Aaron
Thursday 25th August 2022 5:25pm
Royal Berkshire
69,959 posts
Quote: Tommy Griff @ 25th August 2022, 2:19 PM
Question I have about Joan Sims in this, who plays 'Gran'.
How the hell is she Gran to Else, who refers to her as Gran? Or is she Gran to Rita? Because there are scenes when it's just Else and Gran, whereby Else isn't calling her 'mum'.
Is Joan Sims supposed to be playing a 90 odd year old woman? As Else is probably supposed to be mid 50s?
Alf and Else's ages are never clearly defined that I recall, but as Alf is not yet retired until quite late on, mid-to-late 50s is a good guess, as is 80-90-ish for Gran.
Gran's relationship to the family is similarly never explained that I recall, nor that I can find from a quick skim through the book. I would hazard a guess that she's not a biological relative but a close family friend in that very old-school working class way.
As to the earlier question about Booth and Mitchell, for Series 5 Tony was paid £300 per episode whilst Warren got £1,000. Sims, similarly, tended to get £300 for each appearance.
Quote: Tommy Griff @ 25th August 2022, 2:40 PM
Thinking of questions and observations as they come to me (sorry)
Why did both Una Stubbs and Anthony Booth not star in the 1972 Film of the show? They return in the later series.
Una Stubbs was heavily pregnant (with composer Christian Henson) and unable to work. Anthony Booth was busy with stage work, and it came at the nadir of his relationship with Mitchell, so it's unlikely he'd have taken the role regardless.
Somewhat famously, Mitchell went down on his knees to ask Booth to come back to the TV series when it returned a couple of years later.