''That's My Boy'' is a

British sitcom A British sitcom or a Britcom is a situational comedy programme produced for British television. British sitcoms have predominantly been recorded on studio sets, while some include an element of location filming. Live audiences and multi-camera ...

starring Mollie Sugden that aired on 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'' (1987–88), which also starred Mollie Sugden. It was produced for the ITV network by

Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

, and, although the first three series are set in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, they were filmed in and around

Harrogate Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and civil parish in the North Yorkshire District, district and North Yorkshire, county of North Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist de ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

Plot

When Ida Willis ( Mollie Sugden) gets a new job as housekeeper to Robert Price ( Christopher Blake) and his wife Angie (

Jennifer Lonsdale Jennifer Lonsdale (born 17 July 1953 in Gosport, Hampshire) is a retired British television actress and public official. She appeared as a series regular in '' The Cedar Tree'' and '' That's My Boy''. Lonsdale played a customer in the series ''A ...

), she moves into their

flat and soon discovers that Robert is the son she gave up for

adoption Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, fro ...

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) and Robert's adoptive mother Cecilia Price (Clare Richards), an upmarket widow with whom Ida does not get on. In the fourth series, they move to the fictitious

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

village of Little Birchmarch, where Ida befriends Robert's mousy receptionist, Miss Parfitt ( Deddie Davies).

Cast

* Mollie Sugden – Ida Willis * Christopher Blake – Robert Price *

– Angie Price *Clare Richards – Mrs Price (series 1–4) * Harold Goodwin – Wilfred Willis * Deddie Davies – Miss Parfitt (series 4–5) *Thelma Whiteley – Mrs Cross (series 4–5)

Episodes

Series 1 (1981)

Series 2 (1983)

Christmas Special (1983)

Series 3 (1984)

Christmas Special (1984)

Series 4 (1985)

Series 5 (1986)

DVD releases

All five series are now available individually from Network DVD. 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 Mark Lewisohn (born 16 June 1958) is an English historian and biographer. Since the 1980s, he has written many reference books about the Beatles and has worked for EMI, MPL Communications and Apple Corps.

''Radio Times Guide to TV Comedy'', BBC Worldwide Ltd, 2003

External links

* * *{{British Comedy Guide, sitcom, thats_my_boy, That's My Boy 1981 British television series debuts 1986 British television series endings 1980s British sitcoms ITV sitcoms Television series about adoption Television series by Yorkshire Television Television series by ITV Studios British English-language television shows Television shows set in London Television shows set in Yorkshire