The Liver Birds "Man is the dog, and woman is the bone. He eats the best of you, and buries the rest of you, and when his dish is empty—he'll dig you up again." This would be the last series with Beryl; as Polly James explained: "The reason I left the programme in the end was that I felt I was in danger of caricaturing what was already a pretty outrageous character." Producer Sydney Lotterby had to find a new leading actress to keep the series going after Polly James' departure. In 1971 he'd replaced Pauline Collins with Nerys Hughes, and Hughes herself
The Liver Birds accent: James was from Oswaldtwistle, near Blackburn, and Hughes was from Rhyl.) Impressed with Hughes' reading he offered her the part of Sandra, and the new series, in colour, began. The first episode of the second series aired on 7 January 1971. The actresses got on well together. "The rapport between Polly and myself was fairly instant. It was excellent. It happened in a twinkling really" said Hughes later, and James added, "We just fitted together. We learned our lines sipping Pernod milkshakes." Following the second series, Myra Taylor, who missed her family, stopped writing for the show. With 13