Conversations from a Long Marriage: based on the beloved BBC Radio 4 comedy starring Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam

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The delicious fruit of the writer, Jan Etherington’s experience of writing lots of TV and radio, blessed by being acted by Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam. Treasure this one, produced by Claire Jones. Unlike many a current Radio 4 ‘comedy’, this series makes people laugh’ GILLIAN REYNOLDS. SUNDAY TIMES Conversations from a Long Marriage is written by Jan Etherington, who has been married to Gavin Petrie for over 30 years. Second Thoughts , Faith In The Future and Next Of Kin. She says: “ Conversations From A Long Marriage will resonate with couples of any age but especially those who are still dancing in the kitchen, singing in the car and trying to keep the passion alive.” Talking to British Comedy Guide about the genesis of her latest show, Etherington explained further: “I wrote it for Joanna Lumley because she epitomises that ageless style and curiosity for living in the moment. Roger Allam is absolutely wonderful, one of the gods of radio and it was just magical to see them together, they are so in tune and they genuinely like each other.” Conversations from a Long Marriage is written by Jan Etherington and produced by Claire Jones. The production coordinator is Katie Baum, the studio engineer is Wilfredo Acosta and sound design is by Jon Calver. It is a BBC Studios Production. Can Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam ever have done anything better than Jan Etherington’s two hander? Sublimely funny, touching… This is a work of supreme craftsmanship.’ SIMON O’HAGAN, RADIO TIMES

Humourless boyfriends aside, she had a “lovely life” growing up in Kingston upon Thames. Her father, a wartime Lancaster bomber pilot, of whom she is tremendously proud, was from Swansea, so holidays were spent on the Gower Peninsula. Here she found an early comedy influence in her grandmother, a St John Ambulance volunteer at Langland Bay, where she had a beach hut. Conversations From A Long Marriage is exactly that: following conversations that take them from the local café, to their kitchen table, taking in her resentment of new glasses - a symbol of ageing - and fury at being lectured by the dental hygienist. He has a dodgy knee and is on statins, and when they discuss the marriage break-up of their closest friends, Sally and Peter, there's jealousy and talk of affairs. She suggests there are advantages to single beds, separate holidays and wants to go clubbing in Ibiza for her imminent 'big' birthday. Another woman who never lets you down is the excellent tech journalist Aleks Krotoski. As host of Radio 4’s The Digital Human she is full of delighted, doggedly earned knowledge about the virtual world, but also, vitally, she’s a great storyteller. Her scripts are consistently on point, and she delivers them with panache. In this opening episode of the first series, they’re invited to a party with old friends but return home with a nagging question: “why didn’t you ask me to dance?”

When a couple stop kissing each other, the marriage is in trouble, she believes. ‘What it says in the Shoop Shoop Song is so true. It IS in his kiss!’

The irony is, Conversations was born out of a kind of fury at the negative image of ‘mature’ people so casually and ignorantly characterised on television and radio. “I was angry about the way older women were portrayed in drama and comedy,” she said at the time of the series' launch, “either as miserably married, interfering mothers-in-law, bitter ex-wives, tetchy, spiteful control freaks - or technophobic grannies in pinnies, patronised by the whole family. Her couples are always equal partnerships. “I hate the idea of dozy husbands who can’t work the dishwasher. All the couples I write about are equally strong - they support each other. If there are jokes about cooking it’s about her incompetence rather than his. But that’s not where the laughs come for me – I'm interested in the emotional strength of the couples, or the people I’m writing about. Vulnerability comes in different ways.” Conversations from a Long Marriage won the Voice of the Listener & Viewer Award for Best Radio Comedy in 2020. Also, nominated for a Writers Guild Award 2023. In fact, she does none of those things, but instead is a keen year-round North Sea swimmer, and spends a lot of time roaming the Suffolk coast with her "superstar" English Setter, Jagger (named after the Rolling Stone). She's an active contributor to her local village community - she edited the village news for five years and now does the fete programme - volunteered for five years as a tour guide for Southwold Lighthouse, is patron of Halesworth’s Pear Tree Fund, and a regular contributor to INK Festival.

Come on!’ I’d shout at my radio and TV. ‘Where are my contemporaries? The strong, smart, funny women who have laughed and loved their way through life since the Summer of Love, and might still be married to the sexy hippie they met at Glastonbury 71?’ "

She has returned to Gower frequently with her sisters, to spend time and take part in the Macmillan charity walk. “It’s still the most beautiful part of the country, next to Suffolk, that I’ve come across,” she says. “Suffolk is similar – not on the way to anywhere, you have to know about it to go there. These are secret places where you’re away from it all, although much more discovered now, of course.” The show follows their conversations that take them from the local café, to their kitchen table, taking in her resentment of new glasses - a symbol of ageing - and fury at being lectured by the dental hygienist. He has a dodgy knee and is on statins, and when they discuss the marriage break-up of their closest friends, Sally and Peter, there's jealousy and talk of affairs. She suggests there are advantages to single beds, separate holidays and wants to go clubbing in Ibiza for her imminent 'big' birthday. When I look in the mirror, I want to shout 'OK, I know what it looks like on the outside but inside, I'm still Dancing in the Street, with Martha Reeves and the Vandellas'", she claims, insisting men aren't affected in the same way, until he recounts a poignant encounter, with a woman on a train. Oh, it’s all divine, delicious and lovely, including the music, and they are sweet company, though I was slightly brought up short when Barlow exclaimed: “I’m discovering so many things about you!”, in contrast to Lumley’s encouraging him to tell stories she clearly already knows. He’s been primed to excel throughout his life, while she has a tendency to put down her own knowledge, just to encourage him some more. “Stevie, this is what I wanted us to do in these shows,” she says. “Me being the average listener and you being the above-average musician, able to give answers.” Conversations from a Long Marriage is exactly that: following conversations that take them from the local café, to their kitchen table, taking in her resentment of new glasses - a symbol of ageing - and fury at being lectured by the dental hygienist. He has a dodgy knee and is on statins, and when they discuss the marriage break-up of their closest friends, Sally and Peter, there's jealousy and talk of affairs. She suggests there are advantages to single beds, separate holidays and wants to go clubbing in Ibiza for her imminent 'big' birthday.Last Christmas... Roger Allam and Joanna Lumley in Conversations from a Long Marriage by Jan Etherington. (Image: Tricia Yourkevich 2014)