About Face

About Face

1989 - United Kingdom

A series of 12 unconnected half-hour sitcoms, all written by different writers, created as a starring vehicle for Maureen Lipman who had previously had a huge hit with Agony, but for the past two years had been starring in a series of hit TV commercials for British Telecom as Beattie (a play on BT and suggested by Lipman herself who thought the name more apt than Dora, as created by Richard Phillips, an advertising copywriter who devised the campaign). There were two series of About Face, 1989 and 1991 and the first appeared less than two weeks before Victoria Wood launched a similar series on BBC1. During the run Lipman played a South London telephonist, a Cypriot immigrant, an overworked doctor and Margaret Thatcher. The last show in the series was written by her husband, Jack Rosenthal

Guest stars included Michael Gambon, Phyllidia Law, John Wells, Keith Barron, Libby Morris, Stephanie Cole, Martin Clunes and Bernard Hill. 

Published on November 26th, 2018. Written by Laurence Marcus for Television Heaven.

Read Next...

The Army Game

Hugely successful series from Granada TV that started in 1957 as a fortnightly live sitcom, which was moved to a weekly spot when it became so popular. The series followed the misfortunes of a mixed bag of army conscripts.

Also tagged British Sitcom

Family Matters

Revolving around the Winslow family, a middle-class African-American family living in Chicago, 'Family Matters' was the last live-action scripted primetime show that debuted in the 1980s to leave the air, outlasting all other primetime network debuts of the 1980s with the exception of 'The Simpsons'

Also released in 1989

A J Wentworth

The final starring vehicle for the masterful comedic talents of the incomparable, Arthur Lowe.

Also tagged British Sitcom

Traffik

Taking a different look at heroin - as a well-organised, high-profit business, Traffik is an award winning, compelling and gritty exploration of the global drug trade that remains relevant, decades after its release

Also released in 1989

A Little Princess

A young girl, left penniless when her father dies, is put to work as a servant in the school that he had sent her to in order to get a good education.

Also starring Maureen Lipman

Surgical Spirit

Sheila Sabatini is a brilliant surgeon, but her sharp tongue gets her into trouble with fellow consultant surgeons, mainly because she likes to unearth their lazy and hypocritical behaviour at every opportunity

Also released in 1989

My Son Rueben

A middle-aged man, still living at home with his mother, is completely under her thumb.

Also tagged British Sitcom

Maid Marian and Her Merry Men

In 1989, Tony Robinson brought us the true story of a famous legend. Robin was a cowardly and incompetent ex-tailor from Kensington and Marian, an idealistic freedom fighter, was the brains behind the Merry Men. Anything else is pure fiction...

Also released in 1989

Agony tv series

Series about a magazine agony aunt who also runs her own radio phone-in and who, like Dr Frazier Crane many years later, could solve everyone's problems except her own

Also starring Maureen Lipman