Together on the screen Ronnie Allen and Sue Lloyd, who play David and Barbara, generate some sort of magic.  A mysterious chemistry that makes the characters appear to be just right for each other.  "It all happened by accident," said Sue.  "The storyline I was involved with centred around Dr Farnham and not David Hunter.  Barbara and David came together in the script on a very casual basis.  Nothing special was planned for them at all."

 

But even in such a casual encounter, sparks flew.  Suddenly people both inside and outside the studio recognised they made the ideal couple.  Plans were immediately laid to involve them in a romantic entanglement.  Almost immediately the story ran into a snag.  Because it was only planned to have Sue in the show for ten weeks, as she was already contracted to do a film.

 

It was decided to bring her back into the series when she had completed work on the film and scripts were prepared for the big romance.  But the final outcome was wrapped in mystery.  The fact that the characters played by Ronnie Allen and Sue Lloyd would finally marry became one of television's most closely-guarded secrets.

 

Letters began to pour in to the studio from people desperately anxious to know if David and Barbara would marry.  They pleaded to be let into the secret.  But then came a dramatic turn in the storyline.  David Hunter was shot by his ex-wife.  As his life hung in the balance the fans went wild.  The switchboard at the studios was jammed solid with calles as fans rang, desperate for news of his condition.  Sack after sack of letter and get well cards arrived for him.

 

"I was driving my car when a taxi driver spotted me," said Ronnie.  "He looked as though he'd seen a ghost.  And one day when Sue and I were out shopping, we hailed a cab.  On its windscreen was a sticker which said 'David Lives'."

 

When it became obvious that David was going to recover, fans redoubled their interest in his romance.  As the weeks went by, more and more letters arrived urging him to marry. 

 

"When the wedding was planned, the location of the church and the date we were recording were kept top secret," said Ronnie.  "David Hunter is a very romantic character and he would want to be married in a quiet, romantic way.  The trouble was, the weather wasn't as romantically inclined as David.  We shot the exterior scenes first.  And the weather was foul.  Rain, sleet - we seemed to have everything.  When we entered the church to do the scenes there, the sun came out and the weather was beautiful."

 

The wedding scenes were shot in the picturesque St Mary Magdalene Church in Tanworth-in-Arden, Warwickshire. 

 

"The church had been piled up with fresias in white and cream and great splashes of yellow daffodils," said Sue.  "It was left to me to buy the wedding outfit and I had quite a job.  I eventually found the ideal suit in London.  The trouble was I couldn't get one the right size."

 

"Because I'm tall, the waist of the jacket in the size I normally wear was almost under my armpits.  But the skirt of the size larger would fit my waist about four times over.  The people in the shop were astonished when I said I would have the larger size.  But I had the skirt altered so there were box pleats back and front and it turned out beautifully."

 

"I am passionately fond of roses and I decided to carry two roses instead of a bouquet.  But although they looked very real they were in fact made of silk, one cream and one white rose.  I just carried them as they were, without ribbons or any other decorations, they were so beautiful."

 

"I wore a hat with a veil which came right under my chin.  That came as near as anything to ruining the romantic atmosphere.  I am a diabetic and I need sugar regularly so I usually carry a packet of marshmallows around with me.  We'd been working hard for a long time and when we came to a short break between takes, I rooted in my bag and came up with a marshmallow.

 

"I completely forgot about the veil and, as I tried to pop the marshmallow into my mouth, it acted like a catapult and shot the marshmallow back out.  Everyone just collapsed with laughter and it took several minutes to get us all settled down again.

 

"The we started to sing a hymn but everyone started off at different times.  The noise was terrible and there were Ronnie and I standing at the altar, our backs to the camera, desperately trying to stop out shoulders shaking with laughter.  They decided they had better reshoot the sequence.  But in the end everything worked perfectly and it should look just right on the screen."

 

Despite her hectic role in the series, Sue has managed to find time for a brief holiday in Majorca.  "I rode a moped out there and fell off it.  I wasn't seriously hurt but as a joke, friends put up a plaque, 'Sue Lloyd fell off her moped here,' on a wall at the side of the road."

 

When she is not working at the studios Sue dashes home to London where her favourite relaxation in her Belgravia home is cooking meals and entertaining the friends of hers and her boyfriend Richard Du Vivier, who is a film producer.

 

Ronnie, who is not married in real life, has a flat in Birmingham, but he also has a home in London which he likes to escape to when he can.  Although on the screen he is known for his fashion sense and immaculate turnout, he likes nothing better than to lounge around at home in old clothes.  His ideal form of relaxation is to take a couple of casual outfits and escape somewhere warm on holiday.