Tygo Road originated as a single-episode pilot screened in the Comic Asides season, then repeated on 8 May 1990 as a prelude to the full series.
The acerbic inner-city sitcom was set in the “right on” Tygo Road Community Centre, a towering edifice dominating the landscape between the Town Hall and the Wat Tyler Infants School.
Kevin McNally starred as inept Yuppie Adam Hartley, the new community liaison officer for the centre, who regarded Tygo Road as the last bridgehead against the remorseless onslaught of Thatcherism.
Not that Adam was especially qualified to deal with the needs of slum dwellers. The qualifications listed on his curriculum vitae merely stated that he was at one time a “useful middle-order bat”, attained grade three on the piccolo and was a remarkable Titania in a school production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Among his flock were Spinnij (Bill Bailey), the resident clown, and the rough, right-wing tramp Lionel (Gordon Gostelow).
Later in the series, Lionel surprised them all by dying and bequeathing the centre £5,000 – a legacy that would only pass to them if they obeyed certain conditions.
Isobel Black played Kate, the mayoress.
Adam Hartley
Kevin McNally Kate
Isobel Black Clare
Deborah Norton Leo
Steven O’Donnell Gary
Vas Blackwood Lionel
Gordon Gostelow Spinnij
Bill Bailey Val
Leila Bertrand Selina
Alisa Bosschaert
