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,
Polly James Polly James Polly James (born 1941) is an English actress with a career in theatre, film, television and radio. She was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, under the name Pauline Devaney. After graduating from RADA, James's TV career began in BBC2's "Thirty-Minute Theatre", followed by the role of a drug addict in "Z-Cars" in 1967. She played Audrey Hargreaves in "Coronation Street" in 1967. She is best known for her role as Beryl Hennessey in the first four series of the British sitcom "The Liver Birds" (1969–74), mostly alongside Nerys Hughes. She played Cicely Courtneidge in the biographical musical of the