Bless This House (British TV series)
Bless This House is a British sitcom that aired on ITV from 2 February 1971 to 22 April 1976. Starring Sid James and Diana Coupland, it was created by Vince Powell and Harry Driver, but mainly written by other hands including Dave Freeman and Carla Lane. It was made for the ITV network by Thames Television. In 2004, Bless This House was ranked by a BBC poll as the 67th Best British Sitcom.
Production
The show was produced & directed by William G. Stewart, later the host of the 15 to 1 gameshow, and had theme music written by Geoff Love. A comic strip version was also produced, written by Angus Allan and printed in TV comic Look-in. The first seven episodes were made in black-and-white due to the ITV colour strike. Every episode was recorded in Studio 1 at the Thames Television studios based in Teddington.The series ended abruptly in 1976, when just four days after broadcast of the final episode of the sixth series, Sid James collapsed on stage at the Sunderland Empire during a performance of The Mating Season after failing to respond to a cue. James had suffered a heart attack and died later on the way to the hospital.
Plans were put in place for a 7th and 8th series of the show and a second feature film at the time of James's death. Ironically, James had told his co-star Diana Coupland, "We'll keep making this until one of us kicks the bucket."
Cast
- Sidney James as Sid Abbott. Jean Abbott's husband and an Arsenal F.C. fan. He likes to believe he is in control of his household, but finds he has to sneak out to go to the football or the pub. He often tries to avoid occasions he doesn't want to attend, but this often backfires on him.
- Diana Coupland as Jean Abbott. Sid's wife, who believes she can talk him into or out of anything. She always knows what he's up to and sees through his schemes.
- Robin Stewart as Mike Abbott. Jean and Sid's son, their firstborn. He is an artist but he always avoids employment because "it's a drag."
- Sally Geeson as Sally Abbott. Jean and Sid's daughter, Mike's little sister. Sid and Jean constantly worry about her relationships with "boys." She calls Sid "Daddy" and Jean "Mummy." Sally married Bless This House producer William G. Stewart in 1976 and had three children during their 10 years of marriage.
- Anthony Jackson as Trevor Lewis. The Abbotts' next-door neighbour and Sid's best friend.
- Patsy Rowlands as Betty Lewis. Trevor's wife and Jean's best friend. Jean and Betty usually gang up on their husbands if they don't do the right things.
Plot
Episodes
Series one (1971)
Series two (1972)
Series three (1973)
Series four (1974)
Series five (1974)
Series six (1976)
Film
A film version of the TV series was made in 1972. While it still starred Diana Coupland and Sid James as the Abbotts, Robin Askwith, who had previously appeared in the TV series, played Mike instead of TV series regular Robin Stewart due to the latter being unable to find time to appear in the film, having already been booked for the summer season on Bournemouth Pier. In addition, it featured "new" neighbours played by Terry Scott and June Whitfield. The part of Trevor was also recast with Peter Butterworth replacing Jackson. All the original actors returned for series three. Additionally, Mike gets married at the end of the film; this had no effect on the storylines in the television series.Home media
All six series of Bless This House have been released on DVD in the UK including a Box Set containing all six series plus the feature film through Network DVD. In Australia, Series 1 was released on 2 April 2009, Series 2 on 3 October 2012 and Series 3 on 6 March 2013. A Complete Series 1-6 Box Set is due for release 6 November 2013.| DVD | Release date |
ITV3 started repeating the series on 17 June 2020, with minor edits.