Perils of Pendragon, The

1 9 7 4 (UK)
6 x 50 minute episodes

This six-part BBC comedy series revolved around Isaac (Kenneth Griffith), who ran a small general store and post office in the Welsh village of Pwsllab, assisted by his young nephew Rosko (John Clive)

The middle-aged shopkeeper was determined to take a bride but was thwarted at every turn by young Rosko, who wanted to guarantee his own inheritance.

Isaac negotiated with the mother of the delicious Myfanwy Magwitch (Beth Morris) – who had ambitions of becoming Miss World – that if he could stage a beauty contest at the village fete and arrange for Myfanwy to win it, he would win her hand. But Isaac reckoned without the sabotage of the ever-observant and crafty Rosko.

When Isaac and Myfanwy finally did marry, Rosko was somewhat mollified to find that his new auntie was young, flirty and quite something to look at.

But the young lady soon realised what a terrible mistake she had made and directed her affections towards a member of the Hells Angels.

As the series progressed, her behaviour became increasingly promiscuous.

When it was claimed she had been photographed with the Town Clerk in the most compromising of positions, Isaac finally confronted Myfanwy with the damning news.

Premiering on Friday 18 January 1974, the series was written by Peter Draper from a single play in The Man Outside series (reproduced here as the episode ‘A Persistent Coffin’). The producer was Derrick Sherwin, with Michael Ferguson directing.

The episode ‘Marx and Sparks’ (scheduled for broadcast on Friday 15 February) was shelved when the British Communist Party complained to the BBC director-general Sir Charles Curran that the show misrepresented them.

The episode portrayed Welsh Communists plotting to rob a bookmakers to raise cash to buy ammunition for their secret cache of guns (which Isaac found stashed in his storeroom). The Communist Party claimed it was slanderous.

‘Marx and Sparks’ was eventually aired on Friday 8 March.

Kenneth Griffith died on 25 June 2006, aged 84.  John Clive died on 14 October 2012, aged 79, after a short illness.

Beth Morris was found dead in her home at Penllergaer in Wales on St David’s Day (1 March) 2018 at the age of 74.

Isaac
Kenneth Griffith
Rosko
John Clive
Rev. Murchison Mort
Aubrey Richards
Aunt Angharad
Lally Bowers
Myfanwy Magwitch
Beth Morris
Mrs Magwitch
Rhoda Lewis
Maudlin
Ann Beach
Uther Jacobs
Trevor Ray
Aunt Floss
Olive Mercer
Chairman Watkins
Geoffrey Morris
Mrs Bala-Reece
Mary Jones
Powell the Post
Gordon Patrick
Eegel the Legal
Windsor Davies
Yanto
Talfryn Thomas
Aggro Bargoed
Peter Tilbury
PC Machiavelli Edwards
Mark Jones

Episodes

How to Rear an Ugly Head | A Fete Worse Than Death | A Persistent Coffin | Cut Yourself a Slice of Throat | Marx and Sparks | A Touch of the Tangled Webs