Information for This Happy Breed at Palace Court Theatre, Bournemouth (Play). London family saga. This Happy Breed covers the broad sweep of twenty years, from June 1919 to June 1939. Against the background of great international events of the time - the General Strike, the abdication of Edward VIII, and the rise of Hitler - Coward reveals the lives of the recently demobbed Frank Gibbons and his typically suburban family and friends.