Brothers McGregor, The

1 9 8 5 – 1 9 8 8 (UK)
26 x 30 minute episodes

This comedy series from Granada featured two half-brothers from Liverpool, one black and the other white.

Bald and flashily dressed Cyril (Philip Whitchurch) was a scouse cousin of Del Boy Trotter or Arthur Daley. He saw himself as an entertainer and sang at a nightclub called the Blue Cockatoo Club, owned by Colwyn Stanley (Allan Surtees).

Sharp-suited and money-minded Wesley (Paul Barber) had hopes of becoming a successful businessman and, as president of the CBI (Confederation of Black Industrialists), liked to dash off impromptu missives to world leaders like the Pope.

In reality, Cyril and Wesley were a pair of losers with even less drive than the used cars they tried to sell from a Liverpool bomb site – they claimed “Rathbone Motors” was the finest collection of “quality pre-owned not kept under cover” cars on Merseyside.

Jean Heywood played their cheerfully amoral mother, Dolly.

Cyril’s spiky-haired fiancee Glenys (Jackie Downey), meanwhile, was getting fed up with his promises of marriage and nothing to show for it after six years, pointing out that Everton had seen off three managers since they got engaged.

The McGregor brothers (played by different actors) first appeared on Coronation Street as friends of Eddie Yeats (in an episode when Eddie celebrated his engagement).

Scripts were by Julian Roach and John Stevenson, who wrote the Granada comedy series Brass.

Cyril McGregor
Philip Whitchurch
Wesley McGregor
Paul Barber
Dolly McGregor
Jean Heywood
Glenys Pike
Jackie Downey
Colwyn Stanley
Allan Surtees