ATV Sitcom The Squirrels comes to DVD

ATV sitcom set for DVD Release.

Rising Damp writer Eric Chappell, along with Brookside creator Phil Redmond and Coronation Street actor Kenneth Cope, brought to life in 1975 The Squirrels an ATV sitcom for ITV.

Eric Chappell’s 22 years as a travelling auditor gave him an unequalled opportunity to observe offices and their inhabitants at close quarters, and this hit sitcom – created and written by Chappell with additional scripts by Phil Redmond and Kenneth Cope, among others – wryly explores the perils of the mid-seventies office environment.

A tyrannical boss, unchecked male chauvinism, pranks, malingering and in-fighting are among the workplace hazards for the staff of the accounts department of International Rentals, with Bernard Hepton, Ken Jones and Patsy Rowlands featuring in the line-up of a frustrated and occasionally rebellious team (and wife!) Guest stars include Philip Madoc, Leslie Schofield and Alun Armstrong.

Network note the first two series aired in the summer, making it difficult to gain a decent audience, “The fact that one of those summers was the exceptionally hot year of 1976 did no favours to a sitcom struggling to gain a foothold in the schedules. It returned in the autumn, and endured until early 1977, following which it dropped out of sight completely.”

This set contains all 22 existing episodes from the original 29 produced. The release by Network Releasing include scripts for some of the missing episodes which can be seen as PDF format files on disc one.

Eric Chappell had longevity in his shows made with Yorkshire Television, who produced his hit series’ Only When I Laugh, Duty Free, Home to Roost and of course one of ITV’s greatest series, Rising Damp.

More details here