gee-15 Maggie and Andrew Prentice are entering their golden years and planning on a life of retirement leisure in the south of France when their estranged son, Graham and his wife perish in an auto accident leaving behind their three children(a girl and two boys) whom Maggie and Andrew barely know and now must care for. The series deals with how the five of them adjust to each other under exceptionally trying circumstances (They don't initially like each other very much). Believe it or not, this is a comedy! And a funny one it is despite the morbid subject matter.Penelope Keith creates a memorable character in Maggie Prentice, an abrasive, easily irritated and self-involved woman who has the chance to make up for the years of neglect of her own son by caring for his three children. William Gaunt is also very good as the more easygoing of the two grandparents (with a tendency to drink too much) who must also make some extreme sacrifices to do the right thing by his grandchildren.Wisely, this series has kept the more treacly moments to a minimum and so when they come they are all the more powerful as they indicate, fairly realistically, that grandparents and grandchildren are beginning to care for each other despite the conflicts that rage in the household daily. Some of the best moments: Andrew discovers that his grandson, Phillip, believes he is responsible for his parents' death and helps him cope; Georgia, the teen-aged daughter who is difficult at best, has stopped eating believing that no one likes her and it is up to Maggie to reassure her; and the last moments of the last episode of the series (shame on BBC for canceling it!) when Maggie receives a Mother's Day card from Phillip.Bottom line: highly recommended

davidcarmon4 DOES CONTAIN SOME DETAILS OF EPISODES AND Story lines FEATURED.Starting in 1995 Next of Kin joined a long list of hit BBC sitcoms.Like 2 Point 4 Children it was based around a family, 2 grandparents (Penelope Keith and William Gaunt) Maggie and Andrew Prentice who after their estranged Son Graham and his Wife (They call her 'Bootface') are killed in a car crash, are left with their grandchildren, Georgia (Ann Gosling), Philip (Matthew Clarke) and Jake (Jamie Lucraft) not to mention their collection of animals.To make life more difficult for Maggie and Andrew the children come with their own different needs, not only is Georgia an environmentalist, she is also a vegetarian and comes with her own special dry sense of humour. Philip only eats Spam, nothing else. He also discovers girls, one in particular, Roxanne who owns a very large dog called Die Hard (you can sense the jokes that this brings). He is more reserved than Georgia but can more than speak up for himself. Jake won't eat anything that is round. He loves stick insects, pigeons, hamsters, rabbits, parrots and almost all animals. He is also sick if he stands on his head for too long.Series 1 sees the initial fallout after the death of the children's parents and Maggie & Andrews realisation that they will not be retiring to France. Their cleaner Liz is also on hand to help out but gets rather distracted by Tom, a builder, hired to add another bedroom to the house.Series 2 sees Liz and Toms relationship develop further and Liz becomes pregnant. The children's relationship with their grandparents is still being put to the test on a daily basis with party's, puppies, sports days and even a spot of camping, which is not to Maggies liking at all.Series 3 - The Last, sees Georgia believing that nobody likes her and starves herself for 3 days in an attempt to get attention. Philips interest in Roxanne grows and is put to the test when she invites him over to stay - when her parents are out! Philip flees home and confesses to Andrew about where he has been.Next door want to move as they want their peace and quiet back, only to sell their house to a family of Hells Angels. Jake tries to shave and starts to use deodorant(too much). Philip goes to Swan Lake, with another girl, much to Roxannes annoyance. Georgia goes on a demonstration and hugs a treeThey all have a canal boat holiday , which turns into one of the best episodes along with the final episode 'The Bully' which sees Philip being blackmailed by a boy from his school.The last scene, rather fittingly is of Maggie pulling an envelope from Philips coat pocket (thinking it is yet another school letter she is never destined to read) and opening it to find it is in fact a Mothers Day card.Overall i think this series deserved at least another series to wrap it up. The story could have easily developed even further as the children got older. The ratings weren't dreadful, the show held it's own in its time slot, but the BBC decided to drop it, much to the dismay of Penelope Keith who did a fine job in the role of Maggie. All the actors did an excellent job.Yes it wasn't always 'Laugh Out Loud' comedy, it was more like 'As Time Goes By' with its gentle humour and slower pace than some of its contemporaries. But it was GOOD!The premise of the show was repeated, in a slightly altered version (Mans wife leaves and dumps the kids on him AND his Mother In-Law!) in another BBC1 sitcom 'After You've Gone' which coincidentally, also only lasted for 3 series despite getting decent viewing figures. How the mind boggles.

Syl Penelope Keith CBE OBE is better remembered for her roles as Audrey Fforbes-Hamilton in "To the Manor Born" and "The Good Life" as Marjery Ledbetter. In this series which was prematurely shortened, she and William Gaunt plays parents and grandparents who must raise their three orphaned grandchildren after their son and daughter-in-law have died in a car accident. The children are now orphaned and now must be raised by their grandparents who are not normally affectionate towards children even their own son. The news and circumstances that they must endure but the writers do a splendid job in bringing the unlikely pair of grandparents who probably would prefer traveling the world rather than raising their own grandchildren. This show could have been a hit if it was allowed too.

Nick Zbu I remember viewing this show on a local PBS station. While I do have a taste for British comedy, the whole dramatic premise just kills it. It could be have been brilliant but the whole idea is flawed: why should we care about three whiny know-it-all brats being taken care of their until-now-unknown grandparents? It's not a show as much as it's being at the funeral of a stranger: you don't know where you fit in, but you rather just be somewhere else. That's how I felt, and felt better when I turned the channel.