Brass (TV series)

Did You Know?

• Some scenes set at Croydon Airport were filmed at Barton Airport, whose control tower appears in the film.
• Opening scenes were filmed on Thorn Street in Summerseat, Bury, Greater Manchester.
• The third series, set in 1939, saw the Hardacres move to London and later to a country mansion called Yonderley.

Story and characters

The series centered on two feuding families: the wealthy Hardacres and the working-class Fairchilds, who lived in a small terraced house rented from the Hardacre empire. Bradley Hardacre, a ruthless self-made businessman, spouted Thatcherite rhetoric while devising schemes to sack workers. His wife, Lady Patience, was a glamorous, alcoholic aristocrat. The Fairchilds were headed by stern socialist militant "Red" Agnes, who was also Bradley's mistress, and her doltish, forelock-tugging husband George. The families' children included the Fairchilds' sons Jack, a defiant miner, and Matthew, a sensitive clerk who wrote poor verse. The Hardacre children were the deceased Bentley, nymphomaniac Isobel, innocent budding feminist Charlotte, ambitious heir Austin, and Morris, a gay Cambridge student fond of teddy bears. Bentley, Austin, and Morris were named after British car manufacturers; Jack and Matt after terms in bowls. Bradley was likely Matthew's father. Isobel and Jack were lovers; Charlotte was revealed to be the daughter of Lady Patience and Lord Mountfast, whom Isobel married. Charlotte married Matthew, to whom Morris had been attracted. Lady Patience also had a fling with Matthew. Bradley had been raised in the Utterley Cottage workhouse. Another significant character was Scottish idealist Dr McDuff, satirising Dr Finlay's Casebook.