Next of Kin (TV series)
| Next of Kin | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Sitcom |
| Created by | Gavin Petrie |
| Starring |
Penelope Keith William Gaunt Ann Gosling Matthew Clarke Jamie Lucraft |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 22 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC1 |
| Picture format | 4:3 |
| Audio format | Stereo |
| Original release | 15 May 1995 – 20 February 1997 |
Next of Kin is a British sitcom that aired on BBC1 from 15 May 1995 to 20 February 1997. It starred Penelope Keith in her last regular sitcom role. The plot follows well-to-do couple Maggie and Andrew Prentice who are forced to abandon their dreams of early retirement after they reluctantly become guardians of their orphaned grandchildren, after the death of their estranged son. It was written by Gavin Petrie and Jan Etherington.
It was announced in The Mirror newspaper in April 1997 that Next of Kin had been axed by the BBC and that Penelope Keith was furious.
Self-absorbed middle-class couple Maggie and Andrew Prentice have just taken early retirement and intend to spend their final years luxuriating in their new vineyard in France. However, when their estranged son Graham and his wife (they only refer to her as 'Bootface') die in a car crash, Maggie and Andrew are forced to become legal guardians of Graham's three children, thirteen-year-old Georgia, eleven-year-old Philip and seven-year-old Jake, meaning that they will never be able to go to France. In the first series, Maggie and Andrew officially adopted the children. Maggie especially hates this as she doesn't like children, and the children blatantly resent her and Andrew for the way they treated their parents. To make matters worse the children are argumentative and fussy. Georgia is a vegetarian environmentalist, Philip only eats spam and Jake won't eat anything round.
During the series, the family struggle to get along together, with Andrew and Maggie missing their former privileged life, and the children unwilling to give their grandparents a chance. Maggie and Andrew also feel considerable remorse for the appalling way they treated their late son, Graham, and they gradually grow to love and care deeply for their grandchildren, particularly in the final episode of the series, when Philip is being bullied and Maggie and Andrew encounter the bully's parents, who greatly remind them of themselves: negligent, selfish and more interested in having a good time than being a loving, attentive parent to their child.
The Prentices also employ a cleaner, Liz, who lives her life based on horoscopes and daytime talk shows such as Oprah. Over the course of the series, Liz develops a relationship with Tom, a builder, who arrives to install a damp course in the kitchen and then is employed to do further jobs, including converting the garage into another bedroom for Georgia. Tom is a serial womanizer with various one night stands turning up throughout series 2 much to Liz's frustration. Both Liz and Tom only appear in series 1 and 2. It is revealed in series 3 that they left together after Liz became pregnant.
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