Following big success with The Army Game and Bootsie & Snudge but a lukewarm reception to Foreign Affairs, Alfie Bass and Bill Fraser reunited for a new sitcom in 1967 called Vacant Lot, which ran for one series of 7 episodes in April and May 1967, three years after Foreign Affairs.

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This time Bass & Fraser broke away from Bootsie & Snudge and Granada for something that it was hoped would be fresher. Made by ABC Weekend TV for ITV, Vacant Lot starred Bill Fraser as William Bendlove, manager and sole remaining owner of Bendlove & Bodium Ltd (senior partner Mr Bodium is already deceased prior to the start of the series), a jack-of-all-trades building firm that has expanded into other sidelines including taxi and a funeral service! Anything to make a bit of money. They have a hearse as their only vehicle that also gets used for the taxiing customers and building business to carry sand, cement, timber, toilet pans and other fittings and tools. Bendlove's company foreman keeping the business ticking over is Alf Grimble (Alfie Bass) and the men under him are Rock (Nicky Henson), Chippy (Jack Haig) and Stoker (Arthur Mullard) with the staff rounded out by cheeky secretary-cum-tea girl Sandra (Laurie Leigh).

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Announced in December 1966 and filmed in February and March 1967, the series was mostly directed by Milo Lewis, who had previously directed Bass and Fraser in much of The Army Game, Bootsie & Snudge and Foreign Affairs.

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Alfie Bass had recently finished filming the Polanski film The Fearless Vampire Killers when he went in to this. Laurie Leigh as the cute secretary was chosen by ABC after they spotted her in a toffee commercial. Laurie's acting career fizzled out by 1969 and she opened an antique glassware shop in Defford, Worcester which she still runs with her son David today.

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The series had a variety of top notch comedy writers; the majority were co-written by former Goon Show editor Jimmy Grafton with future Are You Being Served? writer Jeremy Lloyd. Grafton also acted as script editor for the whole series. The last episode was written by Likely Lads writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais with Dick Clement also directing that last episode. One was written by future Oh, Brother and Oh, Father writer David Climie and another was written by Fred Robinson, who had written the 1958-1964 Peggy Mount sitcom The Larkins.

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Despite this fine pedigree of writers and cast the series went by with little notice. Only the first episode saw any reviews where the general consensus was that Bass and Fraser carried a weak script with the force of their personalities. Later episodes didn't even get reviewed. But it had been felt by the time of Foreign Affairs in 1964 that Bootsie & Snudge had outstayed their welcome and it seems the slight change in characters did little to renew the appeal. In fact publicity for Vacant Lot skipped over Foreign Affairs as if it never happened, with newspapers claiming it was their first return in 4 years which is when Bootsie & Snudge finished in 1963! Whilst the characters were different this time there were similarities to Bootsie and Snudge, particularly in the hierarchy dynamic of Fraser as boss and Bass as his dogsbody. Here though whilst both characters were again inept it is Bass's foreman Grimble who usually gets Bendlove out of the trouble he finds himself in, whereas Bootsie usually led Snudge into trouble rather than out of it. Not only did it get little notice in terms of reviews but story synopses were very scarce too. There wasn't much of a publicity push here given it was the return of two firm favourites of the start of the decade together again.

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The series was actually the brainchild of stars Bill Fraser and Alfie Bass. The two had remained firm friends following their Bootsie and Snudge days and lived relatively close-by in North London and met up regularly for a drink down the pub. In 1966 both moved homes in the same general area so still kept in touch via their usual pub get-together and this time discussed their moving and settling in woes, particularly around renovation, Alfie Bass being good with his hands and Fraser using building firms. This gave them the idea for a sitcom which they took to ABC TV, rather than their previous collaborator Granada. Whether Granada were offered it and turned it down or Bass and Fraser fancied a change I don't know but ABC loved the idea and commissioned the series. ABC bought a hearse for £100 to use in the series.

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The use of the hearse as a multi-purpose vehicle hearse-taxi-builders van led an accidental scene being filmed by the outside film unit when they were recording the hearse coming out of a yard into a main street. People going about their business not involved in filming removed their hats and stood still respectfully at the sight of the hearse until they noticed it was filled with planks and junk. They decided to keep the scene in as natural rather than refilm it.

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The series ran on ITV as follows;

 

1.1 Episode 1 - 01/04/1967*

The staff of Bendlove & Bodium are given the job of investigating a smelly cistern in a mansion house and become involved in a mistaken identity plot.

 

1.2 The Great Pay Snatch - 08/04/1967*

No synopsis given in papers.

 

1.3 Hats Off For The Gov'nor - 15/04/1967*

Alf Grimble overhears Mr Bendlove is suffering from Merulius Lacrymans Anobium Punctatum and it is highly contagious which has the workmen in a state of melancholia.

 

1.4 Partnership Bid - 22/04/1967*

Foreman Alf Grimble aspires to be a partner in the firm.

 

1.5 Room For Improvement - 29/04/1967*

Alf Grimble decides to get his bedroom decorated at the firm's expense.

 

1.6 The Golfers - 06/05/1967

No synopsis given in papers.

 

1.7 Criminal Negligence - 13/05/1967*

No synopsis given in papers.

 

*Sadly all 7 episodes were wiped and none have been recovered since so it's unfortunately another one we'll never see again. It never saw a repeat before it was wiped either so you had one shot to see it.

 

Only four of the seven episodes get brief synopses in the contemporary newspapers, the plots of the other three episodes are unknown.

 

The first episode wasn't given a title in the listings but the subsequent episodes were. It's possible the first episode was designed as a pilot but then shown sequentially with the series rather than well in advance.

 

Bill Fraser would go on to do another sitcom around the funeral parlour business, called That's Your Funeral, in 1971 (which can also be found in these Forgotten SItcom pages). By quirk of fate despite being 8 years between them, both stars and friends would die just two months apart with Bass dying aged 71 on 16th July 1987 of a heart attack in Barnet General Hospital and Fraser followed aged 79 on 5th September 1987 of emphysema in a nursing home in Bushey, Hertfordshire.