Tom, Dick and Harriet

1 9 8 2 – 1 9 8 3 (UK)
12 x 30 minute episodes

Another sitcom from the prodigious Mortimer and Cooke, in which old reprobate widower, Thomas Maddison (Lionel Jeffries), moves in on his son and daughter-in-law in London.

For 40 years Thomas has been hen-pecked in deepest Cornwall, denied the opportunity to smoke, drink or so much as look at another woman. Now his wife has gone and he can’t wait to get going!

Richard (Ian Ogilvy) and Harriet (Brigit Forsyth) are both busy, well-manicured executives – him in advertising, her in magazine publishing – and the apple cart is well and truly upset by Thomas and his disgusting habits and womanising lifestyle.

Harriet conceives a child during the second series and delivers Tom a grandson.

TRIVIA
Tom, Dick and Harriet spawned a US adaptation, called Foot In The Door, which CBS launched in 1983 but cancelled after only five episodes aired.

In the American version, the widow was Jonah Foot (played by the fine comedy actor Harold Gould), who quit his home in rural New Hampshire for the Manhattan apartment of his son Jim (Kenneth Gilman) and his wife Harriet (Diana Canova).

Thomas Maddison
Lionel Jeffries
Richard Maddison
Ian Ogilvy
Harriet Maddison
Brigit Forsyth