5.8 /10 1 Votes
4.7/10 TV Country of origin United Kingdom No. of episodes 430 Program creator Colin Morris Production location Riverside Studios | 6.8/10 IMDb Original language(s) English First episode date 5 October 1965 Number of episodes 430 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Cast Similar Market in Honey Lane, Compact, Garnock Way, The Appleyards, United! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Newcomers was a late 1960s BBC soap opera which dealt with the subject of a London family, the Coopers, who moved to a housing estate in the fictional country town of Angleton. It was broadcast in bi-weekly half-hour episodes from October 1965 until November 1969. It was initially produced by Verity Lambert.
Contents
Series outline
A fictional light industrial manufacturing company called Eden Brothers decides to relocate to the rural location. There are conflicts with the older members of the existing community, as well as some lighter moments as urbanites encounter "country characters". Many of the relocated workers have trouble living outside the city. As the series progresses, problems on the factory floor spill over into the community. Throughout this the Coopers strive to raise their daughter and two sons, who are having their own issues.The Cooper and Harker families were the initial focus of the series. The on-screen sudden death of the character of Ellis Cooper led to a gradual shift away from the Coopers, who by the end of the serial barely featured.
A change of the managing director of Eden Bros to Andrew Kerr heralded the arrival of his daughter Kirsty, played by Jenny Agutter, but only during her school holidays.
Only five complete editions are known to have survived:
Cast
Production
The show was recorded principally in the BBC's West London studios, mainly Riverside 1, and also at BBC Birmingham Studios, with external scenes filmed in Haverhill, a town in South-west Suffolk, which itself expanded rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s through residents moving from London. The cast included several actors who later achieved wider fame, including Alan Browning (later seen in Coronation Street), Maggie Fitzgibbon, Judy Geeson, Jenny Agutter and Wendy Richard. In two episodes the group Jimmy Powell and the Five Dimensions were featured and appeared at the pub. (They were billed as "the New Dimensions"). They performed their new Decca 45 'I Just Can't Get Over You'.