Comrade Dad was a BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 television comedy satire series set in 1999 in Londongrad, the capital of communist Britain. The UK has been invaded by the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 and had been turned into a Communist state. The programme centered around the Dudgeon family (starring George Cole as Reg Dudgeon) and their attempts to adapt to the new order.

Pilot

The pilot episode explains how the Russians have managed a remarkable bloodless coup - the revolution took place on 27 June 1989, when, upon learning that thousands of Russian missiles were approaching, the royal family, government and all the other 'important' members of British society took refuge in nuclear-fallout shelters. But the 'missiles' turned out to be aeroplanes full of soldiers who parachuted to land and calmly sealed off the entrances to the shelters, so removing all the powerful people from the picture at a single stroke and enabling the Russians to take control. (This explanatory pilot was remade as the opening episode of the series which began just over a year later, with slight changes in the cast and format).

Series

The series is about Reg Dudgeon, a working-class man who thinks that the Russian takeover is wonderful, and tries to champions the work of his rulers and party line. Unfortunately, his beliefs are tested as the far excesses of Russian life under the communists - food shortages, long queues, low wages - begin to take their toll. Undeterred, Reg manages to keep his faith, despite even discovering, in one faintly surreal episode, that there exists another side of the communist British society where garden parties take place, enormous amounts of champagne are drunk and exotic food is eaten by a few elegantly dressed privileged party members.

Cast

• George Cole - Reg Dudgeon (Dad)
• Colette O'Neil
  Colette O'Neil
  Colette O'Neil is a Glasgow-born actress noted for her various roles on British television.She was a semi-regular cast member of Coronation Street in the mid-1960s as Ruth Winter, and also made frequent guest appearances in series such as Z-Cars, Dixon of Dock Green, Adam Adamant Lives!, No Hiding...
  
   - Treen Dudgeon (Mum) (pilot only)
• Barbara Ewing
  Barbara Ewing
  Barbara Ewing is a UK-based actress, playwright and novelist. Born in New Zealand, she graduated from Victoria University of Wellington with a BA in English and Maori before coming to Britain in 1965 to train as an actress at RADA in London.She made her film debut in the horror film Torture...
  
   - Treen Dudgeon (Mum) (series)
• Anna Wing
  Anna Wing
  Anna Eva Lydia Catherine Wing, MBE is an English actress. She has had a long career in television and theatre.-Personal life:...
  
   - Gran (pilot only)
• Doris Hare
  Doris Hare
  Doris Hare MBE was a Welsh actress, best known for her appearances as "Mum" in the popular sitcom On the Buses alongside Reg Varney and Stephen Lewis....
  
   - Gran (series)
• Claire Toeman - Zo Dudgeon
• David Garlick - Bob Dudgeon

Series one

All episodes were broadcast on BBC2 at 9pm

• Ep1: 13 January
• Ep2: 21 January
• Ep3: 28 January
• Ep4: 3 February
• Ep5: 10 February
• Ep6: 17 February
• Ep7: 24 February