The First Lady (British TV series)

The First Lady is a British television series produced by the BBC in 1968 and 1969.

The First Lady
Thora Hird as Sarah Danby
Genre	Drama
Created by	Philip Levene
Written by	Alan Plater Cyril Abraham Robert Storey
Directed by	David Sullivan Proudfoot Brian Parker
Starring	Thora Hird
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	39 (38 missing)
Production
Producer	David Rose
Production locations	Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom
Running time	50 minutes
Original release
Network	BBC1
Release	7 April 1968 (1968-04-07) – 17 July 1969 (1969-07-17)

The series starred Thora Hird as crusading local councillor Sarah Danby and was set around the fictional borough of Furness in Lancashire.^[1] Capitalising on the popularity of its lead actress, The First Lady was a down-to-earth series exploring the inner workings of local government.^[2]

Due to the BBC's wiping policy of the era, the series mostly no longer exists in the BBC archives, with only one complete episode that is known to exist.^[3]

Cast

• Thora Hird as Sarah Danby (39 episodes, 1968–1969)
• Henry Knowles as Tom Danby (38 episodes, 1968–1969)
• Robert Keegan as Will Tarrant (38 episodes, 1968–1969)
• James Grout as George Kingston (38 episodes, 1968–1969)
• Margaret John as Margaret Kingston (8 episodes, 1968–1969)
• Donald Layne-Smith as Alderman Bowland (4 episodes, 1968–1969)
• Pamela Craig as Betty (3 episodes, 1968–1969)
• George A. Cooper as Fred Glossop (3 episodes, 1968–1969)