Nearest and Dearest - Series Premise and History

Series Premise and History

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. However his children, the hard-working spinster Nellie and her ne'er do well womanising brother Eli, rarely saw eye to eye. Nellie was played by veteran comedienne Hylda Baker, who was born and bred in Farnworth, eleven miles north of Manchester. 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' second-cousin, Lily Tattersall, who was married to the constantly mute octaganerian, Walter. Walter was unable to control his bladder, which led to one of the programme's oft-used catchphrases, "Has he been?". Lily was played by Madge Hindle, Walter by Edward Malin. Another regular character was the Pledges' toothless, cloth-capped old foreman, Stan Hardman (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 named Vernon Smallpiece, whom she addresses as 'Vermin Bigpiece'. When Eli insists on playing the high-powered executive once he is in charge of the pickle business, 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 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 fuelling their arguments. 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 only started broadcasting in colour from mid-November 1969, most viewers would have 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.