6.4 /10 1 Votes
5.2/10 TV No. of series 3 Running time 30 minutes Original network BBC1 Final episode date 28 August 1983 Number of episodes 20 | 7.4/10 IMDb Country of origin United Kingdom No. of episodes 20 Production company(s) BBC First episode date 1 March 1979 Network BBC One Genre Comedy | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Cast Arthur Lowe, John Barron, Noel Dyson, Robin Bailey, Brenda Cowling Similar The Bass Player and the Blonde, Rosie, The Wanderer, The Magnificent Evans, Oh No - It's Selwyn Froggitt! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Potter was a 1979 BBC sitcom written by Roy Clarke. Running for three series, it originally starred Arthur Lowe as Redvers Potter, a busybody former sweet manufacturer ("Pottermints - the hotter mints") with time on his hands following retirement. Set in suburban South London, the series followed Potter in his various attempts to keep himself occupied by interfering in other people's business.
The series co-starred Noel Dyson as his wife Aileen, John Barron as the Vicar, Lally Bowers as Redvus' sister Harriet, Ken Wynne as Harriet's eccentric and camp husband Willie and John Warner as "Tolly" Tolliver, his next-door neighbour. Characters in later series included Harry H. Corbett as the comic ex-gangster Harry Tooms and Brenda Cowling as Jane.
The first series comprised 6 episodes, and aired in March–April, 1979. The second series comprised 7 episodes, and aired the following year, from February–April, 1980.
Most episodes end with Potter and the Vicar sitting on a sofa discussing the events that unfolded throughout the episode.
Plans for a third series were already underway when Lowe died (in April 1982), so Lowe was replaced by Robin Bailey in the 7-episode third series, which aired the following year between July–August 1983, after which the series was discontinued.
Mark Lewisohn notes that although many of the characters (long-suffering wife, vicar, neighbour) were sitcom clichés "they seemed less so in the skilled hands of writer Roy Clarke, who had already proved a master of naturally humorous dialogue".