The run
- Network
- BBC
- Years active
- 1954–1959
- Surviving broadcasts
- 42
- Genre
- comedy
(34 Episodes) "A Life of Bliss," a BBC Sitcom and a new radio sitcom, was introduced by the BBC on the 29th of July, 1953, starring George Cole as awkward, absent-minded bachelor David Bliss. In the early episodes, Nora Swinburne played his sister, Pamela Batten & Esmond Knight his brother-in-law, Robert Batten. Later on, these roles were absorbed by Diana Churchill & Colin Gordon The writer of the series, Geoffrey Harrison, was often late in the completion of his scripts, to the extent that he would still be typing them at the recording sessions, while Percy Edwards (the "bark" of 'Psyche,' the dog in the series) entertained the studio audience with his animal impressions. Digitised by the Old Time Radio Researchers and streamed from the Internet Archive item “ALifeOfBlissBbc”; these recordings are in the public domain.
Source collection
Internet Archive audio collections
Rights
Public domain — no renewed US copyright
Cataloguing
Air dates and notes from the Archive item record
The shape of the run
What survives, year by year
9 dated broadcasts across 14 years on the air, with 10 years where nothing is known to survive. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.
Episodes
Start here
Listen to the run in order
Restored broadcasts from 1954, in original transmission order.
- 1. ALOB 1954-10-20 #2-08 Finding A Girlfriend · 20 Oct 1954
- 2. ALOB 1957-06-09 #4-03 Fishing for a Girlfriend · 9 Jun 1957
- 3. ALOB 1957-07-09 #4-07 The Return of Phil Bender · 9 Jul 1957
- 01
ALOB 1954-10-20 #2-08 Finding A Girlfriend
20 Oct 1954 · 28 min
Originally broadcast on BBC, 20 October 1954. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 02
ALOB 1957-06-09 #4-03 Fishing for a Girlfriend
9 Jun 1957 · 29 min
Originally broadcast on BBC, 9 June 1957. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 03
ALOB 1957-07-09 #4-07 The Return of Phil Bender
9 Jul 1957 · 29 min
Originally broadcast on BBC, 9 July 1957. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 04
Pauls Evening Out
23 Jul 1957 · 29 min
Broadcast on BBC. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 05
ALOB 1957-07-30 #4-10 The New Car
30 Jul 1957 · 28 min
Originally broadcast on BBC, 30 July 1957. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 06
The Flat
27 Aug 1957 · 28 min
Broadcast on BBC. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 07
ALOB 1957-09-03 #4-15 Penny Gay's Return
3 Sep 1957 · 27 min
Originally broadcast on BBC, 3 September 1957. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 08
Finding a Girlfriend
20 Oct 1957 · 28 min
Broadcast on BBC. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
Also on BBC
BBC in 1954–1959
Other series the network carried while A Life of Bliss was on the air.
Same seasons
comedy on the air then
Series in the same genre whose runs overlapped this one.
Radio
Lum and Abner
PG3314 EpisodesWeekly
The jokes your great-grandparents stayed in for.
Radio
Alphabet Soup
PG30 EpisodesSeasonal
The jokes your great-grandparents stayed in for.
What it became
Friends in front of a microphone
Jack Benny and Fibber McGee sold intimacy: recurring characters, in-jokes, a house style. The modern hang-out show is the same trick without the script.
Lineage is written by our editors, not inferred from listening data.
Descendants
Working in the tradition of A Life of Bliss
Modern series carrying this form forward.
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