Best of Friends

Best of Friends

1963 - United Kingdom

Having previously appeared together in Our House, Charles Hawtrey and Hylda Baker were teamed up again (by the same production team) for a series of 13 half-hour sitcoms. Hawtrey played a bumbling clerk in a family run insurance business, much to the displeasure of his uncle, who, as owner of the company wanted nothing more than dispense with his nephew’s services, but due to family loyalty, could not. Baker was the owner of the café next door the insurance office and accompanied the wimpish and effete Charles (both characters had the same first name of the actors playing them) on his insurance assignments or whenever he felt put upon by Uncle Sidney (Henry Longhurst). 

Best of Friends

Whilst Baker would go on to become a stalwart of the British sitcom, Hawtrey didn’t appear in any further primetime TV comedies aside from a Carry On special (Carry On Christmas) and a brief appearance in Eric Sykes’ The Plank. But by the time he appeared in Best of Friends he already had a reputation as a heavy drinker (the following year, he allegedly passed out drunk whilst filming a scene for Carry On Spying). In 1965, Hawtrey’s mother passed away and, stricken by grief, he began drinking more heavily which eventually led to him being dropped from the Carry On series of films. After this Hawtrey mainly appeared in pantomime and radio although he did turn up in some TV productions, the last of which was the children’s series Super Gran (1987). Charles Hawtrey passed away the following year.

No episodes of Best of Friends survive in the archives, which may be a blessing in disguise. One critic, summing up the television year in 1963 remarked ‘ABC had saddled up a positively frightening thing called Best of Friends.’

Published on July 10th, 2019. Written by Laurence Marcus for Television Heaven.

Read Next...

Burkes Law

Millionaire police officer heads LAPD's murder squad to solve high profile cases.

Also released in 1963

Petticoat Junction

The small farming community of Hooterville provided the setting for widower Kate Bradley and her three beautiful daughters, who ran a small hotel called The Shady Rest.

Also released in 1963

Wild, Wild Women tv series

In the post Victorian era a group of working-class women are discovering a feisty new spirit as their thoughts turn to the suffrage movement

Also tagged 1960S Sitcom

Not On Your Nellie sitcom

Reluctant landlady Nellie Pickersgill is summoned down from Bolton to Fulham to run "The Brown Cow" on behalf of her father in his hour of need.

Also starring Hylda Baker

Carry On Jack

"At the turn of the 18th Century, Britain was at war. These were the years when history was written in the blood and smoke of mighty sea battles and the name Nelson typified the spirit of the British Navy. But on the good ship Venus - my, you should have seen us!"

Also starring Charles Hawtrey

Carry On Cabby

Sid James and Hattie Jacques play husband and wife, Charlie and Peggy, who find themselves at odds with each other after Peg, frustrated at constantly playing second fiddle to Charlie's cab company, sets up a rival taxi firm - staffed by glamourous women

Also starring Charles Hawtrey

Carry On Christmas

The Carry On team get together for a festive treat. Cor Blimey!

Also starring Charles Hawtrey

And Mother Makes Three

Almost a direct follow on from the BBC's hugely popular Not In Front Of The Children starring Wendy Craig who was in an almost constant state of domestic discord...

Also tagged Britcom

Father, Dear Father

Generation gap comedy starring middle-aged divorcee Patrick Glover, the author of a series of pulp fiction novels, who is left to bring up his two teenage daughters (Anna and Karen) in trendy Hampstead when his wife, Barbara, runs off to marry his best friend.

Also tagged 1960S Sitcom