Chance in a Million is a British sitcom broadcast between 10 September 1984 and 1 December 1986, produced by Thames Television for the fledgling Channel 4 as part of its early homegrown programming. The series was co-written by Andrew Norriss and Richard Fegen and starred Simon Callow and Brenda Blethyn. The producer and director of the series was Michael Mills.
The premise of the show is the growing relationship between Tom Chance and Alison Little, which progresses throughout the series from initial meeting through to marriage. The show is structured like a traditional sitcom, although at the time of broadcast was considered by viewers and critics to be more in line with alternative comedy in the UK.
The titular character, Tom Chance, is frequently the victim of unlikely coincidences, nearly always to his detriment (with his last name indicating Nominative Determinism). As such, the show was a precursor to One Foot in the Grave, which had an almost identical premise a decade later. Tom is aware of the coincidences that dog him, and describes it as a "disability". However, he is generally stoical, and often declares the best course of action when they occur is to "go with the flow".
Tom meets his girlfriend, Alison Little, by chance when the two go to the same hotel. Tom is on a blind date to meet a girl, who is also called Alison. Meanwhile, Alison Little has arranged to meet her cousin Tom for the first time since they were young children.
Alison appears meek and passive, working as an archetypical librarian, although her even meeker parents consider her to be a tearaway.
Tom is shy towards Alison and oblivious to her romantic and sexual approaches, which are mostly implied and discreet. However, Alison has fallen in love with Tom at first sight and she is keen for their friendship to develop into something more intimate as the show progresses. Crucially, as Tom soon comes to realise, Alison is immune from suffering too badly from the consequences of his coincidences, although is always involved as each situation plays out.
Alison is in her twenties, while Tom is probably in his early 30s. When the show started filming, Blethyn was 38 and Callow was 35.
Tom's character is somewhat bombastic and old-fashioned, a deliberate callback to similar middle/upper-class characters in UK fiction of the Victorian/Edwardian periods. His style of speaking is a key component of his comic nature. He speaks only in short staccato sentences similar to a telegram, devoid of personal pronouns and conjunctions: "Can’t talk Alison. Car being towed. Problem with lawn furniture." However, in other ways his character is surprisingly modern: He has an amusing ability to drink an entire pint of lager in one gulp whilst in the middle of speaking a sentence, for example. (According to Callow in a DVD commentary, a trick glass containing a fraction of a pint was actually used.)
Because of Tom's tendency to get into trouble as a result of unlikely coincidences, his back story features him being arrested for crimes he did not commit – which happens so often that police Sergeant Gough gives orders for Tom not to be arrested, no matter how suspicious the circumstances.
Unlike Alison, Tom does not work. Instead, he is of independent means, his income provided by six Premium Bonds that frequently win, which he ascribes to the same coincidences that otherwise plague him.
Tom's interest is cricket, and he has a fascination with Surrey and England cricketer Alec Bedser, and a cricket bat, which has been autographed by the cricketer, is one of Tom's most treasured possessions. (Or at least was, before it was chewed up by next door's alsatian.) And in the penultimate episode, Alison presents her husband-to-be with a book containing a signed dedication by Bedser, to Tom's great delight.
The show frequently and somewhat gratuitously features women in nothing but their underwear (including Blethyn, who at various times appears in underwear, a neglige, and a basque). As such, it's reminiscent of the concurrent Benny Hill TV shows, or even the Carry On series.
The title tune for the show is a version of Taking a Chance on Love.
Speaking about the series following its release on DVD Simon Callow said: "I loved doing it and it's one of the most popular things I ever did. The central character, Tom Chance, was a guy who was plagued by coincidence that was the basic formula of the series. The charming thing about him was that he seemed to belong to another world completely. He spoke in the most extraordinary way, which I think was derived from Mr. Jingle in The Pickwick Papers – he never used the personal pronouns ... He'd say, "... went to bank ... had problem ... sat down ... couldn't get out ... killed a woman ... very sad...". Brenda Blethyn, she's absolutely superb in it. Brenda and I and the writers are desperately keen to do a series, 25 years later on ... same couple ... I think it would be wonderful."[1]
Brenda Blethyn, in her 2006 autobiography Mixed Fancies, speaks of the series at length with clear affection and happy memories of the project.