On 3 April 1979, BBC2 broadcast an episode of the TV current affairs and documentary series Man Alive focusing on the growing number of couples living together outside marriage. Its title – The Unholy Alliance – reflected the continuing uncertainty among commentators at the time as to whether cohabitation was a matter for concern. Its key focus, however, was the way in which the law was gradually starting to recognise couples who were living together. And explaining the legal status of cohabiting couples – with her characteristic force and lucidity – was a young Brenda Hoggett.

Asked if the increasingly popular term ‘common law marriage’ had any legal force, her trenchant answer was ‘No, you’re either married or you’re not married.’ She went on to clarify the legal differences between marriage and cohabitation – the fact that children enjoyed no automatic legal relationship with their father, the lack of mutual support obligations, the lack of entitlement to a widow’s pension – but explained that a woman might get a share in the house if the man had made promises to that effect. When the presenter, Nick Ross, ventured to suggest that the advantages lay with the woman, she firmly corrected him, noting that protection focused on dependency rather than gender.