The Gaffer

From the archive

The Gaffer is an ITV situation comedy series of the early 1980s, that starred Bill Maynard and was written by businessman Graham White. It was made for the ITV network by Yorkshire Television. Following the end of the situation comedy (Oh No It's Selwyn Froggitt), Maynard's next character couldn't have been more different from the bumbling Selwyn Froggitt. Fred Moffat is a survivor – just. Bearded, wearing a battered hat and a crumpled suit, his Rover P6 a rusting wreck, he runs a struggling engineering firm and is constantly trying to avoid his creditors, the tax man, the bank manager, and indeed anyone who might want him to pay for something. The series' background accurately reflected the precarious condition of many small businesses of the era and added a dark undercurrent to the situation comedy. Unlike the physical comedy of Selwyn Froggitt, the scripts for The Gaffer were wordy and sardonic and the plots relatively complex, with Fred Moffat usually managing to outwit at least some of the people who were chasing him for money. The cast included Russell Hunter as the radical union shop steward Harry Campbell, whose interest was in parting Moffat from as much money as possible to better pay his members, and Pat Ashton as his ineffectual secretary Betty.