Bread
1 9 8 6 - 1 9 9 1 (UK)
74 x 30 minute episodes
The Boswell family, from Liverpool,
are experts at living off Social Security while making ends meet by
whatever means necessary. None of them are (legitimately)
employed but they own their own house and live quite a good life with
the help of frequent supplemental Social Security payments and various
jobs on the side and moneymaking schemes.
The matriarch and head of the family
is Nellie - a robust and capable woman who has brought up her children
without much help from her unfaithful husband Freddie. Nellie is
fiercely proud, loyal (and Catholic!) and uses her sheer force of
personality to keep the family on her version of the straight and
narrow. The four boys are Joey (who holds the family together
financially - it was he who bought the family home), Jack, Adrian and
Billy. The Boswell's daughter, Aveline, spends most of her time
dreaming of being a model and/or having a baby!
Completing the immediate family are
Granddad (who lives next door) and the various wives and girlfriends
of the lads (Julie for Billy, Carmen for Jack, Irenee for Adrian) and
Aveline's beau (and later husband) Oswald. Rounding off the set
is Lilo Lil (Freddie's "bit on the side"), a sharp-tongued
DHSS official named Martina, Shifty (by name and nature!), his
ex-girlfriend Celia and a whole swag of memorable irregulars.
Initial response to the series was
poor with critics taking a predictable stance, labelling the series
"stale" and "crummy" and utilising every other
bread pun they could. More damning was the response from writer
Carla Lane's beloved Liverpool, where local reviewers accused her of
reinforcing the stereotype of Scouse scrounger. The controversy
abated though, when the show fell into its stride and the audience
figures picked up.
By the fourth series, popularity for the comedy was
gigantic. The episode where Aveline and Oswald married in December
1988 attracted more than 21 million viewers.
TRIVIA NOTE
The October 30 1988 episode featured a cameo appearance from Carla
Lane's friends Paul and Linda McCartney. Linda McCartney made a second
appearance with Jean Boht in The Last Waltz, a specially
scripted production featuring characters from Carla Lane's Bread,
Butterflies, Solo and The Liver Birds, aired by
BBC1 on 10 March 1989 as part of Comic Relief.
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