Marti Caine’s sitcom Hilary was written by Peter Vincent (one half of Sorry!‘s writing team) and Peter Robinson. The pilot aired in December of 1984 on BBC Two.
Here’s how it was announced in The Mirror, along with whispers of a new soap opera that was to become Albion Market.
On the day that the pilot was broadcast, The Mirror had a short piece about it, in which someone seemed to think that a sitcom was a move into straight acting …
Hilary Kingsley was suitably surprised by the quality of the pilot.
But by the time the first series was in full swing, a month later, she is less effusive (and has the gall to make exactly the same joke again, while berating the writers for a lack of material).
Tony Pratt, Hilary’s colleague at the Mirror, was more impressed with the series when it was repeated in May of 1985.
At the risk of this turning into Hilary On Hilary, Kingsley revised her opinion once more come the second series in 1986.
And finally, here’s a nice full-page spread …
