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 (Doctor Who) She and Ben meet again at the end of that story and admit their love for each other. Polly (Doctor Who) Polly, sometimes called Polly Wright in spin-off material, is a fictional character played by Anneke Wills in the long-running British science fiction television series "Doctor Who". A young woman from the year 1966, she was a companion of the First and Second Doctors and a regular in the programme from 1966 to 1967. Polly appeared in 9 stories (36 episodes). The only serial featuring Polly which is currently complete in the BBC archive is her first, "The War Machines".