Down the 'Gate
The bustle and banter of London's iconic Billingsgate fish market provided the backdrop for Reg Varney's first sitcom following his phenomenal success in On the Buses. In the mid-Seventies, Billingsgate was Europe's premier fish market, its turnover running into the hundreds of tons: a muddle of boxes and barrows, merchants and white-smocked porters with their fish boxes perched precariously on their heads. East Ender Varney plays porter Reg Furnell, whose misadventures Down the 'Gate and beyond were charted over two series between 1975 and 1976; Dilys Laye stars as his long-suffering wife, Irene. Although twelve episodes were made only seven now still exist and, for the first time, this set brings together all the remaining episodes of this lesser-known slice of Cockney humour.
