The Adventures of Aggie

The Adventures of Aggie

1956 - United Kingdom

An oddity - a British made sitcom from the 1950s starring a US actress so it could be sold to America. 

The actress in question was Joan Shawlee who shortly after this series enjoyed her most famous film role was as Sweet Sue in the 1959 comedy classic, Some Like It Hot, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon. 

She also appeared as a semi-regular in The Dick Van Dyke Show (as Buddy's wife, Pickles). Before this UK series the 27-year old actress had appeared in The Abbott and Costello Show on US TV. In The Adventures of Aggie she appeared as Aasgard Agnette Anderson, an international buyer working for a world-famous fashion house. 

The demands of her job meant that she didn't stay in one city too long so her globetrotting meant there was no room for a regular cast. However, a number of upcoming celebs appeared throughout the series run of 26 episodes, including Wilfrid Brambell, Christopher Lee, Patrick McGoohan, Richard Wattis, Rupert Davies, Gordon Jackson, Anthony Valentine, Patrick Allen and future film director John Schlesinger, all destined for fame and fortune. 

Like most females in 1950s sitcoms the situations she got into were normally a result of her tendency towards being accident prone, although none of these were of the domestic type and normally involved spies, smugglers or murderers. The series was shown in the US in syndication as simply Aggie

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

Read Next...

Absolutely Fabulous

Developed from a sketch in the TV series French and Saunders in which Saunders played a baseball capped parent berated by her prim and proper daughter (French), the pilot episode was greeted by one TV executive with the comment, "I don't think women being drunk is funny."

Also tagged British Sitcom

The Buccaneers

Future Hollywood actor Robert Shaw (The Sting, Jaws) made his small screen debut as ex- pirate Dan Tempest, the leader of a small band of freebooters who roamed the Caribbean Seas in the 1720's on their ship The Sultana.

Also released in 1956

Armchair Theatre

For many, Armchair Theatre was not only an essential part of Sunday night viewing in Britain throughout the 1960s, but an outstanding contributor in the history of television production.

Also released in 1956

The Count of Monte Cristo

1950s series based on Alexander Dumas' masterpiece of mystery and intrigue, Le Comte de Monte Cristo, first published in 1845.

Also released in 1956

After Henry

BAFTA-nominated comedy After Henry followed the comfortable middle-class lives of three women; except that, for one of them, life wasn't all that comfortable...

Also tagged British Sitcom

Dad's Army

"If the quality of the writing was a major factor in Dad's Army's resounding success, then that quality was more than matched by a cast which not so much interpreted the writing, as physically embodied it."

Also tagged British Sitcom

Jesus of Nazareth

In 1956, the BBC made Television history with a series of eight programmes on the life of Christ. Placed in the children's programmes slot on Sundays, it attracted an adult audience whose appreciation placed it, as a BBC survey showed, next to the Coronation of 1953 in national appeal.

Also released in 1956

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