The Brothers (TV series)
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The Brothers is a British television series, produced and shown by the BBC between 1972 and 1976.
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[edit] Synopsis
The series was based around conflict within the Hammond family over the direction of the family firm, a road haulage business called Hammond Transport Services, after the death of patriarch Robert Hammond. The eldest son, Edward (played by Glyn Owen 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), a dull accountant and David (Robin Chadwick), a young graduate - and to his mistress, company secretary Jennifer Kingsley (Jennifer Wilson). Storylines throughout the series dealt with plans to expand the business into an international concern, coupled with more family-oriented plots as Edward and Jennifer fall in love and marry.
Other prominent characters included Hammond's hard-faced widow and the mother of the three brothers, Mary (Jean Anderson), 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). Later cast members to join the programme included Colin Baker as the villainous financial whizzkid and proto-yuppie Paul Merroney, Liza Goddard as his secretary then wife April Winter and Kate O'Mara as Jane Maxwell, the tough female boss of an air freight business.
Bill, the foreman was played by Derek Benfield, his character showing how the workplace of the 1970's 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)) playing the character Don Stacey (1975 - 1976). This was the final role that he played before his untimely death.
After the end of the seventh series in 1976 the show simply faded away. It wasn't cancelled as such, just that a further series wasn't commissioned. The format would re-appear in Howards' Way in the following decade in a slightly less convincing format.
[edit] Analysis
The Brothers could be considered a prototype "supersoap" since the series defined a successful format that would later be used by the American series Dallas, Dynasty and Falcon Crest as well as the British serial Howards' Way. The use of a family as the central focus of the drama allowed the introduction of conflict between the men and having their lives directed by ambitious, formidable women acting as the power behind the throne, and offered strong storylines involving the scheming for status and acquisition of wealth and power against a corporate backdrop. This area had been successfully touched upon in ATV's well-remembered, mid 1960's The Power Game. However the emotion-driven storylines that were possible within the extended Hammond clan wins over the fairly tame founder-Father and Director son relationship in the company involved in that series.
It is highly doubtful that The Brothers had any genuine influence on the glossy American capitalist fantasies of the 1980s, nevertheless the thematic links between this popular 1970's BBC family drama and many of the "avarice dramas" that followed on both sides of the Atlantic are undeniable.
Created and produced by Gerard Glaister, who would go on to produce the popular BBC drama Secret Army as well as Howards' Way, The Brothers became a highly popular Sunday night favourite with BBC viewers throughout the early 1970's.
[edit] Trivia
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.
