S8 Contemporary TV

[Stephen Morgan]

For The Love of Ada is a gentle sit-com starring Yorkshireman Wilfred Pickles (wartime newsreader) and then popular comedienne Irene Handle.

Ada starts a relationship with Walter Bingley (Wilfred Pickles), the gravedigger who buried her husband, after meeting him at the cemetery while laying flowers on her husband's grave. Walter is a stout Yorkshireman whose relationship with Ada slowly changes from one of companionship to one of romance. They get engaged and later marry after which they move in together at his cemetery lodge abode.

Ada is prone to using malapropisms which Irene Handl uses to good effect. In essence this show is about a burgeoning romance between elderly people and the bumps along the way.

The series also starred the lovely Barbara Mitchell who was featured in contemporary ads for Palmolive washing up liquid, and Jack Smethurst, best known for his role as bigoted Eddie Booth in Love Thy Neighbour also in 1971.

Ada ran for two series in 1970 and '71 and a film spin off in 1972.

All episodes exist and are available on DVD from Network.