The first episode of the seven-part comedy series aired on September 4, 1985 and instantly grabbed the attention of viewers. Both Whitchurch and Barber went on to greater successes, the former appearing in The Bill for several years followed by the regular role of Tyler in My Hero, while Barber appeared in the smash-hit movie The Full Monty but remains best known to television viewers as Denzil in Only Fools and Horses.

Transmitted on Thursday evenings from 3rd April to 8th May 1986 at 8.30pm except for Granada Television where transmission took place at 9.00pm. Transmitted on Monday evenings from 16th February to 23rd March 1987 at 8.00pm except for Television South and Channel Television where transmissions ran on Thursdays from 19th February to 26th March at 7.30pm. John Stevenson was taken with his creations, as were fellow-writer Julian Roach and Coronation Street executive producer Bill Podmore and a suggestion was made to Granada Television Managing Director David Plowright that the two brothers would be worthy of a sitcom of their own. Having created the character of Raquel, Stevenson was responsible for the programme’s first two-hander – an episode featuring only two actors – when Raquel (Sarah Lancashire) returned in 2000 to tell her former husband Curly Watts (Kevin Kennedy) that she had given birth to his baby and was marrying someone else. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2021-05-07 16:01:10 Boxid IA40110422 Camera Sony Alpha-A6300 (Control) Collection_set printdisabled External-identifierWe eventually came to the conclusion that, if Emily Bishop was to stay in the Street, Ernie had to die,” Stevenson told the author Daran Little. “It did not seem fair to send her away when she [the actor Eileen Derbyshire] did not want to leave the show. The death of Ernie Bishop was to save Emily Bishop.” The show ran for four series between 1985 and 1988. Episodes were written by Julian Roach and John Stevenson, who were also writing episodes of Coronation Street at the time. Ocr tesseract 5.0.0-alpha-20201231-10-g1236 Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Latin Ocr_detected_script_conf 1.0000 Ocr_module_version 0.0.13 Ocr_parameters -l eng Old_pallet IA-NS-2000266 Openlibrary_edition The McGregor brothers (played by different actors) first appeared on Coronation Street as friends of Eddie Yeats (in an episode when Eddie celebrated his engagement).

The following year in 1986, the Liverpool Echo reported how Barber and Whitchurch were becoming "one of the best sit-com double acts on telly," holding down the 9pm prime time spot.

See also

In the Coronation Street episode the two brothers were played by Tony Osoba (Porridge) and Carl Chase. Producers Granada TV were unable to get the two actors to reprise their roles and so cast Philip Whitchurch and Paul Barber in the roles instead.

John Stevenson was responsible for writing Episode 2203 of Coronation Street which was broadcast on 12th May 1982 and which featured, as its main storyline, a party held in the Rovers Return Inn to celebrate the engagement of reformed scouse jailbird Eddie Yeats to Marion Willis. Among the guests invited were the McGregor Brothers from Liverpool. The visual joke of the two characters, Wesley and Cyril was that although they were introduced as brothers one was white and one was mixed-race, the explanation being given that they were in fact half-brothers, sharing the same mother. The party, mainly through the intervention of the two guests, got more and more riotous to the point where Annie Walker rang the police who turned up as Cyril and Wesley rolled the pub piano out of the front door and on to the street, intending to carry on the party into the night. The 1978 shooting was the first violent death of any character since Coronation Street had begun 18 years earlier – and met with uproar from viewers, who bombarded the switchboard at Granada Television, which made the ITV soap. Other dramas from Stevenson’s pen included Ken Barlow’s doorstep confrontation with Mike Baldwin after discovering his wife Deirdre’s affair, and Don Brennan dying after driving Mike’s MG Midget at the factory boss and crashing into a viaduct. Although the Granada sitcom The Brothers McGregor ran for four series and twenty-six episodes, few people watching at the time, or remembering the programme since, realise that it was a spin-off from Coronation Street. Indeed very little publicity was given to this fact on the programme's launch in 1985, possibly so as to avoid viewers prejudging what the programme would be like.What do you miss most about the past? Attractions, lost venues or perhaps the way of life. Take a look at our nostalgia survey Signing up is free and it only takes a minute for you to get the best stories, sent straight to your inbox. Stevenson was born in Manchester, to Hughina (nee Chappelow), a library assistant, and John, an electrician. He attended Manchester grammar school and graduated in economics from the London School of Economics. After working as a journalist on the Oldham Chronicle (1958-64), he became showbusiness reporter and northern theatre critic for the Daily Mail, based in Manchester. His other early sitcoms were The Last of the Baskets (1971-72), with Ken Jones as a factory worker who inherits a title and rundown mansion, and Arthur Lowe as his faithful servant, and How’s Your Father? (1974-75), the writer’s own generation-gap creation, which starred Michael Robbins and Arthur English. urn:lcp:brothersmcgregor0000well:epub:93e0afff-46b0-4f1f-beba-80f1d8c83fd5 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier brothersmcgregor0000well Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t1fk3bz94 Invoice 1652 Isbn 0586068945