The Grove Family is a
British televisionBritish television broadcasting started in 1936, and now has a collection of free and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are up to 600 channels for consumers as well as on-demand content. There are six main channel owners who are responsible for most...
soap operaA soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on television or radio. The name "soap opera" stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble,...
, generally regarded as the first of its kind broadcast in the UK, made and transmitted by
BBC TelevisionBBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which began in 1932. The British Broadcasting Corporation has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927.-History of BBC Television:...
from 1954 to 1957. The series revolved around the life of the family of the title, who were named after the BBC's
Lime Grove StudiosLime Grove Studios was a film studio complex built by the Gaumont Film Company in 1915 situated in a street named Lime Grove, inShepherd's Bush, west London, north of Hammersmith and described by Gaumont as "the finest studio in Great Britain and the first building ever put up in this country...
, where the programme was made.
The programme was written by
RolandRoland Pertwee was an English playwright, film and television screenwriter, director and actor. He is perhaps best remembered as the father of both Doctor Who star Jon Pertwee and fellow playwright and screenwriter Michael Pertwee...
and
Michael PertweeMichael Pertwee was a British playwright and screenwriter. Among his credits were episodes of The Saint, Danger Man, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, B-And-B , Ladies Who Do, and many other films and TV series....
, the father and elder brother respectively of future
Doctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a mysterious alien time-traveller known as "the Doctor" who travels in his space and time-ship, the TARDIS, which normally appears from the exterior to be a blue 1950s police box...
and
Worzel GummidgeWorzel Gummidge is a British children's fictional character who originally appeared in a series of books by the novelist Barbara Euphan Todd. A walking, talking scarecrow, Gummidge has a set of interchangeable turnip, mangel worzel and swede heads, each of which suit a particular occasion or endow...
star
Jon PertweeJohn Devon Roland Pertwee , better known as Jon Pertwee, was an English actor. Pertwee is best known for his role in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, where he played the third incarnation of the Doctor from 1970 to 1974 and as the title character in the series Worzel Gummidge...
.
The Grove Family is a
British televisionBritish television broadcasting started in 1936, and now has a collection of free and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are up to 600 channels for consumers as well as on-demand content. There are six main channel owners who are responsible for most...
soap operaA soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on television or radio. The name "soap opera" stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble,...
, generally regarded as the first of its kind broadcast in the UK, made and transmitted by
BBC TelevisionBBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which began in 1932. The British Broadcasting Corporation has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927.-History of BBC Television:...
from 1954 to 1957. The series revolved around the life of the family of the title, who were named after the BBC's
Lime Grove StudiosLime Grove Studios was a film studio complex built by the Gaumont Film Company in 1915 situated in a street named Lime Grove, inShepherd's Bush, west London, north of Hammersmith and described by Gaumont as "the finest studio in Great Britain and the first building ever put up in this country...
, where the programme was made.
The programme was written by
RolandRoland Pertwee was an English playwright, film and television screenwriter, director and actor. He is perhaps best remembered as the father of both Doctor Who star Jon Pertwee and fellow playwright and screenwriter Michael Pertwee...
and
Michael PertweeMichael Pertwee was a British playwright and screenwriter. Among his credits were episodes of The Saint, Danger Man, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, B-And-B , Ladies Who Do, and many other films and TV series....
, the father and elder brother respectively of future
Doctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a mysterious alien time-traveller known as "the Doctor" who travels in his space and time-ship, the TARDIS, which normally appears from the exterior to be a blue 1950s police box...
and
Worzel GummidgeWorzel Gummidge is a British children's fictional character who originally appeared in a series of books by the novelist Barbara Euphan Todd. A walking, talking scarecrow, Gummidge has a set of interchangeable turnip, mangel worzel and swede heads, each of which suit a particular occasion or endow...
star
Jon PertweeJohn Devon Roland Pertwee , better known as Jon Pertwee, was an English actor. Pertwee is best known for his role in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, where he played the third incarnation of the Doctor from 1970 to 1974 and as the title character in the series Worzel Gummidge...
. As was commonplace in British television at the time, the series was broadcast live, and very few episodes survive in the archives (only three out of the original 148 episodes still exist, according to www.lostshows.com), although one of the few surviving shows was transmitted on
BBC FourBBC Four is a BBC television channel available to digital television viewers in the UK. The part successor to BBC Knowledge. BBC Four launched on 2 March 2002....
in 2004. A
filmFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
version produced in 1955 by the Butchers company, written by the Pertwees and starring the television cast, exists as an example of the series. The film was titled
It's a Great Day.
In 1991, during a special day of programming transmitted on the
BBC Two
network to commemorate the closing of Lime Grove, a new edition of the programme was shown, a modern production of one of the original scripts with popular television
soap operaA soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on television or radio. The name "soap opera" stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble,...
actors of the day such as
Leslie GranthamLeslie Michael Grantham is an English actor best known for his role as "Dirty" Den Watts in the soap opera EastEnders...
filling the roles.
Peter BryantPeter Bryant was the fourth producer of the BBC science fiction programme Doctor Who. He was born in London....
, who starred as Jack Grove, went on to become a script editor and producer on the BBC
science fictionScience fiction first appeared on television during the golden age of science fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary world not limited by the constraints of reality; this makes television an excellent medium for...
series
Doctor Who.
In 1954, The Grove Family had drawn in almost a quarter of British people with a
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
. The huge success of the programme spread to the Queen Mother, who said
So English, So Real!