Conversations from a Long Marriage: based on the beloved BBC Radio 4 comedy starring Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam

Product Information

Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam return in the fourth series of Jan Etherington’s award-winning comedy about a long-married couple in love with life and each other. Conversations from a Long Marriage is written by Jan Etherington and produced by Claire Jones. The production coordinator is Katie Baum, the studio engineer is Wilfredo Acosta and sound design is by Jon Calver. It is a BBC Studios Production.

Written for Joanna Lumley by award-winning comedy writer and journalist Jan Etherington, who herself has been married for 35 years. Jan has created and written many long-running radio and television series with her husband Gavin Petrie (Second Thoughts, Next of Kin, Faith in the Future) and has written sketches for Radio 4’s Ayres on the Air, but this is her first solo-scripted, half-hour comedy. She says: “Conversations from a Long Marriage will resonate with couples of any age but especially those who are still dancing in the kitchen, singing in the car and trying to keep the passion alive.”Sitcom is what most marriages are really like – repetitive and ridiculous – and Jan’s words are some of the best ever written on the subject’ RICHARD CURTIS BBC Studios has commissioned the TV pilot, for which a script has now been written. But as the leads are busy bees, we might have to wait a while until their schedules align… An endearing portrait of exasperation, laced with hard won tolerance – and something like love.’ THE GUARDIAN This gives me hope that life and marriage might permanently include taking the absolute piss while simultaneously dancing in the kitchen’. EMMA FREUD Conversations from a Long Marriage won the Voice of the Listener & Viewer Award for Best Radio Comedy in 2020. Also, nominated for a Writers Guild Award 2023.

Etherington has previously explained that she was motivated to create the comedy as she was "tired of my generation being portrayed as golfing caravanners with no reference to how they were in their youth.

All series

Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam return in the fourth series of Jan Etherington’s award-winning comedy, as a long-married couple in love with life and each other. This week, Roger’s formidable Auntie Hilda, ‘cut from the same starched underwear as Bertie Wooster’s Aunt Agatha’ announces she’s coming to live with them. Feisty but frail, she bonds instantly with Amy the dog, and is a hit with all their friends. But Amy’s squeaky pheasant alerts them to an emergency, and after a dash to hospital, a nightmare situation unfolds and spins out of control. Her couples are always equal partnerships. “I hate the idea of dozy husbands who can’t work the dishwasher. All the couples I write about are equally strong - they support each other. If there are jokes about cooking it’s about her incompetence rather than his. But that’s not where the laughs come for me – I'm interested in the emotional strength of the couples, or the people I’m writing about. Vulnerability comes in different ways.” Perfect for a trivia night or a long trip, #TrainTeasers will both test your knowledge of this country`s rail system and enlighten you on the most colourful aspects of its long history. Meet trunk murderers, trainspotters, haters of railways, railway writers, Ministers for Transport good and bad, railway cats, dogs and a railway penguin. This is NOT a book for number-crunching nerds. Many of the answers are guessable by the intelligent reader. It is a quiz, yes, but also a cavalcade of historical incident and colour relating to a system that was the making of modern Britain. Jan Etherington has also been busy compiling edited versions of eight scripts from the first two series of the comedy to form a new book. Set to be published on 3rd November by Souvenir Press, it's described as a publication that will "resonate with couples of any age - but especially those who are still dancing in the kitchen, singing in the car and trying to keep the passion alive", and "a perfect Christmas present for couples everywhere".