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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Television»Comedy
    Comedy TV Shows - 1980s 3 Mins Read

    Up The Elephant And Round The Castle

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    1 9 8 3 – 1 9 8 5 (UK)
    23 x 30 minute episodes

    Up The Elephant And Round The Castle starred cheeky-cockney-chappie Jim Davidson as cheeky-cockney-chappie Jim London.

    Jim is jobless, and he doesn’t have much luck with the ladies, either. But he gets his first real break when his Auntie Min bequeaths him her house in South London’s dilapidated Elephant and Castle.

    uptheelephant

    17 Railway Terrace might be small, but bachelor Jim’s thrilled to have his own place at last. Sadly, he also inherits Mr Wilkins – a cantankerous, unseen but oft-heard lodger.

    Jim also inherits some dodgy neighbours – among them a borough councillor, Bertram Allnut (succeeded, even more unbelievably, in the second and third series by yet another councillor, Arnold Moggs), Vera Spiggott, an unsexy young woman still living at home who fancies Jim like mad, and Wanda Pickles, a larger than life ‘sex-pot’ whose husband Stan is in maximum-security jail at Parkhurst.

    Pickles is always barging in with a cheery greeting and pursuing a quickie on the sofa, but London is disparaging and denying of his loins.

    Jim is also saddled with a few dodgy mates, the attentions of the DHSS and visits from his Dad, sheltering from the verbal battering he receives from his ‘missus’.

    Aimed squarely at his devoted fan (Davidson actually read The Sun on camera), Up The Elephant And Round The Castle – hardly a contender for the sitcom hall of fame – was a curious mixture of sitcom and music-hall-style stand-up swagger.

    In what was patently a studio set, some episodes opened with Davidson emerging from his front door in a shortie dressing-gown, socks and shoes, stretching, announcing ‘morning, world’ and making a straight-to-camera pronouncement, introducing the latest laddish episode in his life by way of a flashback.

    Seen along the way, in early TV roles, were Anita Dobson (later to star in EastEnders), Christopher Ellison, Linda Robson (Birds Of A Feather) and Marina Sirtis who went on to play Counselor Deanna Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

    A sequel, Home James (1987-90) followed Jim London’s career as chauffeur to the millionaire owner of an electronics factory (played by George Sewell). The sequel also starred Chris Ellison who later went on to play Frank Burnside in UK Cop drama The Bill, and later his own series Burnside.

    Jim London
    Jim Davidson
    Wanda Pickles

    Sue Nicholls
    Vera Spiggott

    Sara Corper
    Mum London

    Rosalind Knight
    Dad London

    John Bardon
    Councillor Bertram Allnut

    Roger Sloman
    Councilor Arnold Moggs

    Nicholas Day
    Terence ‘Tosh’ Carey

    Brian Capron
    Brian the barman

    Brian Hall
    Lois Tight

    Anita Dobson
    Arnold

    Christopher Ellison

    Video

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