After You've Gone (TV series)

After You've Gone is a British comedy that aired on BBC One from 12 January 2007 to 21 December 2008. Starring Nicholas Lyndhurst, Celia Imrie, Dani Harmer and Ryan Sampson, After You've Gone was created by Fred Barron, who also created My Family.[1] The writers include Barron, Ian Brown, Katie Douglas, James Hendie, Danny Robins, Andrea Solomons and Dan Tetsell. Three series and two Christmas specials aired, and work on scripts for a fourth series had already begun when the BBC withdrew the commission in November 2008 and cancelled the series.[2]

After You've Gone
Opening titles of After You've Gone
Genre	Comedy
Created by	Fred Barron
Starring	Nicholas Lyndhurst Celia Imrie Ryan Sampson Dani Harmer Lee Oakes Vincent Ebrahim Amanda Abbington
Theme music composer	Turner Layton
Opening theme	"After You've Gone" by Jamie Cullum
Ending theme	"After You've Gone"
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	3
No. of episodes	25 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	23 × 30 minutes 1 × 45 minutes 1 × 40 minutes
Production company(s)	Rude Boy Productions
Release
Original network	BBC One BBC HD
Original release	12 January 2007 – 21 December 2008
Chronology
Related shows	My Family (2000–2011)

Plot

When his former wife Ann goes to Africa to help out following a natural disaster, Jimmy Venables, a handyman, has to move back into the marital home to look after his two children, Molly and Alex.[1] Jimmy's opinionated widowed former mother-in-law Diana Neal, a teacher, who has always disliked Jimmy, decides to help him out. Diana's husband, Patrick Neal OBE, died in 1996. Fashion-obsessed Molly is an intelligent girl who sees herself as the only adult in the family, while cheerful Alex is bright but has constantly changing ideas. Jimmy had a girlfriend, Siobhan Casey, a hairdresser, who often feels he does not pay her enough attention. Jimmy's assistant is Kev, while the landlord of his local pub, The Leek and Shepherd, is the pessimistic Bobby. In Series Two, Siobhan is the barmaid at the pub and goes back to college to study Business Studies. She appears less often in Series Three, having been partially written-out by having her split with Jimmy. The actress playing the character, Amanda Abbington, was pregnant at time of filming and so it was decided to make things easier for her by reducing her sizeable role. Bobby and Kev, meanwhile, have been developing a tendency to team up and do things which annoy Jimmy (such as kidnapping him and locking him in Kev's flat or taking legal action against him). Often compared to My Family, After You've Gone is a light comedy which pulled in good viewing figures despite often being broadcast at the same time as Coronation Street. It was often broadcast on Friday evenings on BBC One and followed by the heavier comedy of Have I Got News for You.

Characters

Actor	Character	Duration	Series	Episodes	Role
Nicholas Lyndhurst	Jimmy Venables	2007–2008	1–3	25	Main
Celia Imrie	Diana	2007–2008	1–3	25	Main
Ryan Sampson	Alexander [ Alex ] Peter Venables	2007–2008	1–3	25	Main
Dani Harmer	Molly Louise Venables	2007–2008	1–3	25	Main
Lee Oakes	Kev	2007–2008	1–3	25	Main
Vincent Ebrahim	Bobby	2007–2008	1–3	25	Main
Amanda Abbington	Siobhan	2007–2008	1–3	21	Main (Series 1–2); Recurring (Series 3)
Roxanne Ricketts	Ellie	2007	1–2	6	Recurring
Samantha Spiro	Ann	2007	1–2	2	Guest
Rob Knox	Josh	2007	1–2	2	Guest
Sheri-An Davis	Roz	2007	1	2	Guest

Cast information

Amanda Abbington (Siobhan) is seen less frequently in Series Three due to her real-life pregnancy. Nicholas Lyndhurst and Celia Imrie were already household names by the time they appeared on the programme: Lyndhurst had appeared in Only Fools and Horses and Goodnight Sweetheart while Imrie previously featured in dinnerladies and Calendar Girls. Dani Harmer and Ryan Sampson had appeared in various roles previously – the most notable being Harmer in The Story of Tracy Beaker – but have both gone on to more solid roles since. Harmer went on to star in her own programme called Dani's House (with the result that she was on BBC One for two half-hour programmes on Fridays) while Sampson had a leading role in two 2008 episodes of Doctor Who, as well as appearing in a pilot programme for BBC Three called The Things I Haven't Told You (which has not been picked up).

Episodes

Main article: List of After You've Gone episodes

Theme song

The theme song is "After You've Gone" and is performed by Jamie Cullum.[1] The song was composed by Turner Layton with lyrics by Henry Creamer and was originally released in 1918 by Marion Harris.

Cancellation

The BBC announced in January that it had commissioned a third series with eight episodes and a Christmas special, they also announced that a fourth series had been commissioned that included ten episodes and a festive one-off for 2009.[2] Later the BBC made a statement announcing that the third series would be the last despite writers already working on the scripts.[2]

The cancellation cost the corporation thousand of pounds, a BBC spokesperson said "We are very proud of the programme and its achievements over the past three years but believe it has now come to a natural end."[2]

Following the abrupt cancellation, there was a proposal to shift the series to radio, utilising the unfilmed but completed scripts for the fourth series, which the series writers behind the proposal felt could be developed on a cheap budget as no scripts required being written. However the proposal did not come to fruition.

DVD releases

All of the three series of After You've Gone have been released on DVD in the UK (Region 2). The final series was released on 18 January 2010. All 25 episodes, including the Christmas specials, have been released. The first two series of After You've Gone have also been released on DVD in Australia.

DVD Title		Disc #	Year	Episode #	DVD releases
					Region 2	Region 4
	Complete Series 1	1	2007	7	24 September 2007[3]	4 September 2008[4][5]
	Complete Series 2	2	2007	8	22 September 2008[6]	3 September 2009[7][8]
	Complete Series 3	2	2008	10	18 January 2010[9]	Not released.

• Note: Despite being filmed in High Definition no Blu-ray release.

References

1. "BBC Comedy Guide – After You've Gone". BBC. Archived from the original on 27 January 2008. Retrieved 23 December 2007.
2. Holmwood, Leigh (19 November 2008). "BBC drops sitcom After You've Gone". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 September 2010.
3. "After You've Gone: Complete BBC Series 1 [DVD]". Amazon.co.uk. 24 September 2007. Retrieved 11 September 2011.
4. "After You've Gone – Season 1". fishpond.co.uk. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
5. "After You've Gone AU". jbhifionline.com.au. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
6. "After You've Gone – Series 2". Amazon.co.uk. 22 September 2008. Retrieved 11 September 2011.
7. "After You've Gone – Season 2". fishpond.co.uk. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
8. "After You've Gone Season 2 AU". jbhifionline.com.au. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
9. "After You've Gone – Series 3". Amazon.co.uk. 18 January 2010. Retrieved 11 September 2011.

External links

• After You've Gone at BBC Programmes
• After You've Gone at British Comedy Guide
• After You've Gone on IMDb
• After You've Gone at TV.com