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,
Pretty Polly (ballad) is the musical basis for "Ballad of Hollis Brown" by Bob Dylan who played "Pretty Polly" himself in his early years. Woody Guthrie used the tune of "Pretty Polly" for "Pastures of Plenty". David Lindley's version alters the ending and has Polly draw a razor and kill Willie instead. The song was performed by Hilarie Burhans for the closing credits of the sixth episode of Season 2, "Something Very Expensive" of the HBO series "Deadwood". The song was sung by Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) in Season 2 Episode 4 of the Netflix original series "House of Cards". Pretty Polly (ballad)