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Seven of One
"Open All Hours" and "Porridge" were the two successful pilots from the Seven of One series.
Genre
Created byRonnie Barker
StarringRonnie Barker
ComposerMax Harris
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of episodes7
Production
Producers
Camera setupMulti-camera
Running time30 minutes
Production companyBBC
Original release
NetworkBBC2
Release25 March (1973-03-25) –
6 May 1973 (1973-05-06)

Seven of One, stylised as 7 of 1,[1] is a British sitcom anthology series that aired on BBC2 in 1973.[1] Starring Ronnie Barker, Seven of One is a series of seven separate 30-minute episodes that would serve as possible pilots for sitcoms.[1] Originally it was to be called Six of One, which Barker planned to follow up with another series called And Half a Dozen of the Other.[1] This was a BBC equivalent of a similar showcase for London Weekend Television called Six Dates with Barker created in 1971.

In addition to Barker, Seven of One also featured Roy Castle, Bill Maynard, Talfryn Thomas, Prunella Scales, Glynn Edwards, Joan Sims, Keith Chegwin, Leslie Dwyer, Robin Parkinson, Sam Kelly, Christopher Biggins, Richard O'Callaghan, Yootha Joyce, David Jason, and Avis Bunnage in supporting roles.[1] The series was released on BBC DVD in 2005.

Episodes

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No.TitleWritten byOriginal air date
1"Open All Hours"Roy Clarke25 March 1973 (1973-03-25)
Arkwright has only one true love – money. He is also pursuing Nurse Gladys Emmanuel and continues to instruct his nephew Granville (David Jason) in the art of getting money out of customers. Granville, however, wants a girlfriend.
2"Prisoner and Escort"Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais1 April 1973 (1973-04-01)
Career criminal Norman Stanley Fletcher is on a train with prison officers Mr Mackay (Fulton Mackay), a martinet, and the kindly Mr Barraclough (Brian Wilde), on his way to serve a five-year sentence at Slade Prison.
3"My Old Man"Gerald Frow8 April 1973 (1973-04-08)
Sam Cobbett is a cantankerous, retired railwayman whose house is demolished by the council, forcing him to live in a tower block with his daughter Doris (Ann Beach) and her husband Arthur (Graham Armitage), whom he sees as posh and with whom there is mutual antagonism.
4"Spanner's Eleven"Roy Clarke15 April 1973 (1973-04-15)
Albert Spanners' life is tied to Ashfield Football Club – bottom of the league.
5"Another Fine Mess"Hugh Leonard22 April 1973 (1973-04-22)
When Harry and Sydney (Roy Castle) plan to impersonate Laurel and Hardy, it all gets a bit close to the real thing.
6"One Man's Meat"Jack Goetz29 April 1973 (1973-04-29)
Alan Joyce is a fat, greedy man whose wife (Prunella Scales) devises a plan to keep him off food for a day. She goes out and takes not only all the food from the house but Alan's clothes...
7"I'll Fly You for a Quid"Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais6 May 1973 (1973-05-06)
Grandpa Owen dies concealing a winning betting slip. His son Evan Owen and his gambling-mad family are desperate to prove that "you can't take it with you".

Successful pilots

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Whilst most of the pilots were not developed any further, "Prisoner and Escort" was chosen to be developed into a series and became Porridge (1974–1977),[1] which also led to a spin-off series called Going Straight in 1978, a feature film adaptation of Porridge in 1979, and many years later a sequel sitcom Porridge (2016–2017).

"Open All Hours" was later developed into a sitcom of the same name, Open All Hours (1976, 1981–1982, 1985),[1] and many years later a sequel sitcom named Still Open All Hours (2013–2019). Additionally, "My Old Man" also led to a sitcom of the same name, My Old Man (1974–1975), which was made by Yorkshire Television and shown nationally on ITV, but not including Barker and instead featuring an entirely new cast led by Clive Dunn.[1]

Ronnie Barker's favourite of the seven pilots was "I'll Fly You for a Quid", which he initially chose to do as a series, before being convinced by the BBC that it would be harder to do a full series of scripts about Evan Owen in a Welsh gambling community compared to Norman Stanley Fletcher in the prison setting of "Prisoner and Escort".

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "Seven Of One – Nostalgia Central". Nostalgia Central. 27 June 2014. Retrieved 17 January 2024.
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