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,
Birds In Britain Birds In Britain Birds In Britain was a BBC Radio series, broadcast from 1951 to 1963 on the Home Service, about wild birds. Its lead presenter was James Fisher. It was created as an offshoot from a programme called "The Naturalist", in order to avoid overwhelming the content of the latter with ornithological material. The first episode was broadcast on 19 March 1951 and was presented by Fisher and produced by Desmond Hawkins, with guest speakers John Gibb (Edward Grey Institute), Bruce Campbell (British Trust for Ornithology), Hilda Quick (Cornwall Birdwatching Society) and Ludwig Koch. Other presenters and guests included