An Evening At Home

Canadian husband and wife team Bernard Braden and Barbara Kelly entered British television with a series of their own in 1951 called An Evening At Home. This was a set of inconsequential programmes with the Bradens joined by Welsh actor George Benson, notable as a comic support in roles with George Formby (Keep Fit - 1937) and Ronnie Barker (A Home of Your Own - 1964) and actress Hestor Paton-Brown. 

They were joined by occasional small-part character players or the odd guest artiste. Intended to take the camera informally inside the Braden home (allegedly), the series caused, according to The Television Annual for 1952, 'violent argument' among viewers as to its effectiveness. Fortunately, there are no records of anyone being arrested for these differences of opinion. Despite some neat production work by Thomas Leslie Jackson (a newcomer who went on to produce What's My Line?, Call My Bluff and This Is Your Life), the series barely succeeded, probably-the TV Annual opined-owing to its dependence on the quaint idea of Canadian women that husbands are schoolboys with adult earning power. A suggestion in 1951 that would have sat very unsteadily on the male ego.

Published on November 27th, 2018. Adapted from the Television Annual for 1952.