New novel picks up Gary Sparrow's story

Gary Sparrow, the time-travelling bigamist at the centre of BBC sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart, is continuing his adventures following a successful crowdfunding campaign.

A new novel from the comedy’s creators Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran is to be published next month after fans raised more than £37,000 via Kickstarter.

The writers describe the novel, Many Happy Returns, as the seventh series of Goodnight Sweetheart that never happened.

Starring Nicholas Lyndhurst, Goodnight Sweetheart ran on BBC One from 1993 to 1999 and followed the exploits of a television repairman who discovered a way to travel between 1990s London and the London of the 1940s, where he began a second marriage. 

The BBC brought the show back for a one-off special, also called Many Happy Returns, in 2016, as part of its Landmark Sitcom season. No further series followed.

Marks and Gran said in a statement: ‘Ever since the much-loved Goodnight Sweetheart TV special of 2016, fans have been asking us what happened next. Now "Sweeties" all over the world have come together in an incredible crowdfunding effort to encourage us to continue Gary Sparrow’s story into the 1960s. 

‘It’s been a joy to revisit our beloved characters and we’re hugely grateful to everyone who has supported the book.’

The novel begins in 1962, with Gary still living with his wartime wife, Phoebe, and their son, Michael. He has spent the past 20 years passing off Beatles songs as his own, and is now trying to persuade Brian Epstein to give up on the band before the truth catches up with him. 

At a party thrown by Noel Coward, Phoebe lets slip that Gary was a spy during the war. Word reaches Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond and a real wartime spy. Fleming has never heard of Gary, and starts investigating.

A freak event then sends Gary back to 2016, where he discovers a teenage daughter, Ellie, born after his other wife, Yvonne, became pregnant before he was trapped in the past. 

Christopher Ettridge, who played Reg Deadman in the original series. narrates the audiobook version.

Fans marked the book’s completion with an event at the Royal Oak pub in Bethnal Green, East London – the pub used to film the show’s 1940s scenes. Etteridge is pictured in the main picture at the event, between Marks on the left and Grant.

The 337-page book is available from Amazon priced £18.75 in paperback – or from uk.bookshop.org, below, which supports independent bookstores. 

Published: 18 Sep 2026