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We meet the Hardacre and the Fairchild families in the town of Utterly. Bradley Hardarce has a monument unveiled to his father but, George Fairchild wished he hadn't.

Hospital Destruction

Bradley builds a memorial bath house for the town, and Austin has ambitions to rule the entire Hardacre empire with the new explosive developed by Bradley in his hands.

Cambridge

Tragedy befalls the Memorial Bath House, and Isobel is having an affair with one of the miners. Hard times are all around and the miners are now on strike and Agnes is the leader. Bradley must find a way to stop the strike without costing him anything.

Blackleg

Isobel wants to marry Jack Fairchild, and Morris has his sights set on young Matthew Fairchild, but Charlotte want him too. Bradley settles the miners strike, then has the mine flooded to get rid of Jack Farchild.

Silent Hooter

Bradley floods the mine to kill Jack Fairchild so he can't marry Isobel. Jack and the other miners are saved by Charlotte. Austin must make sure Jack doesn't recover.

Pit Collapse

Jack is saved from the mine and falls in love with Charlotte. Isobel and Charlotte fight over Jack. Agnes tells Matthew why he can never marry Charlotte. Bradley Hardarce is Matthew's father.

Silent But Deadly

Bradley tries to use SBD (Silent But Deadly) to blow up the cottage hospital. He tricks George Fairchild to be right under it, and gives him the explosive in sugar lumps. Meanwhile, Lady Patience is teaching young Matthew Fairchild all about the facts of life.

Back Home

The SBD is under the Cottage Hospital, and Austin wants his cut of the action. Bradley refuses the offer, and Austin knocks Bradley out and has him taken to the Cottage Hospital to recover. Bradley wakes up just in time to panic.

Walking Time Bomb

Bradley panics when he finds himself in the Cottage Hospital, and begs to be released. Bradley is released and confronts Austin with his attempt to take over the family business. The Cottage Hospital does not blow up, and both Bradley and Austin seek answers from George Fairchild.

Poor Hesketh

The SBD did not go off, because George put them in cold tea. Bradley and Austin must get those lumps out of George. Doctor McDuff finds an old stomach pump, and George has to cough up the sugar lumps.

Bouncing Bomb

Jack is discharged from the hospital a changed man, and now he is in love with Charlotte. Isobel does not take the news well, and neither does Jack's mother.

The Forge Anger

Bradley wants to be ennobled as a lord, and Jack sells his interest in Isobel to set up his own forge. George has another accident with the new Bouncing Bomb. Matthew tells Charlotte a lie to spare her feelings, and Bradley thinks Lord Mountfast would be the perfect husband for Isobel.

Hypnosis

Doctor McDuff thinks he has cured Lady Patience now that she can walk. The King is on His way to lay a foundation stone at the Hardacre Memorial Privy, and Charlotte gets the idea to protest the new rent hikes, by riding through town naked on Brass Beauty. Isobel is determined to join the protest, but Big Tom, the huge chimney, is starting to wobble with Matthew and Jack sitting on top.

The Prince's Visit

As the Prince lays the new stone at the Cottage Hospital, McDuff drops his trousers and Isobel and Charlotte arrive naked on Brass Beauty protesting about the rent increases, then the mortar on the trowel explodes due to SBD. All are covered in foam. Jack saves Big Tom with his truss flange. Bradley and Austin realise Morris was behind the explosion and Bradley plans to send him to Australia.

Rent Protest

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 and Agnes moans to McDuff about George's increased sexual libido. Matthew and Charlotte agree to be friends, not lovers. McDuff discovers SBD increases sexual activity in rabbits.

Inheritance

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 school teacher but instead is struck dumb by Cupid's dart and invites her to play piano at the hall. Jack's family spurns his offer of work and tells him he's a traitor to his class.

Hallucinogen

Morris confronts Matthew about his homosexuality, who doesn't deny it but declares himself celibate. Jack declares his love for Charlotte but she rejects him, wishing he was Matthew. Isobel declares her continuing love for Jack and Lady Patience tells her not to marry Mountfast. Austin and Isobel go hunting rent defaulters but are foiled by Matthew and Charlotte.

Jack Loves Charlotte

Austin tells the family he thinks Bradley is insane. An epidemic is raging and McDuff says the cause is the convenience at the back of the munitions factory. Bradley gives Prudence SBD and then takes advantage of its effects. She wears him out. Bradley tells George to keep using the convenience and McDuff and Agnes wire it up to explode.

Is Bradley Insane?

Bradley gets out of being certified and turns the tables on Austin. George, blackened but alive, is returned home. Bradley decides to sort out Simon Pugh and help Austin win the election with the help of Mrs Marchington, his father's chiropodist and SBD.

Election

Austin hears Lord Sodbury has died at the chiropodist's which means Seymour 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 and tells him her reason is money and she'll look after him.

By-Election

Bradley tells Austin he has to marry Cynthia Dudcock. Bradley offers to send Man to Paris to paint, as long as he goes with Agnes, but Matthew sees through him. Jack asks Charlotte to marry him - she refuses. McDuff tells Patience of Bradley's plans to expose photos to the BMC and she tells him how to retrieve them.

Jack's Proposal

Hardacre looks at Mountfast's body. Sgt 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 sick in the mornings. Matthew says there's no money to fight the election and Jack offers money to help them.

Inspector McDuff

Charlotte and Isobel visit Patience in prison and tell 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 the services of Patience's defence, so Isobel says she will pay for the services of Marshall Snelgrove. Agnes tells Austin she's going to carry on with the election. Guy tells Morris that Moscow wants Hesketh to fight in the Spanish civil war.

Marshall Snelgrove

During round table discussion Bradley tells George pithead baths will be installed in order to get looks workforce on strike. Patience's trial takes place and she is called to the witness box. Bradley asks Charlotte to return home. Patience tells the court how she visited Mountfast on the night of the murder and he was so appalled by his debauchery he committed suicide.

The Trial

Charlotte receives a solicitor's letter saying she will inherit Mountfast's money. Bradley is informed by future Tory MP his earldom is no-go. He decides to join the other side. Isobel is distressed about the Mountfast inheritance and is seared that Jack will propose to Charlotte, which is exactly what he does. She tells him to hop it.

Charlotte's Letter

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 Matthew's been killed in Spain, and gives birth to a boy. Guy tells Morris Stalin wants Bradley out of the way and gives him cyanide to poison Bradley. Matthew appears saying Hesketh was shot in Spain.

Arms Sales Boost

London 1939: Bradley Hardacre has much to gain from another war and prevents his son Austin from returning to the Prime Minister with a peace document from Germany. Lady Patience refuses to allow the threat of war to interfere with the Annual Ball at Lancaster House.

Bradley Pulls It Off

When Bradley Hardacre hears of the government's plan to scrap the 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 Sticks It Out

Bradley Gets on Top

Bradley Hardacre and Winston Churchill share their opinions on how the war is being conducted. Jack Fairchild persuades Lady Patience to finance his scheme for the production of the self-sealing saddle valve. Matthew is prevented from marrying Charlotte.

Bradley Holds His Own

Bradley purchases a country estate. Inspector McDuff has new evidence implicating Matthew. Jack Fairchild reclaims Charlotte's child and offers to marry her. Matthew is in France and is accused of selling the artificial legs he is in charge of. Morris is discovered relaxing on the beach at Dunkirk.

Bradley Does His Bit

Bradley prepares the grounds at his new country estate for a cricket match. Morris and Matthew meet up in France and attempt to escape the Germans by stealing a German plane. They eventually make it to England and as they fly over the cricket pitch they send a message attached to Morris's golliwog.

Their Finest Half Hour

Brass is a British comedy-drama series made by Granada Television for ITV and eventually Channel 4.

Set mostly in Utterley, a fictional Lancashire mining town in the 1930s, Brass was a comedy satirising the working-class period dramas of the 1970s and the American supersoaps such as Dallas and Dynasty. Unusually for ITV comedies of the time, there was no laughter track and the humour deliberately kept extremely dry, using convoluted wordplay and subtle commentary on popular culture. Brass is northern English slang for "money" as well as for "effrontery". The series also gleefully parodied the 1977 Granada TV dramatisation of Dickens' Hard Times, which also starred Timothy West.

The series, created by John Stevenson and Julian Roach, was set around two feuding families—the wealthy Hardacres and the poor, working-class Fairchilds, who lived in a small terraced house rented from the Hardacre empire. The Hardacre family was headed by the ruthless self-made businessman Bradley, who espoused Thatcherite rhetoric while coming up with various harebrained schemes to make his businesses more efficient so he could sack workers, and his alcoholic aristocratic wife Lady Patience. The head of the Fairchilds was the stern "Red" Agnes, who spread militant socialist rhetoric around the Hardacre mine, mill and munitions factory, and her doltish, forelock-tugging husband George, who is dominated by his wife and his boss. In a twist, Agnes was also Bradley Hardacre's mistress.

The Best Seasons of Brass

The Best Seasons of Brass

Season 2

Season 1

Season 3