For the Love of Ada is an 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...

 sitcom that ran between 1970 - 1971.

Outline

This gentle sitcom starred Irene Handl

Irene Handl

-Life:Irene Handl was born in Maida Vale, London, the daughter of an Austrian banker father and French mother. She took to acting at the relatively advanced age of 36, and studied at the acting school run by the sister of Dame Sybil Thorndike...

 as Ada Cresswell a Cockney

Cockney

The term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End...

 pensioner widow who lives with her daughter Ruth Pollitt (Barbara Mitchell

Barbara Mitchell

Barbara Mitchell was an English actress who became a familiar face on British television in the 1960s and 1970s, best known for her work in many classic sitcoms of the period.- Career :...

) and son-in-law Leslie Pollitt (Jack Smethurst

Jack Smethurst

Jack Smethurst is an English TV and film comic actor whose career dates back to the 1950s.-Career:Smethurst made his film debut in 1958's Carry On Sergeant...

).

Ada starts a relationship with Walter Bingley (Wilfred Pickles

Wilfred Pickles

Wilfred Pickles OBE was an English actor and radio presenter.Born in Halifax in the West Riding of Yorkshire, Pickles was a proud Yorkshireman, and having been selected by the BBC as an announcer for its North Regional radio service, went on to be an occasional newsreader on the BBC Home Service...

), the gravedigger

Gravedigger

A gravedigger is a cemetery worker responsible for digging graves used in the process of burial.-Fossors:Fossor or Fossarius , from the Latin verb fodere 'to dig', referred to grave diggers in the Roman catacombs in the first three centuries of the Christian Era...

 who buried her husband, after meeting him at the cemetery while laying flowers on her husband's grave. Walter is a stout Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

man whose relationship with Ada slowly changes from one of companionship to one of romance. They get engaged and later marry after which they move in together at his cemetery lodge abode.

Ada is prone to using malapropism

Malapropism

A malapropism is an act of misusing or the habitual misuse of similar sounding words, especially with humorous results. An example is Yogi Berra's statement: "Texas has a lot of electrical votes," rather than "electoral votes".-Etymology:...

s which Irene Handl uses to good effect. In essence this show is about a burgeoning romance between elderly people and the bumps along the way.

Transmission dates

Series One

(6 x 30 mins) 20 Apr-25 May 1970 · Mon mostly 9.30pm

Series Two

(7 x 30 mins) 14 Sep-26 Oct 1970 · Mon 9.30pm

Short special
Part of the All-Star Comedy Carnival 25 Dec 1970 · Fri 6pm

Series Three

(7 x 30 mins) 15 Mar-3 May 1971 · Mon 8.30pm

Series Four

(6 x 30 mins) 26 Aug-30 Sep 1971 · Thu 9pm

Christmas special

(45 mins) 26 Dec 1971 · Sun 6.45pm

Film version

In 1972

1972 in film

The year 1972 in film involved some significant events.-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:*Avanti!, directed by Billy Wilder, starring Jack Lemmon and Juliet MillsB...

 a film version, based on the series, was released, directed by Ronnie Baxter. It featured the same actors along with an appearance by Arthur English

Arthur English

Arthur Leslie Norman English was an English actor and comedian from the music hall tradition.English was born in Aldershot, Hampshire. After serving in the army in World War II, reaching the rank of sergeant, English worked as a painter and decorator in his native town...

 as a colleague of Walters'. The plot revolved around a surprise party that was being planned for Ada and Walter's first wedding anniversary.

American version

For The Love Of Ada' spawned an American remake called A Touch of Grace that ran on ABC from January to June 1973. This version starred Shirley Booth

Shirley Booth

Shirley Booth was an American actress.Primarily a theatre actress, Booth's Broadway career began in 1925. Her most significant success was as Lola Delaney, in the drama Come Back, Little Sheba, for which she received a Tony Award in 1950...

 and J. Pat O'Malley

J. Pat O'Malley

James Patrick O'Malley was an English singer and character actor, who appeared in many American films and television programs during the 1940s–1970s, using the stage name J. Pat O'Malley...

 as Grace Simpson and Herbert Morrison, who like their English counterparts fall in love. The American version was destroyed in the ratings by All In The Family

All in the Family

All in the Family is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. In September 1979, a new show, Archie Bunker's Place, picked up where All in the Family had ended...

and could not survive.

DVD release

The first three series of For the Love of Ada have been released between 2009 and 2011. The fourth (and final) series is scheduled for release 16 January 2012 with a 4-disc set of the complete series to follow.

DVD	Release date
The Complete Series 1	12 October 2009
The Complete Series 2	4 July 2011
The Complete Series 3	17 October 2011
The Complete Series 4	16 January 2012
The Complete Series 1 to 4 Box Set	TBA 2012