The Grove Family - Episode One - Part One

"Prevention and Cure"

Devised by BBC producer John Warrington and written by father and son team Roland and Michael Pertwee, 'The Grove Family' was Britain's first soap opera for adults (two years after the children's equivalent, 'The Appleyards').

The series featured the seven members of a lower middle-class family living in a neat double-fronted house, with father's builder's yard attached, in a quiet road in the London suburb of Hendon. Apart from mum and dad Grove there was 90 year-old grandmother, two elder children of 20 and 18 years old, and two youngsters of 13 and 8. Each episode, lasting between 15 and 20 minutes would seem pretty tame by today's soap opera standards, concentrating on petty squabbles and everyday domestic incidents with a built in 'public service' element such as the virtues of buying a television licence or making one's house burglar proof. The producers reportedly auditioned 270 people before choosing the final cast of seven and thirteen episodes were already written before it came to the screen for the first time on a Friday night in 1954, with the family celebrating the fact that father had just paid off the mortgage on the house after 20 years.

In a 1954 interview for TV Mirror, Michael Pertwee explained how the series came about: "We decided from the first to make a separate self-contained incident each week, so that anyone could switch on at any episode and understand what it was all about. Once having decided on the type of series it was necessary to settle on the type of environment. We did a lot of head scratching about a name for a family. The original Bob Grove started off as Bob Welcome who was a commissionaire at a film studio. It was my father who suggested making him a builder. Being in business for himself the man would be subject to all the fluctuations of fortune caused by economic conditions. He would have many more problems being in the open market. Finally we adopted the name Grove after the BBC studios at Lime Grove." With the basic outline of the series in place the Pertwee's then set about developing each family members character. "We decided that if the family was to have some semblance of reality, not every member should have wings sprouting from their shoulders. Thus, the elder son Jack is bit of a smart alick. The elder daughter Pat has a number of boyfriends whom she does not treat very well and grandma is best described as 'crotchety'."

The youngest member of 'The Grove Family', actor Christopher Beeny, would become well known as a downstairs servant in the Bellamy household in 'Upstairs Downstairs' and elder son Jack was played by Peter Bryant who would go on to become a successful director and producer particularly remembered for his work on 'Doctor Who', the very same show that Michael Pertwee's brother, Jon, would star in. After three years of writing continuously for the series the two Pertwee's asked the BBC for a holiday and they were granted it...'The Grove Family' was taken off the air never to return.

Unfortunately very little footage is known to exist today although a spin-off movie, 'It's A Great Day' was made in 1955 and in 1991 as part of the BBC's Lime Grove celebrations a number of modern day soap stars were gathered to recreate parts of the original script. 'The Royale Family's' Sue Johnston played mum whilst 'Eastenders' Leslie Grantham played dad. Anna Wing appeared as Gran and Nick Berry was Jack. 'The Grove Family', more naïve than dramatic, enjoyed enormous popularity in its time and was arguably the genesis for the soap opera formula that would eventually come to dominate British television.

Transmitted: 2nd April 1954

Part Two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zkbzdf2jX0
Part Three: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpKMDB7e1xU

This film footage is from the Archive Collection held by the Alexandra Palace Television Society.

http://www.apts.org.uk

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[Glinkaism1]

Ahhh! Silent TV, just like when movies started out: silent films. :)

[aptsarchive]

@Glinkaism1 I'm not sure what you mean, as there is audio on the whole of this clip!

[Glinkaism1]

@aptsarchive The audio is on the right channel ONLY, rather on the left and right. If the audio is sent mono one-channel, it's typically on the left. Your is on the right. So I switched over to the right channel mono, and there tis.

Cheers.

[aptsarchive]

@Glinkaism1 Many thanks for explaining the audio issue on this upload.

[CBETelevisionNetwork]

how could this have been transmitted in 1954 when in this the police officer mentions double your money when that was on itv in 1955?

[aptsarchive]

@CBETelevisionNetwork The transmission date of this episode is 2nd April 1954 so I'm afraid I don't know why the police officer mentions Double Your Money.

[Glinkaism1]

@aptsarchive Therefore it is best to feed the same audio in mono on both left and right channels or just the left channel. If it's stereo, best to combine the left and right channels together for mono.

That way, your audio will be compatible to everyone. :)

[irontown]

@aptsarchive

double Your Money I think may have also been a radio programme before it went ti ttlevision. During this period radio was still 'king'

[justafool1]

Double your Money was broadcast on Radio Luxemburg long before it was taken up by ITV

[xandy1959]

double your money was a radio luxemburg show before it was on tv so that explains how it was mentioned

[CBETelevisionNetwork]

@aptsarchive he could have ment to say if you listen to double your money as i think it was transmitted on radio Luxemberg.

Also, have you noticed that all they are doing is advertising how to keep your house safe!I can imagine what many contreversial topics they covered..

'now margret, put 8oz of flour in the bowl wi' 'alf a stck of marg. next add 3oz of sugar and 1teaspoon of vanila esscence.you can decorate if you like.'

'yes i shall.ill pop it in the oven.'

later on

'oh no, its burnt!