Joan and Leslie (Australian TV series)
Joan and Leslie is an Australian situation comedy series which first screened on the Seven Network in 1969 to 1970. It is an adaption of the UK television series "Joan and Leslie", which had not screened in Australia.
Synopsis[]
Joan and Leslie centres around middle-aged Joan and Leslie Randall, two British immigrants who have just arrived in Australia. Leslie is a journalist but has secured a job with a newspaper writing an advice column for lonely hearts under the pseudonym of Dorothy Goodheart. Joan is his actress wife who has been unable to find any acting work for the past four years. They are renting a unit in a block of flats in Melbourne, where they befriend Gina and Merv. Gina Cotter is the superintendent of the block of flats, the Italian wife of an Aussie caretaker. Merv Kelly is a happy-go-lucky cousin of the Cotters, always partial to an opportunity to make some quick and easy money. Gina's husband Alf was supposed to be a regular character, but he only appeared in the first episode.
Production[]
The 13 half-hour episodes were completed in 1969 in black and white and it was planned to produce a second series. It screened in Melbourne on HSV-7 but critics panned it and viewers didn't warm to it.[1] HSV-7 struggled to sell it interstate, so it did not proceed to a second series. The sales eventually followed at reduced prices and Sydney's ATN-7 finally screened it during the 1971-1972 summer non-ratings period.
Cast[]
- Joan Reynolds as Joan Randall
- Leslie Randall as Leslie Randall
- Stan Penrose as Merv Kelly
- Leila Blake as Gina Cotter
See also[]
Notes[]
External links[]
- Joan and Leslie at IMDb
- Joan and Leslie Classic Australian TV
- Australian television sitcoms
- Seven Network original programming
- Television shows set in New South Wales
- 1969 Australian television series debuts
- 1970 Australian television series endings
- Black-and-white Australian television shows