Butterflies (1978–1983) User Reviews

Love is like a butterfly

[Prismark10 · 7/10 · 4 October 2013]

Butterflies is a low key introspective comedy that was more popular with females than males.

It had a nuclear family, a wife who was a bad cook, a husband who was rather distant and reserved.

The husband is a dentist and collects butterflies in his spare time and two older sons who drive, are unemployed and are rather rebellious youths.

The comedy is bitter-sweet, you get traditional comedy via Ria's cooking and family disputes. However what was unusual was Ria's unconsummated relationship with the successful businessman Leonard.

Ria is dissatisfied and wants something more in life and believes that its obtainable with her unconventional friendship with Leonard.

The series ran for five years, Wendy Craig played Ria to a tee, Geoffrey Palmer was his hound dog best as her husband Ben.

Nicholas Lyndhurst played one of the sons and he ended up playing Rodney Trotter in Only Fools and Horses at almost the same time.

The businessman Len was played by Bruce Montague who in effect had a difficult role and did well to make a potential Lothario so likable.

Good example of its type

[budikavlan · 8/10 · 11 July 2004]

British comedies tend to fall into one of two main types: the quiet, introspective, usually romantic study and the farcical social satire. Settings, characters, and concepts vary but certain characteristics place the vast majority of shows into one of the two categories. Butterflies is perhaps the epitomé of the first type.

The scripts are very verbal, including long interior monologues by the main character Ria, a basically happy but unsettled housewife curious about what she might have missed out on when she embarked on a thoroughly conventional life. When she meets a successful but clumsy and emotionally accessible businessman (who makes his interest in her quite clear), she toys with the idea of finding out what the other path might have offered.

The acting and scripts are always on the money, which makes one's reaction to the show almost entirely a personal one: I was neither blown away by it nor turned off. My mother, on the other hand, adored this show. I think the degree to which one identifies with Ria's dilemma is the most important factor in determining one's reaction to Butterflies.

Elusive Butterfly

[lwmtem · 8/10 · 16 January 2017]

A married woman with two adult sons and a husband who is less than attentive, is pursued by a man who just can't get her out of his mind in his effort not to chase her away. Perhaps bored, frustrated in her middle years, she tends to her family and maintains a home is most of her focus and often gets her into situations that brings out the humor with each frustrating calamity thrown her way.

Ria can often be found driving her son's car to and from town, the British Flag paint job, as it is rather small for her frame.

According to her blunt sons, Ria mostly has no skill sets in the kitchen. In one episode she is watching a cooking show where something is being 'created to top off a tasty meal'. With all her ingredients laid out, and all her effort, she still can't keep up with the TV host who has her fumbling with everything on the counter and she ends up tossing it away before the show is done. It has been 35 years since I last saw the series, but I cherished every episode. I think you will too!

One of the best

[nig@l · 8 April 2003]

Even 20-odd years after the fact (and with it's late-70s sexual revolutionism looking humorously dated these days), Carla Lane's 'Butterflies' remains one of the freshest and funniest sitcoms Britain ever produced. The story itself is relentlessly simple -- a stifled housewife's yearning for more in her life is complicated by a distantly ironic husband, two sex-crazed still-at-home sons, and the romantic attention of a wealthy playboy whose desire revs up the more undesirable she feels. But it's not the plot that makes 'Butterflies' great so much as it is the opportunity that that plot gives Lane to explore Ria Parkinson's world as it slowly collapses around her, and it's impossible not to see a little bit of oneself in the sometimes-hilarious, sometimes-sobering struggles of Lane's memorable characters as they attempt to survive the small anguishes of day-to-day life. Smart writing and great performances all around.

A few years back, 'Butterflies' would show up in late-night rotation on PBS in the states and Canada; if it does again, catch it.

Very well-acted sitcom

[DavidYZ · 7/10 · 2 June 2017]

This is a BBC sitcom about a middle-class housewife in suburban Gloucestershire. She meets a man, and for years contemplates whether or not to have an affair with him - before deciding against it.

The central storyline is lame. Keeping a man who becomes increasingly fond of her on the hook for years prevents the viewer from liking her as it makes her character unsympathetic.

The acting is very good and the interactions between the family members are very well-done. The family scenes are much better and funnier than the scenes with her and the man who wants to be her lover.

BBC by Pinter

[sanjsrik · 7/10 · 3 May 2022]

Imagine the dialog from a pinter play, the awkwardness that only the English can deliver, and the lilt of a series from the 70s.

There's butterflies. Just like all the other shows made about this time, off quirky characters, strange upbeat show about absolutely nothing. Nothing to threaten your sense of purpose or well-being. All, perfectly, happy, and "normal" (ish).

An acquired taste

[kayfabe · 9/10 · 17 February 2007]

Looking back over the past 28 years (since my first exposure to the show), all i can say is: Once you get it-it will stay with you forever. I remember my initial reaction being: 1) annoyingly overacted, 2)under produced 3) unlikeable characters

Well, two years later I watched some episodes again and didn't find it nearly as annoying. A year later I was able to catch the entire series from the beginning and quickly became engrossed in it's bittersweet tale of human fault and perspectives on happiness. Yes, the show has a style that is not for everybody, and I'm sure the dated production value would be hard to deal with now. But, I still think about the show at least once a month with a vague teary eyed longing for what seemed like simpler times...

BTW I am a married man...(for all who think this is a show for females)

Butterflies could be the best Britcom ever

[sts-26 · 10/10 · 9 January 2009]

This series could very well be the best Britcom ever, and that is saying a great deal, considering the competitors (Fawlty Towers, Good Neighbours, to name just two).

What made Butterflies so superior, even to the best of the best, is that it did not just exemplify great, classic, classy and intelligent comedy, but it also expanded horizons, reflecting - flawlessly, gently, and at every detail - the great social change that was occurring in Britain at the time.

I remember watching this show as a teenager and being in awe of everything about it. The lifestyle depicted was remarkable in itself. This was the first time I saw real people using cordless phones. And the wardrobe of all the characters was far removed from the goofy seventies attire still seen in North America at the time. Then there were the decors, shop fronts, cars. These people - even the layabout sons, with their philosophical approach to life and epigrammatic humor - were sophisticated. They were examples of the "New Europeans" that would come to have an impact on life and style throughout the world in the coming decade (1980s).

Of course, the premise was strange and fantastic. The idea that someone who was living the suburban dream could be so discontent and restless was revolutionary, particularly to North Americans for whom happiness was always defined as money and things (sure the situation was depicted in American movies and TV, but not with the intensity of Butterflies or the movie Montenegro). And, if the premise was not surprising enough, the means by which it was expressed took it to the extreme. A potential affair that was not really about sex, or even romance? Butterflies dazzled many, but it must have left some people smacking their foreheads in disbelief... at the time anyway.

Butterflies turned out to be - in so many ways - prophetic. It documented, ahead of its time - post-modern ennui, all-pervasive lifestyle, the notion of emotional infidelity, and generational disconnect and male discontent (portrayed perfectly by the strained father-son relationships). It is too bad this series has not been rediscovered in a big way, and all those involved given credit for creating a meaningful snapshot of a certain time and place, and foreseeing all the slickness and angst that was to come.

Not a comedy

[timmytoo2001-2 · 3/10 · 19 December 2020]

I'm most likely in a minority here, but I really cannot understand why this is being portrayed as a comedy. It portrays a totally sterile marriage where the husband and wife have no connection whatsoever and just stay together out of habit. The husband is unable to recognize or meet his wife's emotional, or other, needs while the wife is equally unable to make those needs plain to her husband, meanwhile their two live-at-home sons seem to have no respect whatsoever for either of them. Meanwhile, the wife is being pursued relentlessy by a handsome stranger who wants nothing more than an affair with her-while wanting to indulge, she is afraid to take the step as it would undoubtedly signal the end of her marriage, so she remains eternally dissatisfied with life.

It's a bleak view of what many marriages become, without a single comedy moment in it. The only redeeming feature is that it is the fist time that we see Nicholas Lyndhurst in a long-running serial-he's later to become well known as the immortal Rodney in Only Fools and Horses-now THAT'S a comedy!.

Great Program

[execelsior-1 · 10/10 · 27 August 2010]

The program is for adults. Don't be fooled when I say this. It is not smutty or dirty in anyway. It is a thoughtful program that is touching and quite sad at times. One feels oneself sighing a lot as one watches it. I really enjoyed this program. It had such a sadness about it and captured the boredom that so many folks like Ria had suppressed for years. Her children were suitably hopeless creatures. The signature tune captured the mood of the program perfectly. If only the sitcoms of today matched the level of enterprise of this show. If only writers, directors, producers etc KNEW of this program, perhaps we would not get so much garbage on TV today. Wendy Craig and the rest of the cast were excellent, but this is to be expected since they are all professionals.

Twee. Just for mum & grannie..

[dogyorky · 4/10 · 5 March 2021]

It was pretty bad when originally released. Now? - don't go there. Just the kind of thing my mum loves, 'old lady humour'. Ok for people who are incontinent.

A glistening gem among the sitcoms.

[mcwill-2 · 23 July 2000]

Far superior to the majority of sitcoms, "Butterflies" is a gentle, subtle, elegant delight. It tells the story of Ria (Wendy Craig) - a middle aged housewife with a family who becomes friends with a loveable, self-indulgent businessman but cannot take the relationship any further due to her loyalty to her husband. Much of the programme deals with her dreamy, wistful nature which results in a few overcooked meals. The acting by the three leads is superb. Geoffrey Palmers conservative manner and appearance maker him perfect as Ria's conventional dentist husband and Wendy Craig's charm and grace make 'Ria' especially sympathetic. Sometimes philosophical, sometimes poetic, "Butterflies" should be adored by a discerning audience.

Typical Carla Lane.

[stephenreeds-93728 · 2/10 · 7 March 2024]

I've never understood how Carla Lane became so popular for I've never found any of her work remotely funny and Butterflies is right up there. I just don't get it. Poor Geoffrey Palmer having to inhabit a one dimensional character episode after episode. I fact, they're all one dimensional. Rea can't cook....over and over again the joke is repeated. She moans about having to look after the house... with a stereotypical cleaner. The sons are just painful; a couple of "cool" entitled smart arses who every now and then notice their mother and insult their father. But people loved it! Why? Not the worse tedious middle class sitcom...that must go to No Place Like Home...but surely not comedy.

enjoyed a "cult" of its own?

[footsperry · 3 March 2004]

Once you read through all the viewers' comments, you can see that "Butterflies" had a devoted crop of followers who found this show fresh, gentle, involving and - funny. Even today I think back fondly for that show. I watched each week, and I was so grateful for each of these wonderful characters. Geoffrey Palmer was remarkable in playing what I would think a difficult role (makes me think of the husband's part in "Iris," or a couple of the husbands in "Enchanted April"). Ria's character was of course the center, and I appreciated her situation - even sympathized with her, for I was in her kind of spot when I got hooked on the series.

"Butterflies" showed real people making sense of their lives. I loved it!

Good..but not exactly a "comedy"

[Kay-29 · 27 December 2003]

"Butterflies" bears the unfortunate label of being a "gentle" British comedy..which is something of a misnomer. Dramedy, if that word still exists, would fit the bill better. Gentle, yes, so don't tune in expecting gut-busters or you will be sorely disappointed. Instead, smiles (not guffaws) come from how relatable the characters are and how well underplayed they are. The main storyline (Ria is bored with her marriage and her life; should she succumb to the excitement of an extramarital affair?) won't appeal to everyone but if you enjoy following character development week after week and have an attention span that meets or exceeds 25 minutes, you may well enjoy "Butterflies". In addition to the wonderfully wry Wendy Craig the cast includes "As Time Goes By" favorite/britcom perennial Geoffrey Palmer.

Low-key but delightful comedy as only the British can produce.

[scmatches · 20 November 2003]

This delightful series boasts a first-rate cast and original scripts. Principally from Ria's (the housewife) point of view, this low-key and often whistful comedy shows a mid-life crisis as it not only affects her, but those around her. The laughs come from reality-based comedy situations, and from self- or situation-recognition. I don't think there's a single disappointment here.

Very funny, low key comedy

[geordie87 · 14 February 2003]

This is one of the most subtle comedies to come out of the UK. Not as brash or slapstick as a lot of others. Lots of character development, especially the lead, Ria, played by Wendy Craig. Every middle aged woman I know that has seen Butterflies relates to the frustrations that Wendy portrays so well, not just the stale marriage and longing for romantic adventure, but also the idea of being a stay-at-home "kept woman". The extra kicker is that she isn't even a good housewife. Lousy cook etc. Luckily, her long suffering husband has learned to cope with her, keeping his head down, and advising his sons to "act normally" as they listen to Ria's frustrations pour out. The whole supporting cast was so well chosen, from Ria's erstwhile lover to the house cleaner who takes the sons girly books home for her husband to read. Brilliant writing and direction. Not to be missed by anyone over 40.

Great Show

[pmeeyore · 17 February 2003]

This is an excellent British Comedy. Wendy Craig is amazing as Ria the bored housewife, Geoffrey Palmer is fantastic, as usual , as Ben Ria's dentist husband who just doesn't understand how she can be unhappy. The boys Russell and Adam are hilarious. This is Brit coms at their best. Dry humor and all. Try it. One of the best!

"Butterflies" Review

[dori-23 · 21 January 2005]

Actually, I think the "Butterflies" comedy was one of the best and brightest comedies to come out of Britain. I did not find the characters at all "plastic" (per the previous reviewer). I thought the dentist father (whose name escapes me) was properly stuffy, but in the closing episodes almost unbearably poignant. Ria was suitably madcap, but with an unexpected core that I kept longing to see set free. The tentative love story between Ria and her friend Leonard--the catalyst for much of the plot--was moving, funny, and utterly touching. I highly recommend the series and would dearly love to collect every episode, but I don't believe they've released the series in its entirety in the US. Please correct me if I am in error! Thank you.

Absolutely Horrible!

[Gmarkjames · 10 September 2002]

I just have to say that this sitcom is possibly one of the worst comedies to ever come out of the UK. It's tacky, plastic...where the hell have they got these awful actors from? Find out and send 'em back! Seriously, maybe you'll like to give this one a try but i wouldn't really bother as it's unfunny, bland and repetetive. If anyone reading this should want to check out a British comedy make it ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES or THE DETECTIVES. A hundred times better than this rubbish. 0/10 (!)