Valentine Park

For the Gants Hill garden park, see Valentines Park.

Valentine Park
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Glen Cardno Nicholas Hyde
Written by	Various
Directed by	Nic Phillips (Series 1) John Woods (Series 2)
Starring	Ken Jones David Thewlis Daniel Peacock Liz Smith
Theme music composer	Philip Bird
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	12
Production
Executive producer	Jon Scoffield
Producer	Glen Cardno
Production locations	London, England, UK
Running time	30 minutes
Production company	Central Independent Television
Original release
Network	ITV
Release	19 June 1987 (1987-06-19) – 26 August 1988 (1988-08-26)

Valentine Park is a British sitcom series created by Glen Cardno and Nicholas Hyde which ran for two series between 19 June 1987 and 26 August 1988 on the ITV network. The series focuses on the comedic, often chaotic daily life of a park staff, featuring Tom (Ken Jones) and his run-ins with a new, strict boss, alongside eccentric staff member Mrs. Giles, played by Liz Smith. It was produced by Central Independent Television.

Plot

A rather curious sitcom. There was nothing wrong with the cast - Ken Jones, Liz Smith and Danny Peacock were involved - but the humour was roundly criticised for being juvenile. Sure enough, when LWT brought it back for a second series, it went out in a children's time-slot, Fridays at 5.15pm, albeit in school-holiday time.

Jones was cast as Tom, the head gardener in a large public park, proud of his marigolds but saddened to see that the park has a new employee, his errant godson Max (David Thewlis). Also working there are two laddish young men, Bodie (Daniel Peacock) and Doyle (Bernard Padden), who - as their names suggest - like to think of themselves as players in The Professionals, and, as the park's security officers, have the licence to behave accordingly. Max, who boards with the mad landlady Mrs Giles (Liz Smith), falls in love with Claire (Katy Newell), who lives with her irrational mother Maggie (played by Penny Morrell, real-life wife of George Cole).

Valentine Park was co-created and the first series was co-written by Nicholas Hyde, a 30 year-old public parks gardener from Kent with no previous writing experience.

Cast

• Ken Jones as Tom
• David Thewlis as Max
• Daniel Peacock as Bodie
• Liz Smith as Mrs. Giles
• Katy Newell as Claire
• Penny Morrell as Maggie
• Bernard Padden as Doyle (Series 1)
• Kenneth Farrington as Philip (Series 2)
• Ellis Dale as Gordon Smackley (Series 2)

Episodes

Series overview

Series	Episodes		Originally released
			First released	Last released
1	6		19 June 1987 (1987-06-19)	24 July 1987 (1987-07-24)
2	6		22 July 1988 (1988-07-22)	26 August 1988 (1988-08-26)

Series 1 (1987)

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
1	"Episode 1"	Nic Phillips	Glen Cardno Nicholas Hyde	19 June 1987 (1987-06-19)
2	"Episode 2"	Nic Phillips	Glen Cardno Nicholas Hyde	26 June 1987 (1987-06-26)
3	"Episode 3"	Nic Phillips	Glen Cardno Nicholas Hyde	3 July 1987 (1987-07-03)
4	"Episode 4"	Nic Phillips	Glen Cardno Nicholas Hyde	10 July 1987 (1987-07-10)
5	"Episode 5"	Nic Phillips	Glen Cardno Nicholas Hyde	17 July 1987 (1987-07-17)
6	"Episode 6"	Nic Phillips	Glen Cardno Nicholas Hyde	24 July 1987 (1987-07-24)

Series 2 (1988)

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
7	"No Particular Place to Go"	John Woods	Ian Whitham	22 July 1988 (1988-07-22)
8	"Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"	John Woods	Geoff Rowley	29 July 1988 (1988-07-29)
9	"Who's Minding the Marigolds?"	John Woods	Ian Whitham	5 August 1988 (1988-08-05)
10	"A Rose by Any Other Name"	John Woods	Richard Sparks Niall Clark	12 August 1988 (1988-08-12)
11	"Heroes and Villains"	John Woods	Geoff Rowley	19 August 1988 (1988-08-19)
12	"Swarm!"	John Woods	Richard Sparks Niall Clark	26 August 1988 (1988-08-26)

External links

• Valentine Park at IMDb
• Valentine Park at the Phill.co.uk Comedy Guide
• Valentine Park at British Comedy Guide