573 Boys From The Black Stuff

First  viewed  :  31  October  1982

We  reach  a  real  landmark  here  with  my  nomination  for  the  Beeb's  greatest  drama  series  ever.  The  series  followed  on  from  the  single  play  "The  Black  Stuff"  ( covered  in  the  Play  For  Today  post )   and  caught  up  with  the  members  of  the  tarmac  gang  back  in  Liverpool. The  amount  of  time that  had  elapsed  since  their  Middlesbrough  misadventure  wasn't  specified  but  couldn't  have  been  more  than  two  or  three  years  at  most. There  aren't  too  many  references  back  to  the  original  play; foreman  Dixie  still  isn't  speaking  to  the  rest  of  them  and  Yosser  is  said  to  be  "off  his  head  since  Middlesbrough"  but  that's  about  it  so  sadly  Yosser  still  doesn't  find  those  damned  tinkers. All  the  original  cast  who  were  needed  returned  to  their  roles.

I  was  interested  from  the  start  but  the  original  series  on  BBC 2  was  on  a  bit  late  for  Sunday  evening. Some  consciousness  that  my  A  Level  exams  were  not  too  far  off   was  beginning  to  manifest  itself. I  remember  people  at  school  talking  about  the  first  episode    but  that  died  off  a  bit  with  the  subsequent  two. However  I  decided  I  couldn't  miss  the  fourth  episode  which  concentrated  on  Yosser  so  that's  where  I  first  came  in. A  quick  repeat  on  BBC1  in  the  New  Year  allowed  me  to  catch  up  soon  enough .

There  are  five  episodes  in  all; although  the  latter  four  focus  on  an  individual  character  there  are  narrative  links  that  put  them  in  chronological  order.  Alan  Igbon's  character  Loggo  doesn't  get  his  own  episode  ; as  a  single  guy  he  didn't  offer  the  same  dramatic  possibilities. The  first  re-introduces  the  characters  against  a  backdrop  of  mass  unemployment   in  the  city   and  an  ongoing  battle  between  the  shysters  running  a  black  economy  and  the  benefit  fraud  investigators  of  the  D.O.E.  It  sets  the  tragi-comic  tone  of  the  series   by  incorporating   both   Yosser's  spectacularly  inept  attempt  at  wall-building  and  the  death  of  George's  son  ( not  featured  in  the  original  play )  during  a  D.O.E.  raid .

The  second, least  celebrated,  episode  focuses  on  Dixie  ( Tom  Georgeson ), the  others  having  a  very  minor  part  in  it. He  isn't  in  such  dire  financial  straits  as  the  others  but  still  needs  to  work . He  finds  a  job  as  a  security  guard  at  what  remains  of  the  docks  but  it  soon  becomes  clear  he  has to  acquiesce  in  criminal  activity  which  the  principled  Dixie  finds  very  difficult  to  accept . It's  the  episode  that  features  Kevin  ( Gary  Bleasdale  )  the  most; a  major  character  in  the  original  play, it  was  a  bit  disappointing  that  he  was  relegated  to  a  minor  role  in  the  series.

The  third  episode  is  concerned  with   Chrissie  ( Michael  Angelis )  and   focuses   on  the  impact  that  unemployment  is  having  on  his  relationship  with  his   wife  Angie  ( Julie  Walters ) who  now  found  his  easy-going  attitude  infuriating . Although  the  constant  cat-fighting  does  become  a  bit  wearing,  it  established  Angelis  and  Walters, both  previously  known  as  comic  actors, as  serious  players.

The  fourth  episode  is  just  mind-blowing  with  a  tour  de  force  performance  from  Bernard  Hill  as  Yosser Hughes , his life  as  an  alpha  male  unravelling  as  fast  as  his  mental  state, that  has  been  rightly  lauded . All  the  best-remembered  moments  in  the  series  are  in  this  one  - "Gizza job", "I'm  desperate, Dan", the  exquisitely  uncomfortable  encounter  with  Graeme  Souness  and  Sammy  Lee, the  brutal  fight  with  the  police  and  the  junior  headbutt  on  the  social  worker -  but  you  can  watch  it  over  and  over  again  and  still  be  moved. Yosser  became  something  of  a  poster  boy  for  the  unemployed  as  well  as  a  Scouse  anti-hero  whose  name  was  chanted  at  Anfield. Hill  was  troubled  by  all  this  and  for  a  long  time  refused  to  talk  about  the  series.

The  fifth  one  is  about   George   Malone ( Peter  Kerrigan  ) whose   declining  health  has  been  an  issue  since  the  first  play. In  that  respect , the  outcome  is  fairly  predictable. That's  not  the  main  problem  I  have  with  it  though. I  just  think  the  canonisation  of  George  as  the  patron  saint  of  shop  stewards  is  over-the-top, the  queue  of  people  at  his  home  waiting  for  his  sage  advice,  ludicrous  and  far-fetched. The  episode  does  redeem  itself  after  his  funeral  with  the  glorious   scene  at  the  pub  in  which  Yosser  slays  the  ghastly  bully  "Shake  Hands"  in  his  usual  fashion, restoring  some  male  pride  at  last.

The  series  was   praised  to  the  skies  and  rightly  so  a  far  as  its  dramatic  qualities  go. It's  a  bit  more  difficult  to  accept  the  contention  that  it  was  a  great  protest  against  Thatcherism  since  much  of  the  material  was  already  written  before  she  came  to  power. As  for  its  political  impact.  well, barely  six  months  later,  Thatcher  was  returned  with  a  more  than  tripled  majority. Tory  wet  Ian  Gilmour  wrote  that  in  1981  Rupert  Murdoch  had  informed  him "that  nowadays  nobody  cared  about  unemployment, including  apparently  the  unemployed, and  that  inflation  was  all  that  mattered". Perhaps  he  knew  something  we  didn't.