Bread. Image shows from L to R: Joey Boswell (Graham Bickley), Aveline Boswell (Melanie Hill), Nellie Boswell (Jean Boht), Grandad (Kenneth Waller), Shifty (Bryan Murray), Adrian Boswell (Jonathon Morris), Billy Boswell (Nick Conway), Freddie Boswell (Ronald Forfar). Copyright: BBC
Bread

Bread

  • TV sitcom
  • BBC One
  • 1986 - 1991
  • 74 episodes (7 series)

Liverpudlian Boswell family are experts at exploiting the system to get by in life, with plenty of dodgy deals and government handouts to help. Stars Jean Boht, Peter Howitt, Ronald Forfar, Jonathon Morris, Victor McGuire and more.

  • JustWatch Streaming rank this week: 5,532

Press clippings

BBC Four to repeat comedy classics

To link in with the celebrations of 100 years of the BBC, from Saturday 22nd October BBC Four will begin broadcasting classic episodes of sitcoms and sketch shows.

British Comedy Guide, 14th October 2022

Remembering Bread: a sitcom with heart

Former cast members remember classic moments, lifelong friendships and a visit from the McCartneys.

Sarah O'Hara, Liverpool Echo, 31st May 2021

The top 10 British sitcoms of the 80s

After the dourness of the 1970s, the following decade was much more colourful and self-confident, and this reflected in the increasingly audacious premises of the best situation comedies of the era. There were still perennial British interests of class and social status, with observations on suburban life providing plenty of opportunity for writers.

Greg Jameson, Entertainment Focus, 29th December 2018

Only Fools And Horses is TV's most-watched ever show

Only Fools And Horses has been announced as the most-watched show in the entire 80-year history of British television.

British Comedy Guide, 31st October 2016

Carla Lane's sitcom Bread and its legacy in Liverpool

Carla Lane, who has died aged 87, was perhaps best known for creating the popular 1980s sitcom Bread, set in her home city of Liverpool. But while for many viewers the trials and tribulations of the Boswell family were simply a slice of early evening entertainment, Liverpudlians had a far more complex relationship with the show.

Bronwyn Jones, BBC News, 3rd June 2016

Carla's decades of comedy

It's a little more than 30 years since Liverpool's most well-known comedy jewel first came to our screens.

It followed the working class Boswell family struggling through the city's high unemployment and poor prospects in the late 1980s, painting a bleak yet concurrently warm and hopeful picture of life in one of Britain's major cities.

Aaron Brown, BBC, 4th May 2016

James Cary's Top 10 Sitcoms, #10: Bread

Given it moves slowly, takes its time over jokes and has lots of characters, one would imagine Bread was not a great success. And yet its one of the most successful sitcoms in BBC history.

James Cary, Sitcom Geek, 14th July 2015

Bread's Giles Watling stands for Tories in by-election

An actor best-known for sitcom Bread has been chosen as the Conservative candidate in the Clacton by-election.

BBC News, 12th September 2014

Bread: A British comedy classic

Suite101 gets an insight into the fondly-remembered BBC series from Joey Boswell himself, Graham Bickley.

Adrian Peel, Suite 101, 13th October 2011

Gilly Coman obituary

Actor with starring role in 80s sitcom Bread.

Anthony Hayward, The Observer, 18th July 2010

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