Bread (1986–1991) User Reviews

Humour of Moderate Wit, But a BRILLIANT CATCHY THEME TUNE !

[alleywayambush · 7/10 · 5 May 2022]

I mildly remember this as a pre-teen in the early 90's; I guess I'd sit though it habitually (as you did !) and was too young to understand the socio-cultural setting and subsequent humour to reflect Scousers in Thatcher's Britain. I bought this from CEX a couple of days ago; the 1st time I've seen it in about 30 years ! Oh the nostalgia !

The humour is moderately funny - if a tad mediocre. Sure, the squalor and hardships of a struggling large working-class Catholic family all living in a small terraced house on a Liverpool hill street is all summarized through good old English comedy; sure, this show probably helped the '1 in 10' in Thatcher's Britain to laugh off everyday hardships and deprivation !

The most memorable thing about this show has to be that catchy, vibrant, totally kitsch and completely classic theme tune, supposedly sung by the main cast. (it's the 1 thing I do remember of this show back in the day !)

All in all, I'll give it a fair 7/10 for being (moderately) funny, a good satirical send-up of the decade and of course the brilliant theme tune !

Foghorn Nellie

[ygwerin1 · 6/10 · 12 February 2019]

Bread is one of the comedies by Carla Lane, who is not one of my favourite comedy writers, and this is not an all time favourite of mine. It's based around the Boswell family who are disjointed and fractious. Grandad is the patriarch living on his tod next-door, a grumpy miserable old fart. Who phones the family at any excuse for his food, which is taken round to him on a tray. Nellie is the Matriarch with a gob like a river Mersey Foghorn, she could open it in Liverpool and I'd hear it in North Wales. She perpetually uses any means at her disposal to corall her offspring to her bidding, when she feels threatened. Very often by her ex Freddie Boswell or his bit on the side Lilo Lill. Freddie Boswell the father of the family who literally wants his cake and gobble it whole, leaving home to live with his lover, who Nellie christened Lilo Lill. Joey the oldest young Boswell suave even driving his Jag to the DHSS, and trying to get off with a woman serving there. He lost his lady love because she had to compete with the demands of his mother on his life. Adrian Boswell is the emotional invalid whose life is perpetually "hanging by a thread". Jack Boswell is literally Jack the Lad ducking and diving through his daily existence. Billy Boswell is the emotional juvenile who is forever "not ready for this" he was not ready for life, nor his responsibility for either his spouse Julie or their nipper. Aveline Boswell who is a model daughter as well as trying to succeed in modeling, the family protect her but as something of a 'victim' making her carry her whistle at all times.

All in all its a funny program with a good ensemble cast, and fairly good story lines. It's easy to get into and get annoyed by the family members idiosyncrasies.

Moolar

[michaelarmer · 7/10 · 5 October 2021]

This is a 70's comedy, made in the 80's, quite funny, but the idea is great, based on post conceptions of Liverpudlians, not many of the cast are actually from Liverpool, most are from elsewhere, including Shropshire, some scousers are trying to fiddle the system, but not in a humerous way, but what about all the working, decent Liverpudlians, are they all cast as the same as the Boswell's.?

There is a lot of talent here, Jean Boht and Peter Hewitt in particular, and they do a good job, pity it finished, perhaps a remake could be made, but not like the new Open All Hours or Porridge, make this a good one.

One of the Greatest British Sitcoms

[Nglas · 31 May 2004]

I love this show! I used to watch this when my family was stationed in England and it became a favorite for my whole family. The mother was one of the best; loud, dominant, and acid tongued. She keeps her five children at home with her, as her husband continues coming back and forth between his family and his Irish mistress. Some of the best scenes are between the mother (Nelly Boswell) and the mistress (Lillian, but known as Li Lo Lil or Tart). Joey was a hottie with his bleach blond hair and black leather clothing. Aveline was the cute, but bumbling model. Jack was the shy, overweight antiques dealer. Adrian was the sexually repressed poet. And Billy, the youngest, was a daddy at 16. This comedy was great when its original cast was present, but once the actors playing Joey and Aveline left, it lost its humor. I'll always remember Bread for Nelly standing on her doorstop screaming," SHE IS A TART!" and then crossing herself before she returns to her chaotic family. A British Married With Children, but funnier. If you see this show, watch it!

Tarring the masses

[tjhyb1 · 1/10 · 17 March 2020]

Hugely popular when it first appeared, but after two or three years, the "lovable Scouse" veneer began to wear a bit thin and audiences saw the Boswells for what they really were - a bunch of whinging benefit scroungers who were more than happy to jump the queue whenever there was something of benefit to be had. And boy did they whinge! If it wasn't Jack whinging about his pitiful love life it was Adrian whinging about the world's lack of appreciation of his artistic talents. And if it wasn't Billy whinging about his failure to get along with the mother of his child it was Grandad whinging about the late arrival of his pudding. At a time when thousands found themselves thrown onto the employment scrapheap by an uncaring government, seeing the likes of Joey Boswell pushing his way to the front of the dole office queue to wangle yet another undeserved benefit for his kith and kin was simply an insult. And then there were the blatant double-standards of "Ma" Nellie Boswell, insisting on prayers before dinner and loudly proclaiming "She Is A Tart" whenever errant husband Freddie's bit-on-the-side's name was mentioned, yet who became involved in an illicit (if innocent) relationship with another man. The hippy-trippy values that permeated the latter series were, quite frankly, thirty years out of date and the sort of thing that had earlier managed to kill off "The Liver Birds" (an enjoyable sitcom erroneously credited to Carla Lane alone), from where Lane obviously derived the Boswell family from (although that particular Boswell family had been likeable). According to tabloid news reports of the time, residents of the street used for exterior filming of the Boswell's home were less than happy to be associated with the show.

Yet another great BBC comedy

[biffgrimes-19023 · 10/10 · 28 December 2015]

My wife and I have watched the first 3 seasons of Bread and we both love it.It is often described as the Northern England version of Only Fools and Horses. For my money, Bread is superior to the beloved Only Fools. The series is about the close knit Boswell family that live in a bleak row-house estate flat in the gritty city of Liverpool. The family consists of the devout Catholic, tough, separated Mum, Nellie Boswell and her 5 grown children ,four sons and one daughter, all living together. Jean Boht , in a role she seemingly was born to play does a simply magnificent job portraying Nellie. She dotes on her children, cooking meals for them and for the cranky Granddad that lives next door. The family always sit together at mealtime while they take turns knocking on Granddad's door ,tray in hand , bringing his meal. He rudely grabs the tray, complaining about the meal and slams the door. None of the family has a proper job, They all exploit Britain's generous welfare system and all have schemes to bring in money which they all contribute to Nellie in a bowl during a pre - dinner ritual. One of the show's strengths is these actors have wonderful charisma and they seem like a real family. The eldest son Joey is a handsome smooth talking leather clad Jaguar driving dude that serves as a surrogate father to his siblings in the absence of Nellie's husband. He regales the skeptical female welfare office worker with tales of new expenses the family has incurred, all for a bigger welfare check. He is supremely confident and wise and he always has advice for his bewildered brothers. His brother Adrian, a recently laid off real estate salesman, has a pretty blonde oversexed girlfriend and he cannot satisfy her voracious desires. He is quite embarrassed by it and is very nervous with her. He is philosophical about it all. The youngest son Billy , is a father to a little girl named Franchesca. He earns money first by busking and when that didn't work out, sells sandwiches from his cranky little car. He cannot figure out his sarcastic girlfriend Julie and he is not ready for fatherhood. The other brother Jack, earns money finding or buying junk and selling it for profit. His character so far is the least interesting. Then there is the ditzy lone sister Aveline. She is a delight. The brothers are fiercely protective of her. She aspires to be a model and her life revolves around it. Her catchphrase is "I need to do me modeling". Gilly Coman is simply adorable as Aveline. Every line she delivers makes me laugh or smile. Smaller roles are Freddie Boswell and Lilo Lil. Freddie is Nellie's husband and the kids father that left the family for his mistress Lilo Lil. Freddie cannot make his mind up which woman he wants , he bounces back and forth to his family and Lilo Lil, of which Nellie often says "she's a tart". This comedy is so enjoyable , the half hour just breezes by. It has a bit of a soap opera feel to it, there's a story line wrapped up around the comedy. I am eager to find out what happens to this Boswell family. I love the outdoor scenes of Liverpool and the Liverpool accents too. Another British comedy gem.

Not fun or funny

[martin-randle · 1/10 · 29 March 2019]

Despite being considered a classic, I find this dated 80s 'sitcom' a dreadful soap about a bunch of needy angst ridden and utterly unlikeable people. I can manage about 3 minutes of this before I want to throw a brick at the tv. No other show I have ever seen is there not one sympathetic character!

Great British Comedy

[doncoward · 8/10 · 7 June 2018]

A lot of it is dry but this show really is a great example of late 80s and early 90s British TV comedy. The way the family goes about their business to get by the way they want is well told, well acted, and most of all funny! Fantastic characters.

Never got the fuss..

[Louisejjames · 4/10 · 15 November 2020]

I missed this when it was first shown on TV and saw the reruns on cable tv. Having watched a few I really don't get the fuss or why it was so popular. Unlike the Liver birds it just isn't funny, the characters aren't great and it relies a lot on people always believing that scousers are funny, which they usually are, so not sure what happened here. There's much better to watch so give this a miss unless you're desperate, it's mildly amusing at best.

Fond memories

[JokerSwan · 19 April 2006]

I have fond memories of this show. It ran in Finland when I was 11-12 (in 1990-1992), and I fell in love with Joey Boswell. I would never miss an episode. I thought it was so much fun, especially every time the family drove to solve some problem: first Joey's Jaguar, then Jack's van, then Adrian's motorbike and Billy's old broken Beetle...There was always one empty chair at the end of the table, and I imagined myself sitting there as the youngest daughter of the family. I remember the catchphrases - "I'm not ready for all this!", "She's a tart!" (which my grandmother disapproved of), "Greetings!"... Adrian's poem "Granny's Bucket" and another one that went something like "If you were dead, I'd go to all the places we were together and cry.. But you're alive. And I hate you." I learned many English words from this show, including "greetings", "tart", and "retaliate".

I remember being heartbroken when Joey's actor was changed. My idol was the original Joey, Peter Howitt. I also hated the new Aveline and felt the show was never the same after the change of these actors. I don't know which season that was, but apparently I'm not the only one who thinks the show went on too long. I can't believe Carla Lane blames the fans for abandoning the show - I would assume that repetitive scripts and characters that never evolve wouldn't keep the fans' interest on for very long. I used to think the unchanging nature of the show and the stay-at-home grown up kids were safe and positive, but as a grown up viewer I might get tired of them.

I haven't watched Bread in 14 years, and I'm not sure if I'd like to see it again and spoil the memory. For one thing, at age 11, I missed out on all the irony and subtext. A lot of the things I admired, like Joey's dedication to his family, might seem negative now. My mother, a social worker, thought the characters were offensive for their blatant abuse of the social security system. She thought that their real life counterparts would be very unhappy and pitiful, not someone to laugh at. I was mad at her at the time, but I can see her point now - the show made fun of unemployed people and presented them as lazy abusers of the system. The humor that made an 11-year-old laugh might seem tedious and repetitive to an adult. I don't think "she is a tart" would amuse me now.

For me, this show is best left unspoiled. It was very important to me once, and I'll always have those memories. A part of me will always live on Kelsall Street.

Simply not funny

[stephenreeds-93728 · 1/10 · 26 January 2023]

I've never been a fan of the late Carla Lane. I found The Liverbirds painful and unrealistic....admittedly then not living in the city I did not know a great deal about Liverpool. One bird came from deepest Lancashire....despite having a Scouse family....and the other from The Wirral! Any old Northerner will do. The characters just talk, " funny" lines in a vacuum it seems. Butterflies I thought was ludicrous and a dreadful waste of an actor like Geoffrey Palmer. The less said about the sons the better. But Bread took...if you'll excuse me...the biscuit! Forget the lazy stereotypes and again the range of Northern accents, to me it simply wasn't funny. And Grandad! God help us. An old man saying piss off is humour? Not to me.

Excellent for the first three series

[glenn-aylett · 9/10 · 5 June 2016]

OK, like Carla Lane's other Liverpool sitcom, The Liver Birds, Bread went stale( pun intended) and the last two series were well below par, with characters played by different actors, but for its first three series Bread was hilarious and was attracting 19 million viewers.

Basically the sitcom concerned jobless Liverpool family in the eighties and their various fiddles and dubious money making schemes to make money to survive. Headed by a devout Catholic mother, Nelly Boswell, played brilliantly by Jean Boht, the family's various schemes and catchphrases became very popular. " She is a tart!" " P... off, where's me dinner" and Joey Boswell's way of introducing himself by saying " Greetings" always raise a smile among people of a certain age.

For me, the minor character's made Bread so amusing. In particular the hard faced dole office clerk, Martina, was hilarious: always cynical and disinterested, she always gave way to some tall story told by Joey Boswell to get more money and muttered" sign here" to get rid of him. Then there's the little seen, Lilo Lill( " she is a tart!"), Irish girlfriend of Nelly's estranged husband, Freddie, and her rivalry with Nelly. Also hilarious was Grandad, a mean spirited, miserable old man who was always demanding the family deliver his dinner and would then tell them to " p... off".

Indeed the Scouse warmth, lovable rogues like Freddie and Joey Boswell, and a top notch theme tune made Bread one of the most popular sitcoms of all time. With Carla Lane now sadly dead, I'm sure the BBC could re run the first three series as a tribute.

I love this very much

[IridescentTranquility · 9/10 · 9 January 2005]

This is another BBC programme I saw as a small child that I'm currently trying to catch up on, and I like it more now for being able to understand it much better.

I particularly liked teenager Billy's relationship with Julie. Once she gives birth to their daughter Francesca (whose name Billy isn't entirely sure of at first) she's practically looking after two children, except for the fact that Billy - like the others - can't break away from his mum Nellie. As Julie says "Go back to the womb. You never left it." Other highlights include Adrian (who's living in a dreamworld and can't face up to going to the DHSS office on his own) and his sex-obsessed girlfriend, Joey - the eldest - who puts the family before his personal life all the time, Jack (always managing to buy 'antiques' and other items that turn out to be worthless) and - of course - Aveline, the only sister. Everything about her image screams "EIGHTIES!" at you - the clash of the patterns on her clothes, her over-sized earrings and her big hair. The older generation are just as good - Nellie (who takes her groceries to church, kneels at the altar then has to run back down the aisle after the giant tin of beans that just fell out of her shopping bag, in one scene), permanently hungry Grandad and Nellie's estranged husband Freddie. Give it a try.

Okay But Dragged On For Too Long

[Big Movie Fan · 22 September 2002]

In it's heydey Bread was a decent comedy about the Boswell family-a Catholic family living in Liverpool. Nellie Boswell held the largely unemployed family together during the series as they got up to all sorts.

Living down the road from the Boswells was Granddad who was an irascible old man who kept bothering them every five minutes. He added to the humour.

The only problem was that Bread ran longer than it should have. A lot of comedy shows outstay their welcome and Bread was one of them. It ran until the early 1990's but by that time most people-including myself-were fed up with it. Comedy shows should only have a limited run and Bread chose to go on for longer than it should have.

But in all fairness, the early episodes were very funny and do deserve a look.

Bloody Brilliant!

[jhmoondance · 10/10 · 3 September 2021]

Fantastic quick witted one liners in this Great British sit competition.

Every actor plays their unique characters to perfection. Rib tickling hilarious comedy.

My favourite is Billy who never seems to get things right lol 😆

Even tho its nearly 40 years old it still has the capacity for timeless laughs. A masterpiece and a must see for viewers of all ages.

TOPS

[yankeedoo · 8/10 · 30 August 2021]

Superb show from 80s loved it these days comedy is NOT comedy to much pc rubbish.

Learning to live the Scouse way

[richiewales2001 · 8 June 2004]

Set in Liverpool in the 198o's at the time of high unemployment, Thatcherism and the miner strikes, through to the 1990's. The Boswell household was run by matriarch Nelly, a strict Roman Catholic family and Nelly always found salvation in the Church. Every mealtime she passed round a china hen in which they all put money. Sometimes we got to see Freddy, Nellie's ex-husband, who lives in a caravan with his girlfriend Lilo Lil, a big chested Irish woman with flame red hair, short skirts and a little fur jacket and high heel shoes and an equal fiery temperament to match.

Every episode had some crisis which the whole family would resolve around the dinner table, and a prayer or two would be said.

Money matters would be solved by going to the local DSS office, where they were met by the fiery, ice hearted DSS lady. The family claimed every single penny they were entitled and more if they could. And they worked on the side too to bring in extra cash

What the hell is wrong with this family

[youngkaren-25330 · 10/10 · 20 September 2020]

All the members of the Boswell family are all thieves. cheaters and womanizers all except for their mom nellie Boswell

This Bread soon went crusty and stale

[world_of_weird · 7 October 2004]

A sitcom from my childhood that my mother absolutely loved, as did most of my schoolfriends, but as a twelve-year-old fan of Monty Python and Fawlty Towers, I couldn't for the life of me understand what all the fuss was about. The show revolved around a supposedly penniless Liverpudlian family, all of whom had their own annoying and oft-repeated catchphrases, and to this day I can't believe how much the audience used to roar with laughter at "She is a tart!" and "All the colours of the rainbow, son". Written by Carla Lane, famous for being paid large sums of money for making nobody laugh (see also BUTTERFLIES and THE LIVER BIRDS), and featuring audience-grabbing but embarrassing cameos from the likes of Paul and Linda McCartney whilst shamelessly playing on every chirpy Scouser stereotype in the book - hey, we're all natural comedians, poets and lovable rogues, don't you know! - this series was a nightmare from start to finish and dragged on far too long. Carla Lane somewhat unrealistically blamed the show's declining popularity on "disloyal ratbag fans" rather than her own tissue-thin scripts and the atrocious, stilted performances from all concerned.

Want a few easy laughs? Patronise the working class

[vaughan-birbeck · 14 May 2004]

It's so easy to survive poverty and economic depression. All you need is the wit and the nerve to outsmart Government bureaucracy. Then you can have a decent home with plenty of food on the table, you can even run a classic Jaguar!

At a time when Margaret Thatcher and her thugs were destroying UK manufacturing industry and throwing whole communities on the scrap heap of unemployment, 'Bread' came along to show working class people were lovable scallywags who could rake in pots of money from the Department of Social Security by running rings around the rules.

I can only assume no-one associated with this condescending garbage has ever been faced with actually trying to prove they are "genuinely seeking work" (which required a file of rejection letters as thick as a telephone directory) or making their remaining £5 (or $8) last until they are allowed more social security.

The alternative was to get a job as a 'security guard' being paid £1.95 (or $3.40) an hour. Oh, and you had to provide your own dog.

If you want to know what working class life was like in Liverpool in the 80's, watch 'Boys from the Blackstuff', not this rubbish.

Why was this so popular?

[tony-walton · 11 November 2001]

In its time, "Bread" was a bit of a cult show. Now it's being shown again on UK Gold (a UK 'classics' channel) I wonder what the source of its popularity was. The mother is domineering and has a nasty tongue in her head, her family are obsessed with 'the family' to the exclusion of normal social interaction with anyone else, the humour (such as it is) is laboured at best, and the dialogue is stilted and poorly-delivered.

This certainly hsn't stood the test of time.

80's Liverpudlian comedy

[Virgil-14 · 22 February 2000]

Comedy set in a Liverpool household, about a family that scrimp and scrape to earn a living. The moral of the story is they sit around the dinner table arguing. Ron Forfar who plays the Dad, Freddie Boswell is a down on his luck nagged man after his affair with 'the tart' as his wife calls her. Not a sitcom that lives long in the memory.

A Good Show That Went A Bit Stale

[greg-233 · 21 April 2003]

"Bread" follows the lives of a close-knit family in 1980s Liverpool. We see their trials and tribulations, their daily battle with an outside world of crime, poverty, unemployment and immorality. Using their wits, the Boswells beat this world at its own game, exploiting every loophole in the welfare system to cheat the bureaucrats of the DHSS.

Nellie Boswell and her five grownup children (Joey, Jack, Adrian, Aveline and Billy) are fiercely loyal to one another. When one has a problem everyone else comes to the rescue, traveling in a convoy of cars, ranging from Joey's black Jaguar to Billy's clapped out old mini. You always see them walk closely together at the same pace, staring straight ahead. The charming, leather-clad Joey was always the first to speak, usually beginning with the word: "Greetings!" Not every episode had a happy ending, however.

When I first saw this programme I was still in primary school. It used to be shown on the ABC every Monday night at 8.00 PM. I liked it when it first started. 1986-1988 was the heyday of the show. But after a while it didn't seem so fresh. The show dragged on into the early nineties, after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. The mobile phones were still huge, though. They changed the actors who played Joey and Aveline, although I found the original Aveline's accent a bit annoying. The show seemed to have lost its sparkle.

When the last episode finished in 1991 we saw the camera draw away from the Boswell house in Kelsall Street (which looked identical to the surrounding streets), getting an aerial view of Liverpool at large, finishing with a shot of that old cathedral. And there it finally closed.