The Liver Birds and Series 1 starred Pauline Collins as Dawn and Polly James as Beryl Hennessey. In Series 2, Nerys Hughes debuted as Sandra Hutchinson, replacing Dawn for the rest of the programme's run. The Beryl-and-Sandra pairing is generally regarded as the programme's best period. Beryl was the more 'common' one, while Sandra was soft-spoken and more refined, due to the influence of her snobbish, overbearing mother (Mollie Sugden). Carla Lane drew on her own mother for the character – "Mrs Hutchinson, I think she was my mother. I'm sure she was my mother". Beryl's 'common' mother (the Hennesseys live in Bootle,
Samuel James in 2011. From May 2011 to December 2012, he played Phil Mitchell's (Steve McFadden's) lawyer Jimmie Broome in the BBC soap opera "EastEnders". Since December 2014, James has played the role of Garth Stubbs in the revived ITV sitcom "Birds of a Feather", replacing Matt Willis. He currently stars alongside Linda Robson, Pauline Quirke, Lesley Joseph and Charlie Quirke. He also starred in the 2014 "Text Santa" special which guest starred Paul O'Grady. A third revived series was announced in March 2015, and began airing in January 2016 for eight episodes. Samuel James Samuel James is a British actor, and