:Nearest and Dearest

The first episode set up the premise: in his will, Joshua Pledge bequeathed a large sum of money to his middle-aged son and daughter... but only if they stay together for five years at his small pickle business, Pledge's Purer Pickles. However, hard-working spinster Nellie and her ne'er-do-well womanising brother Eli, rarely saw eye to eye.{{cite web|url=http://www.comedy.co.uk/guide/tv/nearest_and_dearest/ |title=Nearest And Dearest – ITV Sitcom – British Comedy Guide |publisher=Comedy.co.uk |access-date=22 June 2014}} Nellie was played by comedian Hylda Baker, who was born and bred in Farnworth, eleven miles north of Manchester. Eli was played by Jimmy Jewel, a Yorkshire-born contemporary of Baker; he had made his name with Ben Warriss in the music hall (vaudeville) act Jewel and Warriss.{{cite web |author=Denis Gifford |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-jimmy-jewel-1524176.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220618/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-jimmy-jewel-1524176.html |archive-date=18 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Obituary: Jimmy Jewel |work=The Independent |date=5 December 1995 |access-date=22 June 2014}}

Also featured was the Pledges' second-cousin, Lily Tattersall, who was married to constantly-mute octogenarian Walter. Walter was unable to control his bladder, which led to one of the programme's oft-used catchphrases, "Has he been?". Lily was played by Madge Hindle, Walter by Edward Malin. Another regular character was the Pledges' toothless, cloth-capped old foreman, Stan Hardman (Joe Gladwin).{{cite web |url=http://www.comedy.co.uk/guide/tv/nearest_and_dearest/characters/ |title=Nearest And Dearest – Character Guide – British Comedy Guide |publisher=Comedy.co.uk |access-date=22 June 2014}}

Much of the comedy was derived from Nellie's constant malapropisms. When asked by Lily if she knew the facts of life, Nellie replied with immense dignity, "Of course I do! I'm well over the age of content!" In another episode, Nellie has a suitor named Vernon Smallpiece, whom she addresses as 'Vermin Bigpiece'. When Eli insists on playing the high-powered executive once he is in charge of the pickle business, Nellie asks him who he thinks he is "sat sitting there like a big business typhoon!" In each episode, Nellie and Eli would hurl insults at each other to spectacular effect, as they fought over the family business or domestic matters, with Nellie's constant nagging and Eli's constant drinking and womanising fuelling their arguments. It was known that the insults continued off-screen as well, as Baker and Jewel disliked each other intensely in real life,{{cite web |last=Fiddy |first=Dick |url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/1368531/index.html |title=Baker, Hylda (1905-1986) |work=BFI Screenonline |date=2003–2014 |access-date=22 August 2020}}{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01279bs |title=BBC Radio 2 – Barbara Windsor's Funny Girls, Series 1, Hylda Baker |publisher=Bbc.co.uk |date=5 July 2011 |access-date=22 June 2014}} their working relationship being described as "the most toxic in the whole of British sitcom history".McCann, Graham (9 August 2020) [https://www.comedy.co.uk/features/comedy_chronicles/strained-relationships-hylda-baker-and-jimmy-jewel/ Comedy Chronicles:Strained Relationships: Hylda Baker & Jimmy Jewel] Comedy.co.uk. Retrieved February 24, 2021. In later episodes, Baker struggled to remember her lines and relied on cue cards and prompting from co-star Madge Hindle. After she retired from acting, Baker would suffer greatly with dementia during her final years.

The third series, transmitted in October and November 1969, was the first to be recorded in colour, but given that ITV began broadcasting in colour from 15 November 1969, no viewers would have seen these in colour on their first run until 15 November.{{cite web |url=http://www.britishcomedy.org.uk/comedy/nearestanddearest.html |title=Nearest And Dearest |publisher=Britishcomedy.org.uk |access-date=22 June 2014}} An industrial dispute at ITV in 1971, known as the Colour Strike, led to seven of the eight programmes from the fifth series being made in black-and-white.{{citation needed|date=July 2011}}

• Hylda Baker as Nellie Pledge
• Jimmy Jewel as Eli Pledge
• Joe Gladwin as Stan Hardman
• Madge Hindle as Lily Tattersall
• Edward Malin as Walter Tattersall
• Freddie Rayner as Grenville (series 2 to 7)
• Bert Palmer (series 1) and Leslie Sarony (series 2) as Bert Taylor

{{Episode table |background=#006400 |total_width=60 |overall=5 |series=5 |title=50 |airdate=30 |episodes=

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 1

| EpisodeNumber2 = 1

| Title = It Comes to Us All

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1968|8|15|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = 006400

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 2

| EpisodeNumber2 = 2

| Title = Lead Me to the Altar

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1968|8|22|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = 006400

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 3

| EpisodeNumber2 = 3

| Title = The Danger List

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1968|8|29|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = 006400

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 4

| EpisodeNumber2 = 4

| Title = Take a Letter

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1968|9|5|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = 006400

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 5

| EpisodeNumber2 = 5

| Title = You Make Me Feel So Young

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1968|9|12|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = 006400

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 6

| EpisodeNumber2 = 6

| Title = The Wrong Side of the Sheets

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1968|9|19|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = 006400

}}

}}

{{Episode table |background=#000070 |total_width=60 |overall=5 |series=5 |title=50 |airdate=30 |episodes=

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 7

| EpisodeNumber2 = 1

| Title = Breach of the Peace

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1969|7|8|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = 000070

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 8

| EpisodeNumber2 = 2

| Title = Wish You Were Here

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1969|7|15|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = 000070

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 9

| EpisodeNumber2 = 3

| Title = The Demon Drink

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1969|7|22|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = 000070

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 10

| EpisodeNumber2 = 4

| Title = All You Wish Yourself

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1969|7|29|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = 000070

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 11

| EpisodeNumber2 = 5

| Title = Now Is the Hour

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1969|8|5|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = 000070

}}

}}

{{Episode table |background=#700070 |total_width=60 |overall=5 |series=5 |title=50 |airdate=30 |episodes=

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 12

| EpisodeNumber2 = 1

| Title = What Seems to Be the Trouble?

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1969|10|9|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = 700070

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 13

| EpisodeNumber2 = 2

| Title = The Birds and the Bees

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1969|10|16|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = 700070

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 14

| EpisodeNumber2 = 3

| Title = Get Up Them Stairs

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1969|10|23|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = 700070

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 15

| EpisodeNumber2 = 4

| Title = The Power Behind the Throne

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1969|10|30|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = 700070

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 16

| EpisodeNumber2 = 5

| Title = Getting to Know You

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1969|11|6|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = 700070

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 17

| EpisodeNumber2 = 6

| Title = Two Pennies to Rub Together

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1969|11|13|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = 700070

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 18

| EpisodeNumber2 = 7

| Title = The Ghost of Picklers Past

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1969|12|26|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = 700070

}}

}}

{{Episode table |background=#B11030 |total_width=60 |overall=5 |series=5 |title=50 |airdate=30 |episodes=

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 19

| EpisodeNumber2 = 1

| Title = A Price on Your Head

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1970|5|14|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = B11030

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 20

| EpisodeNumber2 = 2

| Title = A Young Man's Fancy

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1970|5|21|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = B11030

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 21

| EpisodeNumber2 = 3

| Title = When You've Got to Go

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1970|5|28|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = B11030

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 22

| EpisodeNumber2 = 4

| Title = When Love Walks In

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1970|6|4|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = B11030

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 23

| EpisodeNumber2 = 5

| Title = An Open and Shut Case

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1970|6|11|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = B11030

}}

}}

{{Episode table |background=#FFA500 |total_width=60 |overall=5 |series=5 |title=50 |airdate=30 |episodes=

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 24

| EpisodeNumber2 = 1

| Title = Make Yourself at Home

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1970|12|17|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = FFA500

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 25

| EpisodeNumber2 = 2

| Title = Compliments of the Season

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1970|12|24|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = FFA500

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 26

| EpisodeNumber2 = 3

| Title = Barefaced in the Park

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1971|1|14|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = FFA500

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 27

| EpisodeNumber2 = 4

| Title = A Man and a Woman

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1971|1|21|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = FFA500

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 28

| EpisodeNumber2 = 5

| Title = Bottoms Up

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1971|1|28|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = FFA500

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 29

| EpisodeNumber2 = 6

| Title = X Marks the Spot

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1971|2|11|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = FFA500

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 30

| EpisodeNumber2 = 7

| Title = Something in the Night

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1971|2|18|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = FFA500

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 31

| EpisodeNumber2 = 8

| Title = Lucky for Some

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1971|2|25|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = FFA500

}}

}}

{{Episode table |background=#FFD700 |total_width=60 |overall=5 |series=5 |title=50 |airdate=30 |episodes=

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 32

| EpisodeNumber2 = 1

| Title = For Better, for Worse

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1972|6|1|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = FFD700

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 33

| EpisodeNumber2 = 2

| Title = A Place in the Sun

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1972|6|8|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = FFD700

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 34

| EpisodeNumber2 = 3

| Title = The Female of the Species

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1972|6|15|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = FFD700

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 35

| EpisodeNumber2 = 4

| Title = Worker's Playtime

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1972|6|29|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = FFD700

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 36

| EpisodeNumber2 = 5

| Title = The Right Spirit

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1972|7|6|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = FFD700

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 37

| EpisodeNumber2 = 6

| Title = A Question of Taste

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1972|7|13|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = FFD700

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 38

| EpisodeNumber2 = 7

| Title = A Pair of Bloomers

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1972|7|20|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = FFD700

}}

}}

{{Episode table |background=#00CD00 |total_width=60 |overall=5 |series=5 |title=50 |airdate=30 |episodes=

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 39

| EpisodeNumber2 = 1

| Title = Cindernellie

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1972|12|21|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = 00CD00

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 40

| EpisodeNumber2 = 2

| Title = Good Time Girl

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1972|12|28|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = 00CD00

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 41

| EpisodeNumber2 = 3

| Title = The French Disconnection

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1973|1|11|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = 00CD00

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 42

| EpisodeNumber2 = 4

| Title = Get Out of That

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1973|1|18|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = 00CD00

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 43

| EpisodeNumber2 = 5

| Title = The One That Got Away

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1973|1|24|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = 00CD00

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 44

| EpisodeNumber2 = 6

| Title = The Visit

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1973|1|31|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = 00CD00

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 45

| EpisodeNumber2 = 7

| Title = Far from the Madding Pong

| OriginalAirDate = {{start date|1973|2|7|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

| LineColor = 00CD00

}}

}}

In 1972, the main cast appeared in a film version of the series that was made by Hammer Films.Nearest and Dearest The film included a vocal version of the series' theme tune sung by Hylda Baker.

In 1973, the series was adapted for the American market. Renamed Thicker Than Water, it starred Julie Harris and Richard Long as squabbling siblings Nellie and Ernie Paine, however, the US version was not successful and was cancelled after only 13 episodes.

After the series ended in 1973, Baker went on to star in the sitcom Not On Your Nellie (made for ITV by London Weekend Television) in which Lancashire-born Nellie Pickersgill (the same character as Nellie Pledge in all but name) travels to London to run her ailing father's pub, the Brown Cow. In a 1973 interview with Baker and Jewel (available on the seventh-series DVD of Nearest & Dearest), Baker stated that the forthcoming Not on Your Nellie series was actually a spinoff from Nearest and Dearest and would follow Nellie's exploits in London after Eli practically deserts her. This would appear to follow on from the final episode of Nearest and Dearest in which Stan informed Nellie and Eli that there was an explosion at the pickling shed, implying that Pledge's Purer Pickles was now defunct. However, possibly due to an issue over legal rights regarding the Nellie Pledge character, Not on Your Nellie was ultimately made as an "original" new series rather than a spinoff, despite the obvious similarities between the two.{{cite web |url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/1368531/index.html |title=BFI Screenonline: Baker, Hylda (1905–1986) Biography |publisher=Screenonline.org.uk |access-date=22 June 2014}}

Meanwhile, Jewel went on to appear in the sitcom Spring and Autumn (1973–1976), about a friendship between a lonely boy and an elderly man, created by Nearest and Dearest creators Vince Powell and Harry Driver.{{cite web |url=http://networkonair.com/shop/1293-spring-and-autumn-the-complete-series-1.html |title=> Spring and Autumn: The Complete Series 1 |publisher=Network ON AIR |date=21 December 2010 |access-date=22 June 2014}} Jewel continued to work in television for many years, and in 1991 he appeared in an episode of the BBC hospital drama series Casualty in which he was able to use one of his famous catchphrases, referring to a nurse as "a knock-kneed, knackered old nose bag" – a term he had regularly bestowed upon Nellie.{{cite web |author=TV.com |url=http://www.tv.com/people/jimmy-jewel/ |title=Jimmy Jewel |publisher=TV.com |access-date=22 June 2014}}

Harry Driver, who created and wrote many episodes of the series with Vince Powell, died on 25 November 1973, just nine months after the series ended, aged only 42—marking the abrupt end of a successful 13-year writing partnership with Powell. Edward Malin, who played Walter, was the first of the cast to die, on 1 March 1977, four years after the show ended.{{cite web |author=TV.com |url=http://www.tv.com/people/eddie-malin/ |title=Eddie Malin |publisher=TV.com |date=3 January 1977 |access-date=22 June 2014}} Hylda Baker spent her final years penniless and battling dementia, and died in a nursing home on 1 May 1986 of bronchial pneumonia, aged 81. Joe Gladwin, who played Stan, went on to other television roles, most notably Wally Batty in the long-running sitcom Last of the Summer Wine, a role he played until his death on 11 March 1987. Jimmy Jewel continued to work in a variety of roles in both theatre and television until his death on 3 December 1995, the day before his 86th birthday. Co-creator Vince Powell died on 13 July 2009, aged 80.{{cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/tv-radio-obituaries/5888240/Vince-Powell.html |title=Vince Powell |work=The Telegraph |date=22 July 2009 |access-date=22 June 2014}}

Madge Hindle, the sole surviving member of the cast, went on to become a series regular in Coronation Street from 1976 to 1980, playing Renee Roberts, the wife of grocer Alf Roberts. Since then Hindle has worked in a variety of roles in television and stage.

All seven series of Nearest And Dearest (in separate editions and also a 7-disc box set) have been released on DVD by Network. The 1972 film has also been released on DVD by DD Video.{{cite web |url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nearest-Dearest-The-Complete-Series/dp/B001KY5ZPK |title=Nearest and Dearest: The Complete Series [DVD]: Amazon.co.uk: Jimmy Jewell, Hylda Baker: DVD & Blu-ray |date=November 2008 |publisher=Amazon.co.uk |access-date=22 June 2014}}

• List of films based on British television series

{{reflist}}

• {{IMDb title|0062592}}
• {{British Comedy Guide|tv|nearest_and_dearest}}

{{Vince Powell}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nearest And Dearest}}

Category:1968 British television series debuts

Category:1973 British television series endings

Category:1960s British sitcoms

Category:1970s British sitcoms

Category:British English-language television shows

Category:ITV sitcoms

Category:Television series by ITV Studios

Category:Television shows adapted into films

Category:Television shows produced by Granada Television

Category:Television series about siblings

Category:Television shows set in Lancashire