BACK TO BLACK
MARION MCMULLEN looks at how BBC drama Boys From The Black Stuff highlighted the human face of unemployment 40 years ago
THE haunting cry of “Gizza job. I can do that” from unemployed tarmac layer Yosser Hughes highlighted the desperation to try and find work in the 1980s.
The first episode of teacherturned-writer Alan Bleasdale’s five-part series Boys From the Blackstuff was broadcast on BBC2 on October 10, 1982.
It made such an impact that was shown again on BBC1 just nine weeks later.
The drama was born from 1980 Play For Today offering, The Black Stuff.
The title came from the slang name for tarmac and saw a Liverpool team heading out to do a job near Middlesbrough.
By the time they came back to tell their stories for the series they were all jobless and dealing with the harsh realities of unemployment. Bernard Hill gave a masterly performance as the downtrodden
Yosser who was pushed to the edge after his wife walked out leaving him trying to find work and to bring up three children on his own. Alan’s own children played Yosser’s family.
The strong cast also included Michael Angelis as the decent and kind-hearted Chrissie and Julie Walters as his wife Angie.
Alan Igbon played Loggo, Tom Georgeson was Dixie Dean, and Peter Kerrigan played George Malone.
The Radio Times summed up the drama saying “a kind of manic, wisecracking, nervous energy suffuses life in the disintegrating city of
Liverpool”.
Writer Alan went on to further TV success with Scully, GBH and The Sinking of the Laconia, but the legacy of Yosser Hughes and Boys From The Black Stuff will always remain as one of his outstanding achievements. He once said: “I knew the series wasn’t going to change anything. I just hoped it was going to open people’s eyes and make them think.”