Bob Larbey made his writing debut for BBC radio, before contributing a film adaptation, Mrs Silly, starring Maggie Smith.
Starting out as a pilot in the BBC's Comedy Playhouse programme, it lasted for one series the next year, starring Kenneth Connor, Deryck Guyler and Francis Matthews.
[5][6] Also in 1968, Esmonde and Larbey created Please Sir!, a situation comedy which starred John Alderton as a naive teacher thrown in at the deep end in a tough south London school.
In 1975, Esmonde and Larbey created their best-known situation comedy: The Good Life, starring Richard Briers, Felicity Kendal, Paul Eddington and Penelope Keith.
Set in Surbiton, London, it concerns itself with the attempts of Tom and Barbara Good (Briers and Kendal) to be self-sufficient after they decide to leave the rat race.
Briers starred as Martin Bryce, an insecure and obsessive character whose need to be the leading light of local activities is undermined by the arrival of a talented and charming neighbour, Paul Ryman.
Their last significant sitcom as a team was Mulberry (1992–93), again starring Karl Howman, here as an apprentice Grim Reaper who has to guide an elderly spinster (Geraldine McEwan) to the next world as easily as possible.
While continuing his partnership with Esmonde, Larbey had been writing several sitcoms on his own throughout the 1980s and 1990s, most notably A Fine Romance starring Dench and her husband Michael Williams, which ran from 1981 to 1984.
Along with the later As Time Goes By, these two series were credited with "catapulting Dench into the nation's affections"[4] as they gave prime-time recognition to an actress who, until then, had largely confined herself to stage work and one-off TV dramas.