Bread

Bread

1986
★★★★☆ 7.1/10
📺 7 Seasons
🎬 74 Episodes
📅 Ended
🌐 EN
⏱️ 30 min/episode
Comedy
Bread is a British television sitcom, written by Carla Lane, produced by the BBC and screened on BBC1 from 1 May 1986 to 3 November 1991. The series focused on the devoutly-Catholic and extended Boswell family of Liverpool, in the district of Dingle, led by its matriarch Nellie through a number of ups and downs as they tried to make their way through life in Thatcher's Britain with no visible means of support. The street shown at the start of each programme is Elswick Street. A family called Boswell had also featured in Lane's earlier sitcom The Liver Birds and Lane admitted in interviews that the two families were probably related. Nellie's feckless and estranged husband, Freddie, left her for another woman known as 'Lilo Lill'. Her children Joey, Jack, Adrian, Aveline and Billy continued to live in the family home in Kelsall Street and contributed money to the central family fund, largely through benefit fraud and the sale of stolen goods.

Seasons

Season 1
1986 • 6 Episodes
The family talks about their dreams and what they hope to achieve in the future. Over breakfast discussions develop about working and what the individual members of the Boswell family do. None appear to have any sort of regular income except Adrian who is in real estate.
Season 2
1987 • 6 Episodes
Adrian has found a girlfriend, Carmen. Jack gets hijacked by a couple of punks who need a lift to Manchester.
Season 3
1987 • 13 Episodes
Aveline has been mugged and the Boswell boys make a mass protest at the police station. Billy, meanwhile, has to break the news to his mother that his baby is to be christened in a Protestant church!
Season 4
1988 • 14 Episodes
Jack has left home to go to America for a while and Nellie is missing him greatly. Cousin Shifty is coming out of prison and heading for the Boswell home, and Aveline is engaged to a protestant vicar who none of the family have met.
Season 5
1989 • 14 Episodes
Adrian becomes a hero by accident and, despite warnings, starts to embellish his role in the proceedings. Billy is troubled by his forthcoming divorce, Joey gets a worrying letter from the Inland Revenue and Aveline has a check up after failing to become pregnant.
Season 6
1990 • 11 Episodes
When Leonora arrives to take up residence in Billy's former home, Jack and Adrian are besotted but Billy is horrified as Julie neglected to tell him she was moving. Shifty returns full of apologies and gets a final chance from the family. To add to an eventful 24 hours, their pet dog Mongi has died and the family buries its ashes - then Aveline is rushed to hospital as she is about to give birth.
Season 7
1991 • 10 Episodes

Network

BBC One

Keywords

mothernorthern englandliverpool, englandscamfamilyunemployment benefitssitcom