Original title
Brass
Released
2/21/1983
Origin country
GB
Genre
Comedy
Production companies
Granada Television
Status
Ended
Number of seasons
3
Number of episodes
32
Brass is a British comedy-drama series created by John Stevenson and Julian Roach, and produced by Granada Television for ITV and eventually Channel 4. Satirising the working-class period dramas of the 1970s and the American supersoaps such as Dallas and Dynasty, Brass was unusual for ITV comedies of the time, as there was no laugh track and the humour deliberately kept extremely dry, using convoluted wordplay and subtle commentary on popular culture. Set primarily in Utterley, a fictional Lancashire mining town in the 1930s, two feuding families—the wealthy Hardacres and the poor, working-class Fairchilds, who lived in a small terraced house rented from the Hardacre empire.
Bradley Hardacre has risen from poverty to become the wealthy owner of mine, mill and munitions works in Utterly. The Fairchild family live in a poor home, so what is their connection to Bradley and why does he wants to destroy the Cottage Hospital?
Austin gets a nasty shock when he walks into his new office. Matthew is excited at the thought of going to Cambridge with Morris and tells his father whilst he is visiting him in the Cottage Hospital; however, he sees Charlotte Hardacre there and the attraction continues, which in turn upsets Morris, who gains revenge by changing Matt's job.
Agnes encourages the now-hungry strikers, whilst Charlotte is 'doing good' at the soup kitchen. As Bradley makes sure George can leave the hospital (to use him for the SBD experiments), Jack and Isobel are again found in the stables, and Agnes discovers that Matt has lost his good job and is now digging coal. She then sees her husband George being driven in Bradley's car: a blackleg!
Lady Patience tells Bradley that his daughter is carrying on with a miner. Agnes informs George that the person Isobel is carrying on with is their son Jack. Bradley agrees to talk to the strikers and offers them a silent hooter — the strike is ended. George tests Bradley's anti-tank boot which explodes, and Bradley manages a pit disaster, in which he knows Jack is involved.
As Agnes and other women awaiting news of the trapped miners, the miners themselves are settling to life underground. Bradley hears that his plans are astray as Charlotte reaches the miners, but though they manage to escape as Jack supports the roof, Austin tricks Jack into shaking hands and the roof collapses.
With Jack unconscious in hospital, Bradley orders Austin to continue with the tunnel, until he reaches the Cottage Hospital, and then let off SBD (Silent But Deadly) to finish him off. Agnes and Isobel fight over Jack but he wakes up besotted with Charlotte.
George is home from hospital and Agnes tells him that Matt has gone to kill his father, Bradley, so they both go to the hall to inform Bradley. However, Austin has gone one further: he knocks Bradley out and orders him to be taken to hospital, due to be blown up at midnight with the deadly SBD.
Austin celebrates Bradley's demise, unaware that Bradley has in fact bought himself out of hospital, only to find that George hasn't caused the hospital to blow up by putting the SBD in his tea. Meanwhile, Charlotte and Morris discover Matt in bed with Lady Patience, whilst Bradley and Austin try to wrangle the truth from George as to what happened to the SBD, only to discover that George is a walking bomb.
Morris, ashamed at Lady Prudence's affair with Matt, decides to shoot himself but instead takes it out on Hesketh, his bear. Bradley and Austin discuss the fate of George and the SBD sugar lumps. McDuff uses a stomach pump to get the SBD from George but instead discovers lots of strange things George has been swallowing.
Jack proposes Bradley to sell Isobel off. Bradley agrees but Lady Patience informs him that he'd lost interest in her anyway. Lady Patience tells Matt should he continue to see her, she'll have his poems published in her name. Isobel implores Charlotte to sleep with Jack so that he will lose interest. Austin, McDuff and George experiment with the bouncing bomb, with disastrous results.
Everyone's angry with everyone! Bradley with Jack over the forge; Agnes with Jack, again for buying the forge; Isobel also with Jack when Bradley tells her she was sold to him; and Lady Patience when Morris tells her he's taking Matt to Cambridge. Morris appears to Matt in a dress and tells him he is a transvestite, successfully scaring him off.
Bradley reluctantly agrees to using Jack's truss ranges to hold up the chimney, Big Tom. Guy arrives to help Morris, who is upset because Matt doesn't fancy him. They discuss plans to blow up the Prince with SBD. McDuff tells Lady Patience that hypnotism will help her to regain the use of her legs, but it backfires. She walks away and kicks Bradley to prove it.
Bradley and Austin lecture peasants on proper behaviour for the Prince's visit. Lady Patience gives Agnes a book of Matt's poems published under her name. Matt discovers it and attempts suicide atop the big chimney.
As the Prince lays the new stone at the Cottage Hospital, McDuff drops trou, and Isobel and Charlotte arrive nude on Brass Beauty to protest the rent increase. Suddenly, the mortar on the trowel explodes — SBD. All are covered in foam -–Jack saves Big Tom with his truss flange. Bradley and Austin realise Morris was behind the explosion, so Bradley plans to send him to Australia.
Charlotte inherits a large sum of money on her birthday. Jack refuses a deal with Austin. Guy tells Morris that Moscow wants him as a mole in the church while Agnes complains to McDuff about George's increased libido. Matt and Charlotte agree to be friends, not lovers. McDuff discovers SBD increases sexual activity in rabbits.
McDuff decides SBD is a hallucinogen. Bradley pays Jack for his work on Big Tom and offers him the lease on the crutch works. Bradley goes to sack the infant schoolteacher but instead is struck dumb by Cupid's dart and invites her to play piano at the hall. The Fairchilds spurn Jack's offer of work, informing him of his traitorous actions.
Morris confronts Matt about his homosexuality, who doesn't deny it but claims celibacy. Jack declares his love for Charlotte but she rejects him, wishing he was Matt. Isobel proclaims her continuing love for Jack as Lady Patience tells her not to marry Mountfast. Austin and Isobel go hunting for rent defaulters but are foiled by Matt and Charlotte.
Austin tells the family he thinks Bradley is insane. McDuff says that the cause of a raging epidemic raging is the convenience at the back of the munitions factory. Bradley gives Prudence SBD and then takes advantage of its effects. Bradley tells George to keep using the convenience, and McDuff and Agnes wire it up to explode.
Bradley gets out of being certified and turns the tables on Austin. George, blackened but alive, returns home. Bradley decides to sort out Pugh and help Austin win the election, with the help of Mrs Marchington, his father's chiropodist, and SBD.
Austin hears Sodbury has died at the chiropodists, which means Pugh will go to the House of Lords and it will be a walkover for him at the by-election. Jack fails to dissuade Isobel from marrying Mountfast, but she guesses he's done a deal with her mother.
Bradley tells Austin he is to marry Cynthia Dudcock. Bradley offers to send Man to Paris to paint, as long as he goes with Agnes, but Matt sees through it. Jack asks Charlotte to marry him but she refuses. McDuff tells Lady Patience of Bradley's plans to expose photos to the BMC, and she tells him how to retrieve them.
Hardacre looks at Mountfast's body — Sergeant Pepper says a tramp will have done it. McDuff says his brother Inspector McDuff of the Yard is in the area. George tells Agnes of his new position in the UCTT. Charlotte tells Agnes she feels ill in the mornings. Matt says there's no money to fight the election and Jack offers to help them.
Charlotte and Isobel visit Lady Patience in prison to inform her she's to have the finest defence lawyer. Job shows George and Agnes the official union vehicle: a tandem. Bradley refuses to pay for Lady Patience's defence, so Isobel seeks the services of Marshall Snelgrove of the Queen's Counsel. Meanwhile, Agnes tells Austin she's going to carry an with the election. Guy tells Morris that Moscow wants Hesketh to fight in the Spanish Civil War.
During round table discussions, Bradley tells George pithead baths will be installed in order to get workforce on strike. Lady Patience's trial takes place and she is called to the witness box. Bradley asks Charlotte to return home. Lady Patience tells the court how she visited Mountfast on the night of the murder and he was so appalled by his debauchery that he committed suicide.
Charlotte receives a solicitor's letter saying she'll inherit Mountfast's money. Bradley is informed by future Tory MP his earldom is no-go, so he decides to join the other side. Isobel is distressed about Mountfast's inheritance and is seared that Jack will propose to Charlotte, which is exactly what he does.
Bradley and Jack rejoice in the arms sales boosted by the Spanish Civil War but Bradley feels a world war would be better. Charlotte is distraught having read that Matt's been killed in Spain, and gives birth to a boy. Guy informs Morris that Stalin wants Bradley out of the way and gives him cyanide to poison Bradley. Matt appears, saying Hesketh was shot in Spain.
London 1939: Bradley has much to gain from another war and prevents his son Austin from returning to the PM with a peace document from Germany. Lady Patience refuses to allow the threat of war to interfere with the Annual Ball at Lancaster House.
When Bradley hears of the government's plans to scrap production of his latest invention, the midget submarine, he uses his contacts in the civil service to get an announcement in the House of Commons that the contract has been extended and that his son Austin has volunteered to test the new naval devices.
Bradley shares opinions on the war's conduct with Winston Churchill. Meanwhile, Jack persuades Lady Patience to finance his scheme for the production of the self-sealing saddle valve. Matthew is prevented from marrying Charlotte.
Bradley purchases a country estate. Inspector McDuff has new evidence implicating Matthew. Jack reclaims Charlotte's child and offers to marry her. Matthew is in France and is accused of selling the artificial legs he's in charge of. Morris is discovered relaxing on the beach at Dunkirk.
Bradley prepares the grounds at his new country estate for a cricket match. Morris and Matthew meet in France and attempt to escape the Germans by stealing one of their planes. They make it to England and as they fly over the cricket pitch, they send a message attached to Morris's golliwog.
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