The Larkins family were created for a play Fred Robinson wrote for an amateur dramatics group - seemingly staged in aid of North Harringay Boy Scouts - in or about 1949. He played the role of Alf himself, whilst Ada was originally named Emma.

There is no connection between the Larkins and H.E. Bates's Larkin family of the Darling Buds Of May novels and television adaptations. Robinson's Larkins family date to the late 1940s, whilst Bates's Larkin family were first brought into being through a 1958 novella, originally serialised in a newspaper from January of that year. Robinson's TV sitcom based on his family creation coincidentally came to screens eight months later.