Duty Free

Duty Free was a Yorkshire Television produced comedy which ran between 1984 and 1986. I want to find the right word to describe it. Not hilarious. Not brilliant. Not ground breaking. I shall settle for splendid. Yes it was a splendid programme. Funny in a farcical, theatrical way. And very well characterised, as all successful comedies are.

It ran for a total of 22 episodes over three series, plus one Christmas special. It was written by Eric Chappell , of Rising Damp fame, and Jean Warr and came out of a stage play entitled We're Strangers Here. It is set in Spain, at the San Remo Hotel in Marbella to be exact. This might account in some part for the very definite warm feeling you get after watching a thirty minute episode. Many scenes are set in the evenings, with the characters enjoying a relaxing drink as the sun goes down on another day. The producers are able to create a real holiday feel. Which really is amazing because all filming for all 22 episodes actually took place in Leeds ! The comedy is classical farce; wardrobes, wrong bedrooms, mis-understandings, lies, disguises, and come uppances.

There are four main characters in Duty Free, two married couples to be precise. Firstly David and Amy Pearce (Keith Barron and Gwen Taylor). David has been made redundant from his job as a draughtsman and decides to spend some of his pay-off on a holiday. Amy is his loyal wife. They have been married a long time. She loves him but knows him far too well to trust him. They are from Yorkshire, come from a working class background and have never been abroad before. When they get to the San Remo they meet couple number two, Robert and Linda Cochran ( Neil Stacey and Joanna Van Gyseghem). Robert is a successful businessman, determined but colourless. Linda is attractive and longing for just a little excitement in her life. They are from the Home Counties, well off financially. And when two marriages of contrast come into such close proximity, the inevitable happens. David falls in love with Linda.

But Duty Free is no love story. Because as the love kicks in so does the farce. David and Linda contrive all kinds of situations to get time alone together. The absurdness of the show is that for a number of episodes Amy and Robert don't seem to notice what is going on, despite the fact that the hanky-panky is taking place right under their noses. There is a small potted tree in the hotel reception for instance which was often used as a camouflage in order for the lovebirds to steal a quiet moment together. Viewers needed to ignore the fact that Amy or Robert were often just a few feet away and the tree had little foliage for anyone to successfully hide behind. As the days go by (the first series consisted of seven episodes - one for each day of the first week of the holiday) David virtually abandons Amy, as he and Linda decide they will leave together and start a new life. He is by this stage shown to be a shallow and selfish individual. Amy meantime is the betrayed woman, undeserving of what is about to befall her. Linda is swept away, and is going to take her chance to find happiness. Robert is oblivious to everything. And then it all goes wrong for David. The truth comes out. They are caught. Amy seeks revenge by disgracing David. She gets Linda believing he is a conman and only after her money. She puts hotel property in the case he has packed and he is subsequently questioned by Spanish police for theft. David then dresses as a woman so he can escape which certainly does not impress Linda. Robert simply hits him. And when all the dust settles Linda has decided she is probably better off with the solid Robert anyway.

Like many sitcoms it took a little while for Duty Free to make a mark with TV audiences. The second series followed week two of the holiday. But in order to make much sense of it you needed to understand what had happened in the first seven episodes so they were repeated. It was at this stage that the programme sparked into popularity. The stories became more rounded and involved different guests in the hotel. The under-current of David and Linda's affair remained throughout but the humour also included lots of revenge from Amy. David also shows signs of wanting to live his life as the Cochrans live theirs, including a switching of his political affiliations from Labour to Conservative, which appalls Amy. David gets his much deserved come uppance in most episodes.

Series three is set 18 months later. David and Linda have secretly agreed to return to the San Remo without their partners. David convinces Amy he has to get away for a break and is going with an old work colleague. Robert is in Rome for the week on business. At last they are alone together. Until Amy turns up. She has found out that Davids work colleague had been dead for three years!! Roberts trip to Rome is aborted because his company have been taken over and he decides to surprise his wife in Spain. And so we are treated to one final series. A well remembered episode involved the appearance of Judith Chalmers, making an edition of her holiday programme 'Wish You Were Here'. At one stage she has decided to interview the Pearce's to get their views on the San Remo Hotel. David puts on a very plummy voice in front of the camera and has told Amy she must do likewise. She doesn't of course and we are treated to a superb piece of acting from Gwen Taylor, who says her lines in a wonderfully broad Yorkshire accent. It was yet another example of her getting one over her husband. ( I do adore so much of Gwen Taylor's comedy work and will blog more on this another time).

One Christmas special was made and for this the programme makers did actually venture to Spain. Except that is for Gwen Taylor who was committed to another project in London so recorded her parts there. At the height of the shows popularity, Yorkshire Television had many requests from the public for information on the San Remo. As I have already said it was merely a TV production set in Leeds ! There was one other character who appeared in the series throughout. Carlos the Spanish waiter (played by Carlos Douglas) did not say too much but his facial expressions told us that he always knew exactly what David Pearce was up to.

Unfortunately, Duty Free is not remembered by everyone. In the 2004 poll for Best British Sitcom it finished in 71st place. In my opinion it was much better than that. It had something about it that made it highly watchable and enjoyable. It could have been the presence of the four main actors, who I can only describe in the same way as I described the show itself - splendid. The plots were largely ludicrous. It was a bit like watching pantomime sometimes. Maybe the trick was simply its setting ; if watchers could not afford a week in Spain they could at least grab half an hour there once a week. On 12 March 1984 it attracted the most viewers of any TV programme for that week, with 16.7 million, and in 1987 it was nominated for a BAFTA. For me it remains to this day, one of the most agreeable sitcoms ever made.