Both Ends Meet/Dora

1 9 7 2 (UK)
13 x 30 minute episodes

Veteran film, TV and stage comic actress Dora Bryan starred as Dora Page, a cash-strapped widow who has to raise her son, Ronnie (David Howe then Peter Vaughan-Clarke), while working with a team of female employees at the factory of Cannon’s Family Sausages, run by the ogling boss, Julius “Julie” Cannon (Ivor Dean).

Timothy Bateson was a fussily bossy foreman, Fanny Carby and Wendy Richards were Dora’s fellow workers, and Joan Benham was the area supervisor for a mail-order firm that Dora imagined would make her a fortune.

The series was designed specifically for Bryan and quite unashamedly aimed at the lowest popular denominator of the viewing public. Accordingly, the quick-fire succession of merry quips was simple enough to make any mental effort quite unnecessary on the part of the audience.

The first series of this London Weekend television production went to air as Both Ends Meet, but the second series was titled simply Dora.

Dora Page
Dora Bryan
Ronnie Page
David Howe (1)
Peter Vaughan-Clarke (2)
Julius ‘Julie’ Cannon
Ivor Dean
Maudie
Wendy Richard
Hilda Rogers
Fanny Carby
Glad
Pat Ashton
Flo
Deddie Davies
George Rogers
Timothy Bateson
Mrs Templeton-Smythe
Joan Benham
Mr Page
Meadows White
Fred
Paddy Ward
Harry
John Lyons
Miss Cornelius
Patricia Hamilton

Episodes

Firm Foundations | Random Sample | The Lamp Still Burns | Party Piece | The Spring Collection | Come Fly with Me | Fancy Meeting You Here | Conversation Piece | Dear Little Agatha Jane | Dinner at Eight | Get Me to the Pub on Time | A Man About the House | The Jet Setters