Boys from the Blackstuff (including The Black Stuff)
Feb 12, 2016 13:52:40 GMT
Gene Hunt, The Saint, and 6 more like this
Post by Dirty Epic on Feb 12, 2016 13:52:40 GMT
Felt it was about time to do a review of what is arguably Alan Bleasdale’s best television work. Apologies if for the length of the post but it’s not something you can sum up in a few words.
Having trouble adding a spoiler for this thread so apologies for those who haven't seen it
It all begins with the 1978 (shown 1980) Play for Today The Blackstuff. We are introduced to a group of tarmac workers from Liverpool, ‘Yosser’ Hughes (Bernard Hill), ‘Loggo’ Logmond (Alan Igbon), ‘Dixie’ Dean (Tom Georgeson), Chrissie Todd (Michael Angelis) and George Malone (Peter Kerrigan).
Their backstories are touched upon briefly but it introduces you what would be developed further in Boys from the Blackstuff. Yosser not as unhinged as we see him later on is a jealous man with big dreams but not enough nous to achieve them – he once blew a lifetime opportunity to earn big money in Saudi Arabia for example. He’s impulsive and violent to his wife/women and anyone who crosses him. Yet he is very loving and protective to his children (sic). Loggo is roguish the cheeky chappie of the bunch. Dixie’s the uptight foreman. He sees himself a cut above the others and wants better for his family like son Kevin (Gary Bleasdale) who has just left school and want’s him in the tarmac gang. Chrissie’s an amenable drifter happy to plod along with whatever life brings and do what others want. George is perhaps the most steadfast of the group. A former docker, staunch socialist and self educated he got blacklisted in the 1950’s for union activities and has since worked on the ‘black stuff’. They all work for McKenna’s (David Calder) tarmac company and travel to Middlesbrough to work on a new housing estate. McKenna however has doubts about Dixie’s ability to control his ‘gang’ and is on the verge of firing him. Dixie knows this and is more uptight than usual. Dixie also has to deal with an over zealous site manager. Yosser, Loggo, Chrissie and to some extent George however cause Dixie no end of headaches with their site/off site activities which go from bad to worse when a group of travellers approach the lads with a offer to tarmac a farmers drive for cash. Dixie doesn’t want to know and warns to other lads not to either but Yosser – deluded by the idea of it being a stepping stone to set up in business for himself, convinces the others to moonlight with McKenna’s equipment and do the job. Unknown to them McKenna knows about their plans and fires them all – including Dixie and George who despite being a businessman McKenna has political sympathy for. The travellers double cross them and have been paid by the farmer and are ready to take off – despite Yosser’s attempts to stop them, with their expected pay day. Inevitably Yosser reacts violently to this attacking anyone Irish who gets in his way – traveller or not, and even Chrissie who stops him futilely breaking up tarmac on the farmers drive for being ‘too nice’.
Jobless, skint and not knowing what the future holds it sets things up nice for the main 5-part series Boys from the Blackstuff.
Fast forward 1982 and (right or wrong) a Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher with a free market agenda that can’t/won’t aid the old industries which are dying and high unemployment in many major British cities like Liverpool at that time.
‘Jobs for the Boys’. The boys are long term unemployed, (mostly) struggling to make ends meet and signing on at the local unemployment benefit office. Chrissie manages to get some short term black market work for Malloy a rogue Irish construction contractor – played by The Sweeney’s own Pat Shaw from Taste of Fear (Shay Gorman). He enlists his mate Loggo along with George’s son ‘Snowy’ Malone (Chris Darwin) a left wing activist and a unemployed fitters mate Jimmy Johnson (Vince Earl) to work with him. Dixie is approached but still aggrieved by what the lads did to him in Middlesbrough clears Chrissie from his doorstep. Unknown to Chrissie and the other lads the DHSS are investigating them. Snoopers – albeit the bumbling, Donald Moss (David Ross) and Lawton (David Neilson) track them down to Malloy’s construction site near Liverpool city centre. Whilst on the job Yosser turns up on the site with his children and confronts Malloy for a job knowing he’s employing black labour. Reluctantly Malloy agrees to hire him for the day however Yosser’s mental state has significantly worsened since Middlesbrough. His wife has left him, no prospect of a job and struggling to look after himself let alone his children. When Loggo and more forcefully Malloy confront Yosser about a wall he can’t build Malloy ‘sacks’ Yosser who head-butt’s Malloy and jokes about ‘sacking someone on the dole’. Snowy’s political views get made fun of by Loggo, however he also speaks some sense to Chrissie about a lack pride in work/society when seeing the cowboy job someone did on a new bannister (see later). The DHSS move in, Moss and Lawton almost cock it up and the lads try and make their escape. Tragically Snowy is killed when trying to use a rope he rigged onto the dodgy bannister to abseil out of the building. In shock Chrissie and Loggo stay with Snowy but Chrissie urges Jimmy to escape as he didn’t really know them or Snowy. A snivelling Malloy pleads with Chrissie to tell the DHSS he hired them legitimately that day but angered Chrissie has none of it and it ends with Chrissie, Loggo and Malloy being cautioned by the DHSS investigators and Jimmy escaping into the general malaise of the Royal Liverpool Hospital.
‘Moonlighter’. Once proud foreman ‘Dixie’ Dean has been reduced to illegally working as a night-time security guard on the docks. Dockers like Aitch (Tony Haygarth) and Scotty (Paul Barber) make fun of him and openly mock security at the docks blatantly pilfering cargo’s in front of him. They see Dixie as ‘shite dregs from the dole’. Dixie also thinks he’s under investigation by the DHSS and is strung out. Coming back from a shift at the docks Chrissie and Loggo are outside the Malone house for Snowy’s funeral. Dixie is respectful but when Chrissie tries to ‘make friends’ Dixie has none of it the Middlesbrough issue still being too raw and something he can’t forgive. Home life is very stressful and Dixie has several run-in’s with his wife and children particularly Kevin who although not going off the rails is going nowhere – simply lazes around the house. The DHSS are investigating but not Dixie his wife Freda (Elieen O’Brien) who has a side-line of posting leaflets into letterboxes for cash. Dixie catches wind of this and warns Freda off doing it for now – wise considering a snooper calls at the Dean house when Freda’s friends try and entice her to work with them. Malloy also appears at Dixie’s house promising work in front of the DHSS investigator but Dixie has none of it and clears him off. Back on the docks Dixie lets the dockers get on with things not knowing security chief Marley is involved with them in a cigarette scam. Whilst in the toilet bundles of cash are given to Dixie as an inducement for silence – by Marley? Warn out, frustrated and pig-sick about being part of an illegal scam Dixie returns home and seeks comfort with Freda. He also sees Kevin asleep and perhaps anticipating Kevin wanting to leave home/Liverpool for a better future leaves him with a bag and all of the money he received from Marley. The episode ends with Kevin hitchhiking by the M62 and picking up a lift to a unknown future.
‘Shop thy Neighbour’. It’s the aftermath of Chrissie being caught and charged by the DHSS and losing his benefit entitlement. There’s a heated row between Chrissie and his wife Angie (Julie Walters) over having no food in the house and Chrissie eating bread meant for his daughters breakfast. Underlying this Angie is frustrated with Chrissie’s plod through life nature, herself being dragged down with him and the reality of being destitute due to Chrissie’s bad life choices etc. Things are set to fall apart in the Todd household not helped by Chrissie’s interview with the DHSS. They threaten him and Loggo with prosecution – although case leader Miss Sutcliffe (Jean Boht) hints Malloy rather than Chrissie or Loggo is the one they want prosecuted. Things weigh heavy on Chrissie’s mind who feels certain he’ll receive a hefty fine he can’t pay and/or will go to prison. Chrissie’s lack of responsibility becomes apparent when the gas board cut them off to the dismay of Angie. Chrissie knew they were coming but forgot to tell her. There’s a fierce row between Chrissie and Angie who packs a suitcase and almost leaves him. Things aren’t helped when Malloy and Loggo come round and DHSS investigators storm Chrissie’s house for Malloy again setting off an exchange between him and Angie who goes to bed. Stewing in his living room Chrissie discovers loose change in a couch and after slashing it he discovers a Liverpool FC programme – a reminder of better days?, more change and a £5 note. Impulsively Chrissie uses the money to get drunk annoying Angie who feels he should’ve used it to help the situation. After telling Chrissie home truths, that she too isn’t going nowhere, that this was meant be ‘her time’ (college) and the holes in her shoes a jokey drunk remark from Chrissie stimulates Angie into action. Hitting him she pleads for Chrissie to get off his knees and ‘fight back’. Chrissie is also angered (perhaps more by the situation) that he’s a ‘second class citizen’ who has ‘no place’. After Angie matter of fact tells Chrissie to tell that to the empty cupboards Chrissie an animal lover impulsively kills his pigeons and geese to feed his family. Perhaps realising Chrissie is also at rock bottom the couple embrace each other – perhaps the first time in a long while!
‘Yossers Story’ is the most well known character and episode. Jobless, in the grip of a serious (usually violent) depression and a wife who left him long ago we begin with a dream of Yosser wading into Sefton Park’s boating lake with his three children. Onlookers are amused/don’t care and gradually his children disappear. Nor do Chrissie, Loggo and George who pass by seemingly prosperous on boats in the lake. Yosser begins to drown but wakes up frightened and in a sweat next to his children in his dirty/dilapidated house. Yosser can’t look after himself let alone his children (in real life Alan Bleasdale’s children) who’ve not attended school for a long while, although Yosser does love his (sic) children very much. Things get much worse when the DHSS, social services and education department all become involved along with Yosser’s ex-wife Maureen (Jean Warren) who details (possibly exaggerating) the violence he dealt out to her and lies about him being violent/abusing his children (he doesn’t) which she claims may not be his. Before the authorities make their move Yosser becomes increasingly delusional and erratic. He tries and badly fails to cook a meal for him and his children, asks ‘gis a job’ to random strangers, in defiance of his ex-wife goes on night’s out with his children at pubs where he meets Liverpool FC players like Graeme Souness, stalks his ex-wife who he again gets physical with after her latest boyfriend Moey (Peter Christian) kicks her out, clears off electricity board employees trying to cut off him off and shares his pain with derelict homeless drunks he may soon be in common with. The social services place his children in care which Yosser (and his children) resist violently and gets a brutally assaulted from the police in response. At his lowest ebb his house gets reposed by bailiff’s. For a change Yosser admits defeat and tells them to ‘have it’ after he takes a photo of his kids. Alone and wet in Liverpool city centre one of the drunk’s he met a while back accosts him. The drunk has the idea of smashing a window for a police cell for the night but is incapable of doing it. Yosser however throws a beer keg through the window and the police arrive. They arrest the drunk and aren’t interested in Yosser. In response Yosser head –butt’s a PC (Andrew Schofield) and gets arrested. On the drive back to the police station Yosser claims he’s going to be sick. After he is let out the car he runs for Sefton Park’s boating lake to drown himself. The police officers think he’s trying it on but after a while realise he’s serious and rescue/revive him to the pained cries of ‘No’ from Yosser.
‘George’s Last Ride’ could also be a autobiographical tale of actor Peter Kerrigan who also a docker in his youth and a socialist who got blacklisted for union activity. George is in very poor health but defiantly he’s showing the world (still signing on at his benefit office) and himself his illness won’t beat him. Nor will it stop him (trying) getting back to work and doing what he enjoys helping the members of his local community in Liverpool’s Dingle. They look up to George as a strong community figure that can help them sort out their problems. George wants to discharge himself from hospital. Although his doctor (a first screen role for Ricky Tomlinson) is unwilling to do this he considers that given his diagnosis and overall life expectancy returning home is the best thing for him. George returns home to his wife Mary (Jean Heywood) originally from the North East and also aligned to George’s socialist politics – she mentions involvement with the Jarrow March in her youth. George quickly returns to offering an advice and open house to members of his community including Yosser now living with his mum. George has a funny turn while with Yosser who mistakes it for something more serious but is alright and advises Yosser to ‘be himself and not something he’s not’ to get out of the hole he’s in. Seemingly in good spirits George invites his family for a meal. Sons Ritchie (Tony Scoggo) and John (John Carr) are also union men but unlike George or their late brother Snowy are more world weary and significantly less left wing – perhaps seeing the wind of change (individualism) Thatcherism is ushering in. This angers their mum Mary but George takes a more serious turn for the worse and his sons urge Mary for George has for once to put himself first. His nephew Chrissie takes George out for a tour of his dockland haunts and a few drinks. The pair end up in the Albert Dock where George once worked – now much changed from the abandoned/derelict buildings of 1982. Telling Chrissie tales of his past on the docks and life as a socialist more generally George is dying and his final thought on the desolation around him is ‘he can’t believe there is no hope’. Sadly George dies before him and Chrissie can have a pint in the Baltic Fleet. He’s laid to rest to the full respect of his local community. However perhaps a warning for the future many of his values, beliefs and the sense of community he has also die with him. Chrissie and Loggo observe a scene of chaos in the local pub after the funeral of mischievous youth, redundant workers intent on p***ing up their redundancy, terminal crazies like Yosser, ‘Shake Hands’ (Iggy Navarro) and the spiked whistling glass collector (Eric Granville) and a pub landlord (Sam Kelly) ready to throw in the towel. Chrissie and Loggo call it a day and observe the pub is a microcosm of everything that’s wrong at that time. Out-of-it Yosser even asks ‘Gis a Job’ to Chrissie and Loggo who walk off to a scene of another death of one of Liverpool’s once proud institutions the Tate & Lyle mill being demolished. Quite ironic as George and Chrissie’s Albert Dock scenes where filmed in what is now ‘The Colonnades’ is where Tate Liverpool is.
Boys from the Blackstuff may not be for everyone on this forum but in my opinion it’s a gripping and possible as realistic as it gets account of what life was like for people unemployed in the early 1980’s. Yes the characters were complicit in their own downfall but the failed economics of the 1970’s (both Conservative/Labour) and more directly the converse free-market, ‘managed decline’ policies of Thatcher/Conservative party (which also weren’t working at that time) did leave many major industrial cities like Liverpool like wastelands - for example 50,000 dock workers (let alone those from other industries) became unemployed on Merseyside during the 1970’s. The political debate I won’t get into here but there were real life characters like Chrissie, Dixie and Yosser who were casualties in a maelstrom of economic and social change during and after this period. A good thing Alan Bleasdale did with the main 5-part series was get into the heads of the main characters. I felt Moonlighter was equally as strong as Yosser’s Story in as much as it showed the silent cry of Dixie generally a decent man wanting the best for his family being reduced to a ‘dreg from the dole’ and becoming involved with corrupt dockers and security officers on the docks. This and it’s stress takes it’s toll not just on him but his family and I hoped for better things for them in the future. Chrissie (similarly Loggo) is a drifter and his wife Angie (Julie Walters best performance?) wants him to get off his knees, fight back and do something! Maybe he will but I felt he would still be happy drifting along? Yosser and Yosser’s Story see’s the deluded dream of him being ‘a someone’ rapidly dying. He simply can’t take it and becomes paranoid, delusional, violent and depressed as a consequence. Some of this isn’t his fault but most of it isn’t and despite his despair Yosser’s Story is counterpointed by moments of sharp, surreal, mocking black humour. Recession or not I doubt Yosser would be any better off! George’s Last Ride is perhaps a little too over-sentimentalised. Yet it’s still very relevant and a good way to end things. His old values and traditions (union, socialism, community etc.) being discarded for a harsher more me-me-me future. +30 years on communities like George’s have gone from being close knit and welcoming to abandoned no go area’s. Still there are (some) good people in these communities and some of some of George’s old values still hold true today. Boys from the Blackstuff lets you into how it feels to be unemployed and unwanted by society and what that does. To the men, their families, self-esteem and sanity. It was that powerful Bernard Hill needed a break from acting after playing Yosser and rightly it won the 1982 BAFTA award for best drama series.
There has been nothing really comparable to this which is a shame as social-realism television has died on British television – not even things that Bleasdale did subsequently like GBH and as for his Oliver Twist adaptation… Boys from the Blackstuff superficially isn’t that relevant to today. But beyond it’s surface there’s still a underclass like these characters around today – perhaps more criminal than working class these days. Surely there’s a place for that kind of modern day socially real television as much as the stuff we’re getting these days. I’m sick to death of British Television being 18th century period costume drama or similar tosh like Call the Midwife, Mr Selfridge, and (FFS) Downton Abbey which show a sugar coated Britain and doesn’t represent the Britain I know and where it is heading. Even stuff like Shane Meadows This is England doesn’t really seem to work for me and was a little disappointed with it to be honest. As for Nick Love – behave! They’re not a patch on this or other things done by the likes of John MacKenzie, Alan Clarke, David Leland etc. Lazy TV executives and their ‘focus groups’ could do with watching this to see what was (and still could) be achieved within TV drama. A part of me would be intrigued if Alan Bleasdale resurrected these characters to see how they ended up over 30 years on? Yet most recent remakes/revivals (like Auf Pet for example) have been absolute rubbish in comparison to the original so in a way I’m glad it's a one off and of it's time.
Did Boys from the Blackstuff (along with similar Liverpool-set television) create, reinforce and play into the hands of negative Liverpool stereotypes? Maybe but I feel Alan Bleasdale wrote it honest (he knew similar people in Liverpool and nearby Huyton) and I see it more as a everyman insight to the struggles of working class people during this period. It could have easily been the tale of many other UK cities which declined and struggled during this period and Our Friends in the North for example depicts a similar situation of the 1984/85 Miners Strike having similar effects upon the mining towns of the North East too. Things like Bread (written by Carla Lane who mainly lives in a London mansion), Brookside, Harry Enfield – is not from Liverpool and openly admits hatred towards the city and ‘Professional Scousers’ like Jimmy Tarbuck, Cilla Black, Ken Dodd, John Bishop etc. did much more harm to and created/reinforced negative stereotypes of Liverpool than Boys from the Blackstuff ever did in my opinion and Liverpool does seem to get a much rougher ride on British television/media than other comparable cities in my opinion. Boys from the Blackstuff also made people and politicians sit up and take notice of the situation in Liverpool too. Since 1982 (particularly so since the 1990’s) the city has improved immensely and in many respects is unrecognisable from the city shown in Boys from the Blackstuff. Many of these stereotypes simply don’t apply anymore. That said Liverpool like many other cities it does have social problems, crime, unemployment and a underclass which will not be resolved easily (if ever?) and like many UK cities at the moment has a ‘gangsta’ culture which has taken hold with many of it’s youth. I suppose it's a case of a taking some steps forward but taking some back too
I fully recommend Boys from the Blackstuff to everyone on the forum. I’ll also be posting some now/then locations too – as soon as I can get the screengrabs sorted over the next few weeks or so too.
Having trouble adding a spoiler for this thread so apologies for those who haven't seen it
It all begins with the 1978 (shown 1980) Play for Today The Blackstuff. We are introduced to a group of tarmac workers from Liverpool, ‘Yosser’ Hughes (Bernard Hill), ‘Loggo’ Logmond (Alan Igbon), ‘Dixie’ Dean (Tom Georgeson), Chrissie Todd (Michael Angelis) and George Malone (Peter Kerrigan).
Their backstories are touched upon briefly but it introduces you what would be developed further in Boys from the Blackstuff. Yosser not as unhinged as we see him later on is a jealous man with big dreams but not enough nous to achieve them – he once blew a lifetime opportunity to earn big money in Saudi Arabia for example. He’s impulsive and violent to his wife/women and anyone who crosses him. Yet he is very loving and protective to his children (sic). Loggo is roguish the cheeky chappie of the bunch. Dixie’s the uptight foreman. He sees himself a cut above the others and wants better for his family like son Kevin (Gary Bleasdale) who has just left school and want’s him in the tarmac gang. Chrissie’s an amenable drifter happy to plod along with whatever life brings and do what others want. George is perhaps the most steadfast of the group. A former docker, staunch socialist and self educated he got blacklisted in the 1950’s for union activities and has since worked on the ‘black stuff’. They all work for McKenna’s (David Calder) tarmac company and travel to Middlesbrough to work on a new housing estate. McKenna however has doubts about Dixie’s ability to control his ‘gang’ and is on the verge of firing him. Dixie knows this and is more uptight than usual. Dixie also has to deal with an over zealous site manager. Yosser, Loggo, Chrissie and to some extent George however cause Dixie no end of headaches with their site/off site activities which go from bad to worse when a group of travellers approach the lads with a offer to tarmac a farmers drive for cash. Dixie doesn’t want to know and warns to other lads not to either but Yosser – deluded by the idea of it being a stepping stone to set up in business for himself, convinces the others to moonlight with McKenna’s equipment and do the job. Unknown to them McKenna knows about their plans and fires them all – including Dixie and George who despite being a businessman McKenna has political sympathy for. The travellers double cross them and have been paid by the farmer and are ready to take off – despite Yosser’s attempts to stop them, with their expected pay day. Inevitably Yosser reacts violently to this attacking anyone Irish who gets in his way – traveller or not, and even Chrissie who stops him futilely breaking up tarmac on the farmers drive for being ‘too nice’.
Jobless, skint and not knowing what the future holds it sets things up nice for the main 5-part series Boys from the Blackstuff.
Fast forward 1982 and (right or wrong) a Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher with a free market agenda that can’t/won’t aid the old industries which are dying and high unemployment in many major British cities like Liverpool at that time.
‘Jobs for the Boys’. The boys are long term unemployed, (mostly) struggling to make ends meet and signing on at the local unemployment benefit office. Chrissie manages to get some short term black market work for Malloy a rogue Irish construction contractor – played by The Sweeney’s own Pat Shaw from Taste of Fear (Shay Gorman). He enlists his mate Loggo along with George’s son ‘Snowy’ Malone (Chris Darwin) a left wing activist and a unemployed fitters mate Jimmy Johnson (Vince Earl) to work with him. Dixie is approached but still aggrieved by what the lads did to him in Middlesbrough clears Chrissie from his doorstep. Unknown to Chrissie and the other lads the DHSS are investigating them. Snoopers – albeit the bumbling, Donald Moss (David Ross) and Lawton (David Neilson) track them down to Malloy’s construction site near Liverpool city centre. Whilst on the job Yosser turns up on the site with his children and confronts Malloy for a job knowing he’s employing black labour. Reluctantly Malloy agrees to hire him for the day however Yosser’s mental state has significantly worsened since Middlesbrough. His wife has left him, no prospect of a job and struggling to look after himself let alone his children. When Loggo and more forcefully Malloy confront Yosser about a wall he can’t build Malloy ‘sacks’ Yosser who head-butt’s Malloy and jokes about ‘sacking someone on the dole’. Snowy’s political views get made fun of by Loggo, however he also speaks some sense to Chrissie about a lack pride in work/society when seeing the cowboy job someone did on a new bannister (see later). The DHSS move in, Moss and Lawton almost cock it up and the lads try and make their escape. Tragically Snowy is killed when trying to use a rope he rigged onto the dodgy bannister to abseil out of the building. In shock Chrissie and Loggo stay with Snowy but Chrissie urges Jimmy to escape as he didn’t really know them or Snowy. A snivelling Malloy pleads with Chrissie to tell the DHSS he hired them legitimately that day but angered Chrissie has none of it and it ends with Chrissie, Loggo and Malloy being cautioned by the DHSS investigators and Jimmy escaping into the general malaise of the Royal Liverpool Hospital.
‘Moonlighter’. Once proud foreman ‘Dixie’ Dean has been reduced to illegally working as a night-time security guard on the docks. Dockers like Aitch (Tony Haygarth) and Scotty (Paul Barber) make fun of him and openly mock security at the docks blatantly pilfering cargo’s in front of him. They see Dixie as ‘shite dregs from the dole’. Dixie also thinks he’s under investigation by the DHSS and is strung out. Coming back from a shift at the docks Chrissie and Loggo are outside the Malone house for Snowy’s funeral. Dixie is respectful but when Chrissie tries to ‘make friends’ Dixie has none of it the Middlesbrough issue still being too raw and something he can’t forgive. Home life is very stressful and Dixie has several run-in’s with his wife and children particularly Kevin who although not going off the rails is going nowhere – simply lazes around the house. The DHSS are investigating but not Dixie his wife Freda (Elieen O’Brien) who has a side-line of posting leaflets into letterboxes for cash. Dixie catches wind of this and warns Freda off doing it for now – wise considering a snooper calls at the Dean house when Freda’s friends try and entice her to work with them. Malloy also appears at Dixie’s house promising work in front of the DHSS investigator but Dixie has none of it and clears him off. Back on the docks Dixie lets the dockers get on with things not knowing security chief Marley is involved with them in a cigarette scam. Whilst in the toilet bundles of cash are given to Dixie as an inducement for silence – by Marley? Warn out, frustrated and pig-sick about being part of an illegal scam Dixie returns home and seeks comfort with Freda. He also sees Kevin asleep and perhaps anticipating Kevin wanting to leave home/Liverpool for a better future leaves him with a bag and all of the money he received from Marley. The episode ends with Kevin hitchhiking by the M62 and picking up a lift to a unknown future.
‘Shop thy Neighbour’. It’s the aftermath of Chrissie being caught and charged by the DHSS and losing his benefit entitlement. There’s a heated row between Chrissie and his wife Angie (Julie Walters) over having no food in the house and Chrissie eating bread meant for his daughters breakfast. Underlying this Angie is frustrated with Chrissie’s plod through life nature, herself being dragged down with him and the reality of being destitute due to Chrissie’s bad life choices etc. Things are set to fall apart in the Todd household not helped by Chrissie’s interview with the DHSS. They threaten him and Loggo with prosecution – although case leader Miss Sutcliffe (Jean Boht) hints Malloy rather than Chrissie or Loggo is the one they want prosecuted. Things weigh heavy on Chrissie’s mind who feels certain he’ll receive a hefty fine he can’t pay and/or will go to prison. Chrissie’s lack of responsibility becomes apparent when the gas board cut them off to the dismay of Angie. Chrissie knew they were coming but forgot to tell her. There’s a fierce row between Chrissie and Angie who packs a suitcase and almost leaves him. Things aren’t helped when Malloy and Loggo come round and DHSS investigators storm Chrissie’s house for Malloy again setting off an exchange between him and Angie who goes to bed. Stewing in his living room Chrissie discovers loose change in a couch and after slashing it he discovers a Liverpool FC programme – a reminder of better days?, more change and a £5 note. Impulsively Chrissie uses the money to get drunk annoying Angie who feels he should’ve used it to help the situation. After telling Chrissie home truths, that she too isn’t going nowhere, that this was meant be ‘her time’ (college) and the holes in her shoes a jokey drunk remark from Chrissie stimulates Angie into action. Hitting him she pleads for Chrissie to get off his knees and ‘fight back’. Chrissie is also angered (perhaps more by the situation) that he’s a ‘second class citizen’ who has ‘no place’. After Angie matter of fact tells Chrissie to tell that to the empty cupboards Chrissie an animal lover impulsively kills his pigeons and geese to feed his family. Perhaps realising Chrissie is also at rock bottom the couple embrace each other – perhaps the first time in a long while!
‘Yossers Story’ is the most well known character and episode. Jobless, in the grip of a serious (usually violent) depression and a wife who left him long ago we begin with a dream of Yosser wading into Sefton Park’s boating lake with his three children. Onlookers are amused/don’t care and gradually his children disappear. Nor do Chrissie, Loggo and George who pass by seemingly prosperous on boats in the lake. Yosser begins to drown but wakes up frightened and in a sweat next to his children in his dirty/dilapidated house. Yosser can’t look after himself let alone his children (in real life Alan Bleasdale’s children) who’ve not attended school for a long while, although Yosser does love his (sic) children very much. Things get much worse when the DHSS, social services and education department all become involved along with Yosser’s ex-wife Maureen (Jean Warren) who details (possibly exaggerating) the violence he dealt out to her and lies about him being violent/abusing his children (he doesn’t) which she claims may not be his. Before the authorities make their move Yosser becomes increasingly delusional and erratic. He tries and badly fails to cook a meal for him and his children, asks ‘gis a job’ to random strangers, in defiance of his ex-wife goes on night’s out with his children at pubs where he meets Liverpool FC players like Graeme Souness, stalks his ex-wife who he again gets physical with after her latest boyfriend Moey (Peter Christian) kicks her out, clears off electricity board employees trying to cut off him off and shares his pain with derelict homeless drunks he may soon be in common with. The social services place his children in care which Yosser (and his children) resist violently and gets a brutally assaulted from the police in response. At his lowest ebb his house gets reposed by bailiff’s. For a change Yosser admits defeat and tells them to ‘have it’ after he takes a photo of his kids. Alone and wet in Liverpool city centre one of the drunk’s he met a while back accosts him. The drunk has the idea of smashing a window for a police cell for the night but is incapable of doing it. Yosser however throws a beer keg through the window and the police arrive. They arrest the drunk and aren’t interested in Yosser. In response Yosser head –butt’s a PC (Andrew Schofield) and gets arrested. On the drive back to the police station Yosser claims he’s going to be sick. After he is let out the car he runs for Sefton Park’s boating lake to drown himself. The police officers think he’s trying it on but after a while realise he’s serious and rescue/revive him to the pained cries of ‘No’ from Yosser.
‘George’s Last Ride’ could also be a autobiographical tale of actor Peter Kerrigan who also a docker in his youth and a socialist who got blacklisted for union activity. George is in very poor health but defiantly he’s showing the world (still signing on at his benefit office) and himself his illness won’t beat him. Nor will it stop him (trying) getting back to work and doing what he enjoys helping the members of his local community in Liverpool’s Dingle. They look up to George as a strong community figure that can help them sort out their problems. George wants to discharge himself from hospital. Although his doctor (a first screen role for Ricky Tomlinson) is unwilling to do this he considers that given his diagnosis and overall life expectancy returning home is the best thing for him. George returns home to his wife Mary (Jean Heywood) originally from the North East and also aligned to George’s socialist politics – she mentions involvement with the Jarrow March in her youth. George quickly returns to offering an advice and open house to members of his community including Yosser now living with his mum. George has a funny turn while with Yosser who mistakes it for something more serious but is alright and advises Yosser to ‘be himself and not something he’s not’ to get out of the hole he’s in. Seemingly in good spirits George invites his family for a meal. Sons Ritchie (Tony Scoggo) and John (John Carr) are also union men but unlike George or their late brother Snowy are more world weary and significantly less left wing – perhaps seeing the wind of change (individualism) Thatcherism is ushering in. This angers their mum Mary but George takes a more serious turn for the worse and his sons urge Mary for George has for once to put himself first. His nephew Chrissie takes George out for a tour of his dockland haunts and a few drinks. The pair end up in the Albert Dock where George once worked – now much changed from the abandoned/derelict buildings of 1982. Telling Chrissie tales of his past on the docks and life as a socialist more generally George is dying and his final thought on the desolation around him is ‘he can’t believe there is no hope’. Sadly George dies before him and Chrissie can have a pint in the Baltic Fleet. He’s laid to rest to the full respect of his local community. However perhaps a warning for the future many of his values, beliefs and the sense of community he has also die with him. Chrissie and Loggo observe a scene of chaos in the local pub after the funeral of mischievous youth, redundant workers intent on p***ing up their redundancy, terminal crazies like Yosser, ‘Shake Hands’ (Iggy Navarro) and the spiked whistling glass collector (Eric Granville) and a pub landlord (Sam Kelly) ready to throw in the towel. Chrissie and Loggo call it a day and observe the pub is a microcosm of everything that’s wrong at that time. Out-of-it Yosser even asks ‘Gis a Job’ to Chrissie and Loggo who walk off to a scene of another death of one of Liverpool’s once proud institutions the Tate & Lyle mill being demolished. Quite ironic as George and Chrissie’s Albert Dock scenes where filmed in what is now ‘The Colonnades’ is where Tate Liverpool is.
Boys from the Blackstuff may not be for everyone on this forum but in my opinion it’s a gripping and possible as realistic as it gets account of what life was like for people unemployed in the early 1980’s. Yes the characters were complicit in their own downfall but the failed economics of the 1970’s (both Conservative/Labour) and more directly the converse free-market, ‘managed decline’ policies of Thatcher/Conservative party (which also weren’t working at that time) did leave many major industrial cities like Liverpool like wastelands - for example 50,000 dock workers (let alone those from other industries) became unemployed on Merseyside during the 1970’s. The political debate I won’t get into here but there were real life characters like Chrissie, Dixie and Yosser who were casualties in a maelstrom of economic and social change during and after this period. A good thing Alan Bleasdale did with the main 5-part series was get into the heads of the main characters. I felt Moonlighter was equally as strong as Yosser’s Story in as much as it showed the silent cry of Dixie generally a decent man wanting the best for his family being reduced to a ‘dreg from the dole’ and becoming involved with corrupt dockers and security officers on the docks. This and it’s stress takes it’s toll not just on him but his family and I hoped for better things for them in the future. Chrissie (similarly Loggo) is a drifter and his wife Angie (Julie Walters best performance?) wants him to get off his knees, fight back and do something! Maybe he will but I felt he would still be happy drifting along? Yosser and Yosser’s Story see’s the deluded dream of him being ‘a someone’ rapidly dying. He simply can’t take it and becomes paranoid, delusional, violent and depressed as a consequence. Some of this isn’t his fault but most of it isn’t and despite his despair Yosser’s Story is counterpointed by moments of sharp, surreal, mocking black humour. Recession or not I doubt Yosser would be any better off! George’s Last Ride is perhaps a little too over-sentimentalised. Yet it’s still very relevant and a good way to end things. His old values and traditions (union, socialism, community etc.) being discarded for a harsher more me-me-me future. +30 years on communities like George’s have gone from being close knit and welcoming to abandoned no go area’s. Still there are (some) good people in these communities and some of some of George’s old values still hold true today. Boys from the Blackstuff lets you into how it feels to be unemployed and unwanted by society and what that does. To the men, their families, self-esteem and sanity. It was that powerful Bernard Hill needed a break from acting after playing Yosser and rightly it won the 1982 BAFTA award for best drama series.
There has been nothing really comparable to this which is a shame as social-realism television has died on British television – not even things that Bleasdale did subsequently like GBH and as for his Oliver Twist adaptation… Boys from the Blackstuff superficially isn’t that relevant to today. But beyond it’s surface there’s still a underclass like these characters around today – perhaps more criminal than working class these days. Surely there’s a place for that kind of modern day socially real television as much as the stuff we’re getting these days. I’m sick to death of British Television being 18th century period costume drama or similar tosh like Call the Midwife, Mr Selfridge, and (FFS) Downton Abbey which show a sugar coated Britain and doesn’t represent the Britain I know and where it is heading. Even stuff like Shane Meadows This is England doesn’t really seem to work for me and was a little disappointed with it to be honest. As for Nick Love – behave! They’re not a patch on this or other things done by the likes of John MacKenzie, Alan Clarke, David Leland etc. Lazy TV executives and their ‘focus groups’ could do with watching this to see what was (and still could) be achieved within TV drama. A part of me would be intrigued if Alan Bleasdale resurrected these characters to see how they ended up over 30 years on? Yet most recent remakes/revivals (like Auf Pet for example) have been absolute rubbish in comparison to the original so in a way I’m glad it's a one off and of it's time.
Did Boys from the Blackstuff (along with similar Liverpool-set television) create, reinforce and play into the hands of negative Liverpool stereotypes? Maybe but I feel Alan Bleasdale wrote it honest (he knew similar people in Liverpool and nearby Huyton) and I see it more as a everyman insight to the struggles of working class people during this period. It could have easily been the tale of many other UK cities which declined and struggled during this period and Our Friends in the North for example depicts a similar situation of the 1984/85 Miners Strike having similar effects upon the mining towns of the North East too. Things like Bread (written by Carla Lane who mainly lives in a London mansion), Brookside, Harry Enfield – is not from Liverpool and openly admits hatred towards the city and ‘Professional Scousers’ like Jimmy Tarbuck, Cilla Black, Ken Dodd, John Bishop etc. did much more harm to and created/reinforced negative stereotypes of Liverpool than Boys from the Blackstuff ever did in my opinion and Liverpool does seem to get a much rougher ride on British television/media than other comparable cities in my opinion. Boys from the Blackstuff also made people and politicians sit up and take notice of the situation in Liverpool too. Since 1982 (particularly so since the 1990’s) the city has improved immensely and in many respects is unrecognisable from the city shown in Boys from the Blackstuff. Many of these stereotypes simply don’t apply anymore. That said Liverpool like many other cities it does have social problems, crime, unemployment and a underclass which will not be resolved easily (if ever?) and like many UK cities at the moment has a ‘gangsta’ culture which has taken hold with many of it’s youth. I suppose it's a case of a taking some steps forward but taking some back too
I fully recommend Boys from the Blackstuff to everyone on the forum. I’ll also be posting some now/then locations too – as soon as I can get the screengrabs sorted over the next few weeks or so too.