Mrs Thursday Online

What memories this brings back. I remember, with my two older sisters (I was around 10 years old and they were 14 and 16 years old respectively) how we looked forward to the start of this series. It must have been a good trailer that foretold of this upcoming show on TV that I remember, at such a young age, we were so eager in our anticipation.

The title role of Mrs Thursday was played by that wonderful character actress Kathleen Harrison (famous for her many maid-servant roles and appearances as 'Charles Dickens' type characters throughout the four or five decades of her career).

The premise for the series, that a working class lady comes into a fortune, was good. So was the acting. My main memory is of her kindliness and the ability to portray someone that you would just love to have as an Aunt, Mother or Grandmother. In fact, she did remind me of a favourite Aunt (Ada) of mine. Perhaps that is why I enjoyed it so much, but I think the reason it probably struck home was that she was (or seemed) to remain so genuine and nice, despite the money and all it could do to change a person's character (not always for the best).

I can't really remember why it affected me so much, all those years ago. All I remember, apart from her cockney accent (eg, Mr 'Unter), was a warm feeling that came over me before, during and after the broadcast, when my sisters and I stopped whatever arguments and disagreements we may have been having to sit down and be enthralled by this wonderful show.

My husband, the late Ron Blanchard was the Senior Floor Manager on this wonderful series. In 1967 he and the crew went on location on the Union Castle Lines ship - "Reina Del Mar" with Kathleen Harrison and Hugh Manning. They did some fantastic filming in Casablanca and Madeira and on board ship of course where they covered the "crossing of the line" tradition when Hugh Manning got a ducking! Ron took a lot of good quality slide photos which I have, also several letters from Kathleen to him and to me. She was a very "homely" character in reality and also very kind, sending little gifts to me and our baby daughter at the time. I also have some interesting memorabilia from the ship in the form of menus, itineraries etc. which Ron brought back.

Listening to the series theme tune now, it brings back many happy memories from the "golden years" of Television. Kathleen Harrison was a true star of television and radio.

So interesting to see how differently people related to each other in this gentle series. My only question: why hasn't Series 03 been released on DVD?