''The Brothers'' is a British

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

series, produced and shown by the BBC between 1972 and 1976. Debuting with the death of road haulage magnate Robert Hammond, the series followed the trials and tribulations of the company and family/families he left behind, with equal shares in Hammond Transport Services left to each of his three sons and to his secretary (who was revealed to have been Hammond's mistress and the mother of his illegitimate daughter).

Synopsis

The series was based around conflict within the Hammond family over the direction of the family firm, a London-based road haulage business called Hammond Transport Services, after the death of patriarch Robert Hammond. The eldest son, Edward (played by

Glyn Owen Glyn Griffith Owen (6 March 1928 – 10 September 2004) was a Welsh stage, television and film actor, perhaps best known to British TV viewers for three roles: that of Dr Patrick O'Meara in ''Emergency Ward 10'' (ITV, 1957–61), Edward Hamm ...

during the first series and by Patrick O'Connell for the remainder of the show's run), prepares to take over the running of the business, only to find that his father has left equal shares to his two other sons, Brian (

Richard Easton John Richard Easton (March 22, 1933 – December 2, 2019) was a Canadian actor, best known for his portrayal of Brian Hammond in the 1970s BBC serial '' The Brothers''. Life and career Easton was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the son of M ...

), a dull accountant and David (Robin Chadwick), a young graduate - and to his mistress and secretary Jennifer Kingsley (Jennifer Wilson). Storylines throughout the series dealt with plans to expand the business into an international concern, coupled with more family-orientated plots as Edward and Jennifer fall in love and marry. Other prominent characters included Robert Hammond's hard-faced widow and the mother of the three brothers, Mary (

Jean Anderson Jean Anderson (12 December 1907 – 1 April 2001) was an English actress best remembered for her television roles as hard-faced matriarch Mary Hammond in the BBC drama '' The Brothers'' (1972–1976) and as rebellious aristocrat Lady Jocelyn " ...

), who is determined to continue exercising her own influence over her family, Brian's shrewish wife Ann ( Hilary Tindall) and David's girlfriend then wife Jill (

Gabrielle Drake Gabrielle Drake (born 30 March 1944) is a British actress. She appeared in the 1970s in television series '' The Brothers'' and ''UFO''. In the early 1970s she appeared in several erotic roles on screen. She later took parts in soap operas ''Cr ...

). Later characters to be introduced included the loathsome financial whizkid,

merchant banker A merchant bank is historically a bank dealing in commercial loans and investment. In modern British usage it is the same as an investment bank. Merchant banks were the first modern banks and evolved from medieval merchants who traded in commodi ...

and proto-

yuppie Yuppie, short for "young urban professional" or "young upwardly-mobile professional", is a term coined in the early 1980s for a young professional person working in a city. The term is first attested in 1980, when it was used as a fairly neu ...

Paul Merroney (

Colin Baker Colin Baker (born 8 June 1943) is an English actor who played Paul Merroney in the BBC drama series '' The Brothers'' from 1974 to 1976 and the sixth incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series ''Docto ...

), April Winter (

Liza Goddard Louise Elizabeth Goddard (born 20 January 1950) professionally known as Liza Goddard, is an English television and stage actress, best known for her work in the 1970s and 1980s. Early life Goddard was born in Smethwick, Staffordshire.Before 1 ...

), who became Merroney's wife, and Jane Maxwell (

Kate O'Mara Kate O'Mara (born Francesca Meredith Carroll;Michael CoveneObituary: Kate O'Mara ''The Guardian'', 30 March 2014 10 August 1939 – 30 March 2014) was an English film, stage and television actress, and writer. O'Mara made her stage debut in a ...

), the tough female boss of an air freight business. (Baker and Goddard later married in real life but subsequently divorced.) Bill, the foreman (

Derek Benfield Derek Benfield (11 March 1926 – 10 March 2009) was a British playwright and actor. He was born in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, and educated at Bingley Grammar School. He was the author of the stage farce ''Running Riot'' and playe ...

), demonstrated how the workplace of the 1970s was changing. His elevation from the shop floor to a key member of the board was met with resistance from both ends, and the subsequent decades allow this to be seen in context, one way that management and workers may work closer together to maintain the company's competitive outlook. The character of Paul Merroney can in hindsight be viewed as a prototype for the new Thatcher-inspired generation of corporate go-getters. The show also featured Mike Pratt (''

Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) ''Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)'' is a British private detective television series, starring Mike Pratt and Kenneth Cope respectively as the private detectives Jeff Randall and Marty Hopkirk. The series was created by Dennis Spooner and p ...

'') playing the character Don Stacey (1975–76). This was the final role that he played before his early death. After the end of the seventh series in 1976, the show finished. There was no formal cancellation of the show but a further series was never commissioned. Created by

Gerard Glaister John Leslie Glaister DFC (21 December 1915 – 5 February 2005), known as Gerard or Gerrard Glaister, was a British television producer and director best known for his work with the BBC. Amongst his most notable successes as a producer were '' ...

and

N. J. Crisp Norman James Crisp (11 December 1923 – 14 June 2005), known as a writer only by his initials and surname, N. J. Crisp, was a prolific British television writer, dramatist and novelist. In the sixties after writing some single dramas, Crisp mov ...

, Glaister was also the producer of the series, and fulfilled the same role on ''

Colditz Colditz () is a small town in the district of Leipzig, in Saxony, Germany. It is best known for Colditz Castle, the site of the Oflag IV-C POW camp for officers in World War II. Geography Colditz is situated in the Leipzig Bay, southeast of th ...

'' and later '' Secret Army'' for the BBC. ''The Brothers'' became a highly popular Sunday night favourite with BBC viewers throughout its run.

Cast album

The popularity of the series in The Netherlands (where it was titled ''The Hammonds'') resulted in a Christmas album recorded by the main characters. ''Christmas with The Hammonds'', produced by Dutch TV host Willem Duys, reached number 22 in the Dutch LP Top 50 in December 1976.

Main cast list

Series overview

Episodes

Series 1

Broadcast Friday evenings on BBC1 at 8:10pm

Series 2

Broadcast Sunday evenings on BBC1 at 7:25pm

Series 3

Broadcast on Sunday evenings on BBC1 at 7:25pm

Series 4

Broadcast Sunday evenings on BBC1 at 7:25pm with a one-week break in the series on 24 November.

Series 5

Broadcast Sunday evenings on BBC1 at 7:25pm

Series 6

Broadcast Sunday evenings on BBC1 at 7:25pm

Series 7

Broadcast Sunday evenings on BBC1 at 7:25pm

DVD release

The series is available in the UK as a 27 DVD boxed set released by Simply Media:

References

External links

*
''The Brothers''
at

TV Cream TV Cream is a British television nostalgia website, which has expanded to cover not only television, but film, toys, books, and other objects. ''The Daily Telegraph'' called it "a labour of love" and praised "the standard of the writing". In 2003, ...

''The Brothers''
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Brothers, The 1972 British television series debuts 1976 British television series endings 1970s British drama television series BBC television dramas British television soap operas English-language television shows