''Holding the Fort'' was an

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

situation comedy A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

starring

Peter Davison Peter Malcolm Gordon Moffett (born 13 April 1951), known professionally as Peter Davison, is an English actor with many credits in television dramas and sitcoms. He made his television acting debut in 1975 and became famous in 1978 as Tristan ...

Patricia Hodge Patricia Ann Hodge, OBE (born 29 September 1946) is an English actor. She is known on-screen for playing Phyllida Erskine-Brown in '' Rumpole of the Bailey'' (1978–1992), Jemima Shore in ''Jemima Shore Investigates'' (1983), Penny in '' Mira ...

and

Matthew Kelly Matthew Kelly (born David Allan Kelly, 9 May 1950) is an English actor and presenter. Having been trained as a theatre actor, he first came to public prominence as a television presenter of ITV light entertainment shows such as '' Game for a ...

Plot

The situation was a role-reversal comedy, in which the premise was that Russell Milburn (Davison) becomes a "house-husband" to raise his baby daughter while his wife, Penny (Hodge) a captain in the

Women's Royal Army Corps The Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC; sometimes pronounced acronymically as , a term unpopular with its members) was the corps to which all women in the British Army belonged from 1949 to 1992, except medical, dental and veterinary officers and cha ...

, goes out to work. Russell's friend Fitzroy, or "Fitz" (Kelly), adds to the comic tension by encouraging Russell's enthusiasm for football, pacifism and beer.

Cast

as Russell Milburn *

as Penny Milburn *

as Fitz *

Christopher Godwin Christopher Godwin (born 5 August 1943) is a British actor who has been active since the late 1960s. TV and recording career He made his TV debut at the age of 25, when he took on the role of PC Grange in an episode of '' Softly, Softly''. He ...

as Hector Quilley * Victoria Kendall as Emma Milburn * Christopher Benjamin as Col. Aubrey Sanderson * Maev Alexander as Jennifer Quilley *

Keith Barron Keith Barron (8 August 1934 – 15 November 2017) was an English actor and television presenter who appeared in films and on television from 1961 until 2017. His television roles included the police drama ''The Odd Man'', the sitcom ''Duty Free ...

as Trevor Chesterton *

Tony Millan Anthony Millan, known professionally as Tony Millan, is a British character actor and television comedy scriptwriter. Millan appeared in numerous roles, predominantly in sitcoms and drama series on British television throughout the 1980s and 1990s ...

as Daniel

Production

It was an early product of the writing team of Laurence Marks and

Maurice Gran Maurice Bernard Gran (born 26 October 1949, in London, England) is an English writer and one half of scriptwriting duo Marks and Gran. He co-wrote the British sitcom, sitcoms ''The New Statesman (1987 TV series), The New Statesman'', ''Birds of ...

. Three series were recorded, a total of twenty episodes, first aired between 1980 and 1982, concurrent with Davison also starring in ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...

''. It was made for the

network by

LWT London Weekend Television (LWT) (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 un ...

External links

* * 1980s British sitcoms 1980 British television series debuts 1982 British television series endings ITV sitcoms Television series by ITV Studios London Weekend Television shows English-language television shows Television shows set in London {{Comedy-tv-prog-stub