Dear Bob is a series of snap-shots of life in Middlesbrough in the early 1930s. Each week Bob's mam writes to him on HMS Norfolk, giving him all the news from the town. It's the height of the Depression and Teesside is badly hit by unemployment and the Means Test. Life is certainly tough for Mam and her neighbours in Grove Hill. But Mam always finds something to smile about.

Dear Bob has a cast of hilarious and unforgettable characters: Dad with his nose in the Dictionary, little Jimmy with his nose inside a comic, the unemployed who put the world to rights every day in Stan Cole's shed, Ta Ta Pet the insurance-man, above all Mam herself, who tells the story with typical Teesside wit, warmth and wisdom.