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For Better Or For Worse: The Complete Series 1-3
For Better Or For Worse: The Complete Series 1-3
Aug 2, 2025 3:19 AM

Author:Vince Powell,Gorden Kaye,Su Pollard,Full Cast

For Better Or For Worse: The Complete Series 1-3

All three series of the BBC radio comedy about the turbulent relationship of an odd couple

Dithering undertaker's assistant Bernard Pringle has finally got engaged to his sweetheart, Iris Bickerdyke - but Iris still has to persuade her fiancé to buy her a ring. And goodness knows when he'll manage to get her down the aisle...

The course of their true love runs rather less than smooth in these 20 episodes, as a trip to the cinema turns into an off-screen disaster, Iris faces competition in the shape of new office secretary Crystabelle, and Bernard is all at sea after he's asked to scatter a client's ashes. There are problems with their parents too, as Iris's mum Daisy is conned out of her inheritance and Bernard's dad Wilf is caught with his guard - and his trousers - down. But as father and son stride to the crease in the annual cricket match, Bernard finds himself just 22 yards from glory - can he save the day?

Written by Vince Powell, who scripted a string of successful TV sitcoms including For the Love of Ada, Bless This House and Here's Harry for Harry Worth, this warm-hearted comedy stars Gorden Kaye ('Allo 'Allo!) as Bernard and Su Pollard (Hi-de-Hi!)as Iris.

Written by Vince Powell

Produced by Mike Craig

Cast

Iris - Su Pollard

Bernard - Gorden Kaye

Wilf - David Ross

Daisy - Paula Tilbrook/Marlene Sidaway

Mr Foley/Police Sergeant - Peter Wheeler

Mr Matthews - John Jardine

Miss Parker/Myrtle/Doreen/Crystabelle - Julie Higginson

Tommy/Mr Cameron - Roger John-Lee

Other parts played by members of the cast

First broadcast BBC Radio 2, 11 February-1 April 1993 (Series 1), 3 December 1994-12 January 1995 (Series 2), 18 January-22 February 1996 (Series 3)

Reviews

An action-packed and very promising start to the new High Republic era of Star Wars.

—— Digital Spy

The ultimate Star Wars in medias res . . . an excellent adventure. Cool creatures, inventive action that bends but never breaks the rules of the Force, and compelling relationships and perspectives are all here

—— Den of Geek

An intriguing and ambitious start to a new era . . . I can't wait to read more.

—— Slash Film

A welcome celebration of the Jedi. Gripping in a way that's absolutely thrilling . . . The action is breathtaking

—— Screen Rant

Give us the version of the Jedi Knights fans have been hoping for . . . lighting the way for it to be one of the most engaging Star Wars projects in recent years.

—— Radio Times

Feels like Star Wars unchained . . . The Jedi of the High Republic are a bunch of awesome space wizards bringing justice with the Force, and it feels like they're having fun every step of the way.

—— CNET

An extraordinary new novel… The Death of Jesus is the best in the series

—— Leo Robson , New Statesman

Coetzee always writes with pace and precision. His otherworldly landscapes have a gritty, scuffed plausibility. Never overlook the deadpan comedy, either: he learned from Samuel Beckett, an early idol

—— Boyd Tonkin , Spectator

A remarkable achievement by a writer whose evolution, at the age of 79, continues to surprise

—— Economist

The enigmatic final instalment of Coetzee's trilogy of novels...is a triumph: subtle, philosophical and playful

—— Daily Telegraph

An unnerving breathlessly told love affair

—— Sainsbury’s Magazine

Beautifully written

—— Oxford Times

I love ghost stories and this one is hugely atmospheric.

—— Judy Finnigan

I really enjoyed the authentic wartime detail in this book.

—— Richard Madeley

The ideal ghost story for Halloween ... Full of suspense ... If you loved Woman in Black, you'll love this atmospheric tale.

—— Daily Express

This book is spooky, erotic and evocative. We loved it.

—— Richard & Judy , Daily Express

A magnificently grotesque fantasia.

—— Metro

Like all great Gothic works, Luckenbooth deals in duality: good/evil, light/dark ... Fagan comes at Edinburgh like a voracious lover, eager to explore both its conspicuous beauty and its secret places ... Fagan's writing sparkles most when she is describing landscape ... Luckenbooth is a horror story, originally and beautifully told.

—— The Herald

[Fagan's] sinuous, supernatural story unwinds down nine decades ... Her narrative weaves between the real and the spirit world.

—— The Times, Scotland

Luckenbooth is a compulsive study of our entanglement with place and each other. Brimming with character, subversion and decadence, Fagan builds a striking portrait of the Scottish city's deep-seated repression and toxicity and the grand strength of its inhabitants as they push the city into a modern age. An exhilarating, courageous story of the need to expose the evils of our communal past, Luckenbooth is nothing short of a masterpiece.

—— Christina Spens , Irish Times

An exuberant, raucous book.

—— Bookmunch

Brilliantly strange ... From the start, Luckenbooth gives the feel of a legend or fairy story ... Time periods slip about, gleefully penetrating one another. A multistorey horror story reveals itself obliquely in fragments across a number of years and viewpoints, weirdly paced, the action rushed and breathless, generalised, then freezing for a moment on an unexpected scene or event ... Everyone in the novel is a chimera of one sort or another, caught between forms, illuminated from inside by the light of their own unkempt ideas and desires ... Fagan's booth of stories - her Cornell box of frenzies, tragedies and delights - offers the present moment in the endless war between love and capital. It's brilliant.

—— M. John Harrison , Guardian

Masterly ... A lesser writer would struggle to control this cacophony of voices but what marks out Luckenbooth is the fierce intelligence driving Fagan's tale ... This is a mad god's dream of a book - it deserves to be shortlisted for every prize going this year.

—— iNews

Impossible to adequately describe this extraordinarily inventive novel. You'll just have to read it yourself. Early days, I know, but suffice to say this one's already heading for my books of the year list together with both my Women's Prize for Fiction and Booker Prize wish lists.

—— A Life in Books

One of the hottest titles right now, Jennie Fagan's Luckenbooth has won all round acclaim.

—— Edinburgh Evening News

The novel unfolds like a set of dark short stories, with a different character narrating or guiding each one. But there's a twist: Luckenbooth is not just haunted by the realities of time and history, but also by the strong musk of the gothic imagination ... Thickly worked and carefully assembled, the novel functions as a claustrophobic chiller and as a testament to lives led beyond the margins and in the shadows.

—— Bidisha , The Observer

Luckenbooth ... is littered with lines like this. The sort of lines that demand to be read and reread: splendid in isolation, electric in combination. Fagan writes with drama. She can pick out the fine detail, in neat brush strokes, no doubt, but it is in drawing her arm back and attacking a story with great, sweeping lyricism that she propels Luckenbooth forward, dragging the reader through the 20th century, as experienced by a compelling cast of characters.

—— Buzz Mag

Slips and slides through layers of history, tears in the fabric of time and a series of strange shape shifting characters - it's a wonderful work that is a trip into a spectral interzone but also staged in a warped reality - great writing and a major talent.

—— John Robb , Louder Than War

A novel for readers with sophisticated tastes.

—— Fantasy Hive

Uniquely gripping visions of the hidden social, economic and spiritual forces at play in 20th-century Edinburgh.

—— Morning Star

Dazzlingly ambitious.

—— Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain , The Week

As sexy and horrifying as any fairy story, it is a book concerned, not only with a structure, but with structures: alphabetical, architectural, societal, what they are built upon and how they crumble

—— Bella Caledonia

Prize-winning author Jenni Fagan does not disappoint with her latest novel, Luckenbooth, which is easily her most compelling yet. In her usual poetic style, Fagan tells of a nine-storey Edinburgh tenement just off the Royal Mile that is creaking with secrets. Throughout this haunting novel, characters' secrets and memories live on in the howling gales of the spirit world, desperate to re-enter their lives. The narrative takes us through eight decades - from 1910 to 1999 - working its way up all nine floors of the building in hopscotch fashion, allowing for an intriguing interpretation of 20th-century life in the capital. Prepare to be transported into a Fagan's weird and wonderful imagination. It is a whirlwind read and one that I could not put down until the final page had turned.

—— Scottish Field

As sexy and horrifying as any fairy story, it is a book concerned, not only with a structure, but with structures: alphabetical, architectural, societal, what they are built upon and how they crumble.

—— Bella Caledonia

An Edinburgh tenement building is haunted by tall stories and unnerving strangers, from William Burroughs to the devil's daughter, in this weird and wonderful gothic confection.

—— Guardian

Her "world building" is highly effective, and each character fully inhabits their decade. Fagan's writing is anchored in societal issues, the wrongs done and the ways individuals have challenged those wrongs and asserted their individuality and sexuality in ways that might make them seem misfits, outcasts. Fagan certainly pulls no punches and is determined that these passionate, authentic stories should not be confined to the periphery.

—— Historical Novels Review

A deliciously weird gothic horror

—— The Washington Post

An ambitious and ravishing novel that will haunt me long after

—— The New York Times
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