
Click
on the following links for
further info on THE BROTHERS:
THE BROTHERS
DVDs
CHRISTMAS
LP
1970s
BROTHERS BOOKS
RADIO TIMES
COVER
CAST
INFORMATION
AFTER
THEY WERE FAMOUS (2002)
THE
CULT OF...THE BROTHERS (2008)
ARCHIVE
FEATURES
JENNIFER
WILSON PAGE
Q
& A WITH COLIN BAKER



THE BROTHERS
was a compelling TV series about
the bedroom and boardroom strife
endured by three conflicting
brothers at the family trucking
business Hammond Transport,
running for an impressive 92
episodes between 1972 and 1976.
It gave a big break to future
household names like Kate
OMara, Liza Goddard,
Gabrielle Drake and of course our
own Colin Baker.
The gritty BBC
serial, created by Gerard
Glaister and writer NJ Crisp,
caught the attention of the
viewing public to such a large
degree that Colins
loathsome city banker Paul
Merroney was voted the Most
Hated Man In Britain by
readers of The Sun
newspaper. The theme tune,
composed by legendary television
scorer Dudley Simpson, heralded
the show which became a staple of
the Sunday night drama slot.
You can hear the
theme playing on this page.

Colin Baker as
Paul Merroney in 1976.
The series began in
1972 with a classic scene that
has gone down as one of the best
in TV history. Old man Hammond
has died, but caused mayhem from
beyond the grave by leaving his
trucking firm to his three sons
and his secretary Jennifer
Kingsley, played by Jennifer
Wilson. It soon turned out
that she has a very big secret
Hammonds love child.
Hammonds wife Mary
played by the late Jean
Anderson spent all 92
episodes fighting her arch rival
Jennifer Kingsley, who had slept
with her husband 20 years before
deciding she wanted to marry
their son Edward Hammond (Glyn
Owen).
Jennifer Wilson, who
played Hammonds mistress,
recalls the storylines and
their impact on the public:
I wasnt
sure I should marry Edward,"
she says. On the face of
it, I had been the mistress of
his father.I had his illegitimate
daughter, I was now about to
think about marrying his eldest
son. Amazingly enough, the
audience loved it. They were
willing it. They were so pleased
when it happened.

(left to right)
Richard Easton, Jean Anderson and
Robin Chadwick.
Robin Chadwick
(David Hammond) remembers:
We got very nicely written
letters from vicars all over the
country asking if the BBC could
possibly put it on a little later
because half their congregation
was getting up and leaving during
their sermons to get home in time
to watch The Brothers.
A phone call
came in from the foreign minister
of Israel, Colin
Baker delights in
telling, He said that not
only was he devastated not to be
able to come and meet us as he
was such a fan, but he suggested
that had the Six Day War been
launched on the Arab nations on
the day that The Brothers
was being shown instead of Yom
Kippur, they would have had more
of a chance of taking the nation
by surprise because everybody
watched The Brothers!"
The show became
hugely popular in Scandanavia
(where it was re-titled "The
Hammonds") as well as
Israel, and the cast recorded an
album of festive songs for the
Philips Record label.

The show might have
been cancelled after just 10
episodes when the leading man,
the late Glyn Owen, walked out.
Glyn persuaded himself that
he was the star, says his
screen brother Richard Easton
(Brian Hammond). He was the
eldest son. He thought the BBC
couldnt do it without him
he thought wrong.

At the end of the
first series, Glyn left and Patrick
OConnell took over
the role of Edward Hammond for
the remaining six series. Patrick
eventually left the acting
profession to persue a career as
a painter.
A lot of
people complained about the fact
that there was too much smoking
and drinking in The Brothers,
but at least we werent all
getting our kit off and
pretending to be having
sex, muses Derek
Benfield (Bill Riley).
After 92 episodes, The
Brothers was cancelled, but
nobody bothered about telling the
stars of the show. It was
extraordinary, says Liza
Goddard (April Merroney).
The BBC never said a word.
We were just mystified because we
kept thinking well, I
wonder when they are going to
ring up and say were going
to do another series?, but
they never did. I never know to
this day why they stopped
it.

Hammond family
matriach Jean Anderson found
further fame in the BBC's
critically acclaimed Japanese
prisoner of war drama Tenko
between 1981 - 1983. She died in
2001, aged 93.

After The
Brothers, Robin Chadwick
struggled to find acting work in
Britain. I took myself off
and did jobs on building sites.
Just after we finished the first
seriesI was scrubbing lavatories
at the Wigmore Studios.
Robin set off for America and a
new life with his wife Susan.
Ive had time on
Broadway and Ive worked
steadily over there so my wife
and I bought a place just just on
the edge of New York, and we also
have a little farm in
Pensylvania.

Shortly after the
show, Richard Easton, a Canadian
by birth, went to America too. He
has worked as an actor and
part-time teacher ever since. By
his own admission hes never
really been a big star, until
2001 when at the age of 69, he
was voted Best Actor on Broadway
at the prestigious Tony Awards.
The Tony was an
extraordinary thing, says
Richard. Im not an
award winner. Ive never
been an award winner. Now
he is one of the biggest names in
New York and plays to sell out
audiences.

After Glyn Owen left
The Brothers, he went on
to star in another Gerard
Glaister produced series Howards
Way playing Jack Rolfe,
owner of the Mermaid Boat Yard
for the entire run between 1985 -
1990. Howards
Way was The Brothers
on water really. he said
shortly before his death in 2004,
aged 75.

Meanwhile Jennifer
Wilson, and her
husband actor Brian Peck, gave up
their life in the UK and moved to
France, staying there for nearly
10 years. Now they are
grand-parents and they have
returned to the UK to act again.

Hilary
Tindall sadly passed
away in 1992, aged 54, after a
long battle with cancer.

Derek
Benfield has continued
to pop up in various British
drama series over the last 30
years or so, most memorably as
Patricia Routledge's husband
Robert in Hetty Wainthropp
Investigates... He is also a
playwright of note, his comedy
"Bedside Manners"
became a hugely successful stage
vehicle for John Inman. He passed
away in 2009.

Julia
Goodman alias Barbara
Kingsley / Trent faced the
difficulty of a storyline which
involved illigitimacy, still a
sensitive subject in the early
1970's. Although Barbara's mother
Jennifer was despised my matriach
Mary Hammond for having had a
long affair with her husband,
Mary was careful not to place any
blame on Barbara. Much to her
mother's fury, Barbara befriended
the wife of her father, and the
relationship was a reversal in
role, for now Jennifer Kingsley
was very much against Barbara
having contact with Mary. Julia
left the show after three series,
and now runs her own successful
company.

Kate
OMaras profile
grew and grew following the
demise of the Hammond saga in
which she played Jane Maxwell. In
addition to a starring role in Howards'
Way with Glyn Owen, Kate
became a big star in America
playing Joan Collins little
sister Caress in Dynasty. Kate
formed her own theatre company
with her son Dickson performing
the classics to audiences
throughout the UK. She became
famous to a whole new generation
having appeared as Joanna
Lumley's sister 'Jackie' in cult
comedy Absolutely Fabulous.
Kate passed away in 2014, two
years after the tragic death of
her son Dickon.
Colin Baker married
his screen co-star Liza Goddard
whilst filming The Brothers.
He says of the divorce: I
dont think that being a
high profile couple necessarily
puts strain on the relationship
unless the relationship
isnt right in the first
place. We clearly discovered our
relationship wasnt right,
that we werent right for
each other. Colin is now
married to actress Marion Wyatt
and they have four daughters.

Liza Goddard
continues to be a busy actress on
stage and TV. She married and
divorced pop star Alvin Stardust
in the 1980s and has had
several battles against cancer in
the past few years. I was
diagnosed with breast cancer in
1997 and I had several
operations. I had six weeks of
radiotherapy and continued
working at weekends. I thought it
was all over and done with and
then in 2000 it returned so then
I had to have a mastectomy and
reconstruction, and was really
quite poorly for a while. I
really feel fit again but it is a
frightening experience to go
through. Liza was reunited
with Colin Baker in a stage tour
of She Stoops To Conquer in 2007.

"Regrets,
I've had a few...." Doing it
their way back in 1976.
Although The
Brothers faded from our
screens many years ago, it is
recognised as one of the BBC's
most successful drama series of
the 1970's.
|