Birds of a Feather is a British sitcom originally broadcast on BBC One from 16 October 1989 to 24 December 1998, then revived on ITV from 2 January 2014 to 24 December 2020. The series stars Pauline Quirke and Linda Robson, with Lesley Joseph. It was created by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, who also wrote many of the episodes.
In the first episode, sisters Sharon and Tracey are brought together when their husbands are sent to prison for armed robbery. Sharon, who lives in an Edmonton council flat, moves into Traceys upmarket house in Chigwell, Essex. Their next-door neighbour and later friend Dorien, is a middle-aged married Jewish woman who is constantly having affairs with younger men. In the last two BBC series, the location is changed to nearby Hainault, London, before returning to Chigwell in series 10 (the first aired on ITV).
The series original run ended on 24 December 1998 after nine years, and returned just over 15 years later, on 2 January 2014 (this time on ITV) for a tenth series.[1][2] The opening episode of the new series attracted almost eight million viewers, giving ITV its highest-rated comedy since Barbara in 2000.[3] A further two series were broadcast, followed by two Christmas specials.[4][5] There was a further Christmas special in 2020, where Pauline Quirke did not appear due to her decision to take a step back from acting, in order to focus on her performing arts academy.[6]
Plans to bring Linda Robson and Pauline Quirke together for a 30th anniversary reunion show were reportedly derailed by their falling out. Robson and Quirke were stars of the sitcom Birds of a Feather.
Later, in 2014, Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, the original writers and creators, brought it back to ITV.
According to insiders, there have been “real and tense issues” that led to Quirke, 61, who played Sharon, declining to participate in the show’s 30th anniversary, which aired in 2019.
“Both Linda and Lesley were saddened that Pauline didn’t want to return to make a 30th anniversary episode,” a friend said to the Mail on Sunday. Lesley and Pauline were not as close as Linda and Pauline were in the past.
The story of two sisters who move in together after their husbands are imprisoned for armed robbery was chronicled in Birds of a Feather. Beginning in 1989, the BBC1 program ran for nine years.
Revival edit
The tenth season reveals that Darryl moved to Wales after being released from prison and that Tracey and Darryl are no longer together. After getting remarried, Tracey moved back into her former Chigwell home, “Dalentrace,” and kicked Sharon out because she didn’t like Tracey’s second husband, Ralph. The two haven’t spoken for more than six months at the beginning of the series when Sharon returns to her council apartment and they “bump into each other” at a book signing. They are horrified to learn that their old friend Dorien, the author of “Sixty Shades of Green,” is a Fifty Shades of Grey clone. When Tracey gives Sharon a ride home, she admits that she kicked Ralph out after discovering he had been robbing her. Lonely, she persuades Sharon to move back in with her. When it’s revealed that Travis arranged for their “chance” encounter at the book signing, he pretends to be annoyed that Sharon is back.
Dorien unexpectedly shows up as the three are figuring out how their new setup will function after finding out that she is being sued for copying Fifty Shades of Grey. She’s got no choice but to beg Tracey for a place to stay because all of her assets are frozen. When everyone is wondering how they will all fit into the house, Garth shows up with Marcie, his new girlfriend, and Poppy, her daughter. By the time the show ends, Garth, Marcie, and Poppy have moved out and are starting a pop-up restaurant. The case against Dorien also fell apart because of a tabloid exposé about an MP she dated, which demonstrated the veracity of the stories in her book. But Dorien decides to stay with Sharon and Tracey instead of going back to her old house in Hollywood after realizing they are her true friends.
In series 11, Garth comes home, having separated from Marcie. When Doriens finds a letter from the daughter she gave up for adoption among her fan mail, her past comes back to haunt her. When Dorien finally consents to meet Naomi (Frances Ruffelle), she is shocked to learn that Naomi is a vicar with two adult children. Meanwhile, Tracey finds out that a big mole on her shoulder is malignant, raising questions about her health.
In episode 12, the police inform Tracey that Garth is Darryl’s next of kin and that Darryl passed away during an attempted robbery. Many of Darryl’s gangster friends, as well as Tracey, Sharon, Dorien, Garth, and Travis, attend the funeral. It is also disclosed that Dorien is the grandfather of Emma, Napoleon’s daughter, who temporarily resided in the Stubbs home.
Tracey Stubbs and Sharon Theodopolopodous edit
Following their husbands’ conviction for armed robbery and subsequent prison sentence, the lives of Cockney sisters Sharon Theodopolopodous and Tracey Stubbs are forever altered. After her husband is imprisoned, Sharon, a typical, outgoing, talkative, and boisterous character from an Edmonton council apartment, moves into her sister’s opulent Chigwell home to help support Tracey.
Sharon always felt inferior to her older, slimmer sister and believed that she had a more difficult upbringing. Presumably as a result of Sharon’s infertility, her miserable and childless marriage to Chris, a waster of Greek Cypriot descent, Sharon finds out that Chris is the one who is infertile, but Chris’s family condemns her for it. When Sharon visits Chris, she cheerfully cheats on him and gives him grief. Even so, she always feels intense jealousy when he has another woman, and she only makes feeble attempts to get a divorce from him until the first ITV series aired in 2014, when Chris eventually asks for Sharon’s divorce so he can get married again. Tracey, however, loves her husband, Darryl. Although he was a licensed conservatory builder, he stole the majority of his money from banks. Tracey deceives herself into thinking her husband is innocent, unlike Sharon, who is more realistic about their husbands. This is particularly evident in the 1994 Christmas episode “The Chigwell Connection.” When Darryl is eventually released in series seven, she trusts him when he asks for a check on the company account, which ultimately results in Darryl defrauding her of her business assets. His son Garth, who attended boarding school and eventually married Kimberley, is the product of his marriage to Tracey. This marriage ends in divorce; in season 10, Garth relocates to Australia and begins dating Marcie. Of the two sisters, Tracey is the more upright and law-abiding; in contrast, Sharon is more inclined to engage in dishonest and frequently illegal activities, such as selling stolen goods, using drugs, subletting her council apartment while living with Tracey, manipulating her VAT, and filing for unemployment benefits when she was actually working.
FAQ
Are Sharon and Tracey really sisters?
Are they sisters in Birds of a Feather?
Are the opening photos of Birds of a Feather real?
Are Pauline Quirke and Linda Robson still friends?