Nearly Man, The – Nostalgia Central

1 9 7 4 (UK)
1 x 60 minute episode
1 9 7 5 (UK)
7 x 60 minute episodes

This political drama from Granada Television starred Tony Britton as Christopher Collinson, an ex-public school backbench Labour MP facing difficulties in his Northern constituency.

Written by prolific playwright Arthur Hopcraft, The Nearly Man began life as a single play on Sunday 4 August 1974 with the lead character (named Chris Tomlinson in the play) hoping for a Cabinet post but growing bored with the petty problems of his local electorate, scarcely recognising that he needed them to keep him in Westminster.

Local party chairman Bernard King (Wilfred Pickles) was becoming rapidly disillusioned with his MP’s apathy towards grassroots politics and was worried about the local constituents’ growing awareness of it.

Even when his grin-and-bear-it wife, Alice (Ann Firbank), labels him a lounge lizard, lacking in warmth and sincerity, and his new left-wing agent spells out his ideas of an MP, Christopher is still reluctant to accept the criticism.

A subsequent seven-part TV series picked up where the play left off. Debuting on 4 November 1975, the series saw Christopher Collinson seek out the political limelight, with Alice finding his renewed ambition difficult to come to terms with, leading her to move to the Shropshire countryside.

Concentrating on the Common Market campaign in Whitehall, he was almost taken unawares by events in his constituency.

Christopher Collinson
Tony Britton
Bernard King
Wilfred Pickles
Alice Collinson
Ann Firbank
Ron Hibbert
Michael Elphick
David Collinson
David Wilkinson
Brian Griffin
John Leyton
Peter Richards
Ian McCulloch
Maurice Wrigley
Ian East
Dorothy Hibbert
Gwen Taylor
Millie Dutton
Katherine Fahy
Len
Steven Grives
May King
Josie Lane

Episodes

The Nearly Man (Play) | Opportunity: March 1975 | Power Base: April 1975 | Millie: May 1975 | Reshuffle: June 1975 | Confrontation: July 1975 | Casualties: August 1975 | Options

Video