The Liver Birds

The Liver Birds is a British sitcom set in the city of Liverpool, in the north-west of England, which aired on BBC1 from 1969 to 1978, and again in 1996. It was created by Carla Lane and Myra Taylor. These two Liverpudlian writers had met at a local writers club and decided to pool their talents. Having been invited to London by Michael Mills and asked to write about two young women sharing a flat, Mills brought in sitcom expert Sydney Lotterby to work with the writing team. Lotterby had previously worked with Eric Sykes, Sheila Hancock and on The Likely Lads. Carla Lane in fact wrote most of the episodes, Taylor co-writing only the first two series. The pilot was shown as an episode of Comedy Playhouse, the BBC's breeding ground for sitcoms, in April 1969.

Creators and Cast

Creators

Rate

Carla Lane

Creator

Cast

Rate

Nerys Hughes

Sandra Hutchinson

Rate

Polly James

Beryl Hennessey

Rate

Mollie Sugden

Mrs Hutchinson

Rate

Michael Angelis

Lucien

Episodes

Season 1

4 episodes

S1 E1 · Potent Perfume

1969-07-25

No summary.

S1 E2 · The Photographer

1969-08-01

No summary.

S1 E3 · Aristocracy And Crime

1969-08-08

No summary.

S1 E4 · Torremolinos, Costa Del Sol Or Southport?

1969-08-15

No summary.

Season 2

12 episodes

S2 E1 · The Wedding

1971-01-07

It's the day before Beryl's Gloria's wedding, though Gloria announces that their dad's been seeing another woman, and their Mam's being brave. She also now doesn't want to get married.

S2 E2 · Look Before You Leap

1971-01-14

After finishing with Peter Crawford, Sandra is so upset, that Beryl tracks him down and invites him to the flat. Unfortunately there's a case of mistaken identity when a salesman turns up.

S2 E3 · Housekeeping

1971-01-21

Being short on the housekeeping, and with lots of IOUs in their holiday fund, the girls decide they need to earn some money. Sandra suggests selling the commode but the search for a new part for it leads them to the auction house.

S2 E4 · The Proposal

1971-01-28

With Sandra wanting the flat for herself and her boyfriend Danny, Beryl pretends she has a boyfriend of her own, but in reality is visiting Gerry in the flat below

S2 E5 · The Good Samaritans

1971-02-04

In full helping people mode, Sandra decides to let Irene and her new husband stay in their flat for the weekend. They'll stay at Gerry's whilst he's away, and look after the cat. Unfortunately Gerry & his mum turn up.

S2 E6 · Three’s A Crowd

1971-02-11

A friend of Sandra's arrives for a couple of days. She's an actress, posh, and sexy and soon gets up Beryl's nose, especially after the effect she has on their two dates.

S2 E7 · The New Neighbour

1971-02-18

The girls both throw themselves at the suave, sports car owning new downstairs neighbour. After learning that he's spending the weekend at his parent's guest house in Llandudno, they both decide to go and surprise him

S2 E8 · The New Flat

1971-02-25

Due to their constant arguing, the girls eventually decide to move to a bigger flat in Allerton. Unfortunately due to the cost, they need a third person to share so start interviewing

S2 E9 · The Dog

1971-03-04

Sandra brings home a stray dog, even though they're not allowed to keep pets. Then the girls get told that the landlord is going to make an inspection, but how do they hide the dog?

S2 E10 · Grandad

1971-03-11

Wondering what to do as it's Saturday, Sandra gets roped into looking after her Grandad. She coaxes Beryl to join her but Grandad soon proves more trouble than expected

S2 E11 · Mother’s Day

1971-03-18

It's Mother's Day, and both girl's parents arrive to spend the evening with them. Not only do things get off to a very frosty start, but Beryl breaks Sandra's mother's posh present

S2 E12 · Promotion

1971-03-25

Sandra gets promoted in work. Wishing she was more like Sandra, Beryl decides to take elocution lessons. Practicing on a posh customer soon gets Beryl into trouble though, and Sandra is told to give her the sack

Season 3

13 episodes

S3 E1 · One's a Crowd

1972-02-11

No summary.

S3 E2 · Birds on the Dole

1972-02-18

No summary.

S3 E3 · Good Little Girls Should Be in Bed

1972-02-25

No summary.

S3 E4 · Birds on Strike

1972-03-03

No summary.

S3 E5 · Fella-A-Day Girl

1972-03-10

No summary.

S3 E6 · Birds and Bottom Drawers

1972-03-17

No summary.

S3 E7 · The Christening

1972-03-24

No summary.

S3 E8 · Birds on Horseback

1972-03-31

No summary.

S3 E9 · Valentine's Day

1972-04-07

No summary.

S3 E10 · Birds in the Club

1972-04-14

No summary.

S3 E11 · The Driving Test

1972-04-21

No summary.

S3 E12 · Liverpool or Everton

1972-04-28

No summary.

S3 E13 · The Parrot

1972-05-05

No summary.

Season 4

13 episodes

S4 E1 · Anybody Here Seen Thingy?

1974-01-02

No summary.

S4 E2 · Friends at First Sight

1974-01-09

No summary.

S4 E3 · Life Is Just a Bowl of Sugar

1974-01-16

No summary.

S4 E4 · Where's Beryl?

1974-01-23

No summary.

S4 E5 · Girl Saturday

1974-01-30

No summary.

S4 E6 · Pack Up Your Troubles

1974-02-06

No summary.

S4 E7 · Have Hen Will Travel

1974-02-13

No summary.

S4 E8 · Love Is

1974-02-20

No summary.

S4 E9 · Anyone for Freedom

1974-02-27

No summary.

S4 E10 · Follow That Ring

1974-03-06

No summary.

S4 E11 · The Bride Went That-A 'Way

1974-03-13

No summary.

S4 E12 · Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

1974-03-20

No summary.

S4 E13 · And Then There Was One

1974-03-27

No summary.

Season 5

8 episodes

S5 E1 · It Takes All Kinds

1975-09-05

No summary.

S5 E2 · Look After the Children...

1975-09-12

No summary.

S5 E3 · You've Got to Laugh...

1975-09-19

No summary.

S5 E4 · Love Is a Many Stupid Thing

1975-09-26

No summary.

S5 E5 · Dinner for Three

1975-10-03

No summary.

S5 E6 · The Lily and the Dandelion

1975-10-10

No summary.

S5 E7 · Everybody Is Beautiful

1975-10-17

No summary.

S5 E8 · Special: In Every Street

1975-10-24

No summary.

Season 6

5 episodes

S6 E1 · Facing Up to Life

1976-02-13

No summary.

S6 E2 · The Maypole

1976-02-20

No summary.

S6 E3 · Honey

1976-02-27

No summary.

S6 E4 · The Never-Ending End

1976-03-05

No summary.

S6 E5 · Badgers and Otters

1976-03-12

No summary.

Season 7

9 episodes

S7 E1 · Friends and Lovers

1976-10-17

No summary.

S7 E2 · She Dreams a Lot

1976-10-24

No summary.

S7 E3 · A Mark on the World

1976-10-31

No summary.

S7 E4 · Love 'Em: And Almost Leave 'Em

1976-11-07

No summary.

S7 E5 · Oh, the Shame of It

1976-11-14

No summary.

S7 E6 · Cry Please

1976-11-21

No summary.

S7 E7 · The Nearly Hat

1976-11-28

No summary.

S7 E8 · Yellow and Green Make Blue

1976-12-05

No summary.

S7 E9 · Special: It Insists on Coming Once a Year

1976-12-12

No summary.

Season 8

8 episodes

S8 E1 · Something Beginning

1977-09-23

No summary.

S8 E2 · The Flower-Picker

1977-09-30

No summary.

S8 E3 · You've No Idea What I've Been Through

1977-10-07

No summary.

S8 E4 · God Bless Us and Save Us

1977-10-14

No summary.

S8 E5 · They Decide Up There What Goes on Down Here

1977-10-21

No summary.

S8 E6 · The Edge

1977-10-28

No summary.

S8 E7 · The Struggle

1977-11-04

No summary.

S8 E8 · Special: Open Your Eyes... and It Still Hasn't Gone

1977-11-11

No summary.

Season 9

6 episodes

S9 E1 · There’s no place like away from home

1978-11-28

No summary.

S9 E2 · The sixth day

1978-12-05

No summary.

S9 E3 · Various kinds of old

1978-12-12

No summary.

S9 E4 · Weeds

1978-12-19

No summary.

S9 E5 · Somewhere to live some to love

1978-12-26

No summary.

S9 E6 · The best things in life are not free

1979-01-02

No summary.

Season 10

7 episodes

S10 E1 · Hello again

1996-05-06

No summary.

S10 E2 · Mrs Boswell comes to call

1996-05-13

No summary.

S10 E3 · Spare that tree!

1996-05-20

No summary.

S10 E4 · On the town

1996-05-27

No summary.

S10 E5 · Going into hospital

1996-06-03

No summary.

S10 E6 · Out of Hospital

1996-06-10

No summary.

S10 E7 · Moving Out

1996-06-17

No summary.