Boys from the Blackstuff (Season 0)
TV series that defined the depression-scarred 1980s Britain
Alan Bleasdale's five-part series relates the further experiences of unemployed Liverpudlian tarmac layers Dixie, Chrissie, Loggo and Yosser, and their revered older friend, retired longshoreman and union leader, George Malone. As they struggle to make ends meet in a depressed economy, and to hold together their financially battered families, they are harrassed by the petty bureaucrats of the DHSS. But the lumbering investigational juggernaut is, both comically and tragically, guided by drivers with only a provisional license.
The Black Stuff 0.0
Air date: 1980-11-09
Runtime: 50 min
Overview: A group of lads from Liverpool travels to Middlesbrough in their transit van to lay tarmac on the roads of a new estate on Teeside.
The Muscle Market 0.0
Air date: 1981-09-19
Runtime: 50 min
Overview: Shown in 1981 as a standalone between the initial drama and the subsequent series, it centres on Danny Duggan played by Peter Postlethwaite, the building boss who employs people cheaply by being complicit in the social security fraud of his employees and therefore guilty of a crime himself.
Bernard Hill Remembers... Boys from the Blackstuff 0.0
Air date: 2022-07-06
Runtime: 8 min
Overview: Bernard Hill remembers Boys from the Blackstuff, Alan Bleasdale’s iconic drama, which is being shown again as part of the BBC’s Centenary celebrations, and which was once described as ‘TV’s most complete dramatic response to the Thatcher era’. Hill’s performance as Yosser Hughes, with his ‘Gizza job’ catchphrase, captured the public’s imagination in a way that few roles have since. Here he looks back on how he got the part, why it struck such a chord, and what audiences should take from ‘Blackstuff’ today.
