Foreign Affairs (1966 TV series)

Foreign Affairs is a British sitcom that aired on BBC1 in 1966. Starring Leslie Phillips in the lead role, it was set in the Foreign Office in Whitehall. The entire series was wiped and is no longer thought to exist.

Foreign Affairs
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Leonard Samson
Written by	Johnnie Mortimer Brian Cooke Leonard Samson
Starring	Leslie Phillips Richard O'Sullivan Austin Trevor Dorothy Frere Ronnie Barker
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	6
Production
Producer	John Street
Running time	30 minutes
Original release
Network	BBC1
Release	16 September (1966-09-16) – 21 October 1966 (1966-10-21)

Background

All six episodes were written by writing partners Johnny Mortimer and Brian Cooke, with creator Leonard Samson also co-writing one episode. Foreign Affairs introduced the writers to young actor Richard O'Sullivan and this would lead to his title role in the 1970s sitcom Man About the House.^[1]

Cast

• Leslie Phillips as Dennis Proudfoot
• Richard O'Sullivan as Taplow
• Austin Trevor as Sir Hugh Marriot
• Dorothy Frere as Miss Jessup
• Ronnie Barker as Grischa Petrovitch
• Joe Melia as Serge Volchanivov
• Sonia Graham as Irinka

Plot

Womaniser Dennis Proudfoot works in the Foreign Office in Whitehall as the personal assistant to Sir Hugh Marriot, the administrator of foreign relations. The programme focuses on the conflicts between the Foreign Office and the counterparts at the Soviet Embassy in London. Serge Volchanivov is the commissar for foreign relations and his assistant is Grischa Petrovitch. Taplow is the 20-year-old post-room boy.^[1]

Episodes

Foreign Affairs aired on Fridays at 7.30pm.^[1] Due to the archival policies of the time, all six episodes were subsequently wiped and no longer exist.^[2]

#	Episode Title	Original Broadcast Date
1	"The Foreign Body"	16 September 1966
2	"Can We Have Our Ball Back?"	23 September 1966
3	"The Leak"	30 September 1966
4	"Learning to Compromise"	7 October 1966
5	"One of Our Islands is Missing"	14 October 1966
6	"The Exterminator"	21 October 1966