Bachelor Father
A return to situation comedy for Ian Carmichael, following his
top-hole role as upper-class ass Bertie Wooster in The World Of
Wooster.
Bachelor Father was a family comedy, loosely based on
the life of Peter Lloyd Jeffcock, a bachelor foster-father to 12
children who had recounted his story in his autobiography, Only
Uncle. The TV series was written by Carmichael's Wodehouse
adapter Richard Waring, who based some of the plots upon incidents
in Only Uncle.
Waring admitted that he would have stuck closer to the original
story but for the fact that it was so far-fetched that audiences
would have had difficulty believing it - truth in this case
clearly being stranger than fiction.
In the series, Carmichael played well-to-do Peter Lamb, who had
always wanted a family but failed to strike up a long-lasting
romantic relationship. In the first episode he hit upon the idea
of fostering and through the ensuing stories built up his
surrogate family of diverse children.
Carmichael was something of a perfectionist and picked his
projects carefully - he was not a jobbing actor and had to believe
strongly in the worth of the material before accepting a role.
Typically, he originated his own projects or became closely
involved with the development of any productions in which he was
involved.
For this reason Bachelor Father, although ostensibly a
middle-of-the-road family sitcom of no great ambition, came over
as a polished and professional piece of work that pleased
audiences over two extended series.
Never one to outstay his welcome, Carmichael moved on to fresh
challenges when he felt that the idea had been sufficiently
explored.
NOTE - This BBC series is unrelated to an American sitcom of
the same title, networked in the US by (in turn) CBS, NBC and ABC
from 1957 to 1962.
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