People enjoyed the comedy, so the BBC wanted more. Hence....
series 3 - 14 episodes.
series 4 - 13 episodes
christmas special
series 5 - 13 episodes
then comes series 6
series 6 - 7 episodes
After Walker was gone, things changed, but still a new series came, hence a fewer number of episodes.
series 7 - 6 episodes
series 8 - 6 episodes
2 christmas specials
series 9 - 6 episodes
Now, the thing is it all runs quite nicely and easy to explain apart from series 6.
My question is were there plans to do 13 episodes but because of what happened to James Beck they stopped it after 7 episodes? That probably is the answer, but I've never read that anywhere (probably missed it.....) Also, if that is the case, the missing 6 episodes must have been written. Were they used for series 7 and Cheesman was made to take over the dialogue that Walker was supposed to have?
Fundy
Dave Homewood
"My question is were there plans to do 13 episodes but because of what happened to James Beck they stopped it after 7 episodes? That probably is the answer, but I've never read that anywhere (probably missed it.....) Also, if that is the case, the missing 6 episodes must have been written. Were they used for series 7 and Cheesman was made to take over the dialogue that Walker was supposed to have?"
No. There were not further plans for extra episodes in that series. Generally a television season is 13 weeks, same as a season in terms or winter, spring, summer or autumn. That's how TV schedules are planned.
But the BBC did not work like the US sitcoms by recording great long strings of episodes that run for half a year. They spread the budget more widely across lots of shows in short bursts. They almost always recorded in blocks or six or seven with sitcoms. That way an even series of six episodes of something would be matched with an odd series of severn episodes of something else and make a season.
So it could be six weeks of Dad's Army then seven weeks of The Good Life or whatever. But when the show was rating as the most popular comedy on TV they decided to put two blocks together and fill a whole season with Series 3 and 4 and 5 as broadcast.
In terms of recording dates they were recorded as seperate series of six and seven episodes but then joined together to broadcast as an extended series.
I don't have the recording and t/x dates in front of me, but from memory the first six or seven were recoreded and edited and then held back, and the second set of 6/7 were then begun dhooting as the first lot began to broadcast. So while the end of the series was being made the first half was being screened. And the latter ones went out almost immediately.
Check the rec. and t/x dates to see what I'm talking about.
To go back to the original question, I have spoken with Jimmy perry on this and he said they only planned those seven episodes. There were no other scripts written and no rewrites or reshoots of location material.
So sorry to blow your theory but to put it simply, Jimmy times his illness at almost the end of the making of that series, not the middle.
Fundy
Thanksfor the indepth reply, Dave. That answers all my questions.
