Keep It In The Family (ITV Sitcom, Robert Gillespie, Pauline Yates)

In popular ITV sitcom Keep It In The Family Dudley Rush (Robert Gillespie) is a cartoonist who works from his London home on his newspaper strip Barney – Adventures Of A Bionic Bulldog. He often finds himself under the feet of his wife Muriel (Pauline Yates). His grown up daughters Susan (Stacy Dorning) and Jacqui (Jenny Quayle for the first two seasons and then Sabina Franklyn) live in the flat downstairs and Dudley’s boss Duncan Thomas (Glyn Houston) was a regular to the Rush home. Indeed he even moved in for the fifth and final season. By this stage Pauline Yates had departed the series, Muriel supposedly spending time in Australia visiting her mother.

The series was created by Brian Cooke (who usually worked with Johnnie Mortimer on shows such as Man About The House and George and Mildred) and the Keep It In The Family format was successfully sold to America where it aired as Too Close For Comfort and then The Ted Knight Show where it ran for a massive 151 episodes. There was another sitcom with the same title that aired in 1971, this was no relation to this one.

Cast: Robert Gillespie as Dudley Rush; Pauline Yates as Muriel Rush; Stacy Dorning as Susan Rush; Jenny Quayle as Jacqui Rush (Seasons 1 & 2); Sabina Franklyn as Jacqui Rush (Seasons 3-5); Glyn Houston as Duncan Thomas

Creator: Brian Cooke / Producers: Mark Stuart, Robert Reed, Michael Mills

UK / ITV – Thames / 31×30 minute episodes / 7 January 1980 – 19 October 1983