David Jason starred in this comedy in 13 parts and was cast as Ted Simcock, a self-professed 'blunt, no-nonsense Yorkshireman' and the owner of Jupiter Foundry, a busy ironworks. In the first episode it is Ted's youngest (and scruffiest) son Paul's wedding, and the bride is Jenny Rodenhurst, the daughter of well-to-do dentist Laurence Rodenhurst, and mother-to-be! The rest of the series plays on the class distinctions and the ensuing affairs, bickering, sniping and gossiping and each episode is set at a party - the bit of a do of the title.
These public functions provided the ideal claustrophobic set-up for the repressed feelings, ambition, petty jealousies and class tensions and Nobbs skills as an author played all of these to their highest when he adapted his own novel for the first series. He later wrote a sequel novel, Fair Do's, based on the second series of the show. A Bit Of A Do won numerous honours, including the TV and Radio Industries Club Award for the Best Situation Comedy of 1989.
Network DVD have issued the entire series in a four disc set, and there are a number of special features including archive interviews with Nicola Pagett (Sunday Sunday from 1989), creator David Nobbs (Tonight from 1988) and a a one-off comedy play about two long distance lorry drivers written by Nobbs and first broadcast in 1982 called Dogfood Dan and the Carmarthen Cowboy.
| Title | Tx. Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| The White Wedding | 13.1.89 | Everyone expects a day to remember when Jenny, only daughter of snobbish dentist Laurence Rodenhurst marries Paul, unkempt youngest son of the socially inferior Simcocks. But some unconventional behaviour from the groom's father and the bride's mother help to ensure that it is even more memorable than expected. |
| The Dentists' Dinner Dance | 20.1.89 | Normally, the Dentists Dinner Dance is the highlight of Laurence Rodenhurst's year. But this year, with the Simcock family present en masse, and the events of the wedding still fresh in everybody's minds, Laurence's evening is very far from normal. |
| The Angling Club Christmas Party | 27.1.89 | "It's only a little backstreet boozer, but they're a friendly crowd" Ted told Laurence when he invited him. As the dramatic events of his last evening as Hon. Chairman of the Crown and Walnut Angling Club unfold, Ted has several reasons to regret that invitation. |
| The Charity Horse-Racing Evening | 3.2.89 | Laurence's estranged wife, Liz, now six months pregnant with her child by Ted Simcock, has recently given up the unequal struggle to bridge the social divide, and has left Ted, just three-and-a-half weeks after his foundry went into voluntary liquidation. |
| The Crowning Of Miss Frozen Chicken (UK) | 10.2.89 | Jenny and Paul Simcock are somewhat embarrassed at having to admit to attending such a sexist, anti-vegetarian function as the crowning of Miss Frozen Chicken (UK). But they have cast themselves in the roles of amateur saboteurs, intent on producing a few shocks for Rodney Sillitoe, the big wheel at Cock-a-Doodle Chickens, who is already beginning to regret his decision to act as a comeare as well as host. |
| The Registry Office Wedding | 17.2.89 | Many things have changed since 'The White Wedding'. Life for the Simcocks, Rodenhursts and their friends will never be the same again. Now they gather for a very different kind of wedding - and the surprises aren't over yet. |
| The Church Wedding | 20.10.89 | You are cordially invited to the wedding of Mrs Rita Simcock and Mr Gerry Lansdown, prospective Social Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Hindhead. Everybody has been invited - with, of course, the exception of Ted Simcock, the man to whom she was married for 25 years. But a little thing like that isn't going to stop Ted seeing his ex-wife launched on her new 'idyll of bliss'. |
| The Christening | 27.10.89 | You are cordially invited to the christening of Jocelyn Neville Selwyn, son of Liz and Neville Badger. Everyone has been invited, except the real father. But Ted arrives just the same... with his fiancee! |
| The Grand Opening of Sillitoe's | 3.11.89 | Betty and Rodney have gone green and teetotal, and tonight is the opening of their health food complex in Arbitration Road. Everyone will be there to toast the venture in fruit squash, bilberry cocktail, and kiwi-fruit-and-raspberry-and-cinnamon-punch, including a mystery celebrity to draw the raffle. But will the excitement of the event put too great a strain on the Sillitoe's pledge? |
| The Farewell Party | 10.11.89 | It's nothing but the best for Ted Simcock and his fiancee, Corinna Price-Rodgerson, when they bid a fond, well nearly, farewell to their friends. They've hired the Sir Leonard Hutton Room for a party, ordered champagne, caviar, fresh and smoked salmon, cold beef... and the Dale Monsal Quartet! Ted is just preparing to announce his latest business venture when a policeman comes to a party. |
| The Inauguration of the Outer Inner Relief Ring Road | 17.11.89 | There's a proposal for an Outer Inner Relief Ring Road and one for an Inner Inner Relief Ring Road. The trouble is, Liz and Neville Badger's garden seems to be missing on that plan! |
| The Funeral | 24.11.89 | Sudden death is always a sad occasion, but it's to be a happy day... he would have wanted it that way. |
| The Civil Wedding | 1.12.89 | Two weddings, one immediately after the other. And both receptions at the Angel Hotel, one in the Sir Leonard Hutton Room, the other in the Geoffrey Boycott Room. |