Darling Buds of May, The

1 9 9 1 – 1 9 9 3 (UK)
20 x 50 minute episodes

Based on H.E. Bates’s five Larkin books (which began with a novel entitled The Darling Buds Of May), this hugely popular, wholesome series told the tales of a brash, boozy, happy-go-lucky rural Kent family in the 1950s.

Debuting in 1991, the ITV series became the television phenomenon of the year.

Here was a family that chortled its way through life, enjoying the simple pleasures of the countryside and having little time for the stresses of the real world.

Head of the clan was the boisterous Pop Larkin (David Jason), a man of independent means who ran a 22-acre smallholding and earned a bob or two wherever he could. Pop was seldom flustered and usually had an answer for every problem that arose.

His irrepressible common-law wife (they had skipped the formality of marriage), known to all as Ma (Pam Ferris), was a roly-poly, laugh-a-minute character, always at work in the kitchen preparing gigantic feasts for breakfast, lunch and dinner (which Pop liberally doused with ketchup) and snacks for moments in between.

Their six children began with their beautiful eldest daughter, Mariette (Catherine Zeta-Jones), and were generally named after assorted flowers.

In the first episode, Cedric Charlton (Philip Franks), a naive young, poetry-loving Inland Revenue official, called to investigate Pop’s affairs. Befuddled by Pop’s anti-tax logic, ‘Charley’ stayed for lunch, fell in love with Mariette, and never left. They married, and Mariette gave birth to a son, John Blenheim.

“Perfick”, as Pop would have put it.

The series was brought to the screen by H.E. Bates’s son Richard. An American television company had bought the rights to the books, but had spent so long making up their minds about turning them into a series that Bates jnr bought the rights back and took the project to Yorkshire Television.

H.E. Bates’ widow visited the location during filming and ended up appearing as an extra in one of the scenes.

A less subtle American film version of Darling Buds – entitled The Mating Game – starring Debbie Reynolds and Tony Randall, was released in 1959

Sidney Charles ‘Pop’ Larkin
David Jason
Ma Larkin
Pam Ferris
Mariette Larkin/Charlton
Catherine Zeta-Jones
Cedric ‘Charley’ Charlton
Philip Franks
Primrose Larkin
Julie Davies (1)
Abigail Romison (2)
Montgomery Larkin
Ian Tucker
Petunia Larkin
Christina Giles
Zinnia Larkin
Katherine Giles
Victoria Larkin
Stephanie Ralph
Edith Pilchester
Rachel Bell
Ernest Bristow
Michael Jayston
The Brigadier
Moray Watson