1 9 8 7 – 1 9 8 9 (UK)
12 x 30 minute episodes
Jack Mowbray (Richard Griffiths) and Hugo Walker (Benjamin Whitrow) are the workshy executive directors of Mowbray and Crofts, wine merchants to the gentry.
Theirs has been a life of privilege and parties but as the series opens, their elderly Company Secretary, Heap (Ken Wynne) – who has actually run their company for decades – goes mad and dies, and Jack and Hugo discover they are broke.
Their bank manager, Mr Rawlins (Roger Brierley), gives them the choice of selling the firm or taking on officious young financial hotshot Alan (Robin Kermode) to sort out their affairs and save them from bankruptcy. They choose Alan, but he expects them to stop partying and actually work for a living – and it is their conflict with him that drives most of the comedy.
A romance also develops between Alan and their Sloane Ranger goddaughter Griselda (Felicity Montagu), the dim-witted daughter of a Duke.
The Thames Television series ran for two seasons.
Jack Mowbray
Richard Griffiths
Hugo Walker
Benjamin Whitrow
Griselda
Felicity Montagu
Alan
Robin Kermode
Mrs Monaghan
Peggy Aitchison
Heap
Ken Wynne
Samson
George Ballantine
Mr Geoffrey Rawlins
Roger Brierley
Harmsworth
Michael Bilton
Lady Baughton
Phyllida Law
Mrs Gosling
Gabrielle Drake
Episodes
Lilies of the Field | And On the Third Day | Play It By the Book | Pulling Together | The Big Chief | With Friends Like These | Plus Ça Change | Mother Knows Best | Love In Store | Damn Close Run Thing | Matter of Principle | Sickness and Health
