Hello friends.

Recently, Luke and I were treated to a lovely conversation with Prim Hardwick,

wife of the late Edward Hardwick.

Through the kind auspices of our man in London, David, we connected with

Prim over Zoom one sunny afternoon. An accomplished stage actor, in her own right, Prim and Edward

were married for 17 years. Prim shared a number of wonderful stories about Granada, about Jeremy, and about her

memories from a life with her husband, Ted. If you're a fan of Mr. Hardwick and the series,

I think you're going to find this discussion touching and insightful.

So without further ado, we give you our conversation with Prim Hardwick.

Well, Prim, Prim, thank you so much for talking with us today. We are such admirers of your late husband's work, and it's just such an honor and a pleasure to be able to speak with you today.

Well, it's my pleasure as well. I mean, I could talk about Ted all day long, so.

Well, why don't we start at the beginning? I'm curious. When did the two of you meet? How did that come about?

We met in 1979, which is such a long time ago now. I was friends with an actress who lived around the corner from me, an actress called Stephanie Beecham. And her daughter Phoebe and my

daughter Claire went to the same nursery school. So we became great friends.

And she started rehearsing a play called Can You Hear Me at the Back?

At the Piccadilly, I think, in the West End.

And I was rehearsing Mary Prankees at the ICA, which is also in the West End.

And she kept saying to me, I was working with this lovely man. You know, he's having a terrible time. It's all on his own, two teenage daughters. He's really struggling. It would be nice if he sort of asked him out. I said, Stifia, I haven't even met the man. What are you talking about? And apparently she was doing the same to Ted. This is a girl all on her own with this little girl. and, you know, it would be really nice if you asked her out. And I don't know, I've met her, Stephanie. Anyway, she was determined to get us together. And she asked me to babysit one Sunday evening. Because by this time, they were playing. And so I went round, sitting there, and there was a knock on the door. And there was this man standing at the door. And he said, I've come to babysit for Steffey. And I said, I'm babysitting for Steffey. Who are you? And he said, I'm Edward Hardwick. And I said, well, you better come in then. So he came in and we had a drink and we chatted and we just, you know, we just straight away hit it off.

He made me laugh more than anyone I've ever met.

He was so funny and so sweet and kind and just lovely.

And from that moment we were together.

So it was a setup then. It was a setup.

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