Bristow | Radio Comedy Serial | Series 2/3

Episodes within Series 2
1 When Melancholy Autumn Comes to Chester
2 The Power of the Press
3 Mr Bristow Regrets
4 The Girl in the Yellow Overcoat

Michael Williams stars in all three series of the BBC Radio 4 sitcom based on Frank Dickens’ famous comic strip character.

Bristow is a middle-aged, ineffectual buying clerk for the Chester-Perry Organization. He is merely a small cog in a gigantic wheel...and he knows it. But he has his own small ways of rebelling, and together with sparring partner, Jones, and tea lady, Mrs. Purdy, he weaves hopeless tangles of red tape to confound the system and liven up everyone’s day.

In these 14 episodes, Bristow hopes to make a mint from a rumored takeover bid, helps Jones to plan his escape from Chester-Perry, crusades to improve conditions for the cleaning ladies, and falls in with troublemaker, Tom Paine, at the office dinner dance. Plus, he obtains some inside information that must surely lead to promotion, learns the meaning of poetic justice while writing for the house journal, and bumbles towards proving his theory that he is surrounded by incompetents.

Adapted by Frank Dickens from his own cartoon strip, which ran for 41 years in London’s Evening Standard, and was syndicated internationally, this charming corporate comedy stars Michael Williams (A Fine Romance) as Bristow, with Rodney Bewes (The Likely Lads) as Jones, and Dora Bryan (Last of the Summer Wine) as Mrs. Purdy.

Cast: Michael Williams, Rodney Bewes, Dora Bryan, Owen Brenman, Jon Glover, Bernard Cribbins, Norman Bird, Katy Odey, Carol Starks, David Battley, Simon Schatzberger, Christopher Benjamin, Sheila Reid, Liz Fraser, Roger Lloyd Pack, Robert Bathurst, Leslie Phillips, David Ryall and Sarah Huntley

Written by Frank Dickens
Produced and directed by Neil Cargill
Music composed and performed by John Whitehall

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4:
21 April-26 May 1999 (Series 1),
24 November-15 December 1999 (Series 2),
7-28 July 2000 (Series 3)

Frank William Huline-Dickens (9 December 1931 – 8 July 2016) was a British cartoonist, best known for his strip Bristow, which ran for 51 years in the Evening Standard and was syndicated internationally. According to Guinness World Records, Bristow was the longest running daily cartoon strip by a single author. The character Bristow is even one year older than that, as he debuted in Dickens' older series Oddbod in The Sunday Times in 1960. Due to his popularity, he received his own spin-off series soon afterwards. Dickens broke the original record held by Marc Sleen, whose The Adventures of Nero was drawn for 45 years without any assistance. However, even Dickens' record has been broken in his turn by Jim Russell, whose series The Potts ran for 62 years. Dickens received eight awards for "Strip Cartoonist of the Year" from the Cartoonists' Club of Great Britain.