Conversations from a Long Marriage: based on the beloved BBC Radio 4 comedy starring Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam

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We join them as Joanna breathily compliments Roger - ‘How do you get it so perfect every time?’ His reply ‘Hot goose fat and regular tossing’ reveals that they are enjoying his signature roast potatoes. They’re spending a quiet Christmas with Peter and Sally but this snowballs into an extravagant houseparty when Peter is offered a rich friend’s country pile and invites other couples. An endearing portrait of exasperation, laced with hard won tolerance – and something like love.’ THE GUARDIAN Conversations from a Long Marriage is a two-hander comedy, starring Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam, as a long-married couple who met in the Summer of Love and are still passionate about life, music and each other. We listen to – and empathise with - their dangling ‘conversations’ covering everything from health scares, jealousy and confessions, to TV incompatibility and sourdough bread.

This book gives me hope ... that life and marriage might permanently include taking the absolute piss while simultaneously dancing in the kitchen' Emma Freud Conversations from a Long Marriage won the Voice of the Listener & Viewer Award for Best Radio Comedy in 2020. Nominated for a Writers Guild Award 2023.This week, it seems everything is making Roger grumpy, including a neighbour putting out his bin on the wrong day; a car alarm in the night and a shortage of streaky bacon. Roger claims he’s ‘normal’ because ‘most men live lives of quiet desperation’ but Joanna discovers it’s her fault he’s feeling fed up. The delicious fruit of the writer, Jan Etherington’s experience of writing lots of TV and radio, blessed by being acted by Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam. Treasure this one, produced by Claire Jones. Unlike many a current Radio 4 ‘comedy’, this series makes people laugh’ GILLIAN REYNOLDS. SUNDAY TIMES Joanna and Roger have been married for over forty years. Children of the Sixties, they're still free spirits, drawn together by their passion for music - and each other. Conversations from a Long Marriage won the Voice of the Listener & Viewer Award for Best Radio Comedy in 2020. Also, nominated for a Writers Guild Award 2023.

The show follows their conversations that take them from the local café, to their kitchen table, taking in her resentment of new glasses - a symbol of ageing - and fury at being lectured by the dental hygienist. He has a dodgy knee and is on statins, and when they discuss the marriage break-up of their closest friends, Sally and Peter, there's jealousy and talk of affairs. She suggests there are advantages to single beds, separate holidays and wants to go clubbing in Ibiza for her imminent 'big' birthday. They’re a very clever couple – they work off each other feed off each other,” says Jan. “There’s a real strength in their relationship.” As well as clever, insightful writing, a large part of the magic of Conversations comes from the casting of Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam. Joanna, says Jan, agreed to do the part immediately she read the script, saying it was as though Jan had “listened at her window”. When Jan asked her who could possibly play her husband she suggested Roger – the man all her friends want to be married to. Jan spends just a few days each year with them, recording in a studio, but she says it’s clear they have fantastic chemistry and love working together.Ironically, Conversations is probably just what TV needs, since great situation comedies have disappeared off our screens. We used to be so good at them, didn’t we? “We did,” Jan agrees, superb comedy from the likes of Victoria Wood, John Sullivan (Only Fools and Horses), Clement and La Frenais (The Likely Lads, Auf Wiedersehen Pet and Porridge, “the comedy writer’s comedy”), Esmonde and Larbey (Ever Decreasing Circles), and American writers such as Rob Long, who wrote Cheers and worked on Frasier. Will we ever seek their like again? “Comedy is expensive – not because of the writers - because of the actors, the set building, the commitment to a series. Reality shows don’t cost very much. There are good comedy writers, but often they don’t get a chance because television’s going off in a different direction.” Talking to British Comedy Guide, Etherington says: " Conversations... is the show that keeps on giving - five series and a book of the scripts! Joanna, Roger, producer Claire Jones and I couldn't be happier that the listeners - and BBC Radio 4 - love it as much as we do." The cover quotes Lumley as saying " Jan Etherington has the pen of an angel", with Allam adding "Being 'married' to Joanna Lumley has been a complete joy".

Last Christmas... Roger Allam and Joanna Lumley in Conversations from a Long Marriage by Jan Etherington. (Image: Tricia Yourkevich 2014) On a long car journey, they reminisce about their first meeting and a long-held secret is revealed. Once more, we are party to Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam’s Christmas plans, in Jan Etherington’s award-winning, two-hander comedy, produced by Claire Jones. Propelled into a different world, Jan and Gavin became full time writers. Faith In The Future, followed and won Jan and Gavin a British Comedy Award. “Everybody loved it and it was fantastically fun to do,” she says. They then wrote Next of Kin, inspired by their hedonistic neighbours in Sunbury, in which Penelope Keith and William Gaunt play an affluent couple forced to abandon their dreams of early retirement when their estranged son dies and they reluctantly become guardians of their orphaned grandchildren.Etherington has previously explained that she was motivated to create the comedy as she was "tired of my generation being portrayed as golfing caravanners with no reference to how they were in their youth. Conversations from a Long Marriage is exactly that: following conversations that take them from the local café, to their kitchen table, taking in her resentment of new glasses - a symbol of ageing - and fury at being lectured by the dental hygienist. He has a dodgy knee and is on statins, and when they discuss the marriage break-up of their closest friends, Sally and Peter, there's jealousy and talk of affairs. She suggests there are advantages to single beds, separate holidays and wants to go clubbing in Ibiza for her imminent 'big' birthday. Sitcom is what most marriages are really like – repetitive and ridiculous – and Jan’s words are some of the best ever written on the subject’ RICHARD CURTIS The show follows their conversations that take them from the local café, to their kitchen table, taking in her resentment of new glasses - a symbol of ageing - and fury at being lectured by the dental hygienist. He has a dodgy knee and is on statins, and when they discuss the marriage break-up of their closest friends, Sally and Peter, there’s jealousy and talk of affairs. She suggests there are advantages to single beds, separate holidays and wants to go clubbing in Ibiza for her imminent ‘big’ birthday. Jan Etherington has also been busy compiling edited versions of eight scripts from the first two series of the comedy to form a new book. Set to be published on 3rd November by Souvenir Press, it's described as a publication that will "resonate with couples of any age - but especially those who are still dancing in the kitchen, singing in the car and trying to keep the passion alive", and "a perfect Christmas present for couples everywhere".