248 Rocky O' Rourke

First  watched :    3  March  1976

In  amongst   the  historical  serials  and  Home  Counties-set  dramas  such  as  Kizzy  and  Jumbo  Spencer , the  Beeb  lobbed  in  this  bracing  four-parter  about  a  gang  of  kids  in  Liverpool.  It  was  adapted  by  Sylvia  Sherry  from  her  own  novel   A  Pair  of  Jesus  Boots   and  produced  by  Anna  Home  who,  not  too  long  after,  commissioned  Grange  Hill  . This   short  series  can   be  seen  as  something  of  a  forerunner  to  that   in  its  realism  and  focus  on  the  urban   working  class.

There's  nothing  but  the  badly  recorded  theme  tune  on  YouTube  and  I  wish  I  could  remember  a  bit  more  about  it. Rocky  was  a  young  lad  on  the  cusp  of  following  his  brother  into  criminality  but  actually  would  prefer  to  play  football  if  only  he  could  acquire  suitable  footwear.  That's  about  it  really.

You  might  expect  that  the  young  cast  would  be  full  of  the  usual  Scouse  suspects  - Michael  Angelis, Andrew  Schofield, perhaps  the  odd  McGann  -  but  no  , none  of  the  names  are  familiar. Rocky  was  played  by  Michael  Mills  who  did  very  little  else  and  James  Hoey, Peter  Chan, Eamon  Deery  and   Alan  Pope  are  equally  obscure.