The Brothers (1972 - 1976)

[Friend!Food! Oleson]

And so my first watch of the seventies prime time soap comes to an end. I had no idea what to expect but it's a keeper, I'm definitely going to rewatch it at some point.

Jennifer's daughter Barbara returns for the last half of series 7, it's amazing how much she has matured in those few years. She's a real woman now (omg, what an old-fashioned thing to say).

Story-wise I think 7 series of THE BROTHERS equals the first 4 seasons of KNOTS LANDING, except that there are no stand-alone episodes.
But there are stand-alone scenes.
Paul Merroney interviews a possible new secretary, a stenographer who could out-bitch Alexis Carrington. And then she decides that she doesn't want the job because she doesn't like Paul. And that's the end of it, no follow-up or other interviews. But as long as the scenes are good, who cares?

The last board meeting, there'll be no more new episodes on the agenda.

Oh it looks like there was a secretary after all, but she wasn't as visible as Claire, Ms Vickery and of course the unforgettable Marion from series 1 and 2.

Human trafficking was already a thing in 1976, and Bill Riley goes undercover - but he has to end his mission when his never-seen-before son Ronnie is involved in a serious accident.

There's a small guest role for actor Peter Blake, and he looks very euro-handsome with his long curls.

The series end with a Christmas party, and it gives all the characters a moment of retrospection, current decisions and plans for the future.
Featuring party poppers such as Smokie's "I'll Meet You At Midnight", Leo Sayer's "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing" and last but not least Johnny Wakelin's "In Zaïre".

It's a sad goodbye to 1976, but there's another soap family waiting for me. And as it turns out I'll be going back in time (but without the TopPop moments I'm afraid).

 

[Barbara On A Broomstick]

Slightly off topic but i have dug out my box set of Tenko (thank you @Alexis for getting tme to buy and rewatch this a good few years ago)

Jean Anderson is simply wonderful in it - not quite as smartly dressed as Mary Hammond though, great actress.

 

[Alexis]

Slightly off topic but i have dug out my box set of Tenko (thank you @Alexis for getting tme to buy and rewatch this a good few years ago)

Jean Anderson is simply wonderful in it - not quite as smartly dressed as Mary Hammond though, great actress.

Tenko was so good! I had a great time watching it years ago. I keep saying I will go back to it for a re-watch but there's always something new to watch. I feel like I might revisit it and Upstairs Downstairs this winter.

 

[J. R.'s Piece]

When Brian Hammond talks about Don Stacy he mentions "underneath all that Somerset Maugham exterior", and indeed, he is one of the most colourful characters in The Brothers.
His scenes with his ex-wife, air freight chief Jane Maxwell, are larded with literary references - to and fro - and while that could be appreciated for the performance itself I think that the obligatory punch makes their scenes a little predictable.

Their divorce, long before these characters were introduced, has strengthened their relationship but at the same time it prevents them from moving on.
When Don fails his medical exam he's no longer allowed to fly her planes, which happens to be his one and only passion. But at the end it turns out that he did it on purpose, to no longer have reason to be there, despite Jane's offer to do something else.

The role of Don was Mike Pratt’s final tv role. He died from lung cancer, in July 1976, a month after his 45th birthday. He had played skiffle, performed with bands, written songs and performed with Tommy Steele and Lionel Bart. And been in Repulsion with Catherine Deneuve, The Party’s Over, This Is My Street (with future tv co-star Annette Andre, who did a stint on The Brothers), Pathfinders, Redcap, Man in a Suitcase, The Champions, Jason King, UFO, Spyder’s Web, The Baron, Callan (where Patrick Mower’s character hit his character’s young daughter and she died), four episodes of Danger Man, two episodes of The Man in Room 17, two episodes of The Saint, two episodes of Gideon’s Way, been Simey in Black Beauty, provided story ideas for Pardon the Expression and written for Randall and Hopkirk Deceased. And played Randall in Randall and Hopkirk Deceased. Hilary Tindall was a guest villain.

Kate O’Mara was one of the cast of The Brothers who did a theatre show in 1976 to donate the proceedings to Mike’s family.

 

[J. R.'s Piece]

Maybe I’ll go for the phone cover...

 

[J. R.'s Piece]

Snippet from cast reunion

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[Friend!Food! Oleson]

I didn't know there was a reunion on the agenda!

 

[J. R.'s Piece]

I didn't know there was a reunion on the agenda!

I recorded the whole show at the time and burned it to DVD. Still have it somewhere.

Hope you saw the link underneath the video, which links to a webpage about the making of the After They Were Famous show. It discusses the making of the show. Including discussing Patrick O’Connell making news by unexpectedly vanishing off overseas while he was still doing the show.

Patrick O’Connell and Mike Pratt appeared together in The Saint episode, The Persistent Patriots, filmed in late 1966.

Derek Benfield was one of the stars of ATV’s Timeslip, which first aired on September 28th 1970. His character’s daughter passes through a time barrier and encounters a 1940 version of her father in the first serial.

I have something to reveal to you.

That phone cover does look nice but maybe I’ll go for the pullover hoodie, the pillows or the chiffon top.

 

[Friend!Food! Oleson]

Hope you saw the link underneath the video

Will check it out later. Thanks!

I have something to reveal to you.

Where did you find it this time?

Btw, these updates remind me that I still have to buy the Hammond's Christmas LP. I never buy Christmas albums but this is something special.
I have no idea who's singing what, I guess Kate O'Mara will be on it.

And since she was already in Finland for the movie....

 

[J. R.'s Piece]

Colin Baker mentions a possible reason for the cancellation of The Brothers here:

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[Stuart]

Slightly off topic but i have dug out my box set of Tenko (thank you @Alexis for getting tme to buy and rewatch this a good few years ago)

Jean Anderson is simply wonderful in it - not quite as smartly dressed as Mary Hammond though, great actress.

Hello There I loved the series back in the 70’s.

I have a very serious question for you and am really hoping somebody can help.

Not sure of what series or episode but the Hammonds purchase a Brand new lorry,

You see a chap jump out the lorry and if I remember right he just puts his thumb up to them and walks off screen…..That chap is my Father who died a few years ago now…My Mother and Father divorced a few years before he was on the show…just as a stand in really

It would be great to be able to get the DVD of it…..Many Thanks Stuart.

 

[James from London]

Patsy Kensit’s just rocked up in Season 2:

 

[James from London]

And now the awkward but amiable accountant Brother has turned up in my historically chronological watch-through of Doctor Who alongside Colin from EastEnders, as an awkward but amiable airline pilot who has accidentally flown Concorde back to dinosaur times.

 

[James from London]

Ann Hammond, married to the middle brother Brian, is the family antagonist, but more in a literary kind of way. She smoulders and slithers and there's something conniving about everything she says and does.
I wouldn't call her a villain, but she's a very difficult woman with a sharp tongue.

I actually feel quite violent towards Ann in a way I don't normally towards a fictional character. I suppose it's because no-one stands up to her on screen. Her husband's so feeble -- nice but feeble.

 

[Friend!Food! Oleson]

I suppose it's because no-one stands up to her on screen.

Yes, that definitely adds to a certain frustration which I suspect is supposed to be there.
A villain who gets away with his/her villainy is usually more despicable.
I've always had the same feeling when Miss Ellie told JR and Bobby / Blake told Krystle and Fallon "stop it, both of you!"
It felt as if Bobby and Krystle were being reprimanded for standing up to their respective bullies, which diminishes the punishment of the bully.
And Krystle was usually so ambushed by her stepdaughter's hatefulness that she didn't even get a chance to "talk back", as it were.

 

[James from London]

i've just started the third series and it's interesting how the women are the chief manipulators: the mother, the middle brother's wife, the younger brother's mistress. And even if they're not manipulative, the women are mostly the ones setting the relationship agenda. It's like the men aren't quite sure what their roles are in this post-sixties, supposedly-but-not-quite permissive society. Gabrielle Drake is probably the most traditional, "sweet" female character, so far anyway.

 

[James from London]

Ann Hammond is a properly miserable soap wife, and it's funny that Brian's almost-affair woman, Pamela, has become involved with the Hammond marriage again.
But there's a good reason, because Pamela isn't married and therefore far more objective and helpful in Ann's self-analysis.
I find it all very mesmerizing, and to be honest I had not expected the writing for the women to be this good.

Yes!

The animosity between Mary Hammond and Jennifer Kingsley erupts into a very emotional argument - interestingly, most of the aggression comes from Jennifer, the mistress.
It's a wonderfully surprising scene, and eventhough it's purely interpretable I feel there's something metaphorical about the heated argument.

Yes!!

he's actually the most likeable Brother.

Yes, and who saw that coming? My sympathies for the individual Brothers have completely shifted since the show began, almost without me noticing.

It's such a joy to watch all these vibrant characters so I don't really care where the story takes me.

Yes!!! It's been a proper slow-burn of a series, but all of a sudden it's as soapy as you like. It's a bit like Knots, in that it takes its time building a really firm foundation before all the sparks start to fly.

 

[Friend!Food! Oleson]

Gabrielle Drake is probably the most traditional, "sweet" female character, so far anyway.

One of the things I find so typical about 1970s dramas is that partners, and usually the female partners, can be unreasonably pleasing and forgiving, and then the story doesn't do anything to justify it.
I (vaguely) remember that Peter Manson from Bouquet Of Barbed Wire installed his mistress in a flat and then ignored her.
For unexplained reasons she felt completely trapped even though that didn't make any sense for such a confident and sexually aggressive woman.
But there's something that about that madness that I find very intriguing to watch - like, Julia Cumson who doesn't have the strength to leave Falcon Crest, almost as if she's literally stopped by the writers themselves.

At the same time we have Jill's friend Julie who declares to become a homewrecker but somehow manages to take the sting of out that planned betrayal.
"I want it so why shouldn't I try to get it. No hard feelings".
It's sort of like when Patricia's sister Margaret visited Beryl and politely yet bluntly told her that she was going to steal her husband David (one of my many, many favourite S&D scenes).
Oh, poor Beryl!

 

[Friend!Food! Oleson]

There's also bad news: The Brothers Series 4 starts September 1 1974, and the next episode of that other very British tv series is scheduled for January 11, 1975.
In other words, my dual watching is completely out of sync now.

I have no idea what this means.

 

[James from London]

Series 4, Episode 4:

"My wife is a selfish whore!"

I've been waiting a long time to hear those words and, boy, was it worth the wait.