Terry-Thomas
Memories Of A Cad

Memories Of A Cad

  • Radio comedy drama
  • BBC Radio 4
  • 2014
  • 1 episode

Affectionate comedy drama by Roy Smiles about the relationship between Terry-Thomas and Richard Briers. Stars Martin Jarvis, Alistair McGowan, Laura Shavin and Lewis Macleod.

Key details

Genre
Comedy Drama
Broadcast
2014
Channel
BBC Radio 4
Episodes
1
Stars
Martin Jarvis, Alistair McGowan, Laura Shavin and Lewis Macleod
Writer
Roy Smiles
Producer
Liz Anstee
Company

Affectionate comedy drama about the relationship between Terry-Thomas and Richard Briers.

While holidaying on the island of Majorca in 1984, the infinitely charming actor Richard Briers - then 50 and at the height of his TV sitcom fame - decides to visit the comic movie actor Terry-Thomas in his home on the other side of the island.

The 73 year old Terry-Thomas has been suffering from Parkinson's disease for the past ten years. His memory is fading, his body deteriorating and the work has dried up. He lives in quiet seclusion with his adoring wife Belinda.

He is delighted by the visit of 'young' Richard Briers, who he recognises from the telly. Briers cheers him up by telling him facts about his life Terry has long forgotten - from his cabaret years in the 1930s and his success in the Armed Forces as a Stars In Battledress entertainer, to his work in the movies of the Boulting Brothers peaking with I'm Alright Jack and his glory days in American movies such as Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines and It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, which brought him worldwide fame as a 'bounder.'

Terry-Thomas has forgotten he came from Finchley, that his father worked at Smithfields Market and that it was his fate to be a clerk at the same market until he decided to re-invent himself, aged 17, as the raffish cad the world came to love.

Additional details

Production
Studio

Broadcast details

First broadcast
Tuesday 30th December 2014 at 2:15pm on BBC Radio 4
Episode length
45 minutes
All previous repeats
  • Thursday 26th December 2019 at 9:15pm on Radio 4 Extra
  • Thursday 26th December 2019 at 11:15am on Radio 4 Extra
  • Thursday 22nd December 2016 at 2:15pm on Radio 4

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