Beiderbecke Connection, The – Nostalgia Central

1 9 8 8 (UK)
4 x 50 minute episodes

Alan Plater’s final chapter of his Beiderbecke trilogy (which was, in turn, based on his 1981 series Get Lost!) saw the return of jazz-loving woodwork master Trevor Chaplin (James Bolam) and radical conservationist English teacher Jill Chapman (Barbara Flynn).

Since their last adventure – in The Beiderbecke Tapes (1987)  – Jill and Trevor have had a child, “Firstborn”.

Big Al (Terence Rigby) asks them to put up a refugee friend of his, and they agree. But when Ivan (Patrick Drury) arrives, they find he speaks no English.

They eventually also discover that he has relieved banks of £3 million with nothing but a computer.

There is also a trio of inept policemen, an almost-reformed school tearaway now trying for a career as child-minder, a chance meeting with Jill’s ex-husband Peter (Eamon Boland), and – of course – the music of Bix Beiderbecke.

It’s a very whimsical, Yorkshire comedy by a great Yorkshire writer.

Trevor Chaplin
James Bolam
Jill Swinburne
Barbara Flynn
Big Al
Terence Rigby
Little Norm
Danny Schiller
Mr Carter
Dudley Sutton
Mr Wheeler
Keith Smith
Det. Insp. Hobson
Dominic Jephcott
Ben
George Costigan
Joe
Sean Scanlan
Ivan
Patrick Drury
Yvonne Fairweather
Judy Brooke
Sharon
Gaynor Kitchen
Gary
Darren Bennet
Firstborn
Thomas McGlinchey
Peter Swinburne
Eamon Boland
Charlie
Peter Martin