Conversations from a Long Marriage: based on the beloved BBC Radio 4 comedy starring Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam

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Series 4 has now been written and will be recorded in December, to be broadcast in 2023. The six episodes have been provisionally scheduled to be aired in the 6:30pm slot on Wednesdays from 15th February. When I look in the mirror, I want to shout 'OK, I know what it looks like on the outside but inside, I'm still Dancing in the Street, with Martha Reeves and the Vandellas'", she claims, insisting men aren't affected in the same way, until he recounts a poignant encounter, with a woman on a train.

They’re a very clever couple – they work off each other feed off each other,” says Jan. “There’s a real strength in their relationship.” As well as clever, insightful writing, a large part of the magic of Conversations comes from the casting of Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam. Joanna, says Jan, agreed to do the part immediately she read the script, saying it was as though Jan had “listened at her window”. When Jan asked her who could possibly play her husband she suggested Roger – the man all her friends want to be married to. Jan spends just a few days each year with them, recording in a studio, but she says it’s clear they have fantastic chemistry and love working together. Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam star in Jan Etherington’s award-winning comedy, as a couple who are passionate about life and each other. This week: they drop in on some old friends they haven't seen for years. And while Joanna and Roger feel the same as they always have, their friends seem to have changed beyond recognition. He's moved from technicolour to tweed, and she's never even heard of Stormzy. Recording Conversations from a Long Marriage with Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam. (Image: Jan Etherington)

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Etherington has previously explained that she was motivated to create the comedy as she was "tired of my generation being portrayed as golfing caravanners with no reference to how they were in their youth. Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam play a couple who have been married for over 40 years. Children of the Sixties, they’re still free spirits, drawn together by their passion for music – and each other. Joanna and Roger have been married for over forty years. Children of the Sixties, they're still free spirits, drawn together by their passion for music - and each other. Conversations from a Long Marriage won the Voice of the Listener & Viewer Award for Best Radio Comedy in 2020. The delicious fruit of the writer, Jan Etherington’s experience of writing lots of TV and radio, blessed by being acted by Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam. This series makes people laugh’ GILLIAN REYNOLDS. SUNDAY TIMES

Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam play a couple who have been married for over 40 years. Children of the Sixties, they're still free spirits, drawn together by their passion for music - and each other. The show follows their conversations that take them from the local café, to their kitchen table, taking in her resentment of new glasses - a symbol of ageing - and fury at being lectured by the dental hygienist. He has a dodgy knee and is on statins, and when they discuss the marriage break-up of their closest friends, Sally and Peter, there’s jealousy and talk of affairs. She suggests there are advantages to single beds, separate holidays and wants to go clubbing in Ibiza for her imminent ‘big’ birthday. Once more, we are party to Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam’s Christmas plans, in Jan Etherington’s award-winning, two-hander comedy, produced by Claire Jones. Come on!’ I’d shout at my radio and TV. ‘Where are my contemporaries? The strong, smart, funny women who have laughed and loved their way through life since the Summer of Love, and might still be married to the sexy hippie they met at Glastonbury 71?’ " Witty, big-hearted and a whole lot of fun, Conversations From A Long Marriage is a collection of eight scripts from the first two series of the Radio 4 comedy starring Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam, and will resonate with couples of any age - but especially those who are still dancing in the kitchen, singing in the car and trying to keep the passion alive.

Written especially for Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam by award-winning comedy writer and journalist Jan Etherington. With her writing and life partner, Gavin Petrie, Jan has created several hit radio and TV series such as Second Thoughts, Next of Kin, Faith in the Future and The Change. Conversations from a Long Marriage is her first solo narrative comedy series. Conversations from a Long Marriage is a two-hander comedy, starring Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam, as a long-married couple who met in the Summer of Love and are still passionate about life, music and each other. We listen to – and empathise with - their dangling ‘conversations’ covering everything from health scares, jealousy and confessions, to TV incompatibility and sourdough bread. This week, it seems everything is making Roger grumpy, including a neighbour putting out his bin on the wrong day; a car alarm in the night and a shortage of streaky bacon. Roger claims he’s ‘normal’ because ‘most men live lives of quiet desperation’ but Joanna discovers it’s her fault he’s feeling fed up. Peppered with nostalgic 60s hits and especially written for the pair, it’s an endearing portrait of exasperation, laced with hard won tolerance – and something like love.’ THE GUARDIAN