About this season
Lytton's Diary is a 1985–86 British comedy-drama programme created and written by Peter Bowles and Philip Broadley. Produced by Thames Television for ITV, it originated as a single play on the anthology programme Storyboard before expanding into two popular series, known for their mix of glamour, intrigue, and social commentary. Bowles stars as Neville Lytton, a suave and successful Fleet Street gossip columnist for the Daily News. Lytton navigates the world of high-society scandals, political corruption, and personal challenges, balancing his professional life with his love life and his ambition to write a novel.
Episodes (6)
1. The End and the Means
Aired 8 January 1986 • 30 min
Lytton returns to his desk at The Daily News after a brutal mugging. He is soon involved in investigating a suicide and a Whitehall scandal helps to get him back into the routine.
2. Rules of Engagement
Aired 15 January 1986 • 30 min
A new journalist at The Daily News is instantly unpopular when it's discovered that her job is owed to the editor's patronage. Lytton sends her in pursuit of a runaway tennis star.
3. The Ancient Regime
Aired 22 January 1986 • 30 min
A famous sex symbol has a change of heart about on-screen nudity and receives a rich and mysterious visitor. Lytton is on the story, but is waylaid by his paper's owner and a mysterious lunchtime appointment.
4. The Miracle Man
Aired 29 January 1986 • 30 min
Lytton investigates why the same well-known faces are always appearing at an American evangelist's healing ceremonies, and is also involved in a confused plan to publish his first novel. The behaviour of the young new editor of The Daily News horrifies him.
5. National Hero
Aired 5 February 1986 • 30 min
Duncan Anderson, a revered public figure and a friend of Lytton's, is regarded as just another old fogey by pop columnist Trevor Bates. Meanwhile, Henry is deeply concerned about midnight meetings in a gazebo.
6. What a Wonderful Life
Aired 12 February 1986 • 30 min
Lytton is a judge at an international beauty competition gone awry, and finds himself investigating an old friend's financial background. Meanwhile, the paper's owner is planning a technological revolution in Fleet Street.