The Gnomes of Dulwich

The Gnomes of Dulwich is a United Kingdom television sitcom originally shown in six episodes from 12 May 1969 to 16 June 1969.[1][2] Written by Jimmy Perry, the show starred Terry Scott, Hugh Lloyd, John Clive, Leon Thau, Anne de Vigier and Lynn Dalby as garden gnomes living at 25 Telegraph Road, Dulwich, London, England.

The Gnomes of Dulwich
One of the few surviving pictures of The Gnomes of Dulwich.
Genre	Sitcom
Written by	Jimmy Perry
Starring	Hugh Lloyd Terry Scott John Clive Leon Thau
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	6
Production
Producers	Sydney Lotterby Graham Muir
Running time	30 minutes
Release
Original network	BBC
Original release	12 May (1969-05-12) – 16 June 1969 (1969-06-16)

The title is a reference to the term "Gnomes of Zürich".

Jimmy Perry was very interested in gnomes and original only intended it to be a short sketch for the Morecambe and Wise Show but it was his wife who convinced him that there was a whole series in it.

Unlike Jimmy Perry’s other series such as Dad's Army and It Ain't Half Hot Mum, he did not write it with his writing partner David Croft. Although the series was quite well received it was not successful enough to warrant a second series.[3]

The series saw Hugh Lloyd and Terry Scott work together in a similar way in which they are seen in the series Hugh and I, which was directed by Jimmy Perry’s usual writing partner David Croft. Both actors were dubious to start with but eventually came round to the idea. This was the last time the two of them appeared together on television.

Like other series that Jimmy Perry wrote, Perry had a small cameo appearance in the last episode.

In 2009 Perry said of the series “Terry Scott and Hugh Lloyd were two gnomes who would sit by a pond and commented on life, race, religion - everything. It became a little cult.”[4]

Due to the BBC having no archives until 1978 all known tapes were wiped and only a few stills and some audio fragments have survived.

Colin Bean who played a variety of different roles in the series recalled his time in his autobiography saying ‘Jimmy and Gilda were in my scene also as ornaments on a bric-a-brac stall at a garden party at the rear of 10 Downing Street ...Jimmy was a plaster bust of Napoleon and I was a matching bust, on a named base, of Beethoven ...My few lines played on Beethoven’s deafness (Da da da dah!) after Napoleon had made some cutting remarks, the joke being that at the end of the garden party the only items left on the bric-a-brac stall were the two garden gnomes.’[5] Frank Williams was in the same scene and recalled his experiences in his autobiography saying ‘Hugh and Terry played garden gnomes. I was in an episode in which the gnomes had been purchased at a Labour Party Bazaar by Mary Wilson, wife of the Prime Minister. They stood at ground level contemplating the legs of the various guests at a garden party. Clad in Carnaby Street trousers (it was quite difficult to find anything that fitted me in that haunt of trendy young people) I wandered around as a society photographer. As the audience only heard my voice and saw my disembodied legs they were never quite sure who I was, but I decided that this was my one chance to play royalty and that I was Lord Snowdon.’[6]