Boys from the Blackstuff on Sunday 26th September(BBC 4)

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Just noticed this is being shown again on BBC 4 on Sunday 26 th September at 21:35. I unfortunately haven't seen it before, but have seen Alan Bleasdale's other great TV drama G.B.H.

No doubt we will have a little rant in the press about the BBC being left wing with them showing this at the time of a Tory government ;)

The following episodes are being shown on a Sunday night.
 
Excellent news! can remember this series - must be the best part of 30yrs ago since it first aired. Definately going to tune in once again.
 
Yes, it was so upsetting, Julie Walters was his wife in this if memory serves. I was a big fan of Boys from the blackstuff back in the day, its still so relevant now. Yossers story has always stayed in my mind, really well acted. They really don't make em like this anymore imo.
 
Thank you. I can remember watching this as a youngster and the impression those baked beans and grimey kitchen surface had on me were second to none! I know that sounRAB flippant but it's not meant to be, I had awful tummy churns watching that poor man (yosser (gisajob) hughes) go insane through desperation whilst his daughter and their kitchen were neglected. I remember talking to my mother about it at the time and she said that 'Cathy Come Home' had the same impact on her (which I subsequently watched in the 1980s).

How tame these two programmes are now...and how sad that this is the case.:(
 
The first episode was filmed in 1978 but was shelved for transmiission until January 1980.

The series was filmed in 1982 and not 1980 as you say. The proof is the copyriight datestamp on the end of the 5-part series episodes. MCMLXXXII = 1982.

Secondly, the original transmission documentation with the original 2" Quad (16mm film transferred to VT fopr the original play and the second, unreleased episode) and 1" Type C videotapes for the seres, state the original transmission date. They *prove* that the transmission dates for the episodes are 1980, 1981 and 1982 and that is the end of it.

Either you moved house a few years later than you think or your memory is playing some very effective tricks on you. Either way, you are certainly wrong.
 
I've never seen any of it before and they had the film "The Black Stuff" on BBC4 last night which then lead on to the series.
I really enjoyed it and now know what i shall be watching the next few Sunday nights
 
I can't say when the original play was shown but the series was definately first shown in 1982. As I have previously said I worked in a UBO 1980 - 1985. I transfered to an office in an industrial town in 1982 due to the rising unemployment. I remember the comments we recieved when this programme was aired and the more friendly clients would always quote Yosser's catch phrase "Gizza Job".

This definately occured after the transfer as the previous office was a rural one, a completely different atmosphere.

As for the initial play, it would make more sense if it was 1980 as I can't see a TV company waiting 4 years to make the follow up, especially with most of the original cast. Also, unemployment in 1978 was not as serious as it was in the early 1980's. The story was about rising unemployment in Thatcher's Britian - she did not come to power for the first time until 1979 so it definately could not have been made or shown in 1978.
 
Agreed, that episode made me cry more than the Yosser one, which was so bleak and horrible, it made me more angry than upset.

I think it was first aired in 1982. I was about eighteen.
 
Very badly shot on video and using the match of the day cameraman. I saw this in an interview about it, it also cost
 
Watched The Black Stuff tonight which we taped on Sunday - really enjoyed it. Glad to hear they will be showing the whole series of Boys From the Blackstuff.
 
The copyright datestamp at the end of the original TV play says MCMLXXVIII - 1978.

It was made simply as a play that follows the story of a group of tarmac layers who get made unemployed because they decide to do a pirvate job with the company's equipmment behind their bosses' back. even though unemployment was rising during Callaghan's time as PM, it wasn't supposed to be a swipe at Thatcher's Britain. But it turned into that when the BBC wanted to bring back the series as a gritty drama based on the umeployment figures a couple of years after transmission.

In fact, thinking about that, it seems to make more sense that the BBC delayed the transmission of the original TV play by two years for the same or a similar reason.
 
The episode "Yosser's Story" is one of the most depressing, saddest dramas I've ever seen on tv, big lump in the throat stuff. The re-showing of Black Stuff on BBC4 prompted me to visit youtube to see if it was posted, and it is. In 7 parts, I watched it again and it was just as emotionally draining as the first time I watched it.

This was a real landmark series, they don't make 'em like that any more.
 
This was a brilliant sereis when it was first shown. I hope it's lost none of it's impact.
I doubt if millions of people will see it, being tucked away on BBC4 :(
 
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