A Touch of Daniel

by Peter Tinniswood

Published 8 February 1971
The Brandon family inhabit an absurd Northern world where the men say nowt if they can help it and the women carp endlessly without ever getting anywhere. They live an exceptionally unexceptional life: to work at the same factory everyday, same food on the table every evening (pickled onions, stale crackers and Cheshire cheese) and a drink at their local every night. Yet it soon becomes clear that in the Brandon household things are increasingly out of kilter, with surreal and improbable happenings at every turn. Bizarre deaths become a regular occurrence; Mr Brandon goes AWOL; roguish old Uncle Mort moves in; knitting-mad Aunt Lil gets pregnant; geriatric Uncle Stavely decamps from the old folks home to the attic (joined soon by the legless Corporal Parkinson); and all the while poor young Carter Brandon, whom everyone burdens, is having woman trouble, with one trying to drag him to the altar and a host of others trying more immediate tactics. Then of course there's Daniel...A charming work of deadpan comedy from one of Britain's best comic writers.