Mixed Blessings (British TV series)

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Mixed Blessings
Mixed Blessings (British TV series).jpg
Genre Sitcom
Created by Sid Green
Starring Christopher Blake
Muriel Odunton
Joan Sanderson
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series3
No. of episodes23
Production
Running time30 minutes
Production company London Weekend Television
Original release
Network ITV
Release3 March 1978 (1978-03-03) 
7 June 1980 (1980-06-07)

Mixed Blessings is a British sitcom starring Christopher Blake and Muriel Odunton that aired on ITV from 3 March 1978 to 7 June 1980. It was created by comedy writer Sid Green and produced for the ITV network by LWT.

Contents

Premise and reception

The show starred Christopher Blake (later of That's My Boy fame) and Muriel Odunton as newlyweds Thomas Simpson, who was white, and Susan Lambert, who was black. Most plots revolved around both families' disapproval of their inter-racial marriage.

According to a review on the BFI screenonline website, the series "was, superficially, more progressive" than earlier sitcoms centred on 'race' such as Curry and Chips (1969), Love Thy Neighbour (1972–76) and Mind Your Language (1977–79). While "the two main characters were sympathetically played... the series [itself] was critically undermined by presenting their relationship as a problem". [1] The review also asserted: "While its set-up points to its integrationist intentions, one only has to look at the title to note the writer's own ambiguous feelings". [2]

Cast

Episodes

Series 1 (1978)

Series 2 (1978)

Series 3 (1980)

Production of this series was interrupted after the recording of episode 1 by the ITV technicians' strike of 1979. The remaining nine episodes were recorded as soon as a studio became available, after higher-priority productions had been completed first. The first episode was transmitted two days after the strike ended, as schedules were very much ad hoc at this time as a result of such a long strike.

DVD release

DVDRelease date
The Complete Series 112 March 2012
The Complete Series 228 May 2012
The Complete Series 32 July 2012
The Complete Series 1 to 3 Box Set2022

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References

  1. Mark Duguid "Race and the Sitcom", BFI screenonline
  2. Ali Jaafar "Mixed Blessings (1978–80)", BFI screenonline