Paradise Postponed is a 1986 TV serial based on a novel by John Mortimer. It posed the question of why the Reverend Simeon Simcox left the Simcox brewery millions to the loathsome Leslie Titmuss, city developer and Conservative cabinet minister. Simeon's sons Fred, the jazz-drumming doctor, and writer Henry, once Britain's brightest and angriest, conduct separate inquiries into Simeon's life and will. Was the low-born Titmuss really Simeon's son?

Novelist John Mortimer brought his legal expertise and somber humour to the plot, set in a rural English village, that takes in the upheavals of British society from the 1940s to the 1970s. The TV series was directed by Alvin Rakoff.

Locations

The TV series was mainly shot in Henley and Marlow, Buckinghamshire, in the second half of 1985.

Cast

• Michael Hordern ... Rev. Simeon Simcox
• Annette Crosbie ... Dorothy Simcox
• Peter Egan ... Henry Simcox
• Paul Shelley ... Fred Simcox
• Colin Blakely ... Dr. Salter
• Eleanor David ... Agnes Simcox, née Salter
• Jill Bennett ... Lady Grace Fanner
• Richard Vernon ... Sir Nicholas Fanner
• Zoë Wanamaker ... Charlotte 'Charlie' Titmuss, née Fanner
• David Threlfall ... Leslie Titmuss
• Colin Jeavons ... George Titmuss
• Albert Welling ... The Rev. Kevin Bulstrode
• Harold Innocent ... Jackson Catelow
• Thomas Heathcote ... Tom Nowt
• Claire Oberman ... Lonnie Simcox, née Hope

DVD

The box set of this drama is available now, distributed by Acorn Media UK.

Sources

• Review of Mortimer's novel in Time magazine (1986)
• Review of the TV series by The New York Times (1986)