Agony is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 sitcom that aired on ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 from 1979 to 1981. Starring Maureen Lipman

Maureen Lipman

Maureen Diane Lipman CBE is a British film, theatre and television actress, columnist and comedienne.-Early life:Lipman was born in Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, the daughter of Maurice Julius Lipman and Zelma Pearlman. Her father was a tailor; he used to have a shop between the...

, it was written by Len Richmond, Anna Raeburn

Anna Raeburn

Anna Raeburn is a British broadcaster and journalist who is famous for her role as an 'agony aunt' giving advice on life relationship and more general life problems. She is principally known for her work on Capital Radio in London....

, Stan Hey and Andrew Nickolds. It was made for the ITV network by LWT

London Weekend Television

London Weekend Television was the name of the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties including south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Warwickshire, east Dorset and...

. In 2004, it came 92nd in Britain's Best Sitcom

Britain's Best Sitcom

Britain's Best Sitcom was a poll conducted in 2004 by the BBC, to identify the United Kingdom's best situation comedy. Viewers were asked to vote for their favourite by phone, text message and on the web. The top ten went forward to a final round of voting...

.

Agony was the first British sitcom to portray a gay couple as non-camp, witty, intelligent and happy people.

Cast

• Maureen Lipman
  Maureen Lipman
  Maureen Diane Lipman CBE is a British film, theatre and television actress, columnist and comedienne.-Early life:Lipman was born in Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, the daughter of Maurice Julius Lipman and Zelma Pearlman. Her father was a tailor; he used to have a shop between the...
  
   - Jane Lucas
• Simon Williams
  Simon Williams (actor)
  Simon Williams is an English actor known for playing James Bellamy in the period drama Upstairs, Downstairs. Frequently playing upper-class roles, he is also known for playing Dr...
  
   - Laurence Lucas
• Maria Charles
  Maria Charles
  Maria Charles is an English actress who carved a niche for herself on television playing clingy Jewish mothers. She appeared in the memorable Play for Today entry, "Bar Mitzvah Boy", and played Maureen Lipman's character's mother in the sitcom Agony...
  
   - Bea Fisher
• Peter Blake
  Peter Blake (actor)
  Peter Blake is a British actor. He was trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. First professional appearance at the Edinburgh Festival in Frank Dunlop's production of The Winter's Tale in 1966...
  
   - Andy Evol
• Jeremy Bulloch
  Jeremy Bulloch
  Jeremy Bulloch is an English actor. He is best known for the role inside the costume of the bounty hunter Boba Fett in the original Star Wars trilogy, though he did not voice the character...
  
   - Rob
• Peter Denyer
  Peter Denyer
  Peter John Denyer was an English actor who was perhaps best remembered for playing Dennis Dunstable in London Weekend Television's Please Sir!, and its spin off series The Fenn Street Gang, taking on the role of a teenager when already into his 20s.Another semi-regular role, again for LWT, was as...
  
   - Michael
• Diana Weston
  Diana Weston
  Diana Weston is an English actress who has been on British television since 1975. She is a grandchild of Charles Basil Price.-Career:...
  
   - Val Dunn
• Jan Holden
  Jan Holden
  Valerie Jeanne Wilkinson was an English actress who was known as Jan Holden.Jan Holden was a stage actress known for her performances in light comedy and also for her appearances in several popular television series during the 1950s and 1960s. She was an elegant woman notable for her arresting...
  
   - Diana
• Robert Austin - Junior Truscombe (series 2 and 3)
• Bill Nighy
  Bill Nighy
  William Francis "Bill" Nighy is an English actor and comedian. He worked in theatre and television before his first cinema role in 1981, and made his name in television with The Men's Room in 1991, in which he played the womanizer Prof...
  
   - Vincent Fish (series 2)

Plot

Jane Lucas is an agony aunt, who is highly successful in her career working at radio call-in show (for Happening Radio 242) in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and for magazine Person, but whose personal life is a shambles. Her Jewish mother, Bea, interferes in all aspects of her life and her psychiatrist Christian

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

 husband Laurence is unreliable, all the people she works with are tireless self-promoters including the libidinous journalist Vincent Fish. Other characters included the editor of Person magazine Diana, secretary Val Dunn, radio colleague Andy and her gay neighbours Rob and Michael.

Series One (1979)

1. "Help" (11 March 1979)
2. "An Unmarried Couple" (18 March 1979)
3. "Conjugal Wrongs" (25 March 1979)
4. "Wedlock, Deadlock" (8 April 1979)
5. "Forever and Never" (15 April 1979)
6. "Too Much Agony, Too Little Ecstasy" (29 April 1979)

Series Two (1980)

1. "Back to Reality" (13 April 1980)
2. "Working Girls" (20 April 1980)
3. "Coming Out... and Going In Again?" (27 April 1980)
4. "Television Can Damage Your Health" (4 May 1980)
5. "Problem Parents" (11 May 1980)
6. "Second Time Around" (18 May 1980)
7. "A Woman Alone" (25 May 1980)

Series Three (1981)

1. "From Here to Maternity" (18 January 1981)
2. "Arrivals and Departures" (25 January 1981)
3. "Hospital Romances" (1 February 1981)
4. "Communications Breakdown" (8 February 1981)
5. "Holy Wars" (15 February 1981)
6. "Lucas v Lucas" (22 February 1981)
7. "Rings Off Their Fingers" (1 March 1981)

Agony Again

Agony was revived in 1995, this time on the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 as Agony Again. In addition, Agony was remade for American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 television under the name The Lucie Arnaz Show, with Len Richmond as the writer. This ran for six episodes on CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 in 1985 and starred Lucie Arnaz

Lucie Arnaz

Lucie Désirée Arnaz is an American actress, singer, dancer and producer. She is the daughter of actors Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, and is the sister of actor Desi Arnaz, Jr..- Early life :...

.

DVD releases

All three series of Agony including A 3-Disc set of the complete series have been released on DVD in the UK (Region 2) by Network

Network DVD

Network DVD is a DVD publishing company that specialises in classic British television. In particular, it has the rights to a number of well-known ITV programmes...

.

DVD	Release date
The Complete Series 1	5 November 2007
The Complete Series 2	25 April 2008
The Complete Series 3	17 August 2009
The Complete Series 1 to 3 Box set	5 October 2009

External links

• Agony at TV Ark
• Agony at British TV Comedy