Set in North London, it starred Paul Nicholas as vet and divorced father of two, James Shepherd, Angharad Rees as his ex-wife Helen DeAngelo, and Jane Briers as quirky veterinary nurse Rose.
Each episode featured James Shepherd's attempts to juggle life as the single father of two teenagers, while running a busy veterinary practice.
Actor and comedian Stephen Frost was a regular guest star during series one, playing Helen DeAngelo's Italian second husband Frank.
His veterinary practice is based in his home, with the result that he finds it impossible to escape the dual pressures of fatherhood and running his business.
Initially, she had custody of their children, but when Helen remarried, 19-year-old Kate (Lucy Benjamin) and 14-year-old Robbie (Andrew Read) moved back in with their father.
In series one, the situation focuses primarily on the domestic difficulties James faces, bringing up teenage children as a single father while dealing with a clingy and unpredictable ex-wife.
In series one, James' work as a vet served to provide sub-plots featuring cute animals which would appeal to a family audience and inject comedic caricature pet owners.
In series two, James' work provided the catalyst for the introduction of new love interest Vicki (Pippa Guard), who runs a local city farm.
Recently widowed, she initially finds James infuriating, particularly when he lets a ram loose in a field of ewes at her farm, crashes his Range Rover into her car and accidentally covers her in profiteroles.
Meanwhile, having discovered that new husband Frank is having an affair with a 22-year-old in Italy, Helen harbours hopes of a reconciliation with James, and does her best to derail his relationship with Vicky at every opportunity.
James' and Vicky's storyline in series two relegated the importance of the weekly surgery comedy caricature cameos, and also eclipsed the character of Rose.
She became a clownish figure who would invariably enter at unforeseen moments, wearing outlandish costumes which related to her almost mythical past experiences.
Close to Home delivered few belly-laughs, but provided gentle, inoffensive comedy aimed squarely at a Sunday evening family audience.
Further character-led humour came from the charmingly naive, yet irrepressible Helen who believed she was always right, and reformed thug Frank whose character was nicely at odds with the otherwise cosy feel of this sitcom.
Scenes would frequently end with a sharp one-liner delivered by Kate or Robbie, and their banter often included inspired put-downs directed at each other.
These cameos were played with aplomb by a succession of familiar bit-part comedy actors, who often delivered some of the funniest scenes of each episode.
While living and working in the United States, Cooke developed the idea for Starting from Scratch, and a single season, comprising 23 episodes, was made and aired in the U.S. between 1 October 1988 and 27 May 1989.
[1][2] With production of Starting from Scratch underway, Cooke returned to the UK to oversee the creation of Close to Home, which was produced by the ITV London weekend franchise holder LWT, in association with the U.S. distributor Worldvision Enterprises.
The first series had been entirely based in the Shepherd household, but this storyline required a substantial amount of location filming at the city farm which Guard's character ran.
James Shepherd (Paul Nicholas) – A forty-something, single father of two teenagers who has his own veterinary practice specialising in the treatment of domestic pets.
While having a warm heart and generous nature (he seldom seems to charge customers for his services as a vet), his sharp wit is sometimes taken the wrong way by prospective girlfriends and clients.
She has variously mentored Elton John, lived with a Native American tribe, worked as a snake charmer and been married five times.
[5] Father and son team Brian and Warren Bennett wrote the original theme tune and incidental music for both series of Close to Home.
For series two, these titles were replaced with a more modern CGI sequence featuring each principal cast member superimposed in front of a dark blue background, with various pets passing through frame behind them, laughing.