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I Didn't Know You Cared

I Didn't Know You Cared was a TV comedy set in a working class household in a Yorkshire mining village, written by Peter Tinniswood and loosely based upon his books A Touch Of Daniel, I Didn't Know You Cared and Except You're A Bird. (Tinniswood wrote a fourth book, Call It A Canary, after the TV series had ended.) It was broadcast by the BBC in four series each of seven episodes from 1975 to 1979.

The main characters are Carter Brandon (played by Stephen Rea and, in series 3 and 4, Keith Drinkel); his Uncle Mort (Robin Bailey); his mother, Annie (Liz Smith); his father, Les (John Comer); his girlfriend (later wife), Pat Partington (Anita Carey and, in series 3 and 4, Liz Goulding); and Uncle Stavely (Bert Palmer and, in series 4, Leslie Sarony). Auntie Lil (Gretchen Franklin) also appears in the first two series. Other recurring characters, mostly from Carter's workplace, are Linda Preston (Deirdre Costello); Mrs Partington (Pat's mother) (Vanda Godsell); Sid Skelhorn (Ray Dunbobbin); and Louis St. John (Paul Barber).

The novels narrate more of an overall story, and Carter's thoughts are an integral part of these stories. A recurring theme in the books is conversation between Carter and baby Daniel (who is Uncle Mort's son). One feature of the books is a line at the top of each page which summarizes the developments on that page. The TV series are oriented more to a sitcom, and present generally light-hearted versions of the stories from the books.

In the TV series, Uncle Stavely (remembered for his catchphrase, "I heard that! Pardon?") always appears with the ashes of Corporal Parkinson - one of his comrades from World War I - in a box around his neck. In the first book (A Touch Of Daniel), Parkinson stays with Uncle Stavely, but Stavely only has fleeting appearances in the later books.

Only some of the clever dialogue and wordplay in the books shows up in the TV series. For instance: Pat criticizes Carter for doing things "not concomitant with being a young executive" and hopes her son will become "Professor of Difficult Sums"; Mort says of the "Three Great Aunts from Glossop", "You can allus tell when they're coming, cause t'water curdles in t'goldfish bowl"; and, in the first episode, as Mort crouches by his just-interred wife's grave, letting the soil run through his fingers, he replies to Les's, "Fond memories?", with, "I were just thinking what a champion crop of onions you could grow i' this."

The TV series is famous for the surreal wedding on a sinking barge.

Peter Tinniswood went on to write six further series for BBC Radio 4 featuring members of the Brandon family between 1987 and 1996; two six-episode series each of Uncle Mort's North Country, Uncle Mort's South Country, and Uncle Mort's Celtic Fringe. In these series, Stephen Thorne played Uncle Mort, with Peter Skellern as Carter Brandon (Sam Kelly replaced Skellern in South Country).