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Sylvia's portrayal of Daphne, is fantastic...a snob to the core. She hates Vince and everything about him, yet who can blame her? After all he failed to turn up to his own wedding leaving her only daughter heartbroken and humiliated. However, it is entertaining in certain episodes to learn that she too has had her share of "Vincents" during her life time and was once herself a slave to the same kind of excitement and 'off the cuff' lifestyle. Newly restored by the BBC and available for the first time in its entirety - including the long unseen 1984 Christmas special. Only Fools and Horses is still given regular repeats on the BBC and on satellite channels and although the first episode was screened 23 years ago, two years before Just Good Friends came into being, there is still enough of them around today to continue wetting our appetites and therefore it still holds our interest.
They were surrounded by an excellent supporting cast, especially Sylvia Kay and John Ringham as Penny's upper class parents, who sometimes steal the entire episode. Writer John Sullivan had previously written two successful sitcoms for the BBC, Citizen Smith and Only Fools and Horses. The lead roles in these series had all been male, and Sullivan felt he should base his new sitcom on a woman. His source of inspiration was a letter in a magazine read to him by his wife, written by a woman who had been jilted by her fiancé on the day of her wedding. [2]
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It contains a great deal of Beatles music and the BBC have been unable or unwilling to pay for clearances beyond the original airing. One of these is Just Good Friends. What I find amazing is that this gem of a sitcom was penned by John Sullivan who also wrote 'Fools and Horses' yet this effort only seems to have scraped into the top fifty in the number forty-three position.
This special is really becoming a rarity. Did yoiu notice that the Fern britton special yesterday about Christmas TV just referred to the 1986 final episode as the Christmas when Just Good Friends was on. Even Paul Nicholas and JAn Francis didnt mention it at all. I noticed there were clips from the special in the clips compilation telling the story of the show but this almost made out that the first episode told how they were due to be married and then he jilted her. But the series began five years after this event. I wasnt into JGF at the time but watched the repeats before the final series aired. I borrowed the special off a workmate in 1986. I wish I had been able to copy it then. Maybe it will surface again one day. The series follows the wavering relationship between two ex-lovers, Penny Warrender, a secretary for an advertising firm, and Vincent Pinner, an ex-ice cream salesman turned bookmaker who is the son of a wealthy scrap metal merchant. The couple (who first met in the summer of 1976 at a party hosted by an ex Roadie of the Rolling Stones) split up following Vincent's decision to jilt Penny on their wedding day in June 1978, leaving her at the altar. In the pilot episode, five years since their intended wedding day, the pair meet again by chance in a pub while out on individual dates. The pair decide to forget the past and become friends, although the rekindling of their relationship is not welcomed by Penny's snobbish parents, particularly her mother, Daphne, played by Sylvia Kay. According to a 2007 Comedy Connections documentary on Just Good Friends, Sullivan was originally motivated to create the character by Cheryl Hall, the co-star of Citizen Smith. Hall complained that Sullivan was incapable of writing comedy for women, always giving the best of his material to the male characters. Sullivan was stung by the remark because, in his words, "she was absolutely right", and deliberately set out to create a strong and funny female lead.
The same problem affects it on dvd which is why even though all 3 series should be out on dvd next year , the special wont be. It is so touching to see such love between two people, for no matter how selfish and ignorant Vince can be, or how snobby and disagreeable Penny can be, they always return to each other because their love overcomes everything else. The 1984 90-minute Christmas special is a prequel to the series showing how Penny and Vince first met, loved and how Penny was jilted and married Graham. The last episode of the second series was intended to be the final episode, with Penny leaving for a job in Paris. However, Just Good Friends, which I will hereafter refer to as "JGF" to save time and wrist-ache, has not been given this same preferential treatment. It is rarely seen on our screens nowadays and only now, despite it's age has it been available to buy on DVD or video, and then through a company other than the BBC. We are thereafter blessed with three series' and twenty-two episodes where their up/down, on/off and occasionally in/out relationship has us in hysterics and sometimes tears as they come to realize that whatever love threw them together in the first place is still strong and cannot be ignored.
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