But would Ronnie as himself have married a girl like Barbara?  And would Sue as herself have chosen a bridegroom like David?

 

"Yes, without question in my case," says Ronnie.  "Barbara is so much like Sue that I'd definitely have married her.  She's my perfect woman both on and off the screen."

 

And Sue is pretty sure about the answer she would have given David if he'd popped the question.

 

"Basically the answer is yes," she says.  "David is too serious a character for me to live with as he appears on screen, so he'd have to lighten up a little in reality.  Of course, he's got Ronnie's good looks and is madly attractive, so I'd fall for him anyway."

 

"But on screen it's only the situations we find ourselves in that are different.  Otherwise there's an awful lot of both of us in the two characters.

 

"I thought I'd be the most unpopular woman in Britain after our TV wedding.  But we had only one nasty letter.  All the rest seemed to think we were the ideal couple.

 

"Perhaps somehow the chemistry between us in real life came across on the screen.

 

"When he did propose it was almost parallel to the time we had our screen romance.  In the series, David named the day from a hospital bed.

 

"I couldn't help seeing the comparison when Ronnie proposed from his sick bed."