I had heard many good things and seen one or two clips from programmes that celebrated it, and being a fan of the actor from Titanic and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy I wasn't going to miss it. Based on the work by play Alan Bleasdale, the series focuses on five now unemployed men in Liverpool who lost their job tarmacking roads, i.e. the black stuff, and the emotional experiences each go through. Chrissie Todd (Michael Angelis), Loggo Logmond (Alan Igbon), Yosser Hughes (BAFTA nominated Bernard Hill), Dixie Dean (Tom Georgeson) and George Malone (Peter Kerrigan), are all earning benefits but desperate for work. The first episode focuses on all of them as they are hired cheaply to work on a renovated building, where Snowy Malone (Chris Darwin) falls to his death trying to escape undercover social security officers. The rest of the four episodes in the mini series focus on one individual character from the group and how the unemployment takes its impact on their lives. So we see Dixie trying to work as a security guard on the dockyards, accepting bribes from thugs to remove boxed goods, and a little bit of the others group members and the funeral of Snowy Malone. Next we see Chrissie struggling with the unemployment along with wife Angie (BAFTA nominated Julie Walters), including visits and calls from fraud officers, and he is driven to shoot the goose in the back garden for "dinner", before sobbing. The best episode next sees Yosser as his mental health disintegrates and he struggles to convince the authorities not to take his children and his house, he just keeps repeating "I'm Yosser Hughes", and after trips to the job office, an arrest and a "confession" to a priest, he attempts a suicide by drowning before the end. The final episode focuses on George, ageing and in near agony he gets pushed around in a wheelchair before dying, and the remaining friends are brought back together at the funeral, with a big fight in The Green Man pub and the friends ending the programme walking down the road. Also starring Gary Bleasdale as Kevin Dean, Timothy Bleasdale as Jason Hughes, Shay Gorman as Malloy, Tamana Bleasdale as Anne Marie Hughes, Jamie Bleasdale as Dustin Hughes, Paul Barber as Docks - Scotty and Ricky Tomlinson as Hospital Doctor. I am very pleased I tried the first episode and watched all of them, it is a powerful television drama with a standout performance by Hill, giving his famous catchphrases "Gizza job" ("give us a job") and "I can do that", I highly recommend you see it if you ever get the opportunity. It won the BAFTAs for Best Drama Series/Serial, Best Sound Supervisor and Best VTR Editor, and it was nominated for Best Film Editor, Best Film Sound and Best Video Lighting. Yosser Hughes was number 57 on The 100 Greatest TV Characters, the programme was number 65 on The 100 Greatest Tearjerkers, it was number 7 on The 100 Greatest TV Shows, and it was number 2 on The 50 Greatest TV Dramas. Very good!
Review of Boys from the Blackstuff
