Parsley Sidings radio show (1971-1973, United Kingdom)

Episode time

30 minutes

Language

English

Parsley Sidings is a small train station somewhere in the rural Great Britain. Only handful of trains ever arrive there, but this don’t stop the station manager, Horace Hepplewhite, from keeping the highest standards of service. Well, it’s his ambition to keep them, but the reality is far from his expectations - he has his incompetent and accident-prone son to help him, the handyman Percy Valentine constantly tries to make some money in not necessarily honest way, to make things worse the station is just a tiny speck in the huge machine of railway network.

Comedy radio show set in secluded train station, where pompous manager Horace Hepplewhite does his best to keep the place tidy and run it by the book. With rather impressive cast - Arthur Lowe (Dad’s Army, Bless Me Father), Ian Lavender (Dad’s Army), Liz Fraser (Carry On movies) and Kenneth Connor (Carry On movies, ’Allo ’Allo) it seemed like guaranteed success, but at the same time the cast became the biggest problem of the show - the characters they were playing were almost identical to those the actors were famous for, f.e. Horace Hepplewhite was a copy of Captain Mainwaring from Dad’s Army, his son is copy of Private Pike from the same series, and even Kenneth Connor’s talent to change his voice and create different characters were not enough to keep the show running smoothly.

It is nice, old-fashioned, slow paced radio show, with very good actors, good atmosphere, but the one thing that was missing were original and interesting scripts.

Listen to Parsley Sidings

Parsley Sidings quotes

police officer:
[stopped drunk Valentine on the bicycle] I have to warn you that everything you say will be taken down!
Percy Valentine:
Ok then, your trousers!