LTiH 1 Fun Stuff

Fun Stuff

What’s written underneath Cast names in the Opening Credits

Credits-&-Birthdays

Whilst rewatching this show for the nth time, we started to wonder about the squiggles which appear underneath each actor/actress’s names in the opening credits. So we took a screencap of the credits page, magnified it many times, squinted like mad and found out that the squiggles were actually dates – just the day and month but not the year. (See pic above.)

They looked like birthdays, which isn’t surprising since the opening credits were meant to reflect a family chart of sorts. But are they birthdays for the actors/actresses in question or for the characters they play? When we discussed this matter on Twitter, eagle-eyed MaryH pointed out that both Gillian’s and Caroline’s birthday should be 12 January. The opening credits do not seem to reflect that. So we checked it against each actor’s IMDb or Wikipedia pages to see if they were indeed birthdays for the actors and actresses in question.

We posted a query on Twitter for confirmation as to whether those dates were actual birthdays for the actors/actresses in question and got a response from Karen Lewis, one of the producers for this show. You can see the answer in tweets below.

Tweets re Credits & Birthdays

What does “Antony & Cleopatra” have to do with this show?

There are various versions of why this show started off life with the title of “Antony & Cleopatra”. But we did notice that in the very first scene of Episode 1, in the Cafe where Celia broke the news of her new “pen pal” to Caroline, William (Caroline’s eldest son) is seen reading a copy of “Antony & Cleopatra” (presumably for his school work).

Was there an alternative ending filmed?

If you wondered whether there were actually two endings filmed, just in case the BBC wouldn’t ask for a Series 2, read these tweets :

click to see a larger image

click to see a larger image

Download a copy of the script for episode 1

You can download a copy of the script for episode 1 HERE.

Six Degrees

Sacha Dhawan, cast member, was in The Last Train [TV] with Nicola.

Tony Gardner, cast member, was in episode 201 of Big Town All Stars [Audio] where he played Paul, the high school sweetheart of Lorelei, Nicola’s character. He was also in New Tricks, episode 902 (Old School Ties) but did not share any scenes with Nicola.

Murray Gold, composer of the theme for Last Tango in Halifax, also wrote 50 Revolutions [Stage], a play Nicola appeared in in 1999.

Sarah Lancashire, cast member, was in Oliver Twist [TV] with Nicola.

DVD news

Amazon UK now features 3 new images of the DVD packaging for this show. There will only be 2 discs. From the back of the DVD case, it doesn’t look as if there’s any Extras included, which is disappointing. This Region 2 DVD release is also Region 4 (Australia and New Zealand) compatible. Go to Amazon UK to view a larger image of the back image of the DVD case.

Update : 18 September 2013

A Region 1 DVD of Series 1 will be released in the US on 12 November 2013. A slightly different cover image will be used.

20130916 US R1 DVD cover

Update : 8 December 2013

The version of Series 1 shown on PBS in the US is an edited version from the UK version. For more information about this, visit Lynn’s blog page which gives you a complete breakdown of what US fans missed.

Order from Amazon UK

The Region 2 DVD is also Region 4 compatible.


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