Bouquet of Barbed Wire / Another Bouquet
1976 - United KingdomInfidelity, lust and incest came to British television screens in 1976 by way of Andrea Newman's adaptation of her own 1969 novel which starred Frank Finlay as Peter Manson, a well-off middle- class publisher who dotes just a little too much on his daughter, Prue (played by Susan Penhaligon).
Together they live in domestic harmony with wife and mother Cassie (Sheila Allen) until one hot summer Prue returns from University pregnant and married to American, Gavin Sorensen (James Aubrey). Peter can hardly contain his jealousy and his obsessive love for his pouting manipulative daughter soon tears the family apart. For his part, Gavin has no qualms about seducing Prue's mother, who is more than happy to find a distraction from her husband.
Viewers had never quite seen anything like it before and were totally gripped by the smouldering forbidden antics of all involved with the tabloid press having a field day describing in detail each steamy scene. The critic Clive James wrote of the first series "by the end, everybody had been to bed with everybody else except the baby." Although Prue dies in childbirth that didn't stop the other characters from returning for a second series, Another Bouquet written for television before being novelised, LWT Controller Cyril Bennett having asked Andrea Newman to come up with a sequel to what had been a phenomenal hit for ITV. When we catch up with them again Peter is involved in a long term affair with his secretary Sarah (Deborah Grant) whilst his wife Cassie is struggling with her feelings for son in law Gavin. It seems nobody has learned their lesson!
Published on November 30th, 2018. Written by Laurence Marcus for Television Heaven.
