Flesh And Blood (BBC-1 1980-1982 with Thora Hird and Bill Fraser)

UK / BBC One / 20×60 minute episodes / Broadcast 8 January 1980 – 1 June 1982

Writer: John Finch / Script Editor: Ted Rhodes / Music: Peter Skellern / Producer: Bill Sellars / Director: Terence Dudley

Drama series. Writer John Finch, the man behind A Family At War and Sam, clearly had a grasp on the dynamics of the family, from the start of his career working on shows such as Coronation Street, The Power Game and The System through the seventies and his most fertile period all of his series touch on the family and the way relationships can fracture, change or grow.

Prior to Flesh and Blood from 1980 all of his work had been for the ITV Network but Flesh was broadcast by the BBC, it treads similar ground to previous Finch series. Bill Fraser, in one of his rare straight roles, plays Yorkshireman Henry Brassington who rules over his large family, and the family business, however the real power behind the throne is his mother Mabel (played by Thora Hird who surely couldn’t have been much older than Bill Fraser here). At the start of the series Henry is considering retiring and leaving his sons Max and Ross to take over however when his wife dies Henry has some hard thinking to do.

cast
Thora Hird as Mabel Brassington
Bill Fraser as Henry Brassington
Ann Firbank as Sarah Brassington
Nigel Stock as Jim Turner
David Allister as Ian McKellar
Michael Jayston as Ross Brassington
John Stone as Max Brassington
Coral Atkins as Ruth Turner
Tracey Childs as Bet McKellar
Janet Key as Barbara Weston