629 The Gathering Seed

First  viewed  : 7  September  1983

This  was  the  final  TV series  for  left  wing  playwright  Jim  Allen , ( of  The  Spongers  fame ).  Set  in  Collyhurst  , the  six-part  BBC2  serial  followed  the  fortunes  of  a  young  man,  Joe  Henshaw,  from  an  impoverished  childhood  in  the  thirties, service  in  the  war  and  industrial  disputes  in  the  fifties. It  starred  a  young   David  Threlfall  as  Joe   and  the  cast  also  featured  James  Ellis, Brenda  Fricker  and  Peter  Kerrigan..

Opening  with  a  bare  knuckle  fight  between  two  middle-aged  men. it  was  grimy, sombre  and  violent. I  watched  half  an  hour  of  the  first  episode  and  that  was  enough . The  series   was  poorly  received  and  has  never  been  repeated.

Allen  went  on  to  write  a  number  of   screenplays  for  Ken  Loach  and  died  of  cancer  in  1999.