The Bounder

Did You Know?

• The first series only was released on VHS and DVD in the US on 16 September 2003 by BFS Entertainment.
• The complete series was released in the UK on DVD by Network on 20 August 2007.
• The series was later distributed in Australia by Time Life in 2010.

Production

After the third series of Only When I Laugh aired in 1981, Peter Bowles told Yorkshire Television he would only return for a fourth if he got his own show. Eric Chappell then wrote The Bounder specifically for Bowles to star. They had first worked together on a 1977 episode of Rising Damp and later on all four series of Only When I Laugh, which ran from 1979 to 1982. The sitcom also featured George Cole, then famous for playing Arthur Daley in Minder, which was being made at the same time. This was Cole’s first sitcom role in three years, after playing troubled writer Gordon Maple in Don’t Forget to Write! In 1982, Chappell told the Reading Evening Post that Bowles had played his part in Rising Damp with such flamboyance and style, and after seeing him in the hospital comedy, he thought it would be marvellous to create a likeable rogue with those qualities. Bowles told the same newspaper he was thrilled and enthusiastic, noting it was the first time a series had been written for him, and he was delighted to work with George Cole for the first time, calling him a master of comedy character roles. The series was cancelled after two series. Less than a year later, in 1984, CBS produced a US pilot starring Michael McKeown as Howard, Jeannette Arnette as his sister Bonnie, Richard Masur as her husband Charles, and Francine Tacker as Laura. The pilot was not picked up for a full series.