When We Are Married By J B. Priestley

SANWAL

(4.4 stars; 18 reviews)

When We Are Married J.B. Priestley's classic comedy about three couples who receive a rude shock in the midst of their joint silver wedding celebrations. Albert Parker: Alun Armstrong Annie Parker: Gwen Taylor Herbert Soppitt: Alan Bennett Clara Soppitt: Brenda Blethyn Joe Helliwell: Michael Jayston Maria Helliwell: Nicola Pagett Mrs Northrop: Elizabeth Spriggs With: Polly James, Cathryn Bradshaw, Peter Woodthorpe, Timothy Watson, Deborah Berlin,   Paul Panting and James Taylor Music: Stuart Hutchinson Director: Matthew Walters Saturday-Night Theatre: Sat 18th Nov 1995 19:50 on BBC Radio 4 FM In the heart of Northern England, three respectable couples, married on the same day, at the same church, and by the same vicar, join to celebrate 25 years of blissful matrimony. Or so they think. Priestley's premise is simple enough: three Yorkshire couples discover, as they are about to celebrate their silver wedding anniversary, that they were never legally married.   Social embarrassment is followed by a dawning awareness that their lives have been overturned. For the hen-pecked Herbert Soppitt it provides the chance to assert himself against his domineering spouse. But, for two of the women, it offers the prospect of liberation from stuffy and errant husbands. Having opened this particular Ibsenite can of worms, however, Priestley quickly bangs the lid back on again. In particular you wonder how Annie Parker, having acknowledged that her life partner is stingy, dreary and "idiotically conceited" can ever tamely return to the marital cage.   [The Guardian 2010]

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.