Goodnight Sweetheart writers Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran have appealed to fans for help after the BBC failed to commission a seventh series.
The much-loved series originally aired on BBC One from 1993 to 1999 and told the story of the time-travelling bigamist Gary Sparrow, played by Nicholas Lyndhurst, known for his role as Rodney Trotter in Only Fools and Horses.
Fans were elated when Goodnight Sweetheart returned for a one-off special 17 years after its finale in 2016. However, the BBC opted not to greenlight further episodes, much to viewers’ disappointment.
Marks and Gran have now launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding page to raise money for a sequel novel about Sparrow’s adventures. Writing in the description, the duo explained: “Everyone felt sure a new series would follow... but inexplicably, series seven was never commissioned!”
The writers added that their new book, Goodnight Sweetheart: Many Happy Returns, will pick up where the show’s reunion left off. However, they need £30,000 to finance the project.
“So, if you’ve been shouting at the TV for the past decade, willing the series to return, now’s your chance to support the project and help to bring back Goodnight Sweetheart,” they said.
The fundraiser has 38 days left to run, with £8,159 having been donated at the time of writing. Many Happy Returns has been fully licensed by the show’s production company Freemantle and will serve as what the seventh series of the programme might have been.
According to the novel’s synopsis, the plot will see Sparrow navigate a white lie he told his wife Phoebe (Elizabeth Carling) that the girl he left behind in Los Angeles was called Marilyn Monroe.
“It never occurred to him that he would be living in the past, married to Phoebe when Marilyn became an international sex symbol in the 1950s,” it says. “For years, every time Phoebe’s seen Marilyn on the silver screen, her insecurities have overwhelmed her.
“What if Gary were to go back to Hollywood to regain the love of his life? That is, until Marilyn’s shock death at the age of 36, which brings all of Phoebe’s old feelings back to the surface.”
Elsewhere in the novel, Sparrow will also have dealings with the Beatles manager Brian Epstein and James Bond writer Ian Fleming. Eventually, he lands in the 21st century and begins to question whether he can manage his time traveling double life or if he should pick between the past and the present.
