Television series

Butterflies

Name: Butterflies
Genre: Comedy
Released: 1978
Cast: Wendy Craig, Geoffrey Palmer, Bruce Montague, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Andrew Hall

Comedy
Dip in and out

Butterflies is less a sitcom than a slow ache dressed up in cardigans: Wendy Craig's Ria drifts through the tea, the traffic and the small talk of married life while quietly wondering if she chose right. Geoffrey Palmer is heartbreakingly dull as her husband. It's funny the way a sigh is funny — wry, wistful, allergic to punchlines. Watch it for the melancholy, not the laughs.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy sitcoms where the laughs come from polite, cutting exchanges between people who love each other and are slowly losing patience with one another.

Skip it if you want fast plotting or big set pieces; this is talky, small-scale and mostly set around one household, and its 1970s rhythms can feel slow to modern eyes.

What it asks of you: Half-hour episodes, a gentle pace, and close attention to dialogue more than action; it rewards patience across its four seasons rather than a single sitting.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

As Time Goes By1992

Geoffrey Palmer again, but as the romantic lead this time — gentle, unhurried, and full of the quiet longing Butterflies only hints at.

But It's cosier and slower; if you wanted Butterflies' edge of dissatisfaction, this trades it for contentment.

The Good Life1975

Same BBC era, same suburban street, same gentle comedy of people quietly reordering their lives — just with goats instead of guilt.

But It's warmer and cosier throughout; the ache Butterflies carries is mostly absent here.

To the Manor Born1979

Contemporary to Butterflies, another woman renegotiating her life and status, wrapped in very English understatement and impeccable manners.

But It's more concerned with class comedy than emotional restlessness — a different kind of quiet.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Butterflies

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Brief Encounter1945

Same exact temptation Ria faces — leave a decent, dull marriage for someone who makes you feel alive — told thirty years earlier, dead straight, no laughs allowed.

The film that basically invented this kind of English longing — a married woman, a chance meeting, a station platform, and everything left unsaid.

But Black and white, deeply formal, and utterly devoid of jokes — this is the ache without any comic cushioning at all.

Ever Decreasing Circles1984

Suburban discontent played for laughs and a little sadness, with a marriage under gentle strain — the mood is almost identical.

But The husband figure tips further into farce than Butterflies ever allows; it's broader than it first looks.

Cold Feet1998

A later, more explicit take on marriages fraying at the edges — funnier, sadder, and less coy about desire than Butterflies allows itself to be.

But The tone is looser and more modern; some of the period restraint that makes Butterflies distinctive is gone.

Motherland2016

A modern descendant of the same fatigue — motherhood, marriage, and the low hum of resentment played with real bite.

But It's louder and more farcical; Butterflies' hush is nowhere to be found.

Terms of Endearment1983

A woman's restlessness, choices, and the cost of a life half-chosen, though pitched as American melodrama rather than English understatement.

But It's a two-hour film with a very different emotional register — broader, weepier, less contained.

Scenes from a Marriage2021

Same marriage, same drift toward someone else, same question of whether staying is honesty or cowardice — just filmed as tragedy instead of sitcom.

Bergman's unflinching Swedish miniseries strips away every joke and euphemism to look directly at a marriage dissolving in real time.

But It's subtitled, slow, emotionally exhausting, and offers none of the comic distance Butterflies uses to soften the same subject.

The Stepford Wives1975

Same year, same suburban trap, same fear of a woman disappearing into domestic contentment — just answered with a scream instead of a sigh.

A satirical thriller about suburban wives who've stopped wanting anything of their own — the horror version of Ria's discontent, pushed to its logical extreme.

But It swaps warmth for menace entirely; this is genre horror-satire, not a sitcom, and considerably nastier.