This series epitomises the domistic sitcom of the 70s and was based around the exploits of the Abbott family and the comedy generated from the generations rubbing up against each other. Essentially a vehicle for Sid James, who had reached that point in his career where he needed to effectively settle down, it provided him a stable family man image, whilst still retaining some of the idiosyncrasies that he was best known for - a drink, his pipe, and, of course, the girls, albeit a bit more restrained.
Sid Abbott works as a stationery rep and his interest in life are the three C's: Chelsea, Courage bitter and Crumpet, and not necessarily in that order. In common with most married men, he believed that he was head of the household, and finds that his beliefs are constantly thwarted by his wife, son and daughter. Sid likes to think he is with it, but in actual fact, he would not know it if he saw it. Diana Coupland plays his attractive, sensible, level-headed wife. Sally Geeson is his 16-year old daughter, Sally. She's in her last year at Grammar School and is the apple of Sid's eye. Robin Stewart plays Mike who is 19 and just left college. He is far too busy straightening out the affairs of the world to bother about a job. This entertaining series concerns itself with the life of the family and general and with Sid in particular. As far as Sid and his children are concerned, there exists not so much a generation gap as a grand canyon of misunderstanding and utter bewilderment.
There was a departure on the part of William G Stewart who directed and produced the show in as much as he decided to adopt the US model of scripting, with various authors providing episodes in addition to the creators Vince Powell and Harry Driver, and indeed, Carla Lane supplied a third of them. The series also lead to the almost obligatory feature film for 70s sitcoms, with the added bonus of introducing yet another domestic coupling to the pot in the form of Terry Scott and June Whitfield.
Network DVD have now released the first 5 series, with the last to follow. They are essentially bare-bones releases, without any extras as such (apart from script PDFs on the first release). I was more than impressed with the quality of the prints used - I have watched considerably worse copies in the past, but it has been pointed out that various original end caps have been replaced by later ones. With the Thames Television archive changing hands a number of times since the programmes were first recorded, this is almost inevitable, as each new owner wants their own branding present. Whilst this may be an important point to the die hard collectors, I didn't find that it distracted from my enjoyment of the shows - many of which I didn't remember at all, and I thought I had seen them all!!!
To celebrate the release of the complete fifth series by Network DVD I have a copy to give away. To be in with a chance of winning all I want is the answer to this simple question:
Sid James was amongst the stars in the popular Carry On films, but how many was he actually in?
Answers should be sent here with BLESS in the header, and don't forget to include the correct answer, your name, your address, and a contact telephone number.
And now for the small print: The competition closes at midnight on the 5th March and the winners will be advised as soon as they are pulled from the virtual hat. The competition is only open to UK residents, no correspondence will be entered into and the judges decision is final (so there). The British Comedy and Drama Website is not responsible for the prizes and are running the competition on behalf of third parties.
:: Series 1
This series was originally broadcast on ITV of a Tuesday around 7.00pm. The first 7 of these were recorded in monochrome.
| Title | Tx. Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| The Generation Gap | 2.2.71 | |
| Mum's The Word | 9.2.71 | |
| Father's Day | 16.2.71 | |
| Be It Ever So Humble | 23.2.71 | |
| Another Fine Mess | 2.3.71 | |
| For Whom The Bells Toll | 9.3.71 | |
| A Woman's Place | 16.3.71 | |
| The Day Of Rest | 23.3.71 | |
| Make Love, Not War | 30.3.71 | |
| Charity Begins At Home | 6.4.71 | |
| lf The Dog Collar Fits ... Wear It! | 23.4.71 | |
| The Morning After The Night Before | 20.4.71 |
:: Series 2
This series was originally broadcast on ITV of a Monday evening at 8.30pm.
| Title | Tx. Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Two Heads Are Better Than One | 21.2.72 | |
| Love Me, Love My Tree | 28.2.72 | |
| It's All In The Mind | 6.3.72 | |
| Another Lost Weekend | 13.3.72 | |
| Parents Should Be Seen And Not Heard | 20.3.72 | |
| Strangers In The Night | 27.3.72 | |
| Get Me To The Match On Time | 10.4.72 | |
| Wives And Lovers | 17.4.72 | |
| Never Again On Sunday | 24.4.72 | |
| People In Glass Houses | 1.5.72 | |
| A Rolls By Any Other Name | 8.5.72 | |
| A Touch Of The Unknown | 15.5.72 |
:: Series 3
This series was originally broadcast on ITV of a Monday evening at 8.30pm with a short break between episodes 7 and 8, resuming broadcast at the earlier time of 8.00pm.
| Title | Tx. Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| It Comes To Us All In The End | 22.1.73 | The Abbotts have to cope with a death in the family... |
| Tea For Two And Four For Tea | 5.2.73 | When Mike goes off his food, takes to wearing a collar and tie, and is reluctant to say where he disappears to every evening, Sid and Jean decide to invite the girl involved home to tea. |
| To Tell Or Not To Tell | 12.2.73 | It is not that Sid and Jean are actually spying, but when they do happen to notice something going on next door, they have to make sure before deciding whether 'to tell or not to tell'. |
| Blood Is Thicker Than Water | 19.2.73 | Most families have a skeleton in the cupboard and Sid's skeleton has been hidden away for forty years. Hidden so well, in fact, that even Jean knew nothing about it... |
| One Good Turn Deserves A Bother | 26.2.73 | When Sid's boss goes on holiday, Sid takes it upon himself to guard the 'goodies'. The family are not too happy to stand guard on rota, and to his cost Sid finds it impossible to be in two places at once. |
| The Loneliness Of The Short Distance Walker | 5.3.73 | It's not that Sid is out of condition, it's just that fridges are getting heavier these days. But when Sid sees what walking has done for lovely Lesley, he and Trevor decide they will go along too. |
| Watch The Birdie | 12.3.73 | When Mike has a brilliant idea it usually costs Sid money. But when it only involves the grotty old garage, then Sid can be persuaded. |
| Will The Real Sid Abbott Please Stand Up | 30.4.73 | When Jean finds out that Sexy Sandra is what makes a shrivelled up old prune with a wire brush on top turn into Putney's oldest Teeny Bopper, she decides it is time to go home to Mother. |
| Atishoo! Atishoo! We All Fall Down | 7.5.73 | Jean going down with flu is one thing, Sally is another, and Mike is another - but Sid can still cope. Betty's pregnant twinges, however, become the straw that breaks the camel's back, not to mention the settee. |
| Entente Not So Cordiale | 14.5.73 | Most British soldiers left their hearts in wartime Paris, but Sid left only his army paybook. And when it comes to light thirty-three years later, and Sid and Jean are invited to spend a weekend in Paris, they discover that the entente is not so cordiale. |
| I'm Not jealous, I'll Kill Him | 21.5.73 | When an old flame kindles warmth in Jean's heart, Sid begins to burn. It really is not as though he is jealous, but when Betty adds fuel to the fire, Sid explodes. |
| A Girl's Worst Friend Is Her Father | 28.5.73 | If Sid had not interfered in the first place, then Sally would not have considered a job away from home. But once she's in the habit, Sid sends for reinforcements in the form of Norman. All of which proves to Sally that there are times when a girl's worst friend is her father. |
:: Series 4
This series was originally broadcast on ITV of a Wednesday evening at 8.00pm.
| Title | Tx. Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Money Is The Root Of ... | 20.2.74 | If Sidney Abbott, last heard of in Wapping 1942...he will hear something to his advantage." Whatever happened in Wapping in 1942, Sid's old friend Gertie Adams (according to Sid 'an old lady, bald and bent double') obviously enjoyed it enough to remember sid in her will. |
| And They Will Come Home | 27.2.74 | The Trouble starts when Sally and Mike go into business buying and selling old junk. Sid puts up with it until 'one big thing' arrives in his garden - then he puts his foot down. |
| Who's Minding The Baby? | 20.3.74 | When Betty from next door pops in to ask a 'little favour', Sid is not at all keen but Jean insists that they are friends and encourage sher. |
| A Beef In His Bonnet | 27.3.74 | When Mike and Sally bring home somethign that has 'fallen off the back of a lorry', sid warns them about mixing with villians like 'Fingers' Taplock. |
| The Bells Are Ringing | 3.4.74 | sid's reaction to Mike marrying into a wealthy family is simply 'he's cracked it'. But when another close tie between the two families is announced, Sid takes a different view. But all's well that ends well - or is it? |
| The First 25 Years Are The Worst | 10.4.74 | sid discovers the phone is missing but int he Abbott home there is a simple explanation - Sally and Mike have borrowed it. The party that sid cannot remember is for his Silver Wedding Anniversary. These two facts combine to give Sid plenty of problems. |
:: Series 5
This series was originally broadcast on ITV of a Monday evening at 8.00pm.
| Title | Tx. Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| They Don't Write Songs Like That Anymore | 14.10.74 | Sid finds that the generation gap if anything gets wider and his attempts to get into the pop scene lead him to all sorts of expense and problems but there is a happy ending of sorts. |
| The Gipsy's Warning | 21.10.74 | The trouble starts with Sid's morning paper he wants to do his crossword and Jean wants to read her horoscope. Not that she really believes it - unless it turns out right - and Sid, of course, will have nothing to do with it at all - even when it does come true. |
| The Biggest Woodworm In The World | 28.10.74 | Sid doesn't really mind Mike's girlfriend staying for a few days, and he doesn't even mind that she's a dancer. The trouble is that Mike doesn't explain what sort of a dancer she is. Even then things might have been alright if Sid an Trevor hadn't been so nosey. |
| Home Tweet Home | 4.11.74 | Mike and Sally have a scheme for raising money for their holiday. Sid doesn't actually approve but lets them go ahead and things might have gone smoothly had not Trevor seen the chance of using Mike and Sally's scheme to help Sid earn a bit of money... |
| You're Never Too Old To Be Young | 11.11.74 | Most marriages have their tricky period and the Abbotts' come face to face with one of theirs Jean calmly announces to Sid that the romance has gone out of their marriage, that she's no longer excited and that she wants a lover. |
| The Policeman, The Paint And The Pirates | 18.11.74 | It is Sid's anxiety to avoid being dragged into "The Pirates of Penzance" that leads him into trouble with a pot of paint. Sally doesn't help by bringing home a boyfriend who is a policeman - and Trevor makes things worse by bringing in the Japanese. |
| Happy Birthday Sid | 25.11.74 | What should a husband do if his family give him a birthday present that he can't use? Whatever it is o Sid doesn't do it ¦ he takes the complicated way out and as usual ends up in the wrong. |
| Freedom Is | 2.12.74 | Sid doesn't like the idea of Sally and Mike befriending a tramp and giving him his old sweaters that Sid has only worn twice. He likes it even less when Sally brings him home and the whole family take the tramp's side against Sid. |
| Mr. Chairman ... | 9.12.74 | Disenchanted with the local Residents Association, Sid leads a revolt against the Chairman. He is enjoying his role as 'rebel' until Trevor - egged on by Betty ¦ takes things one step too far. |
| And Afterwards At ... | 16.12.74 | Like most men who can't stand family weddings Sid puts up with them as long as there's a booze-up. What he doesn't bargain for is the involvement with Jean's cousin Peggy, and Alistair - the bridegroom. |
:: Series 6
This series was originally broadcast on ITV of a Thursday evening around 8.00pm.
| Title | Tx. Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| The Frozen Limit | 29.1.76 | |
| Beautiful Dreamer | 5.2.76 | |
| Fish With Everything | 12.2.76 | |
| The Naked Paperhanger | 19.2.76 | |
| Remember Me? | 26.2.76 | |
| Something Of Value | 4.3.76 | |
| Men Of Consequence | 11.3.76 | |
| Skin Deep | 18.3.76 | |
| Friends And Neighbours | 25.3.76 | |
| Well, Well, Well | 1.4.76 | |
| The Phantom Pools Winner | 8.4.76 | |
| A Matter Of Principle | 15.4.76 | |
| Some Enchanted Evening | 22.4.76 |