It's always tempting to revisit past romantic relationships as the potential thrills are already established in our minds. We know exactly what we're going to get, what's going to get nibbled and the best excuse for getting the hell out of there at 3am in the morning. However, our fiery lust is usually extinguished long before we reach the, as I like to call it, trouser slipping off stage.
And the reason for this is that we know EXACTLY what we're going to get: all the arguments, all the emotional heartbreak and all the threats of legal action over who gets to keep the Annie Hall DVD.
That's why, when you bump into an old flame, there's that little voice at the back of your brain which keeps repeating "Never go back! Never go back!" and, as it echoes around your skull, you decide that, yeah, probably best to invest your romantic riches in a commodity which isn't going to crash and burn yet again.
Not everyone adheres to this sound logic, though, as humans are a foolhardy bunch - just look at the continued existence of Ant and Dec on our screens - and this why we're occasionally prone to throwing caution to the wind. It's these flaws, coupled with the potential for conflict as two lovers reconvene, that sounds like the perfect scenario for a good old situation comedy.
And, as luck would have it, there's one in the form of Third Time Lucky.
Genre: Comedy
Channel: ITV (Yorkshire)
Transmission: 06/08/1982 - 17/09/1982
George (Derek Nimmo) and Beth (Nerys Hughes) were married for several years and, as happens during wedlock, this marriage was consummated and bedroom activities recommenced at least once more as they had two children in the form of Clare (Deborah Farrington) and Jenny (Lorraine Brunning).
After seven years of marriage, George and Beth parted ways and both remarried: George to Millie (Angela Douglas) and Beth to Bruce (Clifford Earl). However, both of these second marriages also ended in divorce, so it's fair to say that George and Beth aren't having much luck when it comes to domestic bliss. And you'd be forgiven if they gave up on the whole marriage lark.
But they're gluttons for punishment and they're going for third time lucky. And this time George and Beth are revisiting their first marriage and getting remarried.
Naturally, this is a fairly awkward proposition, not just in advising the whole world that they're embarking on this huge commitment once more, but also in ensuring that past tensions don't come bubbling to the surface and send this latest punt at happiness off the rails. It's a tough ask due to the myriad factors working against them, so will they make it?
Production Notes
Seven episodes of Third Time Lucky were written by Jan Butlin (Life Begins at Forty, Hell's Bells, No Strings) and was produced by Yorkshire Television. The series was directed by Graham Muir who brought a huge amount of experience to the table having worked on countless TV shows as a producer since the 1950s.
Episodes went out at 8.30pm on Friday evenings, but the series was never repeated on terrestrial television. The series was later repeated on cable channel Carlton Select, but hasn't been since and is currently only floating around as bootleg DVDs or online torrents.
Trying My Luck
I was only actually present on planet Earth for the very last episode of Third Time Lucky and I can't remember watching it - this is either down to that pesky infantile amnesia or, more likely, I was probably crying for milk and testing the boundaries of my parents' patience. Nonetheless, I'm constantly sniffing around - like a pig for truffles - for old British sitcoms, so I was intrigued when Third Time Lucky ended up in my lap.
The epitome of a plummy voiced twit, Derek Nimmo injects George with the requisite level of self-belief to place his berkish personality up on a wobbly pedestal. It's a fantastic performance and one which owes much to his vast experience in the world of comedy. Teasing out all the ticking idiosyncrasies of George, Nimmo manages to display all the necessary confidence and moral superiority to set himself up for tumble after tumble.
Looking as beautiful and gorgeous as she ever has, Nerys Hughes is another stalwart of British comedy and she plays her alternating roles as matriarchal figure and lover with ease. At times, she's somewhat sidelined as the focus tends to be on George, but she's been granted a strong personality and makes a fine opposition for George. Ultimately, she wants happiness in marriage and this desire manifests itself in the utter frustration at George's twittishness.
The Hutchenson daughters also provide a pleasingly lively set of performances and deserve special mention. Clare's desire for independence and the chance to charge headlong into the adult world causes plenty of angst for George, mostly her determination to start having sex with her boyfriend. It's a decent performance by Deborah Harrington as Clare and she plays it with all the misguided confidence of the very best teenagers. Jenny has less impactful plot strands, but Lorraine Brunning brings a real level of pluck and intellect to the role; she keeps George on his toes and confounds him at almost every turn, so it's a shame she never became a leading woman as she's got a natural talent for comedy.
Perhaps the two characters who seem a little bit crowbarred in are Millie and Bruce, the respective partners from George and Beth's second marriages. Whilst the performances from Angela Douglas and Bruce Jenkins both owe much to their incredible CVs (particularly that of Douglas), it feels as though they're only ever drafted in to rib and tease George. Ex-lovers can be difficult, dramatic beasts, so it feels like a missed opportunity to bring an intriguing and very serious level of conflict into the comedy. As it is, they pop up, crack some jokes and then disappear with a cheery spring in their step.
In fact, Third Time Lucky is a very cheery sitcom. There's little room for any gloom and instead we're treated to the chortlesome exploits of George as he stumbles through plots which are clearly indebted to 1970s farce. All the usual suspects are there: George is horrified by Clare's relationship with her boyfriend, he struggles to get to grips with new workplace concepts introduced by the firm's Japanese owners and, of course, he has to combat all the well established tensions with Beth to make sure they tie the knot again.
And it's this pursuit of making it "third time lucky" which brings a pleasing level of sweetness to the series. Everyone pursues happiness and we all make terrible decisions which we believe will achieve this, but Beth and George genuinely seem as though they should be together and this is thanks, mostly, due to the chemistry they pair conjure up on screen. They're a delightfully lower middle class family and, whilst their conflicts may seem a little middling, there's a simplicity to them and there's never any real nastiness on display - perhaps it's not a realistic depiction of strained relationships, but when has TV ever bowed down to the restrictions of reality?
Slight spoiler here, but Beth and George don't quite manage to make their third marriage (due to issues beyond their control), so I suppose there was room for a second series. However, it would have been treading the same old ground as Third Time Lucky is a sitcom very much indebted to its situation rather than the characters. George is certainly a fine creation, but there's not really anything about him that stands out aside from ticking the usual boxes for a leading comedy man - he's no Victor Meldrew, David Brent or Father Ted Crilly, all characters who demanded further explorations and became part of the nation's consciousness. And that's why one series was the perfect length for the Hutchenson family.
Lucky Find?
Third Time Lucky is far from perfect and certainly wouldn't come in my top 10 or 20 (or probably 30) British sitcoms, but there's absolutely nothing offensive about it. It's a family friendly sitcom and whilst this sub-genre of sitcom can be an infuriating entity (see Big Top, actually, thinking about it, don't bother) Third Time Lucky is an agreeable affair. There's nothing revolutionary swilling about in its seven episodes, but the fizzing performances and gentle plots make it a perfect sitcom to drink tea to (there's a whole new sub-genre in itself: tea drinking sitcoms) and chuckle along heartily to.