A Comedy On This Day: Father, Dear Father: One Dog & His Man (19 May 1970)

 Hurray! This episode concentrates on Father, Dear Father's greatest asset - the Glovers' St Bernard dog, H. G. Wells. It doesn't matter if Patrick Cargill is trying to maintain his dignified composure, or his pretty blonde daughters are on screen, whenever he's in shot my attention will always fix on this large and (normally) docile creature.

 The dog isn't even trained to do very much exceptional in this episode, just head off in the wrong direction on occasions when the script asks him to. Most of H. G.'s funniest actions here occur off-screen in the viewer's imagination, either indicated through props (Patrick's chewed-up manuscript), or merely complained-about in dialogue (H. G. eating Patrick's sausage and bacon breakfast).

 In the face of all this disruption, Mr Glover gives the dog away, an action for which he faces much censure and soon regrets -

PATRICK: Nanny - doesn't anybody love me any more?

NANNY: Of course, Mr. Patrick. There must be lots of people who don't know what you've done.

 In the best scene, Patrick visits a pub at the time when he would normally be taking H. G. for a walk. Curiously, it seems to be a special dog-themed pub, with pictures and rosettes on the wall, and most of the clientele (lead by Ballard Berkeley) having brought their dogs with them. This sequence is really well choreographed, like an H. M. Bateman cartoon, with all the drinkers in the pub - horrified when they learn of Patrick's action - falling completely silent. Three appalled faces are shown in close-up rhythm - a drinker with a handlebar moustache, followed by two dogs. Then the three men at the bar slowly reply, "You gave? your dog? a-way?" in unison, exactly like a Greek chorus. It’s a bold, and televisually sophisticated, realisation of a simple comic moment.

A Comedy On This Day: Father, Dear Father - Flat Spin (2 January 1973)

 Nobody ever makes comedy series this cheerful anymore. You can see it in the OB credits sequence... The two daughters happily wash the Rolls Royce, the father brings a bucket of water and then the dog leaps about and the housemaid brings a tray of tea - you don't even get someone putting their foot in the bucket and sending the tea flying!

 With the newlywed elder daughter and her husband returning from Majorca, this episode is a textbook illustration of the humour about honeymooning couples that so exercised mid-century censors - "How was it?! I mean tell me all the details - No, don't!" This week's hilarious consequences revolve around the couple's inability to afford the £10,000 for a flat in Teddington (the best they can manage for their £6,000 would mean moving to Ramsgate). Even with Hugh Paddick as the estate agent, the most arresting performance comes from the dog, H. G. Wells. With a great St Bernard bounding around the living room, any domestic comedy is going to have to compete for the viewer's attention.

 Apart from the dog jumping on Cargill's shoulders, the thing that made me laugh most in this episode was the idea of a Welsh Undertaker being called 'Dai the Death'.