Post by Dirty Epic on Apr 22, 2016 9:01:29 GMT
Just wondering if anyone else is a fan of/likes/remembers the Euston Films series Prospects which featured the late Gary Olsen as Pincy and Brivan Bovell as Billy?
Prospects only ran for one series and was filmed in and around the docklands of east London – in particular the Isle of Dogs, when the redevelopment of that area started to begin in the mid 1980’s. The two main characters are unemployed duckers and divers trying to make their way (by legal/illegal means) in Thatcher’s enterprise culture of that time. Pincy usually has some kind of get rich quick scheme of which he ropes in a reluctant Billy. These scheme's usually go pare-shaped and results in them getting into scrapes with their friends, business rivals, gangsters and the police. Originally made for Channel 4 Prospects was one of the channel’s major successes when shown in 1986 and the 12 episodes were quickly snapped up by ITV who repeated it a year later. In may respects Prospects is a grittier/more realistic companion of things like Minder and at the time ITV was repeating it, it was hinted a second series would be made and it might be a vehicle for Euston/Thames/ITV to replace Minder with which at the time was on hiatus. However for some reason this didn’t happen and it’s creator Brian Janes seems to have been inactive in television since Prospects.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospects_%28TV_series%29
Gary Olsen did achieve further success in the 1990's with the BBC sitcom 2point4 Children before he unfortunately succumbed to cancer in 2000. Brian Bovell was perhaps best known for his role as DC Thatcher in The Bill in the 2000's but he has done various television and theatre roles since Prospects.
Prospects only fairly recently came out on DVD (2013) and I’d fully recommend it to everyone on this forum. It’s a snapshot of a London which is pretty much extinct these days although pockets of it still exist – in fact some are quite close to the likes of Canary Wharf and other dockland areas in the east of London which have undergone radical transformation since Prospects was filmed in 1985. If I can fit it in I’ll try watching it again later this summer and may try and track down some of it’s locations which if I can I’ll try and post here.
Prospects only ran for one series and was filmed in and around the docklands of east London – in particular the Isle of Dogs, when the redevelopment of that area started to begin in the mid 1980’s. The two main characters are unemployed duckers and divers trying to make their way (by legal/illegal means) in Thatcher’s enterprise culture of that time. Pincy usually has some kind of get rich quick scheme of which he ropes in a reluctant Billy. These scheme's usually go pare-shaped and results in them getting into scrapes with their friends, business rivals, gangsters and the police. Originally made for Channel 4 Prospects was one of the channel’s major successes when shown in 1986 and the 12 episodes were quickly snapped up by ITV who repeated it a year later. In may respects Prospects is a grittier/more realistic companion of things like Minder and at the time ITV was repeating it, it was hinted a second series would be made and it might be a vehicle for Euston/Thames/ITV to replace Minder with which at the time was on hiatus. However for some reason this didn’t happen and it’s creator Brian Janes seems to have been inactive in television since Prospects.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospects_%28TV_series%29
Gary Olsen did achieve further success in the 1990's with the BBC sitcom 2point4 Children before he unfortunately succumbed to cancer in 2000. Brian Bovell was perhaps best known for his role as DC Thatcher in The Bill in the 2000's but he has done various television and theatre roles since Prospects.
Prospects only fairly recently came out on DVD (2013) and I’d fully recommend it to everyone on this forum. It’s a snapshot of a London which is pretty much extinct these days although pockets of it still exist – in fact some are quite close to the likes of Canary Wharf and other dockland areas in the east of London which have undergone radical transformation since Prospects was filmed in 1985. If I can fit it in I’ll try watching it again later this summer and may try and track down some of it’s locations which if I can I’ll try and post here.