Oh boy you guys are bringing back lots of memories. Can remember the air hostesses walking down the aisle with a basket of barley sugar prior to takeoff and prior to descent. The melamine catering catering dishes with a hot roast in them and meal trays with little slots for for all the items on ones meal tray. As far as the airframe is concerned and the heavy maintenance required to keep the aircraft airworthy suggest you checkout a book titled "Contested Skies."
Despite the operating and maintenance issues TAA and Ansett-AnA achieved high load factors of around 80 percent from introduction of the aircraft and it was initially well patronised before introduction of the B727 and DC9. As a boy I kept a log of the registration and aircraft type that I flew on as passenger and flew on all types of Viscounts 700/800/832 series that were operated by Ansett and TAA. Another issue is that the aircraft was designed such that it had a limited lifespan based on operating cycles etc. due to the nature and limits of the alloys from which it was constructed. My understanding is that the Sud-Aviation Caravelle had a limited lifespan aswell. Besides the Avro 146 the Viscount achieved a high volume of sales compared to any other gas turbine aircraft produced in the UK.