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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 74701" data-attributes="member: 23">Last night I polished off the remains of Happy Ever After. Aunt Lucy only appeared in half of the Series Five episodes. I wonder why? Much as I've grown to like her, the show worked fine without her so I can understand why there was no similar character when they made Terry & June. That said, I really did love Terry's disdain for the unwelcome house guest and his snide comments towards and about her.Some familiar faces in Series Five included a couple of Carry On-ers: namely Dilys Laye and Valerie Leon. Two Malcolms from Terry & June appeared. There was also a return HEA appearance for Patsy Smart who would go on to a recurring T&J role in the later episodes.Another elaborate dream sequence arrived at the beginning of the final series. This time Terry, on a health farm, dreamt about the place in the style of The Great Escape, complete with the arrival of Aunt Lucy as a high ranking member of the SS, taunting Terry with her flagon of sherry. A wonderful moment for Beryl Cooke who seems to be channelling Marlene Dietrich. There was another am dram episode. Their production of The King & I with Terry's leg in a cast gave Scott and Whitfield the chance to show off their physical comedy prowess in a carefully choreographed routine that saw June lose her skirt and Terry caught up in her underskirt hoop thingy. The song and dance starts 25 minutes in:[MEDIA=youtube]e0pOyooerho[/MEDIA]The last episode of the series proper brought yet another mid-life crisis for Terry who changed the way he dressed and lusted after Sabina Franklyn (another face that would return in the spin-off show for a very similar scenario). The episode ended with a little white lie from June to Terry, which kept things from getting too safe and cosy.I'm curious why The Go Between was shown as a one-off episode in April 1979 - six months after the final series ended and six months before Terry & June began. It's a decent enough episode, but it doesn't feel like a special. Was it filmed as part of the Fifth Series? Or perhaps an episode of a Sixth Series? Was it meant to have been a Christmas special?It's my understanding that the writers felt they'd exhausted ideas for the series which is why it ended. The BBC, of course, had other ideas and brought the Fletchers back as the Medfords for the follow-up series, Terry & June (making just enough tweaks to the show to prevent the Happy Ever After writers from having a legal claim).For anyone wondering, neither the last episode of Series Five nor The Go Between acknowledge the end of the series in any kind of way. But that's fine. There's not a great deal of continuity to work with here, and it's only proper that the Fletchers should continue with business as usual.</blockquote>

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