Now Take My Wife

Now Take My Wife was a BBC situation comedy which ran for only one series of 14 episodes in 1971.

It starred Sheila Hancock and Donald Houston as a suburban middle-class couple, Claire and Harry Love. He would start each episode by turning to the camera and saying "Now ... take my wife" (except for one episode where they were supposed to be very drunk when he said "Now wake my tife").

They had a teenage daughter, played by Liz Edmiston (in real life in her mid-20s). Their next-door neighbour was an eccentric German woman (played by Ruth Kettlewell), who also had a daughter (played by Kate Brown).

Of the 14 episodes, two are currently missing from the BBC archives; they were either wiped to reuse the tapes or possibly lost at one stage after their first broadcast.

Several years later, in a Guardian interview, Hancock indicated that she was not very happy with the programme, seeing it as an example of the sort of stereotyped role for women actors she landed. However, her character often got the better of her husband during each episode.