The Liver Birds sequence for series one also exists but in poor quality. The first series was stopped after four episodes because Polly James' hectic schedule—working every evening on "Anne of Green Gables" in the West End, then rehearsing all day for the TV show—was proving too much. By the time James was available again, Pauline Collins had moved to LWT's "Upstairs, Downstairs". The producer Sydney Lotterby remembered having worked with Nerys Hughes on "The Likely Lads" and, wrongly believing the Welsh actress was from Liverpool, asked her to read for a part in "The Liver Birds". (Neither actress really had a Liverpool
The Liver Birds Sykes and Sheila Hancock, and on "The Likely Lads". Carla Lane wrote most of the episodes, Taylor co-writing only the first two series. The pilot was shown on 14th April 1969 as an episode of "Comedy Playhouse", the BBC's breeding ground for sitcoms at the time. The series charted the ups and downs of two "dolly birds" sharing a flat on Liverpool's Huskisson Street, concentrating on the two young single women's dealings with boyfriends, work, parents and each other. Dressed in the best 1970s fashions, they looked for romance in a loose female equivalent of "The Likely Lads". The pilot