Adrian Albert Mole, born 2 April, 1967, is one of Britain's most beloved fictional characters. The brainchild of novelist Sue Townsend, Adrian Mole is the central character, or rather the narrator, of one of the longest-running sagas in British literature, as well as an acute commentary on British society from the 1980s to the late '90s.

The Leicester born-and-bred Adrian Mole is the fictional author of a grand total of seven diaries, following him from 'age 13 and 3/4' to age 31: in order of publication, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, aged 13 and 3/4, The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole; The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole, Adrian Mole and the Small Amphibian (the latter only available in the collection Adrian Mole: from Minor to Major), Adrian Mole: the Wilderness Years and Adrian Mole: the Cappuccino Years. Bridget Jones¹, eat your heart out...

The Character of Adrian Mole

The first-born (and, at the start of the saga, only) child of George and Pauline Mole, Adrian likes to call himself 'an intellectual'. Much of the humour in the books stems from Adrian's exaggerated perception of his intellectual capabilities, derived largely from his love of literature, which seems to have improved his vocabulary but not his overall intelligence. Adrian often comes across as pedantic, dim-witted, hapless, jingoistic and callous, but despite his many flaws it is easy to sympathise with him. His personal habits and little fixations are quintessentially, traditionally British; and while the world around him evolves and moves towards the 21st Century, Adrian clings stubbornly to them. His imperviousness to change becomes a great source of humour in the later books of the saga. He does, however, possess a caring heart, which endears him to the reader despite his occasional obnoxiousness.

The Ongoing Story and Principal Characters

It is rather hard to summarise the whole Adrian Mole saga, which starts out, as already mentioned, in 1981, two years after the Thatcher government came to power. Adrian is a schoolboy at a Leicester comprehensive school; his best friends are the beautiful, sophisticated Pandora Braithwaite (soon to become his first girlfriend and one true love of his life) and Nigel (the most dynamic and ever-changing of all characters).

His family are his mother, Pauline Mole née Sugden, a flighty, wanton and free-spirited woman who married her way out of the potato fields of Norfolk; his father, George Mole, an insecure and rather inept man; his grandmother, Edna May Mole, a bossy, old-fashioned lady; his Auntie Susan Mole, a prison guard; and the rarely-seen but very funny Sugdens, Pauline's family from the potato fields.

Adrian lives a relatively quiet and uneventful life, exploring adolescence and its changes and observing the world around him with a mixture of wile, obtuseness and resilience. His parents all but neglect him; both of them have affairs, which later result in the birth of a half-brother (Brett, from his father's adulterous relationship with Doreen 'Stick Insect' Slater) and possibly also in the birth of Rosemary Germaine Mole, Adrian's little sister, whose paternity is never fully cleared (her father, in fact, may not be George Mole, but possibly 'Rat Fink' Lucas, the Moles' neighbour and Pauline's ex-lover).

Meanwhile, Adrian finds love in Pandora, but as the pair grow they also grow apart. Pandora goes to college in Oxford, where she studies Russian, Serbo-Croat and Mandarin, graduates, marries her first husband (who is openly gay), has several liaisons and gradually leaves Adrian behind, eventually moving in with an ageing professor of linguistics, Jack Cavendish. Pandora later takes up politics and becomes a Labour MP for the Ashby-de-La-Zouch constituency in Leicestershire.

Conversely Adrian, having failed most of his A Levels, ends up working as a librarian first, then as a clerk at the Department of the Environment. His repeated attempts at writing and publishing his ludicrous novel (provisionally called Lo! The Flat Hills of My Homeland, and later re-titled Birdwatching) are the source of great humour, as are his ever-faltering career and dismal love life.

A great turning point in the plot is Adrian's move to London, where he follows his new girlfriend, Bianca Dartington, and subsequently takes up a job as dishwasher at a posh restaurant, named 'Savage's'.

After Bianca leaves him for Adrian's mother's new husband (23-year-old engineering student Martin Muffett), Adrian befriends and later marries the beautiful JoJo, a Nigerian immigrant and artist. Their marriage produces William, who may or may not be Adrian's first-born son, according to whether Glenn, the son of his ex-lover Sharon Bott, is or isn't his...

The plot is very convoluted, and also includes Adrian's lifelong rivalry with ex-school bully-turned-skinhead poet and successful writer Barry Kent, his attempts at reclaiming Pandora, his relationship with his mother and father and with Bert Baxter and his wife Queenie, two elderly pensioners Adrian alternatively would like to shake off and does not have the heart to.

Social Commentary

Adrian is a faithful, if biased, chronicler of his times: his diaries report on all the major events, from the Falklands war to the marriage of Charles and Diana, down to Diana's death in 1997. These events are always viewed from the perspective of Adrian and the other characters. Most of the characters (with the possible exception of Pandora's gay husband Julian Twyselton-Fyfe, who is but a minor character) belong to the lower-middle classes, bar the Kents, who are on welfare and living in poverty. The flaws of the British welfare system are one of the many targets of Adrian's unwitting commentary (see the 'giro entries', in which Adrian's mother, who is pregnant with Rosie and has been abandoned by her husband, waits in vain for the social security cheque). Other targets are Margaret Thatcher's government, the war (which claims one of Barry Kent's older brothers) and the British monarchy (Adrian is a keen supporter of the institution, but one senses that Sue Townsend is not².) The saga also tackles themes as diverse as racial integration, feminism and abortion. Feminism does indeed play a significant role in the development of the story, as Pauline Mole's behaviour and her attitude to her spouse, housework and herself undergo a dramatic change after reading The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer (which, incidentally, is also where Rosie's middle name comes from).

Another, more light-hearted, target are the passing fads of the 1980s and '90s, conveyed mostly through the continuous changes in look and behaviour of Adrian's friend Nigel, who goes from being a Rastafarian to wearing orange Hare Krishna robes and shaving his head. Nigel, who also becomes a gay activist, is also representative of the non-judgmental manner in which homosexual characters are portrayed, which includes Adrian's aunt, Susan Mole, who is a lesbian, and the aforementioned Julian Twyselton-Fyfe.

The Television Series

In 1985 and 1987, two television series were adapted from the first two books, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 and 3/4, and The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole. Made by Thames television, they each comprised six half-hour programmes - except for the very first episode which was an hour long - and were originally broadcast in the UK on ITV. The theme song, Profoundly in Love with Pandora, was sung by Ian Dury.

Cast list

• Adrian Mole - Gian Sammarco
• Pauline Mole (series one) - Julie Walters
• Pauline Mole (series two) - Lulu
• George Mole - Stephen Moore³
• Pandora Braithwaite - Lindsey Stagg
• May Mole (Gran) - Beryl Reid
• Bert Baxter - Bill Fraser
• Queenie Baxter - Doris Hare

At the time of writing, both series have been released on VHS but not on DVD.

In 2001, a television adaptation of The Cappuccino Years was screened in the UK on BBC One. The series comprised six 30-minute episodes, and detailed Adrian's humorous, and often touching life as a father, single-parent and provincial man.

Cast List

• Adrian Mole - Steven Mangan
• Pauline Mole - Alison Steadman
• George Mole - Alun Armstrong
• Ivan Braithwaite - Alan Hazeldine
• Tanya Braithwaite - Zoe Wanamaker
• Pandora Braithwaite MP - Helen Baxendale
• Peter Savage - Keith Allen
• Nigel Hetherington - Roderic Colver

Why Write About It?

Well, the books are hysterically funny, especially the first two instalments, when Adrian's haplessness and naivety have not yet started to jar with his age. As the saga progresses, however, the humour becomes a little more strident, and it is easier to be irritated by Adrian than to laugh at him. He is never in on the joke, and his rare flashes of self-awareness, when he realises what an utter failure he is (but really, who isn't?) are never strong enough to motivate him to change his life (or wise up...). The last book, The Cappuccino Years, ends on a somber note, when Adrian finally grows into a man and takes charge of his life and of his sons.

Related sites

Adrian Mole's Diary