Butterflies (TV Series 1978–1983) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error Ria, a happily married suburban housewife, reaches the age where she feels as if life is passing her by. Being taken for granted by her butterfly collecting dentist husband doesn't help. So... See full summary » Stars: The thought of cooking for Christmas frightens Ria though she is cheered to meet Leonard again, though they have a row. Back home this preys on her mind and she burns the pizza and freaks out at the ... 8.1 The boys have the opportunity to buy a window cleaning business but Ria is still depressed and goes to church for guidance. When she comes out she finds Leonard has put his diary in her car. She ... 7.9 Six months have elapsed and Ria meets Leonard in the park. They hug, he says he loves her and wants to carry on with her. Meanwhile Ben is having lunch with a widowed friend Amanda. She seems to ...

7.5 a list of 30 titles created 04 Oct 2012 a list of 31 titles created 02 Jun 2013 a list of 864 titles created 07 Dec 2014 a list of 35 titles created 10 months ago a list of 218 titles created 10 months ago Search for " Butterflies " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Audrey fforbes-Hamilton is sad when her husband dies but is shocked when she realises that she has to leave Grantleigh Manor where her family has lived forever. The new owner is Richard De ... See full summary » Stars: Penelope Keith, Peter Bowles, Angela Thorne Martin is a committee man. He has numerous schemes and committees organised around the neighbourhood. He is so obsessive about every detail of everything he does he is driving his long ...

See full summary » Stars: Richard Briers, Penelope Wilton, Peter Egan The series followed the wavering relationship between two ex-lovers, Penny Warrender, a secretary for an advertising firm, and Vincent Pinner, an ex ice cream salesman turned turf ... See full summary » Stars: Paul Nicholas, Jan Francis, Sylvia Kay Wolfie Smith is an unemployed dreamer from Tooting London, a self proclaimed Urban Guerilla who aspires to be like his hero Che Guevara. Leading a small group called the Tooting Popular ... See full summary » Stars: Robert Lindsay, Mike Grady, Hilda Braid The perils of "escaping the rat race" and dropping out of society - to start a farm in Surbiton (and to drive Margo nuts). Stars: Richard Briers, Felicity Kendal, Penelope Keith A rather naive, middle-class man is admitted to a hospital ward and finds that he is sharing it with a working-class layabout and an upper-class hypochondriac. All three of them cause headaches for the hospital staff. Stars: James Bolam, Peter Bowles, Christopher Strauli Comic goings on in this series set in an English holiday camp called Maplins.

The title comes from the camp's greeting, which the staff are meant to say with enthusiasm but all too often ... See full summary » Stars: Paul Shane, Ruth Madoc, Jeffrey Holland The comic adventures of a group of misfits who form an extremely bad concert party touring the hot and steamy jungles of Burma entertaining the troops during World War II. Stars: Windsor Davies, Melvyn Hayes, Donald Hewlett The Liverpool-based Boswell family are experts at exploiting the system to get by in life. Despite the fact that none of the Boswells are officially employed, they manage to live a fairly ... See full summary » Stars: Jean Boht, Nick Conway, Jonathon Morris Jacko is a house painter who "appreciates" women, he sees the best in each one of them and they in turn, like him. Will he find true love ? Will he settle down as he gets older ? Stars: Karl Howman, Mike Walling, Jackie Lye Bless This House centres on life in Birch Avenue, Putney, where travelling stationery salesman Sid Abbott (Sidney James) and his wife Jean (Diana Coupland) live with their teenagers: Mike (...

See full summary » Stars: Sidney James, Diana Coupland, Sally Geeson Now a qualified chef, Robin from "Man About the House" (1973) sets up home with his girlfriend, and a business with his girlfriend's father. Stars: Richard O'Sullivan, Tessa Wyatt, Tony Britton Edit Storyline Ria, a happily married suburban housewife, reaches the age where she feels as if life is passing her by. Being taken for granted by her butterfly collecting dentist husband doesn't help. So, when the opportunity for an affair comes up she tries to decide whether she loves her husband enough to be faithful to him. Written by Dave Smith <dave@stat.colostate.edu> 10 November 1978 (UK) See more » Also Known As: Did You Know? Trivia At the beginning of the first series, Ben is said to be 48 years old; Geoffrey Palmer was actually 51 at that time. Ria's age is not specifically mentioned, but she worries about having looked like 50 - ten years before she should; Wendy Craig was 44.

Leonard has a birthday in the first series and turns 45; Bruce Montague was 39. See more » Quotes (Vancouver, Canada) – See all my reviews Even 20-odd years after the fact (and with it's late-70s sexual revolutionism looking humorously dated these days), Carla Lane's 'Butterflies' remains one of the freshest and funniest sitcoms Britain ever produced. The story itself is relentlessly simple -- a stifled housewife's yearning for more in her life is complicated by a distantly ironic husband, two sex-crazed still-at-home sons, and the romantic attention of a wealthy playboy whose desire revs up the more undesirable she feels. But it's not the plot that makes 'Butterflies' great so much as it is the opportunity that that plot gives Lane to explore Ria Parkinson's world as it slowly collapses around her, and it's impossible not to see a little bit of oneself in the sometimes-hilarious, sometimes-sobering struggles of Lane's memorable characters as they attempt to survive the small anguishes of day-to-day life. Smart writing and great performances all around.

A few years back, 'Butterflies' would show up in late-night rotation on PBS in the states and Canada; if it does again, catch it. 18 of 20 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes From the Archive: A British Television Blog: November 2014 Is Love Like a BBC Butterfly? I talk a lot about my remembrances of when I was young and started to watch British television. It was a naïvely happy time of getting into something that would have a strong impact on my life. It was all new to me. I think most people who discovered a love and soon passion for this genre may have started out the same way but maybe took some different direction. Being in the US, my love for British television started with Doctor Who. This is no revelation from me and I would guess that quite a few of the US viewers who got into British television via PBS would possibly have started the same way. I was only 9 years old or so when I got into yet but to think of a time without British television or Doctor Who in my life fills me with anxiety. Through these programs, I have experienced so much in my life that started with these programs.

It’s a period of time when watching a favourite program transcended into meeting people and making lifelong friendships. It’s hard to believe that I started on this journey in 1984 and really got active in 1988. It’s just four years but at the time and even now it seems like there was a ten year gap between the time I started to watch these programs and when I got involved and started to meet people with like passions. Love IS like a butterfly. Who would have thought that a comedy series from 1978 would have been so instrumental in my love for all thinks British. What makes it so interesting is as a 9 or 10 year, there is much of this series that would have gone over my head. There are themes and scenarios that I wouldn’t have picked up on which are actually the basis for the series. These are not one-off plot points but actual over-riding arcs that go beyond the whole series. Yet, when I watched it, I loved it. It doesn’t answer the question of why? Butterflies is a wonderful BBC series that ran from 1978 to 1983 taking some time off in-between to complete four stellar series.

It’s written by Carla Lane. She created, amongst other things, the ground breaking series The Liver Birds. Butterflies stars Wendy Craig, Geoffrey Palmer, Andrew Hall, Nicholas Lyndhurst and Bruce Montague. The theme song was sung by Clare Torry which is a cover of the song “Love is Like a Butterfly” from Dolly Parton. Those are the basic facts yet these are the building blocks of what would put me on a road that has lead me to where I am today. It’s really tough to peg Butterflies because I think it is more than a comedy but it’s not drama. Butterflies is about life crisis. From initial viewing, I think we could say that the life crisis just concerns Ria who is the mother of the family but I think you could put a life crisis for each character. Ria is middle aged and is suffering from a mid-life crisis. She is smart and creative. I think it must have been odd for viewing audiences to see a mother that is not so traditional, yet Ria tries. She tries to cook and fails. She lets her imagination run away with her which is actually an endearing quality. It’s sad because she tries and no one really listens or take her seriously.

She is taken for granted. Her husband Ben might be labelled as the “long-suffering husband” but when viewing this years after seeing it as a child, it is sometimes harsh to see how he treats her. He is not a mean person. He is more traditional in his ways but is frightened by the modernization his children bring into his life. He is generally a stick in the mud because he doesn’t know how to really say what is on his mind. He is a dentist and clearly has provided his family a comfortable middleclass lifestyle. This is enough that makes him believe that he should be treated with more respect. Ria can’t cook and it appears everyone woman in Ben’s life never could cook so maybe he has never had a good meal in his life. I think it is interesting that in the first episode of the series, Ben is a much harsher character in every way. He is written and played as a stereotypical husband who sits at the table demanding his food. He is rude and barks orders. When I was re-watching the episode for this article, I was in shock as that was not how I remembered him. Luckily, by Episode Two, he was much milder.

He still was bad-tempered, uptight and grouchy but done more light-heartedly and humourous. More so, he was endearing. One could see why Ria fell in love with him. Oh, did I mention that his hobby is collecting butterflies? Hmmmm….. The kids are Adam & Russell. They are not far a part in age and get along very well. They are a little older probably reaching around 18 to 20 and are good kids. They don’t have jobs which is a big problem for Ben. He sees what his children are doing is directly tying into the crumbling of the moral fiber of Britain. I think Ria is actually exhilarated by this because she can see that they both have the creativity and imagination that she has. She doesn’t want to grow up and I think she is envious of them to that so is Ben. That being said, the series really starts because of one man named Leonard enters into Ria’s life. Leonard is in his mid-40s and has been recently divorced. As much as he seems like a nice guy, what he really wants to do is tempt Ria away from her family because he is infatuated with her.

Ria meets Leonard in the first episode at a café. This is something I am not familiar with as we don’t do this in Minnesota but in this place, strangers will sit together at the same table at a restaurant. It’s odd to me but makes sense. This sort of thing also happens in LA and New York. There is a similar type scene in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin. They strike up a conversation and it is clear they have a connection of sorts except that Ria is married. She gives the impression she is happily married but she does keep talking with Leonard. Ria isn’t really the one to seek out Leonard, Leonard’s infatuation brings him to try a lot of things to get her to come around. It’s all done in a gentlemanly sort of way but he is pretty persistent. When he gets frustrated or storms off, Ria will often go after him. Leonard is a self-made man who does alright for himself. I am sure to Ria, he seems exciting and worldly. Ria accepts Ben for who is he but can’t help but to acknowledge how exciting it is to be pursued by someone else. It is clear she likes the attention.

Each episode of Series 1 has a plot to it but the main driving force of the episodes is the way that Leonard tries to stay in Ria’s life. It is interesting because after their first encounter at the café where Ria unknowingly flicked cigarette ash in Leonard’s trifle and spilled his coffee all over the place, she actually told Ben about it. After that, she doesn’t talk about Leonard to Ben again. As mentioned above, another theme throughout the first series is how Russell and Ben have their differences. In the first episode, they haven’t spoken for a year. They only start talking again in Episode Two but then stop in Episode Three to start up again later. Adam and Russell mean no harm but they don’t always think which leads to them innocently breaking Ben’s butterfly net and other foolish things which is a problem. There is a great bit of dialogue in Episode Two where Ria takes Ben’s butterfly catcher hat and puts it in the sofa pillow and has a conversation with it basically insinuating that it is basically like speaking with the real Ben. In this dialogue, she lets it go. She talks about how she wants to run through Harrods and shout Woolworths!

By the time she gets to the end of the dialogue, she goes through what she wants to do for the week and ends it by saying on Friday she will kill herself. You never get the impression she means it but even so it is such a powerful statement because this bubbly woman who is doing the best she can with a family who intermittently communicates with each other is, in fact, very unhappy. Right before the cleaning lady comes into the living room, she exclaims, “I want to be raped!” It is such an interesting thing to hear being said from a mother and the star of the show. It’s not too surprising. The series is very smartly written. It is very funny and may have some serious moments to it, generally it is smartly written observational humor. I also loved all of the references to Butterflies as comparisons to the character’s lives. Here are some I picked up from Series 1: Ria Parkinson: “Love is a funny old thing isn't it. We're all kids chasing butterflies” [Ria makes actions to match what she says] Ria Parkinson: “You see it... You want it...

You grab it.” [Ria looks at clutching hand, opening it slowly] Ria Parkinson: “And there it is... all squashed in your hand” In Episode Two they talk about “a bottle full of Butterflies.” In a later episode, “Man dreaming like a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming as a man?” Part of why I love this series and the productions from this era and this look is that I am a real big fan of interiors being shot on video and exteriors being shot on film. I love it! There is a great shot in Episode Two while Leonard and Ria are walking down a bust street in a market. No one else in that shot are actors and it shows. The film cameraman is in front of Ria and Leonard shooting them but the people behind Ria and Leonard are not sure if they should keep walking in the same direction, duck out of shot or just gawk. It’s magical! Some things are not quite so magical such as the disgusting food Ria makes in every episode. Ria can’t cook. Sometimes it looks so bad that when she is asked what it is, she can’t remember because it is no longer recognizable to her.

Did Jack Kine’s group for BBC special effects make the food? Sometimes they actually have to eat it! Blah! So, to get back to my original question above as to why this series had such a strong impact on me. When I was 9 or 10 and first started to watch Doctor Who, I started to become interested in all thing British which would last to this day. When I started to really get into Doctor Who, I wanted to watch more series from the BBC and started to watch anything that my local PBS station KTCA would show. Obviously, one of the first I would watch would be All Creatures Great and Small but Butterflies just so happened to be on at the time and I started to watch it. I remember it would be on first at 10pm and then followed by another comedy series Brass. I never got into Brass and to this day have never seen it again. I remember while my Dad was away on a work trip, I watched the final episode of Butterflies in my parent’s bedroom and fell asleep. I will try not to overwhelm you with any more interesting stories like this. I ended up loving everything about Butterflies when I first saw it at a young age.

I loved the look of the house they lived in, how the phone would ring and even how the phone looked. I loved how Britain looked in the episodes and I loved Russell’s car which was painted as a Union Jack. I fell in love with the UK through this series. My love for the UK had never dwindled. Once in the late 1990s, I was very close to moving over there. I was working with a company that placed people at jobs over there. I was very close. I was packing my stuff, that’s how close I was. I was placed to work over there. Then I met someone and changed my mind. I, obviously, ended up staying here. Do I regret it? No. Is there a possibility that I may move out there someday? Maybe! As I mentioned how I fell in love with every aspect of the series, I really loved the opening titles to Butterflies. The premise of the opening credits is a display case of the butterflies caught with the name of the series and the stars in it. I make that sound macabre. They are not pinned in there like specimens. They are very casual. The theme music is my favourite.

It was written and originally recorded by Dolly Parton in 1974. The version for the BBC series was recorded by Claire Torry and it is easily my favourite rendition of it. It is more airy and whimsical. It is beautiful. Up to literally 1 day ago, I did not realize Claire recorded a full version of the song. I had only heard the version used in the opening and closing credits. Below is the version. It is wonderful. It was also very emotional for me to listen to this because it just opened up all sorts of wonderful memories of my youth. I never knew there was a full version so it was almost like finding a lost treasure! Butterflies, as most other popular series, have been released many times on different home media formats. My favourite is probably the recent purchase I made from eBay which is the first four episodes of the series from BFS video……on beta! How cool! Like I don’t have enough crap in my house already. At one time I made my own DVD covers for each series of Butterflies. See below, I prefer mine more but of course I would say that. Finally, I work at an advertising agency where we sometimes have a fair amount of fun.

Sometimes, if someone leaves their computer unlocked and walk away from it, someone else will get on it and type an e-mail to the whole agency (about 250+ people) looking like it came from the person who own that computer. Such e-mails could be sent from a guy’s computer saying something in the subject line like, “Do I look fat today?” As you can imagine, hilarity ensues. One day, my friend/co-worker Mike left his computer open and I couldn’t resist.

Sending to the whole agency from Mike, I put in the subject line, “Did you know…” The body of the e-mail simply read: “Love is like a butterfly As soft and gentle as a sigh The multicolored moods of love are like its satin wings Love makes your heart feel strange inside It flutters like soft wings in flight Love is like a butterfly, a rare and gentle thing I feel it when you're with me It happens when you kiss me That rare and gentle feeling that I feel inside Your touch is soft and gentle Your kiss is warm and tender Whenever I am with you I think of butterflies Love is like a butterfly The multicolored moods of love are like its satin wings Love makes your heart feel strange inside It flutters like soft wings in flight Love is like a butterfly, a rare and gentle thing Your laughter brings me sunshine Everyday is spring time And I am only happy when you are by my side How precious is this love we share How very precious, sweet and rare Together we belong like daffodils and butterflies Love is like a butterfly As soft and gentle as a sigh The multicolored moods of love are like its satin wings Love makes your heart feel strange inside It flutters like soft wings in flight Love is like

 a butterfly, a rare and gentle thing Love is like a butterfly, a rare and gentle thing” As I can hear co-workers chuckle as they each open the e-mail, none of them knowing it came from me we get an e-mail from our CEO who simply says, “Thanks for letting us know Mike.” I don’t think Mike ever knew it was from me.

Next week: How odd it was when I realised that I randomly picked something to watch on November 22 that had to do with the JFK assassination yet was made in the UK. Next week, I look at the 1966 Play of the Month installment Lee Oswald: Assassin. This is directed by Rudolph Cartier and was the first dramatization of anything regarding the events of the Kennedy assassination ever made. How did they do? Have a great week! Do you have feedback, article requests or want to talk about a program but do not want to leave a public comment? Feel free to drop me an e-mail at FTA13867@gmail.com I am on Twitter: @FromtheArchive Please follow and retweet these article if you like them. Butterflies (TV Series 1978–1983) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error Ria, a happily married suburban housewife, reaches the age where she feels as if life is passing her by.

Being taken for granted by her butterfly collecting dentist husband doesn't help. So... See full summary » Stars: The thought of cooking for Christmas frightens Ria though she is cheered to meet Leonard again, though they have a row. Back home this preys on her mind and she burns the pizza and freaks out at the ... 8.1 The boys have the opportunity to buy a window cleaning business but Ria is still depressed and goes to church for guidance. When she comes out she finds Leonard has put his diary in her car. She ... 7.9 Six months have elapsed and Ria meets Leonard in the park. They hug, he says he loves her and wants to carry on with her. Meanwhile Ben is having lunch with a widowed friend Amanda. She seems to ... 7.5 a list of 59 titles created 20 Sep 2012 a list of 31 titles created 02 Jun 2013 a list of 2127 titles created 15 May 2014 a list of 35 titles created 11 months ago a list of 20 titles created 2 weeks ago Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Martin is a committee man. He has numerous schemes and committees organised around the neighbourhood. He is so obsessive about every detail of everything he does he is driving his long ... See full summary » Stars: Richard Briers, Penelope Wilton, Peter Egan Audrey fforbes-Hamilton is sad when her husband dies but is shocked when she realises that she has to leave Grantleigh Manor where her family has lived forever. The new owner is Richard De ... See full summary » Stars: Penelope Keith, Peter Bowles, Angela Thorne The series followed the wavering relationship between two ex-lovers, Penny Warrender, a secretary for an advertising firm, and Vincent Pinner, an ex ice cream salesman turned turf ... See full summary » Stars: Paul Nicholas, Jan Francis, Sylvia Kay Wolfie Smith is an unemployed dreamer from Tooting London, a self proclaimed Urban Guerilla who aspires to be like his hero Che Guevara. Leading a small group called the Tooting Popular ...

See full summary » Stars: Robert Lindsay, Mike Grady, Hilda Braid The perils of "escaping the rat race" and dropping out of society - to start a farm in Surbiton (and to drive Margo nuts). Stars: Richard Briers, Felicity Kendal, Penelope Keith Comic goings on in this series set in an English holiday camp called Maplins. The title comes from the camp's greeting, which the staff are meant to say with enthusiasm but all too often ... See full summary » Stars: Paul Shane, Ruth Madoc, Jeffrey Holland A rather naive, middle-class man is admitted to a hospital ward and finds that he is sharing it with a working-class layabout and an upper-class hypochondriac. All three of them cause headaches for the hospital staff. Stars: James Bolam, Peter Bowles, Christopher Strauli The comic adventures of a group of misfits who form an extremely bad concert party touring the hot and steamy jungles of Burma entertaining the troops during World War II. Stars: Windsor Davies, Melvyn Hayes, Donald Hewlett The Liverpool-based Boswell family are experts at exploiting the system to get by in life.

Despite the fact that none of the Boswells are officially employed, they manage to live a fairly ... See full summary » Stars: Jean Boht, Nick Conway, Jonathon Morris Jacko is a house painter who "appreciates" women, he sees the best in each one of them and they in turn, like him. Will he find true love ? Will he settle down as he gets older ? Stars: Karl Howman, Mike Walling, Jackie Lye Bless This House centres on life in Birch Avenue, Putney, where travelling stationery salesman Sid Abbott (Sidney James) and his wife Jean (Diana Coupland) live with their teenagers: Mike (... See full summary » Stars: Sidney James, Diana Coupland, Sally Geeson BBC Television comedy detailing the fortunes of Reginald Iolanthe Perrin. Disillusioned after a long career at Sunshine Desserts, Perrin goes through a mid-life crisis and fakes his own ... See full summary » Stars: Leonard Rossiter, Pauline Yates, John Barron Edit Storyline Ria, a happily married suburban housewife, reaches the age where she feels as if life is passing her by. Being taken for granted by her butterfly collecting dentist husband doesn't help.

So, when the opportunity for an affair comes up she tries to decide whether she loves her husband enough to be faithful to him. Written by Dave Smith <dave@stat.colostate.edu> 10 November 1978 (UK) See more » Also Known As: Did You Know? Trivia At the beginning of the first series, Ben is said to be 48 years old; Geoffrey Palmer was actually 51 at that time. Ria's age is not specifically mentioned, but she worries about having looked like 50 - ten years before she should; Wendy Craig was 44. Leonard has a birthday in the first series and turns 45; Bruce Montague was 39. See more » Quotes (Vancouver, Canada) – See all my reviews Even 20-odd years after the fact (and with it's late-70s sexual revolutionism looking humorously dated these days), Carla Lane's 'Butterflies' remains one of the freshest and funniest sitcoms Britain ever produced.

The story itself is relentlessly simple -- a stifled housewife's yearning for more in her life is complicated by a distantly ironic husband, two sex-crazed still-at-home sons, and the romantic attention of a wealthy playboy whose desire revs up the more undesirable she feels. But it's not the plot that makes 'Butterflies' great so much as it is the opportunity that that plot gives Lane to explore Ria Parkinson's world as it slowly collapses around her, and it's impossible not to see a little bit of oneself in the sometimes-hilarious, sometimes-sobering struggles of Lane's memorable characters as they attempt to survive the small anguishes of day-to-day life. Smart writing and great performances all around. A few years back, 'Butterflies' would show up in late-night rotation on PBS in the states and Canada; if it does again, catch it. 19 of 21 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes From the Archive: A British Television Blog: Is Love Like a BBC Butterfly? Every week I randomly pick a British television show from my collection to watch and then write about it. Pretty simple!

Feel free to take part in the discussions by leaving a comment or e-mailing me at FTA13867@gmail.com Sunday, November 23, 2014 Is Love Like a BBC Butterfly? I talk a lot about my remembrances of when I was young and started to watch British television. It was a naïvely happy time of getting into something that would have a strong impact on my life. It was all new to me. I think most people who discovered a love and soon passion for this genre may have started out the same way but maybe took some different direction. Being in the US, my love for British television started with Doctor Who. This is no revelation from me and I would guess that quite a few of the US viewers who got into British television via PBS would possibly have started the same way. I was only 9 years old or so when I got into yet but to think of a time without British television or Doctor Who in my life fills me with anxiety. Through these programs, I have experienced so much in my life that started with these programs. It’s a period of time when watching a favourite program transcended into meeting people and making lifelong friendships.

It’s hard to believe that I started on this journey in 1984 and really got active in 1988. It’s just four years but at the time and even now it seems like there was a ten year gap between the time I started to watch these programs and when I got involved and started to meet people with like passions. Love IS like a butterfly. Who would have thought that a comedy series from 1978 would have been so instrumental in my love for all thinks British. What makes it so interesting is as a 9 or 10 year, there is much of this series that would have gone over my head. There are themes and scenarios that I wouldn’t have picked up on which are actually the basis for the series. These are not one-off plot points but actual over-riding arcs that go beyond the whole series. Yet, when I watched it, I loved it. It doesn’t answer the question of why? Butterflies is a wonderful BBC series that ran from 1978 to 1983 taking some time off in-between to complete four stellar series. It’s written by Carla Lane. She created, amongst other things, the ground breaking series The Liver Birds.

Butterflies stars Wendy Craig, Geoffrey Palmer, Andrew Hall, Nicholas Lyndhurst and Bruce Montague. The theme song was sung by Clare Torry which is a cover of the song “Love is Like a Butterfly” from Dolly Parton. Those are the basic facts yet these are the building blocks of what would put me on a road that has lead me to where I am today. It’s really tough to peg Butterflies because I think it is more than a comedy but it’s not drama. Butterflies is about life crisis. From initial viewing, I think we could say that the life crisis just concerns Ria who is the mother of the family but I think you could put a life crisis for each character. Ria is middle aged and is suffering from a mid-life crisis. She is smart and creative. I think it must have been odd for viewing audiences to see a mother that is not so traditional, yet Ria tries. She tries to cook and fails. She lets her imagination run away with her which is actually an endearing quality. It’s sad because she tries and no one really listens or take her seriously. She is taken for granted.

Her husband Ben might be labelled as the “long-suffering husband” but when viewing this years after seeing it as a child, it is sometimes harsh to see how he treats her. He is not a mean person. He is more traditional in his ways but is frightened by the modernization his children bring into his life. He is generally a stick in the mud because he doesn’t know how to really say what is on his mind. He is a dentist and clearly has provided his family a comfortable middleclass lifestyle. This is enough that makes him believe that he should be treated with more respect. Ria can’t cook and it appears everyone woman in Ben’s life never could cook so maybe he has never had a good meal in his life. I think it is interesting that in the first episode of the series, Ben is a much harsher character in every way. He is written and played as a stereotypical husband who sits at the table demanding his food. He is rude and barks orders. When I was re-watching the episode for this article, I was in shock as that was not how I remembered him. Luckily, by Episode Two, he was much milder.

He still was bad-tempered, uptight and grouchy but done more light-heartedly and humourous. More so, he was endearing. One could see why Ria fell in love with him. Oh, did I mention that his hobby is collecting butterflies? Hmmmm….. The kids are Adam & Russell. They are not far a part in age and get along very well. They are a little older probably reaching around 18 to 20 and are good kids. They don’t have jobs which is a big problem for Ben. He sees what his children are doing is directly tying into the crumbling of the moral fiber of Britain. I think Ria is actually exhilarated by this because she can see that they both have the creativity and imagination that she has. She doesn’t want to grow up and I think she is envious of them to that so is Ben. That being said, the series really starts because of one man named Leonard enters into Ria’s life. Leonard is in his mid-40s and has been recently divorced. As much as he seems like a nice guy, what he really wants to do is tempt Ria away from her family because he is infatuated with her.

Ria meets Leonard in the first episode at a café. This is something I am not familiar with as we don’t do this in Minnesota but in this place, strangers will sit together at the same table at a restaurant. It’s odd to me but makes sense. This sort of thing also happens in LA and New York. There is a similar type scene in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin. They strike up a conversation and it is clear they have a connection of sorts except that Ria is married. She gives the impression she is happily married but she does keep talking with Leonard. Ria isn’t really the one to seek out Leonard, Leonard’s infatuation brings him to try a lot of things to get her to come around. It’s all done in a gentlemanly sort of way but he is pretty persistent. When he gets frustrated or storms off, Ria will often go after him. Leonard is a self-made man who does alright for himself. I am sure to Ria, he seems exciting and worldly. Ria accepts Ben for who is he but can’t help but to acknowledge how exciting it is to be pursued by someone else. It is clear she likes the attention.

Each episode of Series 1 has a plot to it but the main driving force of the episodes is the way that Leonard tries to stay in Ria’s life. It is interesting because after their first encounter at the café where Ria unknowingly flicked cigarette ash in Leonard’s trifle and spilled his coffee all over the place, she actually told Ben about it. After that, she doesn’t talk about Leonard to Ben again. As mentioned above, another theme throughout the first series is how Russell and Ben have their differences. In the first episode, they haven’t spoken for a year. They only start talking again in Episode Two but then stop in Episode Three to start up again later. Adam and Russell mean no harm but they don’t always think which leads to them innocently breaking Ben’s butterfly net and other foolish things which is a problem. There is a great bit of dialogue in Episode Two where Ria takes Ben’s butterfly catcher hat and puts it in the sofa pillow and has a conversation with it basically insinuating that it is basically like speaking with the real Ben. In this dialogue, she lets it go. She talks about how she wants to run through Harrods and shout Woolworths!

By the time she gets to the end of the dialogue, she goes through what she wants to do for the week and ends it by saying on Friday she will kill herself. You never get the impression she means it but even so it is such a powerful statement because this bubbly woman who is doing the best she can with a family who intermittently communicates with each other is, in fact, very unhappy. Right before the cleaning lady comes into the living room, she exclaims, “I want to be raped!” It is such an interesting thing to hear being said from a mother and the star of the show. It’s not too surprising. The series is very smartly written. It is very funny and may have some serious moments to it, generally it is smartly written observational humor. I also loved all of the references to Butterflies as comparisons to the character’s lives. Here are some I picked up from Series 1: Ria Parkinson: “Love is a funny old thing isn't it. We're all kids chasing butterflies” [Ria makes actions to match what she says] Ria Parkinson: “You see it... You want it...

You grab it.” [Ria looks at clutching hand, opening it slowly] Ria Parkinson: “And there it is... all squashed in your hand” In Episode Two they talk about “a bottle full of Butterflies.” In a later episode, “Man dreaming like a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming as a man?” Part of why I love this series and the productions from this era and this look is that I am a real big fan of interiors being shot on video and exteriors being shot on film. I love it! There is a great shot in Episode Two while Leonard and Ria are walking down a bust street in a market. No one else in that shot are actors and it shows. The film cameraman is in front of Ria and Leonard shooting them but the people behind Ria and Leonard are not sure if they should keep walking in the same direction, duck out of shot or just gawk. It’s magical! Some things are not quite so magical such as the disgusting food Ria makes in every episode. Ria can’t cook. Sometimes it looks so bad that when she is asked what it is, she can’t remember because it is no longer recognizable to her.

Did Jack Kine’s group for BBC special effects make the food? Sometimes they actually have to eat it! Blah! So, to get back to my original question above as to why this series had such a strong impact on me. When I was 9 or 10 and first started to watch Doctor Who, I started to become interested in all thing British which would last to this day. When I started to really get into Doctor Who, I wanted to watch more series from the BBC and started to watch anything that my local PBS station KTCA would show. Obviously, one of the first I would watch would be All Creatures Great and Small but Butterflies just so happened to be on at the time and I started to watch it. I remember it would be on first at 10pm and then followed by another comedy series Brass. I never got into Brass and to this day have never seen it again. I remember while my Dad was away on a work trip, I watched the final episode of Butterflies in my parent’s bedroom and fell asleep. I will try not to overwhelm you with any more interesting stories like this. I ended up loving everything about Butterflies when I first saw it at a young age.

I loved the look of the house they lived in, how the phone would ring and even how the phone looked. I loved how Britain looked in the episodes and I loved Russell’s car which was painted as a Union Jack. I fell in love with the UK through this series. My love for the UK had never dwindled. Once in the late 1990s, I was very close to moving over there. I was working with a company that placed people at jobs over there. I was very close. I was packing my stuff, that’s how close I was. I was placed to work over there. Then I met someone and changed my mind. I, obviously, ended up staying here. Do I regret it? No. Is there a possibility that I may move out there someday? Maybe! As I mentioned how I fell in love with every aspect of the series, I really loved the opening titles to Butterflies. The premise of the opening credits is a display case of the butterflies caught with the name of the series and the stars in it. I make that sound macabre. They are not pinned in there like specimens. They are very casual. The theme music is my favourite.

It was written and originally recorded by Dolly Parton in 1974. The version for the BBC series was recorded by Claire Torry and it is easily my favourite rendition of it. It is more airy and whimsical. It is beautiful. Up to literally 1 day ago, I did not realize Claire recorded a full version of the song. I had only heard the version used in the opening and closing credits. Below is the version. It is wonderful. It was also very emotional for me to listen to this because it just opened up all sorts of wonderful memories of my youth. I never knew there was a full version so it was almost like finding a lost treasure! Butterflies, as most other popular series, have been released many times on different home media formats. My favourite is probably the recent purchase I made from eBay which is the first four episodes of the series from BFS video……on beta! How cool! Like I don’t have enough crap in my house already. At one time I made my own DVD covers for each series of Butterflies. See below, I prefer mine more but of course I would say that. Finally, I work at an advertising agency where we sometimes have a fair amount of fun.

Sometimes, if someone leaves their computer unlocked and walk away from it, someone else will get on it and type an e-mail to the whole agency (about 250+ people) looking like it came from the person who own that computer. Such e-mails could be sent from a guy’s computer saying something in the subject line like, “Do I look fat today?” As you can imagine, hilarity ensues. One day, my friend/co-worker Mike left his computer open and I couldn’t resist.

Sending to the whole agency from Mike, I put in the subject line, “Did you know…” The body of the e-mail simply read: “Love is like a butterfly As soft and gentle as a sigh The multicolored moods of love are like its satin wings Love makes your heart feel strange inside It flutters like soft wings in flight Love is like a butterfly, a rare and gentle thing I feel it when you're with me It happens when you kiss me That rare and gentle feeling that I feel inside Your touch is soft and gentle Your kiss is warm and tender Whenever I am with you I think of butterflies Love is like a butterfly The multicolored moods of love are like its satin wings Love makes your heart feel strange inside It flutters like soft wings in flight Love is like a butterfly, a rare and gentle thing Your laughter brings me sunshine Everyday is spring time

Question: Leonard, Ria, Adam, Russell and Ben are all characters in which British television series?
Answer: Butterflies