cusack, Robert Powell)

Period comedy. Shaw’s comic tour-de-force is set beside the seaside where a holiday atmosphere prevails. Amidst the sunshine and sea air, against a background of a fancy dress party and luncheon, Shaw uses his lightest touch to explore the battle of the sexes, the absurdities of marriage and the generation gap.

The enlightened Mrs Lanfrey Clandon and her three clever and unconventional children have returned to England after eighteen years of living abroad. Whilst staying at a Hotel in Torbay the family bumps into the staunchly traditional father they had previously abandoned. Add into the equation an inpoverished dentist, an eminent QC and a seemingly all-knowing waiter.

production details
UK | BBC (Play of the Month) | 1×90 minute episode | Broadcast 30 October 1977

Play: George Bernard Shaw
Script Editor: Stuart Griffiths
Music: Richard Holmes
Costume Design: Joyce Mortlock
Production Design: Eileen Diss
Producer: David Jones
Director: James Cellan Jones

cast
Robert Powell as Valentine
Kate Nicholls as Dolly Clandon
Richard Everett as Philip Clandon
Gina Rowe as Parlour maid
Judy Parfitt as Mrs Clandon
Kika Markham as Gloria Clandon
Patrick Magee as Fergus Crampton
Ernest Clark as Finch MeComas
Cyril Cusack as Waiter
Neville Phillips as Jo
Warren Clarke as Bohun, QC