That's My Boy (1981 TV series)

2022-08-19T11:34:38Z

2A02:C7C:1A43:A100:A90C:8125:AA87:FDEC: /* DVD releases */

{{Short description|British sitcom starring Mollie Sugden}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2014}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2014}}
{{infobox television
| name = That's My Boy
| image = That's My Boy (1981 TV series).jpg
| genre = [[Sitcom]]
| runtime = 30 minutes
| creator = {{plainlist|
* Pam Valentine
* Michael Ashton
}}
| starring = {{plainlist|
* [[Mollie Sugden]]
* [[Christopher Blake]]
* Jennifer Lonsdale
}}
| country = United Kingdom
| company = [[Yorkshire Television]]
| network = [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]]
| first_aired = {{Start date|1981|10|23|df=y}}
| last_aired = {{End date|1986|4|4|df=y}}
| num_series = 5
| num_episodes = 37
}}

'''''That's My Boy''''' is a [[British sitcom]] starring [[Mollie Sugden]] that aired on [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] from 23 October 1981 to 4 April 1986. The series was written and created by Pam Valentine and Michael Ashton, who later wrote ''[[My Husband and I (1987 TV series)|My Husband and I]]'' (1987–88), which also starred Mollie Sugden. It was produced for the ITV network by [[Yorkshire Television]], and, although the first three series are set in [[London]], they were filmed in and around [[Harrogate]] in [[North Yorkshire]].

==Cast==
*[[Mollie Sugden]] – Ida Willis
*[[Christopher Blake]] – Robert Price
*Jennifer Lonsdale – Angie Price
*Clare Richards – Mrs Price (series 1–4)
*[[Harold Goodwin (English actor)|Harold Goodwin]] – Wilfred Willis
*[[Deddie Davies]] – Miss Parfitt (series 4–5)
*Thelma Whiteley – Mrs Cross (series 5)

==Plot==

When Ida Willis ([[Mollie Sugden]]) gets a new job as [[housekeeper (domestic worker)|housekeeper]] to Robert Price ([[Christopher Blake]]) and his wife Angie (Jennifer Lonsdale), she moves into their [[London]] flat and soon discovers that Robert is the son she gave up for [[adoption]] when he was a baby, and she proceeds to call him Shane, the name she gave him when he was born. Other characters include Ida's troublesome brother Wilfred ([[Harold Goodwin (English actor)|Harold Goodwin]]) and Robert's adoptive mother Cecilia Price (Clare Richards), an upmarket widow with whom Ida doesn't get on. In the fourth series, they move to the fictitious [[Yorkshire]] village of Little Birchmarch, where Ida befriends Robert's mousy receptionist, Miss Parfitt ([[Deddie Davies]]).

==Episodes==

===Series 1 (1981)===
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="width:98%;"
|-
!width="5%"|No.
!width="45%"|Title
!width="25%"|Original airdate
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 1
| Title= Live as a Family
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1981|10|23|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= Housekeeper Ida Willis is the terror of the domestic employment agency, and the clients to whom she is sent. When she is sent to the home of Robert Price and his wife Angie, she tells Angie about the son she gave up and shows a picture of the year-old Shane. Angie notes that it looks like a baby picture of her Robert. It does, they are the same boy. When Robert tells Angie to fire Ida, the truth is revealed.
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 2
| Title= Settling In
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1981|10|30|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= Ida is settling in as the Prices' housekeeper – despite Robert's resistance – when Robert's adoptive mother, the upper-class Cecilia Price, turns up. Will the two women get along?
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 3
| Title= Happy Birthdays, Robert
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1981|11|6|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= Ida insists that Robert's birthday is in June, but Mrs Price says his birthday is when she adopted him. Robert takes both his mothers out to dinner and surprise, they become friends. But for how long?
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 4
| Title= Is It Catching?
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1981|11|13|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= Ida reluctantly agrees to look after her brother Wilfred's baby grandson, and soon finds she was right to be so reluctant.
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 5
| Title= Driven Apart
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1981|11|20|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= The old saying that husbands should never teach their wives to drive proves dangerously true for Robert and Angie when Angie hits Mrs. Price's car. Can Ida save the day, and the relationships?
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 6
| Title= Think Thin
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1981|11|27|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= Robert decides that he, Angie, and Ida need to go on a diet, and forbids Ida to have even one gin-and-tonic. But is he sticking so strictly to the diet himself?
}}
|}

===Series 2 (1983)===
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="width:98%;"
|-
!width="5%"|No.
!width="45%"|Title
!width="25%"|Original airdate
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 7
| Title= Only When It Hurts
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1983|1|7|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= It's Sunday and Ida's feeling very house-proud: Robert's "other" mother is coming for tea. Things deteriorate when she breaks her tooth on one of Mrs Price's sausage rolls and is dragged unwillingly to her first dentist visit in 28 years.
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 8
| Title= Wakey Wakey
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1983|1|14|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= When Ida agrees to take part in a sponsored "wake" in aid of distressed gentlewomen, she downs a whole bottle of sleeping pills the day before so she'll be able to last the night. Then the police knock at her door to tell her there may be a bomb in the building and she must evacuate. Mrs. Price turns up and they both fall asleep in the police officer's arms.
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 9
| Title= A Holiday Romance
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1983|1|21|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= A chance encounter on a flight to Jersey leads to a very exciting fortnight for Ida, including a proposal. Robert and Angie are spying on Ida and Robert is disgusted by her behaviour. But when her fiance insults Robert by calling him "odd", Ida promptly drops him.
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 10
| Title= A Brush with the Law
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1983|1|28|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= When Ida sets out to change Angie's blouse for "a sky-blue floaty scarf", she accidentally walks out of the store without paying for it. The store manager calls the police after he is aggravated by Robert. When Ida is in court, she quotes from a book which turns out to be written by the judge. Her newly befriended judge dismisses the case by explaining why it couldn't possibly have been her fault.
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 11
| Title= Down Under
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1983|2|4|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= Ida's name somehow finds its way onto the computer at the employment agency and she is sick of calls from a Mrs Thornberry-Basset, known to her as "fancy drawers". She is quick to tell them she does not want to work. But then she takes a misunderstood phone call about moving to Australia and she informs Mrs Price that Robert and Angie are leaving them. A very complex misunderstanding begins.
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 12
| Title= To Catch a Thief
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1983|2|11|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= The TV set breaks down just as Ida and Angie are settling down to watch a classic film. When a man comes to the door Ida thinks Robert has called a repairman, but she soon finds out that he's someone else entirely. When it turns out Wilfred knows him, she pays him to find him. The thief returns the things to Ida, as he has found out that she is Wilfred's sister. Then Wilfred reports to Ida that he hasn't found him...
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 13
| Title= Go Jump in the Fountain
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1983|2|18|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= When Angie insists that Robert go out for "an evening with the boys," she and Ida have no idea just how far out of his rut he will get.
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 14
| Title= Invitation to the Wedding
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1983|2|25|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= Wilfred gets a whack with a loaf when he lets himself into the house while everyone is out shopping. He informs them his daughter Maureen is going to marry a drummer in a steel band. Robert insists on not going, but when Ida and Angie forget their present, he comes to the rescue and makes quite the impression.
}}
|}

===Christmas Special (1983)===
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="width:98%;"
|-
!width="5%"|No.
!width="45%"|Title
!width="25%"|Original airdate
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 15
| Title= Cold Turkey
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1983|12|23|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= Having looked forward to a nice quiet Christmas with Robert and Angie, Ida learns that Robert has invited his other mother and his boss to tea. She is not very happy especially as Wilfred is also coming; and when he comes he brings a live turkey, then replaces it with a solid frozen one.
}}
|}

===Series 3 (1984)===
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="width:98%;"
|-
!width="5%"|No.
!width="45%"|Title
!width="25%"|Original airdate
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 16
| Title= Where There's a Will
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1984|4|27|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= Ida goes to buy fish and chips, and ends up learning that Herbert Mogs has left her a cottage in his will. As she travels to see the cottage, she remembers how she knew Herbert...
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 17
| Title= Baby Blues
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1984|5|4|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= Angie's cousin has a baby and elects her and Robert as godparents; Angie returns from the christening wanting a baby, but Robert isn't as keen on the idea.
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 18
| Title= The Big Night Out
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1984|5|11|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= Ida's peeved when Robert's boss invites Mrs Price to a big shindig. It turns out that he wants Ida for himself and Mrs Price for his friend. How will the evening turn out?
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 19
| Title= Light and Shade
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1984|5|18|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= Ida gets suspicious when she receives a postcard from Mrs Price signed "Cecilia". She finds out she has turned into an amateur Buddha influenced by a Brother Laylord. She informs Wilfred and they get him to come round and Wilfred informs everyone he's a fraud.
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 20
| Title= Unfair Dismissal
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1984|5|25|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= Several of the neighbours cut Ida dead in the foyer and want to sack their local friendly caretaker.
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 21
| Title= Dirty Linen
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1984|6|1|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= A crumpled little note Ida finds in Robert's overcoat provokes a big crisis.
Note: The guest character of Polly Bennett is played by [[Deddie Davies]] who would later appear regularly in Series 4 and Series 5 as Miss Parfitt.
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 22
| Title= Ring If You Need Me
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1984|6|8|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= Ida takes a tip from Wilfred and bets on a horse with odds on 40-1 and spends her winnings before she has them. Then an even worse situation arrives at the door.
}}
|}

===Christmas Special (1984)===
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="width:98%;"
|-
!width="5%"|No.
!width="45%"|Title
!width="25%"|Original airdate
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 23
| Title= Little Donkey
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1984|12|28|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= Robert's musical plans are thrown into disarray when he discovers one of the nurses is already singing ''[[Little Donkey]]'' at the hospital Christmas Concert. Wilfred suggests an alternative act: mindreading!
}}
|}

===Series 4 (1985)===
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="width:98%;"
|-
!width="5%"|No.
!width="45%"|Title
!width="25%"|Original airdate
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 24
| Title= Moving Out
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1985|1|18|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= Robert has landed a new job in [[Yorkshire]]. But can he pluck up the courage to tell his other mother the news? When all other movers are booked, Robert uses Wilfred's suggested removal men, who forget half of the furniture!
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 25
| Title= Moving In
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1985|1|25|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= After three hours of driving and five miles of walking, the family arrive at their new destination, where they meet the surgery's receptionist, Miss Parfitt, and try to settle into their flat above the surgery.
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 26
| Title= What Seems to be the Trouble?
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1985|2|1|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= Ida has trouble adjusting to her new surroundings, so Robert and Angie suggest she gets a hobby, and she finds a way to contribute to her new community.
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 27
| Title= Friendship View Marriage
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1985|2|8|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= Ida is suspicious of the amount of attention Miss Parfitt shows Robert. Mrs Price and Wilfred come to stay and Wilfred tells everyone he's about to propose. On the big night, Miss Parfitt comes to dinner, Wilfred sees her home, and when he comes back his attention has been diverted. }}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 28
| Title= Hello Young Mothers
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1985|2|15|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= Ida indulges in local gossip and finds out [[Elton John]] is moving to the village. When they find out that not only is it EDWIN John, but he's opening a home for unwed mothers, local-shopkeeper Mrs Cross starts a petition against it, then learns that somebody close might be needing its shelter.
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 29
| Title= The Phantom of the Farmyard
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1985|2|22|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= Ida stands in as a receptionist at the surgery. Mrs Price calls to say she'll be coming to visit because she is lonely in London. Ida invents a story about a phantom rooster to deter her as she decides to live with them. Mrs Price investigates and finds out about a Headless Nun and Mrs. Price is scared off. Although now Ida is scared stiff of the place.
Ida (to Angie): It's a good thing you weren't in The [[Secret Army (TV series)|Secret Army]] or God help [[Bernard Hepton]].
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 30
| Title= Surprise, Surprise
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1985|3|1|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= Ida drops some not-too-subtle hints that it is her birthday soon and tells Angie she wants a big strong man to carry her away. When Ida's birthday arrives she is extremely angry about being given awful presents. Will she ever get what she really wants?
}}
|}

===Series 5 (1986)===
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="width:98%;"
|-
!width="5%"|No.
!width="45%"|Title
!width="25%"|Original airdate
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 31
| Title= Digging In
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1986|2|21|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= Ida becomes distraught when Wilfred disappears, but there's more drama when he's found. But everything works out in the end...except for one person.
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 32
| Title= Drugs on the Market
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1986|2|28|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= Horrified at the amount of pills Ida has, Robert confiscates them. Ida soon starts trading pills with Mrs Cross and finds out about the local medicine market.
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 33
| Title= Jezebel
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1986|3|7|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= Robert's talk to the Young Wives' Group in the village is ruined by a woman who takes a fancy to Robert.
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 34
| Title= Something to Love
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1986|3|14|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= Ida is thrilled when romance finally enlivens Miss Parfitt's life.
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 35
| Title= The Bypass
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1986|3|21|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= A new bypass threatens to bring chaos to the village; Ida and Robert are determined to take action and end up Morris Dancing in the middle of the main street.
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 36
| Title= Happy Anniversary
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1986|3|28|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= Ida takes great exception to Angie's new career in commercials, especially when it threatens to disrupt Robert's plans for his wedding anniversary.
}}
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber= 37
| Title= Two Lonely People
| OriginalAirDate= {{Start date|1986|4|4|df=y}}
| ShortSummary= Storm damage to Wilfred’s cottage has the most unexpected consequences...
}}
|}

==DVD releases==

All five series are now available individually from Network DVD.

{| class="wikitable"
!
!Series
!Year(s)
!Region 1 (Canada)
!Region 2 (UK)
|-
|bgcolor="#C80815" height="20px"|
| The Complete Series 1
| 1981
| N/A
| 23 August 2010
|-
|bgcolor="#FFD700" height="10px"|
| The Complete Series 2
| 1983
| N/A
| 24 January 2011
|-
|bgcolor="#6495ED" height="10px"|
| The Complete Series 3
| 1984
| N/A
| 21 March 2011
|-
|bgcolor="#6495ED" height="10px"|
| The Complete Series 4
| 1985
| N/A
| 4 July 2011
|-
|bgcolor="Blue" height="10px"|
| The Complete Series 5
| 1986
| N/A
| 28 May 2012
|-
|bgcolor="#bfc" height="10px"|
| The Complete Series 1–5
| 1981–1986
| 24 June 2008
| 5 March 2018
|-
|}

A complete VHS collection of ''That's My Boy'' was also released.

ITV3 started repeating the series on 10 February 2020, with minor edits.

A single episode of ''That's My Boy'' has been released in the UK as part of a DVD compilation called ''Classic ITV Christmas Comedy''.

==References==
*[[Mark Lewisohn]] ''Radio Times Guide to TV Comedy'', BBC Worldwide Ltd, 2003

==External links==
*{{IMDb title|0081945|That's My Boy}}
*{{British Comedy Guide|sitcom|thats_my_boy|That's My Boy}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thats My Boy}}
[[Category:1981 British television series debuts]]
[[Category:1986 British television series endings]]
[[Category:1980s British sitcoms]]
[[Category:ITV sitcoms]]
[[Category:Works about adoption]]
[[Category:Television series by Yorkshire Television]]
[[Category:Television series by ITV Studios]]
[[Category:English-language television shows]]

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That's My Boy (1981 TV series)