The Wedding Episode

 

So as an alternative to the Royal Wedding, here’s a list of weddings you can enjoy without being appalled by the Media people.

A simple rule, it has to be a TV wedding and not based on a literary adaption. We can’t have Harold Steptoe marrying Caroline Seymour because that happened in a movie. We can’t have Pride and Prejudice because it’s not a TV show, per se. Also, it must be a Wedding Episode. There does not have to be a successful marriage, people can be jilted, there can be a distraction which brings the proceedings to a halt. It can’t be a 30second scene, it must be a proper Wedding Episode. From the outset the episode must be about the Wedding!

Lister marrying the Gelf doesn’t count as the “wedding” lasts all of about 30 seconds and the rest of the episode isn’t about the wedding. There was Sheridan and Delenn in Babylon 5 but it wasn’t a proper wedding episode so I’m not counting it.

So here’s what I came up with:

Rodney and Cassandra (Only Fools and Horses)

Corporal Jones and Mrs Fox (Dad’s Army)

Sarah Jane Smith and erm… Nigel Havers (The Sarah Jane Adventures)

Gwen and Rhys (Torchwood)

Blackadder and Bob/Kate (Blackadder II)

Chance in a Million. Simon Callow & Brenda Blethyn – hurrah!

And other twitterers leapt in to help me out. Thank you, everyone!

@gingirl81           Ross and Emily (I’m guessing Friends. I didn’t watch the show!)

@Feliopolis          Friends has three wedding episodes. If you count the pilot with Rachel jilting Barry

                            and the one where she’s a bridesmaid to Jennifer Grey there are two more.

@danosirra          Kylie/Jason (Neighbours)

 @tmdwp             Donna’s two weddings in [Doctor] Who. (The Runaway Bride and The End of Time)

            Ed Straker’s wedding (and subsequent divorce) in UFO.

            After engagements involving many characters throughout Jeeves and Wooster, Spode

            and Madeline marry in the final episode.

            Oh, and surely someone’s said Father’s Day. Two weddings in that one. (Doctor Who)

 @Sue_Stokes     Robin and Marion (x2) in robin of sherwood?

(This is semi-correct. Marion did marry Robin(1) Michael Praed, but Marion went to an abbey as a nun when she believed Robin(2) had died. No wedding.)

@bluemoonjules         Vince and Penny (Just Good Friends) In Paris.

                    Miss Ellie and Clayton Farlow (Dallas)

@M_robertson_UK      Did you say Miss Jones and Rupert Rigsby? (Rising Damp) They are getting married but

                                      something happens and it all goes wrong.

 @spiffykates               House got married to an illegal immigrant on a recent episode

                     Pam and Jim on the American version of the office

@malmo58          Theresa and Eddie, ‘Playing The Field’ series 1 episode 6.

                     Blackadder series 1 episode 4 – Blackadder is due to marry Miriam Margolyes and ends

                     up getting hitched to a wee lassie

                     Had the two Vicar of Dibley ones yet?

                     Does kids’ TV count? There’s a wedding episode of Worzel Gummidge.

(oh yes! It counts! Who giveth away this Aunt Sally?)

            Had Denise Royle yet? (I’m guessing: The Royle Family? Not a show I watched)

            2 wedding episodes in Gavin & Stacey.

Some ideas sparked debate! I suggested the wedding of Daphne and Donny in Frasier.

@gingirl81          noooooooooo Daphne and Niles. I love Niles. they got married twice coz of her mother!

                           Total Frasier geek here!

 @katobell           Daphne and Niles! She didn’t marry Donnie!

(which is true, but there was a wedding! Robbie Coltrane was there!)

Did Arkwright and Nurse Gladys Emmanuel (Open All Hours) ever get married?

@neversarah        excellent question; I don’t think so. What on EARTH made you think of that?

                            Scott & Charlene… Didn’t Reggie Perrin get married, even though it would’ve

                            been bigamy?

@bluemoonjules   Reggie Perrin ended up marrying Mrs Perrin but in disguise

@malmo58            Open All Hours ‘Shedding at the Wedding’

@abby_queenofall    Nellie Olsen and Percival on Little House on the Prairie?

@bluemoonjules       Of Course Laura and Almanzo

                               Did Wolfie Smith ever do the decent thing?

  then there are all the literary ones – Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre…..etc etc

                (oh no! We can’t count those!)

  well then that discounts Little House on the prairie

            (Technically, haha. See I would include LHOP because it was more of a tv show than an adaption.)

@malmo58          No, Wolfie never got married

Some I was helped with!

Me:                Bobby Ewing and Cliff Barnes’s sister (whose name escapes me)

@Jo_simcock    Was it lucy?

@gingirl81       Pam. he also married that April chick with big hair. I loved Dallas.

@Jo_simcock    Ah you threw me-thought you meant bobby’s sister

Me:               What about the Likely Lads? Was there a wedding episode?

@malmo58    Yes, Bob and Thelma.

@m_robertson_UK    That’s a good question. I think not. I think it happens between TLL and WHttLL…..

@malmo58    No, it has a whole episode of WHttLL to itself, titled ‘End of an Era’

Me:              Long-running shows seem to be the key. What about Last of the Summer Wine?

@Malmo58    Yes, in a Xmas special ‘Uncle of the Bride’.

Me:              Didn’t Sam & Diane have a wedding? (Cheers)

@malmo58    Sam and Diane had an aborted wedding in Cheers. they started the ceremony, Sam pulled out.

So it would seem that most weddings happen in Comedy shows. Either that or Comedy shows are more memorable? I was expecting someone to mention a wedding in something like GBH or Edge of Darkness, but it seems Dramas are not remembered for their weddings.

Finally, some unanswered questions from me:

• Did Lovejoy marry Charlotte the auctioneer?
• i’m sure a few tv series had people being jilted…
• Wait… didn’t Frasier and Lillith have a wedding episode in Cheers?

So if you don’t want to watch the Royal Wedding, why not dig out a DVD, VHS or any other version of one of these and settle down for a nice day of wine and confetti?

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