Happy Families (TV programme)

Happy Families was a rural comedy drama written by Ben Elton which appeared on the BBC in 1985 and told the story of the dysfunctional Fuddle family.

Related Topics:
Rural - Comedy - Drama - Ben Elton - BBC - 1985 - Dysfunctional - Family

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It starred Jennifer Saunders as Granny Fuddle and Adrian Edmondson (Saunders' real-life husband) as her imbecilic grandson Guy. The plot centred around Guy's attempts to find his four sisters for a family reunion.

Related Topics:
Jennifer Saunders - Adrian Edmondson - Husband - Grandson - Sister

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After an introductory episode, further editions centred on Guy's global searches for each sister and his attempts to persaude them to return home to the family village of Fuddlewich. He was successful on each count as he found sisters in the USA working as a soap opera actress, in France as a peasant's wife, in a convent and in a prison - even successfully planning an escape for the latter. Each sister was also played by Saunders.

Related Topics:
USA - Soap opera - Actress - France - Peasant - Wife - Convent - Prison

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This led to a final episode where all the sisters were reunited with their grandmother (meaning that Saunders was playing five characters at once and the film editors had to work hard) only for Granny Fuddle to announce her real motives for sending Guy to find them - she was suffering from an illness which required four separate transplantations from close family members of the same gender, for which she begrudgingly offered contracts for an advance on their inheritance as payment.

Related Topics:
Grandmother - Editor - Transplant - Gender - Inheritance

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It turned out she had been misdiagnosed by her doctor (played by Stephen Fry) who had mixed up Granny Fuddle's urine sample with that of her cook, played by Dawn French. It turned out that Cook was suffering from the disease (from which she died, at which point the error was realised) and Granny Fuddle was, in fact, (and with some implausibility synonymous with Elton scribblings) pregnant. She subsequently gave birth to a son but her granddaughters still took their inheritances, leaving her penniless.

Related Topics:
Diagnose - Doctor - Stephen Fry - Urine - Cook - Dawn French - Pregnant - Son - Granddaughter

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The other main character in the programme was maid Flossie, played by Helen Lederer who was hopelessly in love with Guy and ended up getting engaged to him.

Related Topics:
Maid - Helen Lederer - Engaged

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The programme was a cult hit though not an enormous ratings winner and strayed away from bonafide sitcom by being shot entirely on location and without a live audience.

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It also made Elton the youngest lone BBC scriptwriter on a mainstream programme at the age of 26. He had shot to prominence three years earlier as the chief writer on The Young Ones.

Related Topics:
Script - The Young Ones

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