| The Liver Birds | |
|---|---|
 Polly James (left) and Nerys Hughes | |
| Genre | Sitcom |
| Created by | Carla Lane Myra Taylor |
| Written by | Carla Lane Myra Taylor Lew Schwarz Jack Seddon David Pursall |
| Starring | Polly James (1969–1974, 1996) Pauline Collins (1969) Nerys Hughes (1971–1979, 1996) Elizabeth Estensen (1975–1979) |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 10 |
| No. of episodes | 86 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 24 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | BBC1 |
| Release | 14 April 1969 – 29 December 1978 |
| Release | 6 May – 24 June 1996 |
| Infobox instructions (only shown in preview) | |
The Liver Birds is a British sitcom, set in Liverpool, North West England, which aired on BBC1 from April 1969 to December 1978, and again in 1996. The show was created by Carla Lane and Myra Taylor. The two Liverpudlian housewives had met at a local writers club and decided to pool their talents. Having been invited to London by Michael Mills, the BBC's then Head of Comedy, and asked to write about two women sharing a flat, Mills brought in sitcom expert Sydney Lotterby to work with the writing team.
Lotterby had previously worked with Eric Sykes and Sheila Hancock, and on The Likely Lads. For the Liver Birds, Carla Lane wrote most of the episodes, Taylor co-writing only the first two series. The pilot was shown on 14 April 1969 as an episode of Comedy Playhouse, the BBC's breeding ground for sitcoms at the time.[1]
- ^ BBC Comedy Connections