The Newcomers

1 9 6 5 - 1 9 6 9 (UK)
430 x 30 minute episodes

Set in a fictional East Anglia overspill town, Angleton (which was really Haverhill in Suffolk), this series centered around the newly moved Cooper family; Vivienne (played by Australian leading lady and former singer, Maggie Fitzgibbon), husband Ellis, and their children Phillip, 16 year old Maria (played by Judy Geeson before she became a star) and long-haired Lance.

There was also a glum gran who seemed riveted to the sofa, and Wendy Richard (Miss Brahms/Pauline Fowler) as the Cooper's 20 year old cockney neighbour, Joyce Harker.

Ellis Cooper was the shop superintendent at Eden Brothers, a computer components firm. British Industrialists complained that the chairman was a crook, the managing director an ass, and the image of the British industry had been sullied. Mary Whitehouse however, gave the show a commendation for being "morally sound".

Ellis died of a heart attack in December 1967 (because Alan Browning had grown bored with the role), and the widowed Viv was due to have a ratings-busting wedding to new character Charles Turner. When the storyline was changed to a whirlwind romance and an off-screen wedding in New Zealand instead, Maggie Fitzgibbon quit.

The Newcomers screened twice weekly on Tuesdays and Thursdays.