Nearest and Dearest

Nearest and Dearest
Nearest and Dearest (DVD)
Format	Comedy
Created by	Vince Powell Harry Driver
Starring	Hylda Baker Jimmy Jewel Madge Hindle Edward Malin Joe Gladwin
No. of series	7
No. of episodes	46
Production
Producer(s)	Granada Television
Running time	30 minutes per episode
Broadcast
Original channel	ITV
Original run	August 15, 1968 – February 7, 1973
Chronology
Related shows	Not On Your Nellie

Nearest and Dearest is a British television sitcom that ran from 1968 to 1973. A total of 46 episodes were made, 18 in monochrome (black & white) and 28 in colour. The series, produced by Granada Television for the ITV network, was set in Colne, Lancashire, in the North West of England.

The premise was set up in the first episode; Joshua Pledge, in his will, bequeaths a large sum of money to his middle-aged son and daughter but only if they stay together for five years at his small pickle business, Pledge's Purer Pickles. The children are; the hard-working Nellie and her ne'er do well brother, Eli. Nellie was played by veteran comedienne Hylda Baker. Baker was born and bred in Bolton, a town eleven miles north of Manchester, and Eli was played by Jimmy Jewel, a Yorkshire-born contemporary of Baker's, who had made his name as one half of the music hall (vaudeville) act, Jewel and Warriss.

Also featured was the Pledges' cousin, Lily Tattersall, who was married to the constantly mute octaganerian, Walter. Walter was unable to control his bladder, which led to the one of the programme's notable catchphrases, "'Has he been?". Lily was played by Madge Hindle, Walter by Edward Malin. Also prominent was the toothless and cloth-capped Stan Hardman, the Pledge's aged foreman, played by Joe Gladwin.

Much of the comedy was derived from Nellie's constant malapropisms. When asked by Lily if she knew the facts of life, Nellie replied with immense dignity, "Of course I do! I'm well over the age of content!" In another episode, Nellie has a suitor, Vernon Smallpiece, whom she calls 'Vermin Bigpiece'. When Eli insists on playing the high-powered executive once he is in charge of the factory, Nellie asks him who he thinks he is "...sat sitting there like a big business typhoon!" In each episode, Nellie and Eli would hurl insults at each other, often to spectacular effect, as they fought over the family business or domestic matters, with Nellie's constant nagging and Eli's constant drinking and womanising. It was widely alleged that the insults continued offscreen as well, as Baker and Jewel apparently detested each other in real life.

The third series, transmitted in October and November 1969, was the first to be recorded in colour, however as ITV started broadcasting in colour from mid-November 1969, most viewers would have only seen these in black-and-white on their first run. An industrial dispute at ITV in 1970, known as the Colour Strike, led to seven of the eight programmes from the fifth series being made in black-and-white.

A film version of the series was made by Hammer Films in 1972, complete with a vocal version of the series' theme tune sung by Hylda Baker. The series was also adapted for the American market, re-named Thicker Than Water. The US version was not successful and was cancelled after only 13 episodes.

After Nearest and Dearest

After Nearest and Dearest, Baker starred in Not On Your Nellie (made for ITV by London Weekend Television) in which Lancashire born Nellie Pickersgill (the same character as Nellie Pledge in all but name) travels to London to run her ailing father's pub, The Brown Cow. In a 1973 interview with Baker and Jewel (available on the seventh series DVD of Nearest & Dearest), Baker stated that the forthcoming Not On Your Nellie series actually was a spin-off from Nearest and Dearest, and would follow Nellie's exploits in London after Eli practically deserts her. This would appear to follow on from the final episode of Nearest and Dearest where Nellie and Eli are informed by Stan that there had been an explosion at the pickling shed, implying that Pledge's Purer Pickles may have been rendered defunct. However, possibly due to an issue over legal rights regarding the Nellie Pledge character, Not On Your Nellie was ultimately made as an "original" new series rather than a spin-off, despite the obvious similarities between the two.

Jewel later appeared in the sit-com, Spring and Autumn about a friendship between a lonely boy and an elderly man, and an episode of the hospital drama series Casualty in which he was able to use one of his famous catchphrases, referring to a nurse as "a knock-kneed, knackered old nose bag" - a term he had previously bestowed upon Nellie.

Edward Malin, who played Walter, was the first of the cast to die, on March 1, 1977, four years after the show ended. Hylda Baker spent her final years penniless and battling dementia, and died in a retirement home on May 1, 1986 of bronchial pneumonia, aged 81. Joe Gladwin, who played Stan, died on March 1, 1987. Jewel continued to work in a variety of roles until his death on December 3, 1995.

Madge Hindle remains the sole surviving member of the cast, and featured in Coronation Street from 1976, playing Renee Roberts, the wife of grocer Alf Roberts. Her character was killed off in a car crash in 1980, Since then Hindle has worked in a variety of roles in television and stage.

DVD releases

All seven series of Nearest And Dearest (in separate editions and also a 7-disc box set) have been released on DVD by Network DVD. The 1972 film has also been released on DVD by DD Video.

See also

• List of films based on British sitcoms

External links

• Nearest and Dearest at the Internet Movie Database
• Nearest and Dearest at TV.com