Ronald Fraser starred as 50-year-old Basil Allenby-Johnson (“Badger” for short) who has been living a colonial rubber planting life remotely out in Malaya since the end of World War II.
He returns to England at the tail end of the swinging sixties to live with his son, Ted (Simon Ward) and daughter-in-law, Alicia (Susan Carpenter), to find a world he no longer recognises or understands, which consequently leads him into some very comical situations.
There was no shortage of targets – industrial relations (in which both management “cowardly, weak and obsessed with youth to the exclusion of ability” and trades unions “these days you get what you are ready to strike for” took a pasting); feminism; permissive and undisciplined youth; age prejudice by employers; student demos; the press; and the health service.
In one episode Badger was appalled to discover that the forces of revolution had even wormed their way into the church.
In the second series, Badger linked up with his brother, Stanley (Patrick Newell), but wherever he went, Badger Allenby-Johnson was the complete misfit of the title.
The series started well but the script deteriorated, the situations became exhausted, and Fraser’s persona was reduced to an irritating whiner.
Basil ‘Badger’ Allenby-Johnson
Ronald Fraser Ted Allenby-Johnson
Simon Ward Alicia Allenby-Johnson
Susan Carpenter Stanley Allenby-Johnson
Patrick Newell Pamela
Yootha Joyce
