The Squirrels (TV series)

The Squirrels is a British television sitcom created by Eric Chappell. It was produced by ATV for the ITV and broadcast from 1974 to 1977 running for 3 series and 28 episodes. Chappell later created the Yorkshire Television sitcoms Rising Damp, among other series.

The Squirrels
Created by	Eric Chappell
Starring	Bernard Hepton Patsy Rowlands Ken Jones Alan David
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	3
No. of episodes	28 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Production company	ATV
Original release
Network	ITV
Release	8 July 1974 (1974-07-08) – 10 February 1977 (1977-02-10)

Plot and background

The theme was office politics in the accounts department of a fictitious TV rental company. Little work was seen to be done as the staff were usually skiving or engaging in office romances. Bernard Hepton played Mr Fletcher, the authoritarian boss who also saw himself as a 'ladies man' and Ken Jones played Rex, an unassertive subordinate.

Phil Redmond, the creator of the soap opera Brookside, was also a writer for the series. The scripts written by Eric Chappell formed the basis of a remake, Fiddlers Three, broadcast in 1991.^[1]

Cast

• Bernard Hepton as Mr Fletcher
• Ken Jones as Rex
• Patsy Rowlands as Susan
• Alan David as Harry
• Ellis Jones as Burke
• Karin MacCarthy as Carol

Episodes

Pilot (1974)

No.	Title	Written by	Original air date
Pilot	"The Squirrels"	Eric Chappell	8 July 1974 (1974-07-08)

Series 1 (1975)

No.	Title	Written by	Original air date
1	"We Don't Want To Lose You"	Eric Chappell	18 July 1975 (1975-07-18)
2	"Men Without Women"	Eric Chappell	25 July 1975 (1975-07-25)
3	"Man Most Likely To"	Eric Chappell	1 August 1975 (1975-08-01)
4	"The Yes Man"	Eric Chappell	8 August 1975 (1975-08-08)
5	"The Fiddle"	Eric Chappell	15 August 1975 (1975-08-15)
6	"The Favourite"	Eric Chappell	22 August 1975 (1975-08-22)
7	"The Whizz Kid"	Eric Chappell	29 August 1975 (1975-08-29)

Series 2 (1976)

No.	Title	Written by	Original air date
8	"Ashes To Ashes"	Eric Chappell	9 July 1976 (1976-07-09)
9	"Fluffy-Bun"	Eric Chappell	16 July 1976 (1976-07-16)
10	"Burke In Clover"	Richard Harris	23 July 1976 (1976-07-23)
11	"The New Broom"	Eric Chappell	30 July 1976 (1976-07-30)
12	"On the Carpet"	Kenneth Cope	6 August 1976 (1976-08-06)
13	"The Renaissance"	Alan Hackney	13 August 1976 (1976-08-13)
14	"The X Factor"	Richard Harris	20 August 1976 (1976-08-20)
15	"The Weaker Sex"	Eric Chappell	27 August 1976 (1976-08-27)

Series 3 (1976–77)

No.	Title	Written by	Original air date
16	"The Snatch"	Eric Chappell	25 November 1976 (1976-11-25)
17	"Leap Frog"	Kenneth Cope	2 December 1976 (1976-12-02)
18	"The Cruise"	Brian Finch	9 December 1976 (1976-12-09)
19	"The Bonus Scheme"	Phil Redmond	16 December 1976 (1976-12-16)
20	"The Long Hot Summer"	Eric Chappell	23 December 1976 (1976-12-23)
21	"The Argument"	Alan Hackney	30 December 1976 (1976-12-30)
22	"What a Way To Go"	Kenneth Cope	6 January 1977 (1977-01-06)
23	"Shoulder To Shoulder"	Eric Chappell	13 January 1977 (1977-01-13)
24	"The Game's the Thing"	Brian Finch	20 January 1977 (1977-01-20)
25	"The Cover Up"	Alan Hackney	27 January 1977 (1977-01-27)
26	"The Break-In"	Phil Redmond	3 February 1977 (1977-02-03)
27	"Men of Straw"	Brian Finch	10 February 1977 (1977-02-10)

Archive status and home release

Surviving episodes of The Squirrels were released by Network DVD in the UK (Region 2) on 29 April 2013. This set the existing 22 episodes (out of 28). Scripts for some of the missing episodes are included in .pdf format on disc one. The missing episodes are the pilot, 1/1, 1/5, 1/6, and 1/7. The rest of the first series survives only in inferior recordings to the original video format, either re-converted from NTSC copies (1/2, 1/3) or as a domestic videotape (1/4).^[2]

References

1. Hewett, Richard (2003–14). "Chappell, Eric (1933-)". BFI Screenonline. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
2. "The Squirrels". TV Brain. Retrieved 25 January 2021.

External links

• The Squirrels at IMDb