Bachelor Father was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 sitcom

British sitcom

A British sitcom tends, as it does in most other countries, to be based on a family, workplace or other institution, where the same group of contrasting characters is brought together in each episode. Unlike American sitcoms, where twenty or more episodes in a season is the norm, British sitcoms...

 starring Ian Carmichael

Ian Carmichael

Ian Gillett Carmichael, OBE was an English film, stage, television and radio actor.-Early life:Carmichael was born in Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The son of an optician, he was educated at Scarborough College and Bromsgrove School, before training as an actor at RADA...

 that aired for two series from 1970 to 1971. It was written by Richard Waring

Richard Waring (writer)

Richard Waring was a British television scriptwriter.The author of numerous sitcoms from the early 1960s, he is particularly associated with writing domestic sitcoms. His first success was Marriage Lines with Richard Briers and Prunella Scales...

.

Background

Bachelor Father was loosely based on the life of Peter Lloyd Jeffock. Jeffock was a bachelor who had fostered twelve children. He later wrote an autobiography called Only Uncle. Richard Waring, who wrote Bachelor Father, based some of the plots on incidents told in Only Uncle. Waring said that he would have kept more to Only Uncle, but many of the true stories were so far-fetched, he thought the public wouldn't believe them.

Cast

• Ian Carmichael
  Ian Carmichael
  Ian Gillett Carmichael, OBE was an English film, stage, television and radio actor.-Early life:Carmichael was born in Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The son of an optician, he was educated at Scarborough College and Bromsgrove School, before training as an actor at RADA...
  
   - Peter Lamb
• Sonia Graham - Mrs Rathbone
• Diana King
  Diana King
  Diana King is a reggae fusion singer-songwriter who specifically performed a mixture and fusion of R&B, reggae, pop and dancehall...
  
   - Norah
• Ian Johnson - Ben
• Briony McRoberts
  Briony McRoberts
  Briony McRoberts, , is a British actress.On television, she played 'Tessa Kilpin' in Episode 057 'No Stone' of The Professionals, and has also appeared in The Bill, Heartbeat, EastEnders, Taggart, and Diamonds...
  
   - Anna
• Michael Douglas - Freddie
• Beverley Simons - Jane
• Joan Hickson
  Joan Hickson
  Joan Hickson OBE was an English actress of theatre, film and television, famed for playing Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in the television series Miss Marple.- Wivenhoe :...
  
   - Mrs Pugsley
• Gerald Flood
  Gerald Flood
  Gerald Flood was a British actor of stage and television.Born in Portsmouth, Hampshire but lived for most of his life in Farnham, Surrey, where he regularly appeared on stage at the Castle Theatre...
  
   - Harry (series 1)
• Colin Gordon
  Colin Gordon
  Colin Gordon was a British actor born in Ceylon .He was educated at Marlborough College and Christ Church, Oxford. He made his first West End appearance in 1934 as the hind legs of a horse in a production of “Toad of Toad Hall”. From 1936 to 1939 he was a director with the Fred Melville Repertory...
  
   - Mr Gibson (series 1)
• Pauline Yates
  Pauline Yates
  Pauline Yates is an English actress best known for playing Elizabeth Perrin in the BBC television sitcom The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin...
  
   - Mrs Moore (series 1 and 1970 special)
• Jack May
  Jack May
  Jack May was an English actor. Born in Henley-on-Thames, he was educated at Forest School, Walthamstow and after war service with the Royal Indian Navy in India was offered a place at RADA, but he instead went to Merton College, Oxford...
  
   - Mr Moore (series 1)
• Rona Anderson
  Rona Anderson
  Rona Anderson is a Scottish stage, film, and television actress. Her first stage appearance took place at the Garrison Theatre in April 1945. She also appeared in the original production of Whose Life Is It Anyway?. Anderson's first major film was the 1948 drama Sleeping Car to Trieste...
  
   - Mary (series 1)
• Roland Pickering - Donald (series 1 and 1970 special)
• Andrew Bowen - Donald (series 2)
• Kevin Moran - Christopher (series 2)
• Gerry Cowper
  Gerry Cowper
  Geraldine Cowper is an English actress who is best known for playing Rosie Miller in EastEnders. In the mid 1980s she took the part of Clare France in After Henry on BBC radio and also appeared on television as Jim Hacker's daughter in Yes Minister.-Career:Cowper was Clare France, the youngest of...
  
   - Jo (series 2)
• Jacqueline Cowper - Ginny (series 2)

Plot

Peter Lamb is a rich man who has always wanted a family, but failed to sustain any relationships. In the first episode, he decides to foster children. He then fosters a variety of diverse children

Episodes

22 episodes in total were produced; because of the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

's wiping

Wiping

Wiping or junking is a colloquial term for action taken by radio and television production and broadcasting companies, in which old audiotapes, videotapes, and telerecordings , are erased, reused, or destroyed after several uses...

policy of the 1970s, only one original filmed episode exists (the first one). All of the episodes of series 2 were later recovered on 16mm film prints, but some of series 1 is still missing from the archives.

Series One (1970)

1. Family Feeling (17 Sep 70)
2. All In The Family (24 Sep 70)
3. First of the Many (1 Oct 70)
4. The Normal Front (8 Oct 70)
5. Birthday Boys (15 Oct 70)
6. The Peter Pan Syndrome (22 Oct 70)
7. A Little Learning (29 Oct 70)
8. A Spot of Natural Expression (5 Nov 70)
9. A Man's Man About The House (12 Nov 70)
10. A Kind of Love-In (19 Nov 70)
11. Time To Go Home (26 Nov 70)
12. Love They Neighbour (3 Dec 70)
13. Feminine Company (10 Dec 70)

Series Two (1971)

1. Pet Ideas (16 Sep 71)
2. House Guest (23 Sep 71)
3. Partners In Crime (30 Sep 71)
4. Economy Class (7 Oct 71)
5. Not In Front Of The Children (14 Oct 71)
6. Name This Child (21 Oct 71)
7. Gently Does It (28 Oct 71)
8. Woman About The House (4 Nov 71)
9. Peter Lamb - This Is Your Anniversary (11 Nov 71)