Come Back Mrs Noah – 1977
A Forgotten Gem Or The Worst Sitcom in history ?
After a pilot episode in 1977, Come Back Mrs Noah ran for five more episodes in one series. Ian Lavender was among the cast.
The series was written by the successful writing team of David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd who had written Are You Being Served. The show borrowed many of it’s jokes from other series and used some outrageously strange props.
The show was not the success that might have been expected given the writers and cast, many people have referred to Come Back Mrs Noah as one of the worst sitcoms in television history.
Summary:
In the pilot episode set in 2050, British housewife Gertrude Noah wins a cookery competition, the prize – a tour of Britannia Seven, the UK’s new Space Exploration Vehicle. Whilst touring Britannia Seven the spacecraft accidentally blasts off with Mrs Noah and a small crew on board.
In the series that followed the plot centres on efforts to bring Mrs Noah back down to Earth. The news bulletins on Earth, read by Gorden Kaye, revealed countries like the USA and Germany had to turn to Britain, the most successful nation on Earth, for help. After a failed effort to nudge the craft into the Earth’s atmosphere, the series concluded with Mrs. Noah, and crew, careening off uncontrollably to the depths of space.
Clips
Cast
Mollie Sugden – Mrs. Gertrude Noah
Ian Lavender – Clive Cunliffe
Donald Hewitt – Carstairs
Michael Knowles – Fanshaw
Gorden Kaye – TV Presenter
Tim Barrett – Garfield Hawk
Joe Black – Garstang
Ann Michelle – Scarth Dare
Jennifer Lonsdale – Technician
Details
Channel: BBC1
Written By: David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd
Original Transmission Dates: 13th December 1977 – 14th August 1978