| Genre: | Sitcom |
| Runtime: | 30 mins |
| Theme Music Composer: | Cradle to the Grave by Squeeze |
| Director: | Sandy Johnson |
| Starring: | Laurie Kynaston Peter Kay Lucy Speed Frankie Wilson Alice Sykes |
| Channel: | BBC Two |
| Num Series: | 1 |
| Num Episodes: | 8 |
| Company: | ITV Studios |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
| Executive Producer: | Danny Baker |
| Producer: | Kate Crowther |
Cradle to Grave is a British sitcom set around the life of Danny Baker. It began airing on 3 September 2015.[1] The sitcom stars Laurie Kynaston as Danny Baker, Peter Kay, and actress Lucy Speed as Danny Baker's parents.
It is 1973 and 15-year-old Danny is our guide through the ups and downs of life with the Baker family.Dad Fred, nicknamed 'Spud', is a proud South London docker with a penchant for schemes. Wife Bet loves him but longs for the family to go 'straight' and do daft things like pay taxes and put money in the electricity meter instead of always trying to scam it. With eldest daughter Sharon's wedding looming, the docks facing closure, and a switch to the dreaded 'containerisation', which will put thousands of dockers out of work, times are challenging. So, too, are Danny's attempts to get closer to the opposite sex.
With an accompanying soundtrack combining songs from the era with material from Squeeze's Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook, Cradle to Grave is based on actual events and characters.
The series is based on Danny Baker's autobiography Going to Sea in a Sieve, covering Baker's life in south London during the 1970s.[2] A second series was commissioned, but delayed after Peter Kay's cancellation of work plans for family reasons,[3] and seemingly subsequently not written.
Sean O'Grady of The Independent criticised the accents as "a load of old pony".[4] Jasper Rees of The Daily Telegraph was more positive, describing it as "niftily scripted" and a "savvy, up-to-the-minute comedy" despite its 1970s setting, and "a lot closer to the knuckle – and far funnier – than anything in, say, The Liver Birds or The Likely Lads".[5] Chortles Steve Bennett was positive about the cast and soundtrack, and described the first episode as "frequently funny, with an episodic structure that delivers wry character-led laughs with the regularity of a sketch show", but noted that it lacked "a consistent tone or strong narrative"[6] whilst Euan Ferguson of The Observer described it as "enjoyable, but little more".[7]