Bless This House - Series 1 Part 1

Sid Abbott (Sidney James) is a middle aged sales rep for a stationery firm in London. He lives with his wife Jean (Diana Coupland) and their two children Mike (Robin Stewart) and Sally (Sally Geeson). His son Mike is an 18 year old unemployed art student and his daughter Sally is a 16 year old who's still at school. Both their children believe in peace, free love and all that other hippy stuff. Sid struggles with this on a daily basis.

Contained on this release are the first six rarely seen episodes of the series from Granada Television. All episodes are in black and white and have a running time of just under 25 minutes each. They also contain the originally aired ad caps, a real treat for purists.

the good old ad caps

Sid James is a legend of British film and television having made over 250 films. After starting out on various television shows he went on to star in the Carry On films. The series ran for six years and also spawned a feature film.

Below is a brief synopsis of each episode for this amusing series.

The Generation Gap
Sid is concerned when learning his son is going out with a male ballet dancer and his daughter is on the pill.

Mum’s the Word
When Jean has some medical tests, Sid is under the impression he is to become a father again.

Father’s Day
Jean tries to organise a surprise present for Sid, however he suspects she is having an affair with their doctor.

Be It Ever So Humble
Trouble brews for Sid when Mike moves out, quickly followed by Jean and Sally.

Another Fine Mess
Sid’s boss asks him to mind his wife’s coat, but Jean thinks it’s her birthday present from Sid.

For Whom the Bells Toll
Mike’s been seeing the same girl for a week leading Sid to believe he’s planning a wedding.

Picture is supplied in black and white full frame and therefore, of course, it's not 16:9 enhanced. This is a very old series and this transfer is not too bad considering. The first vision the viewer gets is the famous Thames television logo and this is riddled with film artefacts such as white flecks. The good news is that once the actual show starts the problems are not as obvious. There are not many white flecks to speak of throughout and other nasties such as aliasing and grain are there, but not anywhere nearly as bad as may be expected. Colours are, well, black and white so there are no issues there. To be honest, I was really expecting a nasty transfer here, but this is very impressive considering its age. There are no subtitles supplied, but they're not really needed.

Not much can be said about the audio supplied here really. It comes in Dolby Digital 1.0 mono and does all it needs to do. Dialogue is clear throughout and synch is never a problem. There really is no need for directional effect or music ambience, this is a dialogue driven show and for this purpose it delivers.

There are only a couple of extras with this one. There is a photo gallery containing some nice pictures including some colour ones. There is also Umbrella Propaganda which contains trailers for other British sitcoms George & Mildred, Love Thy Neighbour, Kenny Everett and Man About the House.

Overall this is a title worth owning for those who have a liking for this genre. It is also a good addition for the purists who like to own the first episodes of a series in the original form, in this case black and white with originally aired ad caps. The video is surprisingly good and the audio is as good as it needs to be. Extras are minimal, but no doubt there isn’t a lot of material that could have been added apart from maybe biographies.