PARSLEY SIDINGS

'''Parsley Sidings''' was a BBC Radio sitcom created by Jim Eldridge and with actors Arthur Lowe and Ian Lavender and who were starring in the television war sitcom ''Dad's Army'' at the time of broadcast, as well as Kenneth Connor of ''Carry On'' fame.
The scripts were Jim Eldridge's (who would later go on to write for many more series, the most successful being the BBC's ''King Street Junior'') first, and are set in a sleepy out of the way railway station on the line between London and Birmingham, in the Midlands. The main characters are Mr Horace Hepplewhite (Arthur Lowe), the station master, his son Bertrand Hepplewhite (Ian Lavender), Percy Valentine (Kenneth Connor) the porter, Mr Bradshaw the signalman and the secretary Gloria Simpkins (Liz Fraser, also from ''Carry On'' and the Dad's Army feature film). Guest actors included Bill Pertwee and Roger Delgado.
The series was produced by Edward Taylor and broadcast on BBC Radio 2. Due the BBC's former practice of wiping tapes after the broadcast of a show, or not recording it to tape at all, only a minority of the twenty one episodes produced are still in their archives [1] - ''Goodbye, Parsley Sidings'' and ''The Entente Cordial'' are aired on BBC 7 occasionally and have always remained in the BBC archive, while ''A Night Out'', ''A Bird in the Hand'', ''The New Level Crossing'' and ''The Secret Agent'' were recovered between 2001 and 2003 as off-air recordings from members of the public. These episodes have also been aired in early 2007 on the same channel. Other episodes are known to exist in private hands.

Contents

Episodes

External links

Episodes

'Series 1'
'Title'	'Recorded'	'First broadcast'
''Pilot''	Unknown	1971-02-28
''The Market Special''	Unknown	1971-12-05
''The Postal Express''	Unknown	1971-12-12
''The Beauty Queen Contest''	Unknown	1971-12-19
''The Inspector Calls''	Unknown	1971-12-31
''The 1890 Rocket''	Unknown	1971-01-02
''The Excursion''	Unknown	1971-01-09
''Cricket, Lovely Cricket''	Unknown	1971-01-16
''Who'll Be Mother?''	Unknown	1971-01-23
''The Concert''	Unknown	1971-01-30
''Goodbye, Parsley Sidings''	Unknown	1971-02-06
'Series 2'
'Title'	'Recorded'	'First broadcast'
''Pass The Parcel''	Unknown	1973-09-29
''The Flower Show''	Unknown	1973-10-06
''The Entente Cordial''	Unknown	1973-10-13
''A Night Out''	Unknown	1973-10-20
''The Goods Train''	Unknown	1973-10-27
''A Bird In The Hand''	Unknown	1973-11-03
''The Purity League''	Unknown	1973-11-10
''The New Level Crossing''	Unknown	1973-11-17
''The Film Makers''	Unknown	1973-11-24
''The Secret Agent''	Unknown	1973-12-01

External links

★ Parsley Sidings - more information and some episode synopses