After Nearest and Dearest
After the series ended in 1973, Baker went on to star in the sitcom 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 was now 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.
Meanwhile, Jewel went on to appear in the sit-com, Spring and Autumn (1973–76), about a friendship between a lonely boy and an elderly man. The series was created by the same team that created Nearest and Dearest, Vince Powell and Harry Driver. Jewel continued to work in television for many years, and in 1991 he appeared in an episode of the BBC 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 regularly bestowed upon Nellie.
Harry Driver, who created and wrote many episodes of the series with Vince Powell, died on 25 November 1973, aged only 42. His death occurred just 9 months after the series ended, marking the abrupt end of a successful 13-year writing partnership with Powell. Edward Malin, who played Walter, was the first of the cast to die, on 1 March 1977, four years after the show ended. Hylda Baker spent her final years penniless and battling dementia, and died in a retirement home on 1 May 1986 of bronchial pneumonia, aged 81. Joe Gladwin, who played Stan went on to star in other television work including the role of Wally Batty in the long-running sitcom Last of the Summer Wine and continued playing the role until his death on 11 March 1987 a year after his co-star Baker. Jewel continued to work in a variety of roles in both theatre and television until his death on 4 December 1995 the day after his 86th birthday. Vince Powell died on 13 July 2009, aged 80.
Madge Hindle remains the sole surviving member of the cast today, and went on to become a series regular 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.
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