Conversations from a Long Marriage is written by Jan Etherington. It is produced and directed by Claire Jones. It is a BBC Studios Production. 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. 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. This series makes people laugh’ GILLIAN REYNOLDS. SUNDAY TIMES It’s not the first time that Etherington creates a radio hit, but her writing didn’t always find its way to the screen. However, as she explains, times have changed: the creation of BBC Studios means the corporation’s radio and television production teams are liaising with each other again in an attempt to develop formats. I didn’t think I was funny. When I was at school, there was a guy I really fancied and at the bus stop one day he said to me, ‘Have you been all the way?’, and I said ‘Where to? Ealing Broadway?’ He said, ‘You think you’re so funny, don’t you?’ The bus went - he was on it and I wasn’t. I didn’t want to be funny if boys didn’t like it.”

Conversations From A Long Marriage. Image shows from L to R: Joanna (Joanna Lumley), Roger (Roger Allam) Her couples are always equal partnerships. “I hate the idea of dozy husbands who can’t work the dishwasher. All the couples I write about are equally strong - they support each other. If there are jokes about cooking it’s about her incompetence rather than his. But that’s not where the laughs come for me – I'm interested in the emotional strength of the couples, or the people I’m writing about. Vulnerability comes in different ways.”

The Official Website of Actor Roger Allam

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. Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam return in the fourth series of Jan Etherington’s award-winning comedy, as a long-married couple in love with life and each other. This week, Roger’s formidable Auntie Hilda, ‘cut from the same starched underwear as Bertie Wooster’s Aunt Agatha’ announces she’s coming to live with them. Feisty but frail, she bonds instantly with Amy the dog, and is a hit with all their friends. But Amy’s squeaky pheasant alerts them to an emergency, and after a dash to hospital, a nightmare situation unfolds and spins out of control. BBC Studios has commissioned the TV pilot, for which a script has now been written. But as the leads are busy bees, we might have to wait a while until their schedules align… The new run will see the long married loving couple dealing with a new, young rescue dog, a feisty old auntie, handing out advice to friends and godchildren - and "sailing away into the sunset". Witty, big-hearted and a whole lot of fun, Conversations From A Long Marriage is a collection of eight scripts from the first two series of the Radio 4 comedy starring Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam, and 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.

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." 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.Written for Joanna Lumley by award-winning comedy writer and journalist Jan Etherington, who herself has been married for 35 years. Jan has created and written many long-running radio and television series with her husband Gavin Petrie (Second Thoughts, Next of Kin, Faith in the Future) and has written sketches for Radio 4’s Ayres on the Air, but this is her first solo-scripted, half-hour comedy. She says: “Conversations from a Long Marriage 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.” 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 is exactly that: following conversations that take them from the local café, to their kitchen table. She suggests there are advantages to single beds and wants to go clubbing in Ibiza for her imminent 'big' birthday, he has a dodgy knee and is on statins, and when they discuss the marriage break-up of their closest friends, there's jealousy and talk of affairs. Can Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam ever have done anything better than Jan Etherington’s two hander? Sublimely funny, touching… This is a work of supreme craftsmanship.’ SIMON O’HAGAN, RADIO TIMES Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam star in Jan Etherington’s award-winning comedy, as a couple who are passionate about life and each other. This week: they drop in on some old friends they haven't seen for years. And while Joanna and Roger feel the same as they always have, their friends seem to have changed beyond recognition. He's moved from technicolour to tweed, and she's never even heard of Stormzy.

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Conversations from a Long Marriage is written by Jan Etherington, who has been married to Gavin Petrie for over 30 years. Second Thoughts , Faith In The Future and Next Of Kin. She says: “ Conversations From A Long Marriage 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.” Talking to British Comedy Guide about the genesis of her latest show, Etherington explained further: “I wrote it for Joanna Lumley because she epitomises that ageless style and curiosity for living in the moment. Roger Allam is absolutely wonderful, one of the gods of radio and it was just magical to see them together, they are so in tune and they genuinely like each other.” 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 This gives me hope that life and marriage might permanently include taking the absolute piss while simultaneously dancing in the kitchen’. EMMA FREUD 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. With series five commissioned, there's been talk of television, although, perversely for a writer, it’s not something Jan particularly wants to happen. The temptation in transferring it to TV would be to change it by introducing other characters, yet the USP of the series, she says, is two people having a conversation that nobody else can hear – that's what makes it intimate and real.