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Squirrels, The

OFFICE POLITICKING over-easy. Penned by ERIC CHAPPELL off the back of his days spent as, hey, a travelling auditor with the East Midlands Electricity Board, which became the fictional accounts department of the International Rentals television hire company. BERNARD HEPTON was the evil boss, KEN JONES, PATSY ROWLANDS, ALAN DAVID, ELLIS JONES and KARIN MACCARTHY his five underlings. Much treasury tag turmoil ensued. Later episodes penned by KENNETH COPE and – yikes – PHIL REDMOND.

10 Comments

10 Comments

  1. Droogie

    April 25, 2022 at 10:04 pm

    RIP Eric Chappell. Had vague memories seeing this ITV sitcom as a kid about boring people in a dull office And starring the unlovely Ken Jones as the lead. Not a classic.

  2. Droogie

    April 25, 2022 at 10:05 pm

    RIP Eric Chappell. Had vague memories seeing this ITV sitcom as a kid about boring people in a dull office And starring the unlovely Ken Jones as the lead. Not a classic.

  3. Glenn Aylett

    April 28, 2022 at 7:57 pm

    @ Droogie, it appeared in the summer of 1977 and was so so, nowhere near as good as Rising Damp, the only ITV sitcom that approached greatness in those days and by the same Eric Chappell. Another of that time that could have been excellent if it was on the BBC and was written by Perry and Croft was The Land Girls, but again it fell well short and went after six episodes.

  4. Droogie

    April 28, 2022 at 11:18 pm

    @ Glen Aylett I remember The Land Girls. ITV used to print The IBA yearbook back in the late 70’s that would show all the different TV and radio regions. I remember asking my folks to buy the 1978 IBA yearbook just because it had the Muppets on the cover. It was loaded with photos and had fascinating forthcoming ITV shows shown, as well as showing all the different regional channels variations and the various radio stations. Wonderful stuff

  5. Droogie

    April 28, 2022 at 11:33 pm

    @Glen Aylett But I also remember being bored to death as a kid in the late 70’s with all the period TV shows set in the 30’s or 40’s on telly. Just William on ITV was especially tedious.

    • Glenn Aylett

      May 1, 2022 at 8:41 am

      @ Droogie, have to disagree with you there, as a huge nine year old fan of the books, I was delighted when ITV made a series. However, if I was to watch it now, it would appear totally dated, being largely made in a studio, and Violet Elizabeth Bott would have me grabbing the remote( I’ll scream and scream until I am sick). Obviously no child now would want to watch a group of upper middle class children in 1920s Surrey being slightly rebellious, same as The Famous Five would get the cold shoulder from ten years old these days.

  6. Richardpd

    April 30, 2022 at 10:24 pm

    I’ve also noticed there were quite a few series set in the 1930s-40s (sometimes into the 1950s) made upto the mid 1980s.

    Dennis Potter seemed to like setting his plays in this era.

    The BBC also used publish a yearbook, I remember my college had one for 1983.

  7. Droogie

    May 1, 2022 at 1:02 am

    @RichardPd Absolutely. Off the top of my head regarding 40’s set comedy/drama shows from the late 70’s/ early 80’s, you had Shine On Harvey Moon, The Machine Gunners, Secret Army, Private Schultz, Enemy At The Door, Tenko etc.( not to mention endless repeats of Dad’s Army and Allo Allo )

  8. Richardpd

    May 1, 2022 at 12:58 pm

    Also All Creatures Great & Small, which was so popular they ran out of the books to adapt & had to write original episodes based loosely on James Herriott’s diaries.

    Even the Australians got in on the act with The Sullivans, which was influenced by the earlier A Family At War.

  9. Richardpd

    July 22, 2023 at 12:12 pm

    Eric Chappell later recycled his scripts in the early 1990s to use in Fiddlers Three, which was average at best even with the presence of Peter Davison.

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