After Henry is a British sitcom that aired on ITV from 4 January 1988 to 24 August 1992.Mark Lewisohn, "Radio Times Guide to TV Comedy", BBC Worldwide Ltd (2003), p. 21.Jeff Evans, The Penguin TV Companion (2001), p. 9. It was based on the radio series of the same name that was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1985 and 1989. Like the radio series, the TV series was written by Simon Brett, and starred Prunella Scales and Joan Sanderson. It was made for the ITV network by Thames Television. The opening and closing music is "Three-Quarter Blues", by George Gershwin.

The BBC was reluctant to produce After Henry for television, so in 1988 after the third radio series Thames Television did so. The show was surprisingly popular, attracting over 14 million viewers. A second television series was shown during the same months as the fourth radio series with, in many cases, both radio and television episodes being broadcast on the same nights. The fourth television series was broadcast from July 1992, after the death of Joan Sanderson, who had died on 24 May.

Cast Prunella Scales – Sarah France Joan Sanderson – Eleanor Prescott Janine Wood – Clare France Jonathan Newth – Russell Bryant Fanny Rowe – Vera Poling (Series 1) Peggy Ann Wood – Vera Poling (Series 2–4) Anne Priestley – Mary (Series 2) Edward de Souza – Sam Greenland (Series 2 and 3)

Plot Sarah France is the 42-year-old widow of a GP, Henry. She lives in an often volatile family situation with her elderly mother, Eleanor Prescott, and her daughter, eighteen-year-old Clare France, with both of whom she shares a house. After Henry's death, all three members of the family have to find a way to cope with each other as best they can.

Sarah often finds herself in the middle of things, usually figuratively, but always literally, given that she has her daughter living upstairs and her mother in the basement flat. (In the radio series, it was the mother who lived upstairs and the daughter downstairs.) Eleanor is ruthlessly cunning and takes every opportunity to get one over on Sarah. Anything told to Eleanor will spread by word of mouth throughout an extensive network of the elderly of the area, or the "geriatric mafia" or "geriatric KGB". Clare is trying to be independent of her mother, though often has to come running back in times of crisis.

The relationships between the three women change constantly through each episode. Sometimes mother and daughter ally against grandmother, sometimes mother and grandmother go against daughter, but usually grandmother and granddaughter gang up on the long-suffering Sarah, whose one haven is Bygone Books, the remarkably unsuccessful second-hand bookshop where she works for Russell, who dispenses in turn sympathy and wisdom. Most of the time, Russell sees the women's relationships second-hand through Sarah, although he isn't opposed to taking the occasional more active role when necessary. In turn, Sarah can see some of Russell's difficulties of living with a gay partner in a small 1980s Home Counties town while at the same time seeing Russell's relationship as the one perfect marriage she knows.

Production The adaptation for television allowed more to be seen of some of the more minor characters in the radio series, with appearances by some who had appeared only by reputation on the radio. These included Eleanor's best friend and rival Vera Poling, and Valerie Brown on the pension counter's sister Mary. In the television adaptation, Sarah also gained an on-off partner in Sam Greenland.

Many of the exterior locations for the television series were shot in the village of Thames Ditton in Surrey and Twickenham.

The property used for the France house exterior is on St George's Road in Twickenham near Twickenham Bridge and was owned at the time by the family of television presenter Sophie Raworth. The gardens have occasionally been open to the public as part of the National Garden Scheme

Episodes Source: SeriesEpisodeTitleFirst broadcast11The Older Man4 January 19882Phone Calls11 January 19883The Teapot18 January 19884Security25 January 19885Romantic Complications1 February 19886The Birthday8 February 1988Special1A Quiet Christmas26 December 198821Intellectual Aspirations10 January 19892Open Secrets17 January 19893Memory Games24 January 19894The Cold31 January 19895Wedding Bells7 February 19896Lines Of Communication (a.k.a. Crossed Wires)28 February 19897Gossip7 March 19898Out On A Limb14 March 19899Upstagers21 March 198910Idle Speculation28 March 198911Efficiency4 April 198912Going Away (a.k.a. Situations Vacant)11 April 1989Special2A Week Of Sundays25 December 198931Mr Right23 January 19902Curiosity30 January 19903Home Comforts6 February 19904Relative Movement13 February 19905The Dinner Party (a.k.a. The Party)20 February 19906Mr Fixit27 February 19907Charity6 March 19908The Mysterious Affair At Bygone Books13 March 19909Party Politics20 March 199010Unforeseen Circumstances (a.k.a. Out of the Blue)27 March 199011Family Album3 April 199012Last Chances (a.k.a. Final Chance)10 April 199041Dependent Relatives20 July 19922Poor Relations27 July 19923A Fully Extended Family3 August 19924Yes And No10 August 19925The Married Man17 August 19926The Other Married Man24 August 1992

DVD releases All four series including a 6-disc set of the complete series have been released on DVD in the UK (Region 2).

The ‘Complete series’ was originally released by Network as a 6 DVD set, but when Network went bankrupt the rights were bought by ‘Old Gold Media’ who re-released the Network set in 2024 with the Network branding removed. They also corrected the Network release which states on the cover ‘contains all 30 episodes’ when the series actually consisted of 38 episodes. Both sets have the same running-time so the error only seems to have been on the cover of the Network set.

DVD Release date The Complete Series 1 10 March 2008 The Complete Series 2 28 January 2009 The Complete Series 3 20 April 2009 The Complete Series 4 22 June 2009 The Complete Series 1 to 4 Box Set 2 November 2009The Complete Series - Box Set1 July 2024

Stage version Encouraged by the success of the transfer from radio to television, in 1991 Simon Brett began writing a stage play version, with intention of both Scales and Sanderson continuing to play their roles, and the option of different actresses to portray Clare. The production was planned as a three hander comedy-of-errors across the generation gaps, but the idea was dropped following the death of Sanderson in 1992, with Brett feeling that the part could not be replicated by anyone else.

Other versions A Dutch version of the series, Zonder Ernst (translating as "without Ernst"), was made by NCRV.

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