Ever Decreasing Circles - Characters and Plot

Characters and Plot

Briers played Martin Bryce, an obsessive middle-aged man who is at the centre of his local suburban community. This relatively unsympathetic character was the antithesis of Tom Good, yet Briers has said it was his favourite sitcom role.

Martin is married to the motherly and patient Ann (Penelope Wilton), and has a settled, orderly lifestyle, until he encounters their new next-door neighbour, ex-British Army officer and Cambridge Blue, Paul Ryman (Peter Egan). Paul is everything Martin is not – adventurous, laissez-faire, flippant, witty, handsome and charming; in the words of Martin, a "couldn't care less, come on life..... amuse me, merchant". He attempts to join in with the activities of Martin and his friends, but his fresh thinking causes Martin to see him as a rival, who might want to "take over" Martin's self-appointed role as organiser. Martin's obsession with order and stability also leads him to get upset at Paul's minor changes to routine, such as sitting at a different table in the local pub. A running joke throughout the four series is Martin's insistence that the telephone receiver be placed a particular way on the cradle (this being an old-style telephone, where the receiver could go either way). Paul runs his own business, a hair salon, and later, a health studio.

An undercurrent running throughout the series was the unresolved sexual tension and flirting between Paul and Ann. This never resolved itself into an affair, in spite of many opportunities and the obvious mutual attraction. Despite Martin's foibles, he clearly adores Ann, and although Ann is often infuriated by him, she obviously loves him, allowing the couple to ride out even their most difficult disagreements. A chance meeting with Paul's estranged wife contributes to her realisation that, although Paul may appear exciting, Martin makes a better husband.

It is suggested that the rather incongruous marriage between the Bryces came about because Martin went to great lengths to help Ann through a difficult period in her earlier life, and that she still feels indebted to him for this. Martin sometimes seems oblivious to the attraction between Ann and Paul, but shows that he is aware of the danger when, in one episode, he wrongly believes that they have run off together, and leaves home, leaving Ann a note wishing her happiness, and stating that he will always love her. Martin's relationship with Paul is double-edged. Paul is always friendly to Martin, who veers between thinly-disguised hatred and grudging admiration. Paul is also loyal to Martin as a gesture towards the more amicable and blameless Ann, solving a marital crisis in one episode when Martin is tricked by a work colleague into believing he'd had a drunken one-night stand while away on business, and admitting to Ann his infidelity. Paul cons the colleague into an admission of the trick in front of Ann, restoring her faith in Martin.

Central to the show is Martin's jealousy of Paul. Although he rarely admits it, Martin would clearly like to be more like him in many respects, particularly in the ease with which he is able to make friends and get jobs done with a minimum of fuss. Paul is shown to be significantly better than Martin at many things, notably cricket, where Paul joins the local team and promptly smashes all the records that Martin proudly holds. A notable event comes when the two have to play in a snooker tournament, where Martin is delighted to find that Paul is useless (the tragedy being that the tournament coincides with Howard's anger at being seen as "a loser" causing him to defeat Martin in the final). A parallel is drawn to a story of Martin's childhood, where his own "gang" was taken over by a new boy, implying that he is scared that Paul's arrival will cause him to lose his friends and his status to the new arrival (this story is recounted by Martin himself in Series 1 and by Mrs Beardsmore in Series 2).

Although it in many ways retained the dynamics and atmosphere of earlier "sofa sitcoms" like Terry and June, the studies of Martin's obsessiveness and the unconsummated romance between Ann and Paul gave it a darker tone than much of what had gone before. Ann's frustration at being trapped in a dull routine and looking for ways out had resonances of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin. Unlike Perrin, however, Ann lives out her escape fantasies only in very minor ways, such as spontaneously taking a trip to Boulogne-sur-Mer, to Martin's horror ("Nothing French has happened to you, has it?" screams an appalled Martin over the phone).

The other regular characters were Howard and Hilda Hughes (Stanley Lebor and Geraldine Newman), another married couple who generally add lighter humour to the plots. They are long-standing friends and neighbours of Martin's, who share some of his obsessiveness whilst having plenty of quirks of their own (such as always wearing "his and hers" matching outfits), but are also attracted by Paul's personality. Although Howard and Hilda are often seen as being rather timid, they do have strong moral values, and can be very forthright in chastising other characters (usually Martin or Paul) when they believe them to have done something wrong. Various storylines saw them siding with both Martin and Paul on different issues, though usually being forced at the end of the day to side with Martin out of sheer loyalty if nothing else.

The show also featured guest appearances by Peter Blake, Ronnie Stevens, Victoria Burgoyne and Ray Winstone.

After four series, Ever Decreasing Circles ended on Christmas Eve 1989 with an 80-minute finale entitled "Moving On" (sometimes referred to by the name "New Horizons", as the DVD release titles it) in which Martin's employer, Mole Valley Valves, merges with another company (Lee Valley Valves) and moves to Oswestry. Ann discovers she is pregnant, and, despite Martin initially resenting the unborn child for forcing him to move away from The Close, the story ends on a high note with the couple bidding a fond farewell to their neighbours. The final scene sees Martin standing in his empty hallway, going over to the telephone (the only thing left from the Bryces' ownership), and turning the receiver around, suggesting that Martin's obsessiveness will live on.