Father, Dear Father (1973) – Nostalgia Central

Based on the successful Thames Television series of the same name, this spin-off film is a collection of “hilarious situations” in which ‘Daddy’ (thriller novelist, Patrick Glover, played by Patrick Cargill) finds himself involved with his two delectable but irrepressible teenage daughters, Anna (Natasha Pyne) and Karen (Ann Holloway).

Patrick is divorced, although he remains on friendly terms with his former wife, Barbara (Ursula Howells) – and has somewhat less cordial relations with her new husband, Bill (Jack Watling).

He has a vague thing going on with his literary agent Georgie (Jill Melford), and is generally looked after by H.G. – an enormous, lazy St Bernard named after author HG Wells (and played by a real-life dog named Jo-Jo) and Nanny (Noel Dyson).

A little old-fashioned and easily shocked, Patrick tends to get everything muddled up and struggles to cope with his two very modern daughters.

The film is all very lighthearted and amusing, but fans of the TV series may be a bit disappointed. The script is subpar, and there’s a noticeable lack of original ideas.

For example, in the film, Karen announces that she wants to marry her accident-prone boyfriend Richard (Richard O’Sullivan), and Anna decides to leave home – both scenarios which had been used in the series.

Donald Sinden appears as Patrick’s scrounging brother, Philip, and Beryl Reid plays Mrs Stoppard, Georgie’s char (or “cleansing operative,” as she puts it), to whom Patrick inadvertently proposes marriage.

Patrick Cargill later starred in an Australian-made version of the TV series called (unimaginatively) Father, Dear Father in Australia (1978).

Patrick Cargill died in 1996 at the age of 77. At the time of his death, Cargill was suffering from a brain tumour and was being nursed in a hospice in Richmond on Thames, London.

Patrick Glover
Patrick Cargill
Anna Glover
Natasha Pyne
Karen Glover
Ann Holloway
Nanny
Noel Dyson
Mother
Joyce Carey
Vicar
Joseph O’Conor
Richard
Richard O’Sullivan
Barbara
Ursula Howells
Bill Mossman
Jack Watling
Georgie Thompson
Jill Melford
Mrs Gladys Stoppard
Beryl Reid
Philip Glover
Donald Sinden
Larry
Clifton Jones
Maggie
Elizabeth Adare
Policeman
James Appleby
Milkman
Paul Luty
Verger
John Gill
Uncle Arthur
Wally Goodman
Dumbo
Paul Copley
HG Wells
Jo-Jo

Director
William G. Stewart

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