French Fields 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...

 situation comedy

Situation comedy

A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...

. It ran for 19 episodes from 1989-1991. It was written by John T. Chapman and Ian Davidson

Ian Davidson (scriptwriter)

Ian Davidson is a British actor and scriptwriter who worked in British television comedies from the 1960s to the 1980s. He appeared in the same Oxford University revue as Terry Jones and Michael Palin of Monty Python, and is probably best known for his numerous appearances on Monty Python's Flying...

 and was produced by Thames Television

Thames Television

Thames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992....

 for 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...

.

The series starred Anton Rodgers

Anton Rodgers

Anton Rodgers was an English actor and occasional director. He performed on stage, in film and in television dramas and sitcoms.-Life and career:...

 and Julia McKenzie

Julia McKenzie

Julia McKenzie is an English actress, singer, and theatre director. She is best-known for her performance in Fresh Fields, but to current television audiences, she is best known for her role as Miss Marple in Agatha Christie's Marple...

 as husband and wife William and Hester Fields and followed the series Fresh Fields

Fresh Fields

Fresh Fields is a British situation comedy written by John T. Chapman and produced by Thames Television for ITV between 1984 and 1986. The show is well remembered for its opening titles featuring a silhouette of a person in a rocking chair....

, which ran from 1984-1986. At the end of the last series of Fresh Fields, William accepted a position with a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 company. French Fields follows Hester and William after they make the move to Calais

Calais

Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....

.

Other regular cast included their French real estate agent Chantal (Pamela Salem

Pamela Salem

Pamela Salem is a British film and television actress.She was born in Bombay, India, and educated at Heidelberg University in Germany and later at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, England...

), who was also the Fields' neighbour to the left. On the right were the horrible and snobbish English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 couple the Trendles (Robin Kermode and Liz Crowther

Liz Crowther

Elizabeth Ann 'Liz' Crowther is an English television actress. She is the daughter of comedian Leslie Crowther....

). Hester and William also coped with Madame Remoleux (Valerie Lush), an unintelligible and ancient French woman who lived in and cared for the estate — called Les Hirondelles (the Swallows) — where they all lived. Also popping in on a regular basis were local farmer and mayor Monsieur Dax (Olivier Pierre in series 1 and 2 and Philip McGough

Philip McGough

Phillip McGough is an English television actor best known for his 2010 role of Dr. Charlie Bradfield in the BBC Birmingham based soap opera, Doctors.-Career:...

 in series 3) and his daughter Marie-Christine (Victoria Baker

Victoria Baker

Victoria Baker is a British soprano.She began her career as a child actress with supporting and lead roles on British Television for the BBC and Thames Television. She subsequently began her vocal training at some of the finest institutions in London, Paris and New York. She has performed various...

), to whom Hester did her best to teach English. Nicholas Courtney

Nicholas Courtney

William Nicholas Stone Courtney was an English television actor, most famous for playing Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who.-Early life:...

 also appeared frequently as the Marquis.

French Fields had several different time slots on ITV:

• Series 1 (6 Episodes) aired Tuesdays at 20.30 (5 September - 10 October 1989)
• Series 2 (6 Episodes) aired Mondays at 20.00 (24 September - 29 October 1990)
• Series 3 (6 Episodes) aired Tuesdays at 20.30 (3 September - 8 October 1991)

A special 45-minute Christmas

Christmas

Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...

episode aired on Tuesday, 25 December 1990 at 22.00.

DVD Release

The first two series of French Fields have been released on DVD, The third and final series including A 7-disc set (containing both (all 4 of Fresh) & (all 3 of French) Fields, Respectively) is scheduled for 24 October 2011.

DVD	Release date
The Complete Series 1	13 June 2011
The Complete Series 2	25 July 2011
The Complete Series 3	19 September 2011
The Complete Series 1 to 3 Box Set	TBA