James Shelley, an educated, sardonic, permanently unemployed "professional freelance layabout," has many battles with authority, the tax-man, his landlady, and his girlfriend Fran.
Peter Tilbury
7 Episodes
1979
6 Episodes
1980
7 Episodes
1980
6 Episodes
1982
6 Episodes
1982
6 Episodes
1983
6 Episodes
1988
Shelley is (still) separated from Fran, and lives on his own, doing his best to avoid obtaining gainful employment. The series begins with Shelley returning to the UK from Kuwait after teaching English for several years, only to find that his calls to his old friends are now screened by answering machines and that yuppieness has taken root in his old neighbourhood.
13 Episodes
1989
6 Episodes
1990
6 Episodes
1992
Shelley is now a lodger with Ted Bishop. Ted's house is the only one left in his street, the other residences having been demolished to make way for a leisure centre. Shelley moves in as lodger to help Ted with his fight against the developers who want to demolish the house Ted has lived in his whole life.