All at No 20 is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 sitcom

British sitcom

A British sitcom tends, as it does in most other countries, to be based on a family, workplace or other institution, where the same group of contrasting characters is brought together in each episode. Unlike American sitcoms, where twenty or more episodes in a season is the norm, British sitcoms...

 that aired on ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 from 1986 to 1987. Starring Maureen Lipman

Maureen Lipman

Maureen Diane Lipman CBE is a British film, theatre and television actress, columnist and comedienne.-Early life:Lipman was born in Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, the daughter of Maurice Julius Lipman and Zelma Pearlman. Her father was a tailor; he used to have a shop between the...

, it was written by Richard Ommanney

Richard Ommanney

Richard Ommanney is an English writer and script consultant who has written extensively for television. He made his situation comedy writing debut with the BBC sitcom Three Up, Two Down which ran for four series, but his writing career had begun over a decade earlier, contributing jokes and...

, Ian Davidson

Ian Davidson (scriptwriter)

Ian Davidson is a British actor and scriptwriter who worked in British television comedies from the 1960s to the 1980s. He appeared in the same Oxford University revue as Terry Jones and Michael Palin of Monty Python, and is probably best known for his numerous appearances on Monty Python's Flying...

, Peter Vincent and Alex Shearer

Alex Shearer

Alex Shearer is a British novelist.Shearer was recognized as a television scenario writer at age 29 after having produced over 30 works. He was active as a writer for television, movies, theatre, and radio for 14 years, and then devoted himself to becoming a novelist.His maiden work was The...

. It was made for the ITV network by Thames Television

Thames Television

Thames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992....

 and ran for two series. After the second series was slated by critics, a planned third series was cancelled.

Cast

• Maureen Lipman
  Maureen Lipman
  Maureen Diane Lipman CBE is a British film, theatre and television actress, columnist and comedienne.-Early life:Lipman was born in Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, the daughter of Maurice Julius Lipman and Zelma Pearlman. Her father was a tailor; he used to have a shop between the...
  
   – Sheila Haddon
• Lisa Jacobs – Monica Haddon
• Martin Clunes
  Martin Clunes
  Alexander Martin Clunes is an English actor and comedian. Clunes is perhaps best known for his roles as Gary Strang in Men Behaving Badly, Doctor Martin Ellingham in Doc Martin and the title character in Reggie Perrin....
  
   – Henry
• Gary Waldhorn
  Gary Waldhorn
  Gary Waldhorn is a veteran English actor, known for his role as David Horton in the sitcom The Vicar of Dibley, but who has also had a notable television and theatre career.-Theatre:...
  
   – Richard Beamish (series 1)
• Gabrielle Glaister
  Gabrielle Glaister
  Gabrielle Glaister is an English actress.-Early life:She was a school friend of Ben Elton at Godalming Grammar School on Tuesley Lane in Godalming, Surrey; Glaister was in the year below Elton...
  
   – Carol (series 1)
• Gregory Doran
  Gregory Doran
  Gregory Doran has been described by the Sunday Times as 'one of the great Shakespearians of his generation'He is currently the Chief Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company ....
  
   – Chris Temple (series 1)
• David Bannerman – Hamish McAlpine (series 1)
• Carol Hawkins
  Carol Hawkins
  Carol Hawkins is an English actress.Carol trained at the Corona Stage School. London stage shows have included, Sextet, Run for Your Wife, See How They Run, Wife Begins at Forty, The Undertaking also including tours such as Time and Time Again, Bedroom Farce, Wait Until Dark, Dirty Linen...
  
  – Candy (series 2)
• Desmond McNamara – Frankie Lomax (series 2)

Plot

Maureen Lipman played Sheila Haddon, whose husband had died 18 months before the start of the first series. He died without any insurance, so on top of her grief she has to pay off the mortgage of her house (No 20). To do this, rather than ask for help, she decides to take in young lodgers. Monica, her twenty-year-old student daughter, is asked to find lodgers. She brings back her fellow art student Carol, a doctor called Henry, as well as Chris, Hamish, Candy and Frankie. Sheila also gets many part-time jobs, while her old friend Richard Beamish proposes marriage to her.

Series One (1986)

• 1 "Episode One" (10 February 1986)
  • The house is up for sale, but Sheila had had second thoughts. She decides to take in lodgers to help with the mortgage: Carol (a fellow art student of daughter Monica) and Chris (an unsuccessful DJ).
• 2 "Episode Two" (17 February 1986)
  • Sheila has a meeting with her bank manager who says that she faces repossession. To remedy this she takes in two more lodgers: Hamish (an airline steward) and Henry (a medical student). Her friend Richard agrees to stand as her guarantor.
• 3 "Episode Three" (24 February 1986)
  • Chris is unhappy that Hamish is moving into his room as he fears that Hamish is gay. Sheila gets fired from her job, but is hired by Richard to type his latest novel. Later, Hamish plays up to Chris's fears, much to his unease.
• 4 "Episode Four" (3 March 1986)
  • Sheila needs to pay her electricity bill and latest bank installment. Chris needs money also and attempts to sell his van. Sheila raises the money and he drives her to the bank. Her bank manager crashes into Chris's van and so he gains on insurance.
• 5 "Episode Five" (10 March 1986)
  • Hamish, a budding chef, cooks a meal for the housemates. Richard, eager to help Sheila financially, pays a woman to hire her typing services. Sheila is furious when she finds out, but they make up as they all enjoy Hamish's meal.
• 6 "Episode Six" (17 March 1986
  • Chris gets a 'high profile' job as a male model. Carol falls for Henry, while Henry falls for Monica. Richard proposes to Sheila but she turns him down. Later, while watching TV, the housemates discover that Chris's modelling job was for a tacky advertisement.

Series Two (1987)

• 1 "Now We Are Four" (27 October 1987)
  • Now down to just one lodger (Henry), Sheila must find another. Henry has a crush on Monica, much to her annoyance. To help, Sheila manages to talk him out of it, but Henry then falls for Sheila. Richard writes to say that he has proposed to another woman.
• 2 "Three in a Bed" (3 November 1987)
  • New lodger Candi moves in. Monica becomes jealous at the attention she gets from Sheila. In temper, Monica threatens to move out and to spend the night in a seedy bar. Sheila goes to rescue her but is arrested when the bar is raided by Police.
• 3 "My Kitten, Right Or Wrong" (10 November 1987)
  • Monica is depressed that none of her art college paintings have sold. Sheila secretly buys one, but Monica finds out and is furious. Meanwhile, a cat the housemates have adopted has kittens.
• 4 "Warts and All" (17 November 1987)
  • Sheila is dreading an old schoolmate visiting as she has always been made feel inferior to her. On the day after a lot of panic, her husband shows up to say that she can't make it due to a migraine, but he tells her that she has always been jealous of Sheila.
• 5 "The Tea Leaf" (24 November 1987)
  • In search of another lodger, Sheila decides to take in an ex-convict, Frankie. The others are not so happy about this, but soon warm to him.
• 6 "The Prowler" (1 December 1987)
  • Alerted by a prowler outside, Sheila calls the Police. The Officer takes a shine to her and they go out on a date. Sheila finds him boring and tries to avoid him, but to her relief he tells her his estranged wife has returned. The prowler turns out to be a stray fox.