Ever Decreasing Circles
| Ever Decreasing Circles | |
|---|---|
Opening titles of Ever Decreasing Circles
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| Created by | John Esmonde Bob Larbey |
| Starring |
Richard Briers Penelope Wilton Peter Egan Stanley Lebor Geraldine Newman |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 27 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) |
Sydney Lotterby Harold Snoad |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production company(s) | BBC |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC1 |
| Original release | 29 January 1984 – 24 December 1989 |
Ever Decreasing Circles is a British situation comedy which ran on BBC1 for four series from 1984 to 1989. It was written by John Esmonde and Bob Larbey, and it reunited them with Richard Briers, the star of their previous hit show, The Good Life. It was much less brash than most situation comedies, and was more like a comedy-drama in places. This move into darker areas of comedy was continued with Briers's later series If You See God, Tell Him.
Briers plays Martin Bryce, an obsessive, middle-aged man at the centre of his local suburban community in East Surrey. This relatively unsympathetic character was the antithesis of Tom Good. Briers said that it was his favourite sitcom role.
Martin is married to the motherly and patient Ann (Penelope Wilton) and has a settled, orderly lifestyle until he encounters their new next-door neighbour, ex-British Army officer and Cambridge Blue Paul Ryman (Peter Egan). Paul is everything Martin is not – adventurous, laissez-faire, flippant, witty, handsome and charming; in the words of Martin, a "couldn't care less, come on life ... amuse me, merchant". He attempts to join in with the activities of Martin and his friends, but his fresh thinking causes Martin to see him as a rival who might want to "take over" Martin's self-appointed role as organiser. Martin's obsession with order and stability also leads him to get upset at Paul's minor changes to routine, such as sitting at a different table in the local public house. Paul runs his own business, a hair salon, and later, a health studio.
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