In between seasons 3 and 4 of 'Who Dares Wins' I did a musical in the West End 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood' and then filmed a new comedy series at Yorkshire Telelvision for Channel 4 called 'The Refuge'. Written by Carole Hayman and Sue Townsend of 'The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole' fame.

I’d met Sue some years earlier in Leicester when she came to see another musical that I was appearing in at the Haymarket Theatre ‘The Hired Man’. She was a big fan and even mentioned the show in an Adrian Mole diary extract – Adrian had been to see it and now wanted to be an actor in musical theatre!

It was such a fun show to do but maybe a bit ahead of it’s time. It attempted to cover some serious social issues and was very patchy but I had a ball playing the appallingly behaved lawyer ‘Julia’ and Lou and Carole and of course the wonderful Caroline Blakiston were such lovely cast mates. Sadly it only played for one series but all credit to Yorkshire TV and Vernon Lawrence the producer for giving it a chance. It’s heart was in the right place but it probably fell between two stools. Not quite as cartoonish and outrageously larger than life as The Young Ones or even Girls on Top (although that was led by a very believable rooted character in Dawn French) – it was neither one thing nor the other. We probably should have erred more towards The Young Ones. Filmed in Leeds I remember the lovely company meals and how supportive Yorkshire TV was of a pretty off the wall sitcom.

Here the refuge is in serious financial peril and the only way to save it is of course a benefit concert, but the band are caught in a 70 mile tailback. All looks lost until an alternative route is found and the true talent arrives. Featuring the amazing Marsha Hunt, Sharon D Clarke, Bee Jaye and Juliette Roberts

#comedy #sitcom #therefuge #80s #80scomedy