Three Up, Two Down


Three Up, Two Down is a British sitcom starring Michael Elphick and Angela Thorne that ran from 1985 to 1989. It was written by Richard Ommanney.

Cast

Nick and Angie have just had a baby, and to help them financially they decide to rent out the basement. Both Nick's father, Sam Tyler, and Angie's mother, Daphne Trenchard, want the basement apartment and the only solution is to share. Sam is a Cockney, while Daphne is Cheltenham-bred and has not forgiven her daughter for marrying Nick, a 'common' photographer. Both Sam and Daphne are widowed, and stubborn. There is mutual contempt between Nick and Daphne: however, Angie is fond of Sam and is forever trying, against all the odds, to keep the peace between him and Daphne. The situation is exacerbated, from Series Two onwards, by the presence of Sam's gloomy and pessimistic zoo-keeper friend Wilf Perkins, who, after being thrown out by his mother, ends up having to share Sam's room, much to Daphne's icy displeasure. Further complications arise through Daphne's brief and disastrous romance with a neighbour, the suave and crooked Major Giles Bradshaw, who is eventually sent to prison for acts of theft and fraud.
The comedy came from the clashes between Sam and Daphne, and the eventual romance that develops between them. The next-door neighbour, Rhonda, was a catalyst for bringing them together.

Episodes

Series One (1985)

  1. Your Place Or Mine?
  2. Widower's Mite
  3. Ill Wind From Cheltenham
  4. Epping's Not Far
  5. Just Desserts
  6. Two Down, One To Go

    Series Two (1986)

  7. Major Inconvenience
  8. Sweet And Sour
  9. Arrivals And Departures
  10. It's Only Rock 'n' Roll
  11. Winner Takes All
  12. Ill Met By Candlelight

    Series Three (1987)

  13. Four's A Crowd
  14. One Flew Over The Perimeter Fence
  15. Truth And Consequences
  16. Mirror Mirror On The Wall
  17. Jailhouse Shock
  18. Come Sail With Me
  19. Life And Death

    Series Four (1989)

  20. Passionfruit
  21. On The Radio
  22. Omelettes And Optimism
  23. Golf
  24. The Driving Test
  25. Cheltenham

    American adaptation

The pilot for an American adaptation of Three Up, Two Down, titled 5 Up, 2 Down, aired on 5 June 1991 on CBS, but was not picked up as a series. Nick and Angie were played by Jeffrey D. Sams and Jackie Mari Roberts, and Angie had given birth to triplets. Sam and Daphne were played by Cleavon Little and Emily Yancy.

Home video

VHS and DVD box sets of the first two series were released on Universal Pictures' Playback imprint in the UK on 17 May 2004. As of 2019, Series 3 and 4 still remain unreleased.