`Going Out' was a drama series written by Phil Redmond (Grange Hill, Tucker's Luck, Brookside etc) for young people and was produced by the now defunct Southern Television. To the best of my recollection, the series was originally broadcast weekly, late at night, on ITV during October and November of 1981. A repeat of the series was then subsequently shown on Channel 4 not long after the channel first started in 1982. The show comprised of six half hour episodes that followed the lives of a group of teenagers who had recently left school. The storyline included the 'typical' activities of teenagers such as forming relationships, fighting with rival gangs, under-age drinking etc and included strong language (for the time). When I first watched the show on ITV, I was approximately the same age as the characters and I thought that the series was excellent. I also really fancied the `Cathy' character played by Michele Winstanley.
The theme music had a definite punk influence and I think it was by a group/singer called Judd (not sure about the spelling) and, although the song was quite catchy, it included some really iffy lyrics such as `I'm Going Out, Keep your telly, Your royal Jelly, I'm Going out...'. One of the main characters was called `Sean Tinnersley' and was dating `Cathy'. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the actor that played him. The noisy character that was always drinking, had an alcoholic father, and wore an old long coat was called `Dikey', and was played by Peter-Hugo Daly. Linda Robson (`Tracy' from Birds of a Feather) and Andrew Paul (`PC Dave Quinnan' from the Bill) played another 'couple'. Gerard Kelly, not unsurprisingly, played a Scottish psycho from a rival gang. The bespectacled character was played by Perry Benson (I think), who, like most of the cast, has gone on to appear in numerous television programmes over the years. To the best of my knowledge, the series has not been repeated since it was shown on Channel 4 in 1982 and I really would like to see it again via video or DVD.
