50 Fun Facts About Goodnight Sweetheart

Which Only Fools and Horses star plays time traveller Gary Sparrow in Goodnight Sweetheart?

Nicholas Lyndhurst was already famous as Rodney Trotter when he took the part. The writers felt only he could play Gary, because viewers would forgive him anything.

Gary Sparrow wows wartime drinkers in Goodnight Sweetheart by claiming he wrote songs by which band?

The Beatles supply much of Gary's 'own' material, which he plays on the pub piano years before any of it was written. Elton John hits get the same treatment.

Which politician does Gary Sparrow save from an assassin in Goodnight Sweetheart's original finale?

Clement Attlee, soon to be prime minister, is the guest speaker Gary rescues from a poisoner. Gary decides that saving him was the whole purpose of his travels, because the time portal then closes and strands him.

On his first trip back in Goodnight Sweetheart, what does Gary Sparrow take the wartime pub for?

A themed bar, done up in 1940s style, seems the obvious explanation to a man from 1993. Only when bombs start falling does he accept that he really has walked into 1940.

How does Gary Sparrow argue that he is not really a bigamist in Goodnight Sweetheart?

His wives live decades apart, so Gary insists he is never married to two women at the same time. His best friend Ron is not persuaded by the technicality.

What name does Gary Sparrow give the wartime memorabilia shop he opens in Goodnight Sweetheart?

Blitz 'n' Pieces sells 'antiques' that Gary simply carries home from wartime London. He opens it after losing his job, on the very spot where the time portal stands.

Which wartime entertainer and his wife try to buy a song from Gary Sparrow in Goodnight Sweetheart?

George Formby and his organising wife are keen to add one of Gary's 'new' numbers to the act. Gary talks him out of it, because the tune really belongs to a band of the 1960s.

Goodnight Sweetheart's original run strands Gary Sparrow in the past amid which wartime event?

VE Day finds Gary celebrating victory in Europe with Phoebe when the time portal shuts behind him. The writers stopped there because they felt the story needed the danger of war.

Goodnight Sweetheart's 2016 special reopens the time portal when Gary Sparrow holds which newborn?

Himself as a baby is what the midwife hands Gary, after he visits the hospital in 1962 to watch his own birth. The paradox flings him forward to 2016.

What is the name of the wartime pub where Gary Sparrow meets barmaid Phoebe in Goodnight Sweetheart?

The Royal Oak is run by Phoebe's father Eric when Gary first walks in. After Eric's death Phoebe takes over the running of it herself.

In Goodnight Sweetheart, what is Gary Sparrow's job when he first stumbles through the time portal?

TV repairman Gary is out on a routine call when he walks down a London alley and into 1940. He later swaps the job for a shop of his own.

What cover story does Gary Sparrow use to explain his absences to Phoebe in Goodnight Sweetheart?

He is a secret agent, Gary claims, and knowing how the war will unfold makes the lie convincing. MI5 eventually takes him at his word and sends him on a real mission.

Which trade lets Ron Wheatcroft supply Gary with wartime money and papers in Goodnight Sweetheart?

Printer Ron runs his own firm, so he can turn out white five-pound notes and identity papers to order. He is also the one person who knows where Gary really goes.

What job does dim but friendly Reg Deadman do in the wartime half of Goodnight Sweetheart?

Policeman Reg is a regular at Phoebe's pub and believes every tall tale Gary tells him. His grandson, also in uniform, is the officer who points Gary towards the time portal in 1993.

The time portal that Gary Sparrow finds in Goodnight Sweetheart lies in which part of London?

The East End hides the portal, in an alley Gary enters during a routine call. When the alley is later built over, he buys the commercial unit that stands on the spot.

Which real playwright befriends Gary and Phoebe once they move upmarket in Goodnight Sweetheart?

Noël Coward becomes a friend of the couple and even coaches Phoebe to polish her accent for their smart new address. He is a regular face in the final two series.

Which Irish actress, later Ballykissangel's landlady, first played Phoebe in Goodnight Sweetheart?

Dervla Kirwan played Phoebe for the first three series before the part was recast. She went from one screen pub to another, running Fitzgerald's bar as Assumpta.

Which writing duo, also behind Birds of a Feather, created Goodnight Sweetheart?

Marks and Gran wrote the whole first series themselves before a team of writers joined them. They resolved from the start never to explain why Gary can travel in time.

Which channel showed all six series of Goodnight Sweetheart and revived it for a 2016 special?

BBC One first aired the sitcom in November 1993 and kept it until the original run ended in 1999. The 2016 return was part of a season celebrating classic sitcoms.

What name do Gary Sparrow and Phoebe give their wartime-born son in Goodnight Sweetheart?

Michael arrives at the end of the fourth series, a son who will grow up to be twenty years older than his own father. A later episode shows him in the 1990s as a man in his fifties.

Which Dad's Army actor guest-starred in Goodnight Sweetheart as the grown-up son of Gary and Phoebe?

Ian Lavender, forever Private Pike, plays the couple's son as a man in his fifties who wanders into Gary's shop. Gary then alters the past to give him a better life.

What was the title of the one-off 2016 special that brought Goodnight Sweetheart back to the screen?

Many Happy Returns opens on Gary's birthday in 1962 and soon hurls him forward to the present day. The sitcom's original creators wrote the script.

In what new form did Goodnight Sweetheart return in 2018, premiering at a theatre in Romford?

A stage musical version opened at the Brookside Theatre in September 2018, mixing songs of the 1940s and the 1980s. The sitcom's writers had been talking about one for five years.

What kind of products make Yvonne Sparrow a millionaire by the later series of Goodnight Sweetheart?

Organic cosmetics turn Yvonne from an ambitious employee into a celebrity businesswoman. She ends up selling her company for a multi-million-pound sum.

What is the name of the alley that hides Gary Sparrow's time portal in Goodnight Sweetheart?

Duckett's Passage works for Gary alone at first: his best friend Ron cannot follow him through to 1940. The alley is later built over with a plaza, where Gary opens a shop to stay close to the portal.

In which smart London district do Gary and Phoebe take a luxury flat in Goodnight Sweetheart?

Mayfair gives the couple a grand new address, far from the pub where they met. In the 1990s the very same flat becomes a home for Ron, once Gary hands him the lease.

Which crooner's 1931 recording popularised the song that gave Goodnight Sweetheart its title?

Al Bowlly made the song a hit with Ray Noble's dance orchestra, and his records are heard through the early series. Gary and Phoebe even discuss his wartime death.

Gary Sparrow claims premonitions of which coming attack in Goodnight Sweetheart's Christmas special?

Pearl Harbor is still to come when Gary travels to 1941 and tells a senior American he has foreseen it. Ron sets him off by suggesting someone may have swayed America's decisions before the attack.

A late Goodnight Sweetheart episode sees the time portal misfire, landing Gary Sparrow in which era?

Victorian London greets Gary when he travels the wrong way from the 1940s, with Jack the Ripper on the loose. He learns the murderer has been hiding in what will become his shop's backyard.

What does Gary Sparrow do in Goodnight Sweetheart when Yvonne's new job means moving north?

He fakes his own suicide, with Ron's help, so he can vanish into 1941 rather than move to Macclesfield. Wartime life soon palls, and he slips home to find the note was never discovered.

What odd effect does a bomb-blast knock on the head have on Reg Deadman in Goodnight Sweetheart?

He becomes much smarter and starts solving crimes all over his patch. A second bang on the head, in a scuffle with a crooked bookmaker, turns him back into the old Reg.

What accident at the time portal creates an evil double of Gary Sparrow in Goodnight Sweetheart?

A lightning strike hits Gary as he steps into the portal and releases a ruthless twin, whom Yvonne and Ron rather prefer. A third, saintly Gary turns up before all of them are merged again.

Who captures Gary Sparrow when an MI5 mission lands him in France in Goodnight Sweetheart?

The Gestapo seize Gary and plan to send him on to Berlin. The mission was never meant to leave British soil, and it forces him to act out the spy career he had only invented.

In which city does Gary Sparrow meet Ron's grandfather on a wartime trip in Goodnight Sweetheart?

Liverpool is where Gary and Phoebe run into Ron's grandfather, remembered in the family as a hero who pulled a child from a fire. When events go differently, Gary sees the future change.

Reg Deadman learns he has a son in Goodnight Sweetheart after an affair with a woman in which job?

Bus conductress Margie has been raising little Frankie without Reg knowing the boy is his. Gary works it out and brings father and son together.

How does a stranded Gary Sparrow get a last message to Ron and Yvonne in Goodnight Sweetheart?

He writes under wallpaper in his wartime flat, knowing Ron will be redecorating those very walls in 1999. The words tell Ron to explain everything to Yvonne.

What new career does Phoebe take up after years of pulling pints in Goodnight Sweetheart?

Nightclub singer Phoebe gets her start when Gary sets her up managing a club, hoping to take her mind off emigrating. Reg joins her there as bouncer and part-time barman.

Which future pop hit does Phoebe sing in Goodnight Sweetheart, hinting she still longs to emigrate?

California Dreamin' is the number Phoebe launches into just as Gary thinks he has made her forget about moving to America. It is one of the songs he claims to have written.

After his wartime stag night in Goodnight Sweetheart, where does a drunken Gary Sparrow wake up?

Aboard a plane over the English Channel is where Gary comes round, after passing out during heavy drinking at Phoebe's pub. He then turns up late for his own wedding.

How does Gary Sparrow keep Phoebe hidden when she strays into the 1990s in Goodnight Sweetheart?

He plays a recorded air raid so that Phoebe stays crouched under a table instead of stepping out into modern London. She has been told the shop is where he does his hush-hush war work.

Which big-band standard accidentally lent its title to two separate Goodnight Sweetheart episodes?

In the Mood heads both the sixth episode of series one and the second of series four, thanks to a script-editing slip. The two stories have nothing else in common.

Which Rita, Sue and Bob Too star was the first to play Yvonne Sparrow in Goodnight Sweetheart?

Michelle Holmes, who was Sue in the 1987 film, played Gary's ambitious wife for the first three series. Both of the sitcom's leading ladies were then recast together for series four.

Which actress took over as Yvonne in Goodnight Sweetheart, having first auditioned to play Phoebe?

Emma Amos joined for series four and stayed to the end. Her own daughter, Esme Coy, was later cast as Yvonne's daughter in the 2016 special.

The original Goodnight Sweetheart was made in London, but in which city was the 2016 special filmed?

Salford's dock10 studios hosted the revival, far from the capital where all six original series were made. The script still came from the sitcom's two creators.

Which actor, later Grandad in Outnumbered, played Phoebe's father Eric in Goodnight Sweetheart?

David Ryall appeared in all six episodes of the first series as the patriotic publican who suspects Gary of being a German spy. Eric is killed in a bombing before series two begins.

Which former Boon actress took over as Phoebe for the last three series of Goodnight Sweetheart?

Elizabeth Carling inherited the role in 1997 and kept it right through to the 2016 special. She also released an album of wartime covers named after the sitcom.

Which former Bread actor plays Gary's confidant Ron in every series of Goodnight Sweetheart?

Victor McGuire, earlier Jack Boswell in Carla Lane's sitcom, is one of only two actors to appear in all 59 episodes. The other is the leading man.

Goodnight Sweetheart's leading man was twice voted Most Popular Comedy Performer at which ceremony?

National Television Awards went to him in both 1998 and 1999 for playing Gary. Rodney Trotter, his far more famous role, had earned him three BAFTA nominations.

In which London suburb is Gary and Yvonne Sparrow's 1990s home in Goodnight Sweetheart?

Cricklewood is where Gary leads his ordinary married life, a world away from the bombsites he visits. By the end of the third series Yvonne is keen to sell up for a complex with its own pool and gym.

What is the name of the daughter Gary Sparrow first meets in Goodnight Sweetheart's 2016 special?

Ellie was born after the time portal closed in 1999, so she is sixteen before her father learns she exists. Yvonne had found out she was pregnant only once Gary was stranded.