''The Larkins'' is a British television

sitcom 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 ...

which was produced by ATV and aired on

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 ...

. It aired for four series between 1958 and 1960. An additional two series (with format changes) aired from 1963 to 1964.

Plot

In the first four series, the family, consisting of Ada Larkin (

Peggy Mount Margaret Rose Mount OBE (2 May 1915 – 13 November 2001) was an English actress. As a child, she found acting an escape from an unhappy home life. After playing in amateur productions, she was taken on by a repertory company and spent nine yea ...

), her henpecked husband Alf (

David Kossoff David Kossoff (24 November 1919 – 23 March 2005) was a British actor. In 1954 he won the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles for his appearance as Geza Szobek in '' The Young Lovers''. He played Alf Larkin in TV sit ...

), their son Eddie (Shaun O'Riordan), daughter Joyce (

Ruth Trouncer Isabel Ruth Trouncer (born 9 September 1930) is a British stage, film and television actress. During the late 1950s she had a recurring role on the television series ''The Larkins''. She is the daughter of the actor Cecil Trouncer. Selected fil ...

) and her ex-GI husband Jeff (

Ronan O'Casey Ronan O'Casey (18 August 1922 – 12 April 2012) was a Canadian actor and producer. Early life O'Casey was born in Montreal, Quebec, to poet father, Michael Casey, and actress mother, Margaret Sheehy, a Dubliner who had co-starred with the y ...

), all lived together at 66 Sycamore Street, next door to inquisitive neighbour Hetty Prout (

Barbara Mitchell Barbara Mitchell (4 October 1929 – 9 December 1977, Kingston Upon Thames) was an English actress who became a familiar face on British television in the 1960s and 1970s, best known for her work in many classic sitcoms of the period. Care ...

), her husband Sam (George Roderick), and their daughter Myrtle (Hillary Bamberger), who had an occasional fling with Eddie. In the final two series, Ada and Alf had an empty nest, moved away from Sycamore Street, and ran a café, employing Hetty (no mention is made of her husband or daughter). They had a lodger, Major Osbert Rigby-Soames (retired) (

Hugh Paddick Hugh William Paddick (22 August 1915 – 9 November 2000) was an English actor. He starred in the 1960s BBC radio show ''Round the Horne'', performing in sketches such as "Charles and Fiona" (as Charles) and "Julian and Sandy" (as Julian). He and ...

), who always tried to avoid paying his rent.

Spin-offs

Comic strip

''The Larkins'' was adapted into a

gag-a-day A gag-a-day comic strip is the style of writing comic cartoons such that every installment of a strip delivers a complete joke or some other kind of artistic statement. It is opposed to story or continuity strips, which rely on the development of ...

comic in 1960 by Dutch comics artist

Alfred Mazure Alfred Leonardus Mazure (8 September 1914 – 16 February 1974) was a Dutch comics artist, novelist and film director, best known for his detective comic '' Dick Bos'', which was one of the most popular comics series in the Netherlands during the 1 ...

, published in the

Sunday Graphic The ''Sunday Graphic'' was an English tabloid newspaper published in Fleet Street. The newspaper was founded in 1915 as the ''Sunday Herald'' and was later renamed the ''Illustrated Sunday Herald''. In 1927 it changed its name to the ''Sunday ...

Film

The series was adapted into a film, ''

Inn For Trouble ''Inn for Trouble'' is a 1960 black and white British comedy film intended as a low budget filler to support a main feature in the days of cinema double features. it was a spin-off of the 1950s sitcom ''The Larkins'' - starring Peggy Mount, Davi ...

'' (1960) directed by

C.M. Pennington-Richards Cyril Montague Pennington-Richards (17 December 1911 – 2 January 2005) was a British film director and cinematographer.DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

, and were included in a boxset by Network, released on 1st October 2012.

Broadcast

In 2023 the UK vintage film/nostalgia channel

Talking Pictures TV Talking Pictures TV (TPTV) is a British free-to-air vintage-film and nostalgia television channel. It was launched on 26 May 2015 on Sky channel 343, but later also became available on Freeview, Freesat, and Virgin Media. It is on air for 24 ho ...

announced that it would be broadcasting the series weekly from 26 March.

References

External links

*
''The Larkins''
at

British Comedy Guide British Comedy Guide or BCG (formerly the British Sitcom Guide or BSG) is a British website covering all forms of British comedy, across all media. At the time of writing, BCG has published guides to more than 7,000 individual British comedies ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Larkins, The 1958 British television series debuts 1964 British television series endings 1950s British sitcoms 1960s British sitcoms Black-and-white British television shows British television series revived after cancellation English-language television shows ITV sitcoms Television series about families Television shows adapted into comics Television shows adapted into films Television shows shot at ATV Elstree Studios