The Brothers BBC TV

Remember The Brothers from the 1970's? It was a show about a family trucking business. It ran in the U.K. from 1972 until 1976. Growing up in New Zealand I missed the original as it wasn't on our television until 1978, remember South Pacific Television anyone? If I remember correctly they ran it back to back that year in the daytime. I was at University and could watch it as no lectures clashed. It was brilliant. I heard a story later that the Church of England complained their Evensong attendance had dropped off, the programme came on at 7pm Sunday, the same time Evensong starts. Maybe that was the reason it was mysteriously canned. The actors went away at the end of the final episode expecting to be back again for another round, only to find it was cancelled, never to be seen again.

It's good to start at the second series as that's when Patrick O'Connell came on board as Edward Hammond.

Looking back at it now I can see the show was quite revolutionary:

* Women are portrayed strongly, they make a lot of decisions and are seen as the go-getters;
* We have the emergence of the proto-Yuppie, Paul Merroney, a type of character few of us had seen by that stage, later on of course we got to know his type during the Thatcher years and the 1987 sharemarket collapse.
* We see worker democracy being introduced and the then radical notion that someone from the shop floor could sit on the board of directors.

The trucks are interesting, Seddon-Atkinson, Leyland, Bedford, Commer etc., a blast from the past. And the cars, MGB-GT, Jaguar XJ6's and a Reliant Scimitar. What a hoot.

I recently found that a book has been written looking at what is considered by many to be the best serial of the 1970's: