TV Show

Brass

Brass is a British comedy-drama series made by Granada Television for ITV and eventually Channel 4. Set mostly in Utterley, a fictional Lancashire mining town in the 1930s, Brass was a comedy satirising the working-class period dramas of the 1970s and the American supersoaps such as Dallas and Dynasty. Unusually for ITV comedies of the time, there was no laughter track and the humour deliberately kept extremely dry, using convoluted wordplay and subtle commentary on popular culture. Brass is northern English slang for "money" as well as for "effrontery". The series also gleefully parodied the 1977 Granada TV dramatisation of Dickens' Hard Times, which also starred Timothy West. The series, created by John Stevenson and Julian Roach, was set around two feuding families—the wealthy Hardacres and the poor, working-class Fairchilds, who lived in a small terraced house rented from the Hardacre empire. The Hardacre family was headed by the ruthless self-made businessman Bradley, who espoused Thatcherite rhetoric while coming up with various harebrained schemes to make his businesses more efficient so he could sack workers, and his alcoholic aristocratic wife Lady Patience. The head of the Fairchilds was the stern "Red" Agnes, who spread militant socialist rhetoric around the Hardacre mine, mill and munitions factory, and her doltish, forelock-tugging husband George, who is dominated by his wife and his boss. In a twist, Agnes was also Bradley Hardacre's mistress.

TV Show Stats +8%

3 seasons

32 episodes total

Status

Ended

First Aired

1983

Rating

TV Show

6.4/10

7 votes • HD

Season 1

13 episodes
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Hospital Destruction
Episode 1

Hospital Destruction

Episode 1 • Feb 21, 1983

We meet the Hardacre and the Fairchild families in the town of Utterly. Bradley Hardarce has a monument unveiled to his father but, George Fairchild wished he hadn't.

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Cambridge
Episode 2

Cambridge

Episode 2 • Feb 28, 1983

Bradley builds a memorial bath house for the town, and Austin has ambitions to rule the entire Hardacre empire with the new explosive developed by Bradley in his hands.

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30m
Blackleg
Episode 3

Blackleg

Episode 3 • Mar 07, 1983

Tragedy befalls the Memorial Bath House, and Isobel is having an affair with one of the miners. Hard times are all around and the miners are now on strike and Agnes is the leader. Bradley must find a way to stop the strike without costing him anything.

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Silent Hooter
Episode 4

Silent Hooter

Episode 4 • Mar 14, 1983

Isobel wants to marry Jack Fairchild, and Morris has his sights set on young Matthew Fairchild, but Charlotte want him too. Bradley settles the miners strike, then has the mine flooded to get rid of Jack Farchild.

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Pit Collapse
Episode 5

Pit Collapse

Episode 5 • Mar 21, 1983

Bradley floods the mine to kill Jack Fairchild so he can't marry Isobel. Jack and the other miners are saved by Charlotte. Austin must make sure Jack doesn't recover.

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Silent But Deadly
Episode 6

Silent But Deadly

Episode 6 • Mar 28, 1983

Jack is saved from the mine and falls in love with Charlotte. Isobel and Charlotte fight over Jack. Agnes tells Matthew why he can never marry Charlotte. Bradley Hardarce is Matthew's father.

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Season 2

13 episodes
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Rent Protest
Episode 1

Rent Protest

Episode 1 • May 21, 1984

As the Prince lays the new stone at the Cottage Hospital, McDuff drops his trousers and Isobel and Charlotte arrive naked on Brass Beauty protesting about the rent increases, then the mortar on the trowel explodes due to SBD. All are covered in foam. Jack saves Big Tom with his truss flange. Bradley and Austin realise Morris was behind the explosion and Bradley plans to send him to Australia.

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Inheritance
Episode 2

Inheritance

Episode 2 • May 28, 1984

Charlotte inherits a large sum of money on her birthday. Jack refuses a deal with Austin. Guy tells Morris that Moscow wants him as a mole in the church and Agnes moans to McDuff about George's increased sexual libido. Matthew and Charlotte agree to be friends, not lovers. McDuff discovers SBD increases sexual activity in rabbits.

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Hallucinogen
Episode 3

Hallucinogen

Episode 3 • Jun 04, 1984

McDuff decides SBD is a hallucinogen. Bradley pays Jack for his work on Big Tom and offers him the lease on the crutch works. Bradley goes to sack the infant school teacher but instead is struck dumb by Cupid's dart and invites her to play piano at the hall. Jack's family spurns his offer of work and tells him he's a traitor to his class.

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Jack Loves Charlotte
Episode 4

Jack Loves Charlotte

Episode 4 • Jun 11, 1984

Morris confronts Matthew about his homosexuality, who doesn't deny it but declares himself celibate. Jack declares his love for Charlotte but she rejects him, wishing he was Matthew. Isobel declares her continuing love for Jack and Lady Patience tells her not to marry Mountfast. Austin and Isobel go hunting rent defaulters but are foiled by Matthew and Charlotte.

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Is Bradley Insane?
Episode 5

Is Bradley Insane?

Episode 5 • Jun 18, 1984

Austin tells the family he thinks Bradley is insane. An epidemic is raging and McDuff says the cause is the convenience at the back of the munitions factory. Bradley gives Prudence SBD and then takes advantage of its effects. She wears him out. Bradley tells George to keep using the convenience and McDuff and Agnes wire it up to explode.

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Election
Episode 6

Election

Episode 6 • Jun 25, 1984

Bradley gets out of being certified and turns the tables on Austin. George, blackened but alive, is returned home. Bradley decides to sort out Simon Pugh and help Austin win the election with the help of Mrs Marchington, his father's chiropodist and SBD.

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Season 3

6 episodes
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Bradley Pulls It Off
Episode 1

Bradley Pulls It Off

Episode 1 • Apr 23, 1990

London 1939: Bradley Hardacre has much to gain from another war and prevents his son Austin from returning to the Prime Minister with a peace document from Germany. Lady Patience refuses to allow the threat of war to interfere with the Annual Ball at Lancaster House.

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Bradley Sticks It Out
Episode 2

Bradley Sticks It Out

Episode 2 • Apr 30, 1990

When Bradley Hardacre hears of the government's plan to scrap the production of his latest invention, the midget submarine, he uses his contacts in the civil service to get an announcement in the House of Commons that the contract has been extended and that his son Austin has volunteered to test the new naval devices.

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Bradley Gets on Top
Episode 3

Bradley Gets on Top

Episode 3 • May 07, 1990

When Bradley Hardacre hears of the government's plan to scrap the production of his latest invention, the midget submarine, he uses his contacts in the civil service to get an announcement in the House of Commons that the contract has been extended and that his son Austin has volunteered to test the new naval devices.

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Bradley Holds His Own
Episode 4

Bradley Holds His Own

Episode 4 • May 14, 1990

Bradley Hardacre and Winston Churchill share their opinions on how the war is being conducted. Jack Fairchild persuades Lady Patience to finance his scheme for the production of the self-sealing saddle valve. Matthew is prevented from marrying Charlotte.

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Bradley Does His Bit
Episode 5

Bradley Does His Bit

Episode 5 • May 21, 1990

Bradley purchases a country estate. Inspector McDuff has new evidence implicating Matthew. Jack Fairchild reclaims Charlotte's child and offers to marry her. Matthew is in France and is accused of selling the artificial legs he is in charge of. Morris is discovered relaxing on the beach at Dunkirk.

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Their Finest Half Hour
Episode 6

Their Finest Half Hour

Episode 6 • May 28, 1990

Bradley prepares the grounds at his new country estate for a cricket match. Morris and Matthew meet up in France and attempt to escape the Germans by stealing a German plane. They eventually make it to England and as they fly over the cricket pitch they send a message attached to Morris's golliwog.

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