Outside Edge was a British comedy-drama television series produced by Central Independent Television (later Carlton UK Productions) for ITV and aired between 1994 and 1996. It was written by Richard Harris and based on his stage play of the same title, first performed in 1979. The play had previously been filmed in 1982 by London Weekend Television but this article concentrates primarily on the TV series, which expanded upon as well as adapted the original work.
Outside Edge (the term actually referring to the edge of a cricket bat furthest away from the batsman) focused on the complicated private lives and marital relationships of Brent Park Cricket Club, an amateur team somewhere in the south of England. It centred around the club captain, Roger Dervish (Robert Daws), a man who saw every match as a literal battle to the death, and his perpetually put-upon wife, Miriam (Brenda Blethyn) whose fantastic teas made the club more famous than anything that happened at the wicket. Bullied and taken for granted at the start, Miriam began to come out of her shell under the influence of happy-go-lucky Maggie (Josie Lawrence), whose lazy amateur chef husband Kevin (Timothy Spall) was the club's champion bowler. Despite constantly bickering, Kevin and Maggie had a much happier married life than the Dervishes, with their sole heartache being their inability to have a child. Other team members included middle-aged letch Dennis Broadley, Bob Willis who was forever caught between his first and current wives, and supercilious young solicitor Alex Harrington.
The series was filmed around Central's Nottingham heartland, was produced by Paula Burdon and directed by Nick Hurran. It was one of the first British comedy series to be shot single-camera and use filmized videotape. Three series were produced, plus an extended Christmas special in 1995 that saw the team travel to Corfu to play a match there.
Outside Edge provides examples of:
- The '90s: Phone boxes, big glasses, camcorders and only one member of the team (Bob) has a mobile. Also the music at the club barbeque in series two.
- Adaptation Expansion: The series adapted and considerably expanded upon the original stage play, which centres around a single Saturday afternoon's match at Brent Park Cricket Club. On TV, we get to see the characters at home, at away matches and in their everyday lives. The storylines from the play are mainly used in series one, with a couple in series two. By the Christmas special and series three, all the storylines were created especially for TV. Additional players are also added such as Imran, Nigel, Fred, John the vicar and Clive, plus characters such as Dennis's wife Shirley who was The Ghost in the original play appear onscreen.
- Adaptation Name Change: Bob was Bob Wiley in the original play but Bob Willis (a real cricketer's name) on TV.
- Are You Sure You Can Drive This Thing? Kevin and Maggie present the club with a new motor-mower in series three. Everyone wants a go - but it's Miriam who gets the throttle stuck and goes surging off across the fields. She's rescued by Clive.
- Ascended Extra: Nigel. He's a one-off minor character in series one but a regular member of the team from series two. Also Arnold, who starts as a non-speaking team member but has dialogue by the end of series two.
- Awful Wedded Life: Roger and Miriam in series one, though they manage to mend their relationship and become happier together from series two, partly due to Maggie's influence and Roger having learned not to take Miriam for granted.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: Miriam. She's endlessly sweet, kind, polite and good-natured with people, but don't push her too far - when she finally starts to lose patience with Roger at the climax of series one, she can be forthright, sarcastic and vitriolic with the best of them, and starts answering back, smoking again, and flirting with Dennis until even Roger has to notice. Inverted for the climax of series two where she fights like a tigress to keep Roger in control of the club.
- Bratty Food Demand: Miriam is ill and unable to join Roger at the pavilion. Alex's reaction? "Never mind about all that, who's going to do my tea?"
- Bratty Half-Pint: The team is bothered by a mischievous kid in the final episode of series two, who impresses Roger with his cricket knowledge and asks if he can have a bowl. Determined to prove himself a better candidate for captain than Alex, Roger agrees and announces he will set up a junior branch of the team. The kid then takes a very, very long run-up... then runs off with the ball.
- Break the Haughty: Alex's karmic punishment during series three. See Laser-Guided Karma below.
- Brits Love Tea: Everything, but everything revolves around the tea interval at Brent Park CC, and heaven help Roger if there are no refreshments for the team to enjoy.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Roger. He has created the cricket club from scratch, finds it two different grounds, organises every match pretty well but sees food, housework, car maintenance and just about everything else as Miriam's responsibility. Also Kevin, who's a champion bowler, excellent chef, has some success in the printing business, but relies on Maggie to look after him.
- Career Versus Man: Miriam gave up a promising secretarial career and an amateur singing career to look after Roger and their children. This is still a bone of contention between them.
- Challenging the Chief: Alex challenges Roger for captaincy of the team in series two.
- Character Catchphrase:
- Christmas Special: The 1995 Christmas Day special 'Corfu: OK, Fair Enough?' sees the team reunite to hold a party commemorating their away match in Corfu.
- Come to Gawk: After being disfigured by Sophie's dog in series three, Alex attempts to return to the cricket ground just to watch the team lose without him, but then Miriam and every member of the team wants to come and have a look at his face minus a nose.
- Dark Secret: Several. Roger's dark secret comes out at the end of series one - he had a one-night stand with the divorced sister of rival captain Piggy Pearson following an away match in 1993. Alex is on the verge of wresting control of the team from Roger at the end of series two - until Maggie discovers from Alex's old schoolmaster that Alex was never captain of the First XI at school as he claimed, just a selfish player in the Second XI. Blackmail over this induces Alex to withdraw his challenge. Maggie then has a dark secret of her own revealed by her sister in series three - it isn't Maggie but Kevin who is unable to give them a baby. This almost breaks up their marriage.
- Dinner with the Boss: Alex brings Gerald Mason, the senior partner of his law firm, to the club barbeque. He's been trying to impress him but after Alex snubs Kevin, Maggie teaches him a lesson by behaving outrageously flirtatiously in front of Gerald and getting Alex to dance with her.
- Dirty Old Man: Dennis.
- Dodgy Toupee: Subverted with Dennis in series three - he's bald, vain and suddenly starts appearing with his cap permanently on his head. Everyone, especially Bob, assumes he's building up to the reveal of a new hairpiece, but in the final episode we discover he's been concealing the scars of a hair transplant that went badly wrong.
- Domestic Abuse: Roger to Miriam, Dennis to Shirley, Ginnie to Bob... Treated more lightly than a comedy series would today.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Alex's reaction to Sophie trying to support him in the final episode, following his accident. He's threatening to sue her, her dog, and everyone on the team.
- Enforced Plug: Albeit for a good cause: on the original broadcast, the Christmas special had the ITV Christmas Care Line phone number scrolling across the screen towards the end. A couple of cast members recorded pieces to camera promoting the service, to be shown later in the evening.
- Evil Lawyer Joke: Often used by Bob against Alex. Bob hates solicitors, being a divorcee, and especially Alex who keeps running him out.
- Flashback: At the start of series three there's a flashback to the end of series two, with Roger announcing the leasing of the new cricket ground.
- Feminine Women Can Cook: Miriam is synonymous with her teas in the eyes of the team, and when she gets flu, Roger and everyone else start looking around for another woman to do the job, with no one thinking of Kevin.
- Forced from Their Home: Bob is thrown out by Ginnie during series three and goes to stay with the Dervishes after being found sleeping in the pavilion, though Ginnie later denies this and says he walked out.
- Framing Device: In the Christmas special, Roger's atrocious amateur video of the Corfu trip is used as a framing device to the action, with the team watching the trip before we flashback to events in Corfu.
- Funny Foreigner: The Spanish staff of the hotel on the Brent Park team's Cromer trip. They can't pronounce anyone's name, having Roger as 'Ro-gerr' and Bob Willis as 'Willies'.
- Handy Man: A Handy Woman - Maggie, the daughter of a bricklayer, is the one who does her and Kevin's DIY and can build, paint, decorate or repair just about anything.
- Happier Home Movie: Roger's movie of the Corfu trip helps to mend most of the relationships within the team in the Christmas special. This is then inverted when Ginnie spots Bob on the video with his ex-wife Helen, setting off a chain of furious rows.
- Harassing Phone Call: Roger gets arrested for making one to his own wife in the first series, Kevin having suggested a fun call to Miriam might be a way to reinvigorate their sex life.
- Henpecked Husband: Bob, by both his wife Ginnie and his former wife Helen.
- Hidden Depths: Dennis's emotionally unstable wife Shirley can crochet and play the church organ.
- Housewife: Miriam, apart from some occasional temping for a secretarial agency. She gave up full-time work to look after Roger and their children.
- Humiliation Conga: Alex gets one in each of the two final episodes - when everyone on the team wants to see what he looks like after the dog attack, and when they all laugh at him for turning up in church in a Gag Nose.
- In-Joke: Jeremy Nicholas left as Bob after series one and was replaced by Michael Jayston. Series two starts with Roger taking a phone call from someone called Jeremy, furious that he's unable to play.
- Insatiable Newlyweds: Kevin and Maggie still behave like this, even though they've been married for about five years at the start of the series. On one occasion they're implied to have had sex in Roger and Miriam's garden shed when they just couldn't wait, having made up a row.
- It's All About Me: It doesn't matter if your basement has collapsed, if your wife is having a baby, if you're a Vicar about to do a christening... if Roger needs you to play or do something for the team, he expects you to put this above all else.
- Kid Hero: Clive, in the final series. He's a very young new addition to the team and gets treated patronisingly by other team members, but falls in love with Miriam and appoints himself her Guardian Angel, finally plucking up the courage in the final episode to tell Roger he doesn't deserve Miriam.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The vain and arrogant Alex, who's obsessed with his looks, gets attacked by Sophie's dog in series three, which bites off his nose, thankfully offscreen. He's only seen from behind or in a ridiculous Gag Nose for the remainder of the show.
- Law of Inverse Fertility: Kevin and Maggie are (mainly) happy together, and can't have the baby they long for. Bob and Ginnie aren't, and have a child together.
- Lethal Chef: Shirley's appalling cooking sees Dennis spend much of the series two opener in the lavatory. When he eventually goes in to bat, he starts to run... and just keeps running.
- Manchild: Just about every member of the team. They all turn out to play every Saturday afternoon, but rely on the women in their lives to look after them and keep them in order. Miriam even has to segment Roger's breakfast grapefruit for him, and sometimes uses childlike language such as "there's a brave little soldier" when administering first aid.
- Meaningful Funeral: Arranged for Fred in series two. Unfortunately, a drunken Kevin has suggested to Roger it be a Cheerful Funeral and has neglected to tell anyone else on the team. Roger and Miriam turn up in the brightest outfits imaginable, to find everyone else dressed in black.
- Nice Guy: Nigel. His amicability sometimes leads to him being bullied or exploited - but he'll do anything for Roger and the team, even being persuaded to play cricket while his leg is in plaster.
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The Other Darrin: Jeremy Nicholas and Ben Daniels played Bob and Alex in series one, but were replaced by Michael Jayston and Christopher Lang from series two. - The Precious, Precious Car: Dennis gets himself a smart new silver BMW at the end of series two, only for his vengeful wife Shirley to set fire to it. Alex is also obsessed with his car, telling his girlfriend Sharon "just don't go touching any of my switches".
- Psycho Poodle: Sophie's dog is one, as Alex discovers to his cost.
- Public Domain Soundtrack: The theme and most of the incidental music for the series consists of classical pieces, arranged by Fiachra Trench. This includes Haydn's 'Surprise Symphony' for the opening titles, 'Carmen' for Maggie and the 'wolf' theme from Prokofiev's 'Peter and the Wolf' for Dennis.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The Brent Park cricket team.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: The real cricket pavilion and field used up until the Christmas special were becoming increasingly difficult to use, with filming having to take place around fixtures for the real-life team. This led to Brent Park CC moving to a new ground at the start of series three, with the new pavilion being built on location especially for the production.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: A drunken and frustrated Roger gives such a speech to Miriam in their hotel room in Cromer, telling her she's a boring person who doesn't like fun. The next night she's on the verge of leaving him... when Imran's wife Aysha tells Roger he's quitting the team, since neither of them can stand a silly, rude, unpleasant little man like Roger any longer. This leads Miriam to realise Roger still needs her and they stay together.
- Remember the New Guy?: Fred, whose sudden death on the pitch dramatically opens a series two episode, is introduced at the start of series two but everyone behaves as though he's always been a member of the team. Also applies to Nigel who only appeared once in series one but regularly thereafter and again, everyone implies he's always been around.
- Romantic Candlelit Dinner: Kevin and Maggie enjoy these at home, with Kevin doing the cooking, though he lets Maggie choose the menu.
- Shout-Out: During the Corfu trip, Maggie is chatted up by Spiros, a middle-aged Greek who says she must be unhappy in her marriage and invites her aboard his boat. Maggie turns him down politely, noting: "I've seen the film" (Shirley Valentine).
- Shrinking Violet: Alex's occasional girlfriend Sharon in the first two series (and the original stage play), whose natural timidity isn't helped by him treating her with complete contempt. By her second appearance she's a little more confident and is booked in for 'insertiveness training', which is just as well, as Roger tries to rope her in to make the teas when Miriam is ill. She produces six small sandwiches and Kevin has to help out, though he allows her to take the credit.
- Sick Episode: When Miriam gets flu in series two, Roger has to find someone else to make the teas.
- Slow and Steady Wins the Race: Roger hasn't got the greatest cricket team, and there are jokes about their low success rate when his captaincy is challenged in series two, but over the course of the series we see them win far more matches than they lose. Specifically: five won, one lost, plus one abandoned due to the death of a player, one draw because rain stopped play, and two outcome unknown.
- Smug Snake: Alex.
- Soup Is Medicine: Maggie takes Miriam some of Kevin's chicken soup when she is suffering from flu.
- Special Guest: Real-life star cricketer Godfrey Evans (Roger's hero) appears As Himself at the start of series three, opening the team's new pavilion. Hilarity Ensues when he gets trapped inside a portaloo and has to cut the ribbon from inside it.
- Spoiled Brat: Alex.
- Sympathetic Adulterer: Inverted with Bob, who is forever being drawn back to his first wife Helen to pay bills, do odd jobs, mow the lawn etc., much to the fury of his second wife (and previously, lover), Ginnie.
- Team Chef: Kevin. Also a Supreme Chef, who takes any criticism of his food from Maggie very personally. Miriam is also the Team Chef when the tea interval arrives, and Roger knows that any lack of refreshments means he could face a mutiny. Indeed, there are suggestions that only Miriam's teas hold the club and its reputation together.
- Team Mom: Miriam.
- The Vicar: The team's new ground in the final series is close to a church, and its Vicar John joins the cricket team.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: Alex's new girlfriend and eventual fiancée Sophie, in the Christmas special. She seems endlessly sweet and nice and has encouraged him to become the same... until Bob turns on Alex at the climax and Sophie starts insulting every member of the team.
- Wedding Episode: Kevin and Maggie are all set to renew their wedding vows in the final episode, with the whole team and their wives in attendance. After being endlessly delayed, they then decide they can't face it, so Roger and Miriam renew their vows instead.
