Nearest and Dearest

The popular 1970s sitcom features Jimmy Jewel and Hylda Baker as siblings Eli and Nellie Pledge, who are compelled to manage their family's pickle factory in Lancashire. This excerpt is from Series 4, Episode 3, titled “When You’ve Got To Go”.

The show is a well‑known 1970s sitcom that centres on the comic partnership of Jimmy Jewel and Hylda Baker. Both actors take on the roles of a brother‑and‑sister duo, Eli and Nellie Pledge, and the series follows their misadventures in a small‑town setting. Its humour is rooted in the everyday challenges they face, making it a staple of that era’s television comedy. In the storyline, Eli and Nellie find themselves obliged to keep the family’s pickle factory running, a business that’s been handed down through generations in Lancashire. The premise places the siblings in a cramped, brine‑filled environment where they must juggle production pressures with their own quirks. The episode highlighted here is the third instalment of the fourth series, titled “When You’ve Got To Go”, which continues the pair’s reluctant stewardship of the pickle works. The Lancashire backdrop gives the series a distinctly regional flavour, while the pickle‑factory setting provides a fertile ground for situational comedy. Throughout the episode, the characters’ forced collaboration underscores the sibling dynamic that drives the humour. “When You’ve Got To Go” maintains the programme’s consistent tone, presenting the Pledge siblings navigating the inevitable hiccups that arise when family duty meets a smelly trade. The script keeps the focus on the everyday pressures of operating the pickle plant.