Lytton's Diary (1985)
Peter Bowles gives a memorable performance as Fleet Street's most successful gossip columnist, Neville Lytton. Co-created by Bowles, this highly popular drama started life as a single play in the Storyboard anthology before continuing through two critically acclaimed series. Featuring appearances by Gwen Taylor, Ralph Bates, Pamela Salem, Jean Kent, Elspet Gray and Lee Patterson, this set comprises both series alongside the original Storyboard play. Suave, shrewd and with an instinct for a good story (tempered by a strong sense of fair play and occasional threats of litigation...), Neville Lytton is justly famed for the Gossip Diary that peps up the pages of The Daily News. Society tit-bits often give way to high-profile exposés, however, when Lytton and his colleagues stumble upon shady dealings, corruption at the highest levels, cover-ups and con-artists...
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Episode 1 - Rabid Dingo - Shock Horror
Release Date: 1985-01-09he editor of THE DAILY NEWS gossip column has retired. Neville Lytton and his arch-rival Henry Field are competing for the vacancy. When Australian tycoon Wayne Monroe tried to buy the paper, Lytton sets about investigating his past.
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Episode 2 - Daddy's Girls
Release Date: 1985-01-16Neville Lytton is now the gossip Diary Editor of THE DAILY NEWS. He spends the day with his estranged wife, Catherine, and Laura, his girlfriend, is not amused. Meanwhile, on the work front, Lytton aims to find out if a merchant banker who disapproves of his daughter's relationship with a record producer, has something in his past that he is trying to hide.
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Episode 3 - The Lady In The Mask
Release Date: 1985-01-23Neville Lytton investigates the identity of a masked naken woman who strips at stage parties. A gambler, Lucky Jim Diamond, threatens to sue him over an article Lytton has written.
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Episode 4 - Tricks Of The Trade
Release Date: 1985-01-30Lytton meets his old friend Hamil, who seems to be involved in a shady deal with an MP called Westaway. Soon Lytton gets involved and becomes the victim of blackmail.
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Episode 5 - The Silly Season
Release Date: 1985-02-06Margot Shelley, a fading film star, has just published her autobiography. However, Neville Lytton is more interested in the memoirs of starlet Solveig Lindstrom.
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Episode 6 - Come Uppance
Release Date: 1985-02-13Whilst visiting his wife Catherine, Lytton is told of strange goings-on at the house of Lord Rimmer. He uncovers a plot to create a right-wing political movement and exposes the story in his paper.