The Bulldog Breed

1962 - United Kingdom

A single series of seven comedies starring Donald Churchill as Tom Bowler, an engaging young man with a gift for creating havoc, was created by former Coronation Street producer Derek Grainger and the first episode was written by Peter Eckersley. But for the rest of the series Grainger employed the services of experienced 'Street' writers Harry Driver and Jack Rosenthal. Driver supplied the storylines and Rosenthal put the words in the mouths of Bowler and the rest who included Peter Butterworth, Betty Huntley-Wright, Geoffrey Whitehead and Geoffrey Palmer, all of whom suffer the consequences of Tom, the perennial optimist, as he wanders through life leaving chaos in his wake totally oblivious to the problems he causes for everyone. His girlfriend Sandra somehow manages to find ways of coping with his attitude to life. 

The Coronation Streetlink was completed by giving the co-starring role (that of girlfriend Sandra), for the first time to young Amanda Barrie, later to become 'The Streets' Alma Sedgwick/Baldwin. 

Published on November 30th, 2018. Written by Laurence Marcus for Television Heaven.

Read Next...

After a road accident, an attractive girl recovers consciousness in a strange room. With her is a young man she has never seen before.

Also released in 1962

Based on a series of stories 'The Adventures of a Black Bag' by Dumbartonshire born novelist A. J. Cronin, Doctor Finlay's Casebook proved to be an instant hit with viewers in spite of stiff competition from US exports Dr Kildare and Ben Casey.

Also released in 1962

An expensive investigative agency operating in San Francisco protects the lives of people who had become targets of the criminal underworld.

Also released in 1962

Hugely successful series from Granada TV that started in 1957 as a fortnightly live sitcom, which was moved to a weekly spot when it became so popular. The series followed the misfortunes of a mixed bag of army conscripts.

Also tagged Britcom

Adapted from the highly successful novel/play/film by successful writing team Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall, this version of Billy Liar was updated by them to make it more relevant to the early 1970s.

Also tagged Britcom

Developed from a sketch in the TV series French and Saunders in which Saunders played a baseball capped parent berated by her prim and proper daughter (French), the pilot episode was greeted by one TV executive with the comment, "I don't think women being drunk is funny."

Also tagged Sitcom

Series about a magazine agony aunt who also runs her own radio phone-in and who, like Dr Frazier Crane many years later, could solve everyone's problems except her own

Also tagged Sitcom

British critics have called 'All In The Family' "a reworked, far less provocative version" of the show it was based on, BBC's 'Till Death Us Do Part'...

Also tagged Sitcom