Boys from the Blackstuff

7.8IMDb Score
Released:1982-10-10
Genre:Drama
Duration:50 min
Director:
Actors:Bernard Hill, Michael Angelis, Tom Georgeson, Alan Igbon, Peter Kerrigan
Production:BBC

Overview:

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.

Recommendations for you

7.7

Our Friends in the North

Over the course of four decades, the personal lives of a quartet of Newcastle friends—Nicky, Geordie, Mary, and Tosker—intertwine with various political machinations, often for the worse: slum housing projects, police corruption, the rise of Thatcherism, political sleaze, and specific events like the 1984 Miners' Strike.

8.1

Downton Abbey

A chronicle of the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants in the post-Edwardian era—with great events in history having an effect on their lives and on the British social hierarchy.

6.8

Tip Toe

An ordinary Manchester suburb becomes a minefield of lies and violence when Leo gives neighbour Clive his spare key.

7.5

Years and Years

As Britain is rocked by unstable political, economic and technological advances, members of the Lyons family converge on one crucial night in 2019. Over the next 15 years, the twists and turns of their everyday lives are explored as we find out if this ordinary family could change the world.

7.1

Political Animals

Former first lady and current Secretary of State Elaine Barrish Hammond try to keep her family together while simultaneously dealing with crises of the State Department and fending off the hungry DC journalist who is bent on destroying her career.

7.8

Poldark

Britain is in the grip of a chilling recession... falling wages, rising prices, civil unrest - only the bankers are smiling. It's 1783 and Ross Poldark returns from the American War of Independence to his beloved Cornwall to find his world in ruins: his father dead, the family mine long since closed, his house wrecked and his sweetheart pledged to marry his cousin. But Ross finds that hope and love can be found when you are least expecting it in the wild but beautiful Cornish landscape.

7.8

Upstairs, Downstairs

Upstairs: the wealthy, aristocratic Bellamys. Downstairs: their loyal and lively servants. For nearly 30 years, they share a fashionable townhouse at 165 Eaton Place in London’s posh Belgravia neighborhood, surviving social change, political upheaval, scandals, and the horrors of the First World War.

6.9

Offspring

An exuberant drama set in Melbourne's Fitzroy, centering on Nina Proudman and her struggle to deal with her fabulously messy family, her hunt for a decent love life and her tendency to overthink and fly off into fantasy.

6.2

Brookside

The ground-breaking soap set in a housing estate on the outskirts of Liverpool.

8.0

The Hardacres

The sweeping rags to riches story of the Hardacres, a working-class family in 1890s Yorkshire who strike it rich and move from a grimy fish dock to a vast estate.

6.6

Empire Falls

The humorous, poignant story of a declining New England town and its inhabitants, whose lives are deeply rooted in and influenced by the Knox River and its vacant mills, their class differences, and ghosts of the past.

6.7

Tales of the Unexpected

A British television anthology of stories, often with sinister and wryly comedic undertones, and a twist at the end. With early episodes written and presented by Roald Dahl, the series featured a plethora of big name guest stars.

7.1

The Girlfriend

Laura has it all: a glittering career, a loving husband, and her precious son, Daniel. But her perfect life unravels when Daniel brings home Cherry, a girlfriend who changes everything. After a tense introduction, Laura becomes convinced Cherry is hiding something. Is she a manipulative social climber, or is Laura just paranoid? The truth is a matter of perspective.

7.0

Life on Top

Based on a novel by Clara Darling, about a college grad who heads to a big city looking for work and discovers her older sister, who's been living there for years, is a model.

7.8

Gentleman Jack

Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, 1832. Anne Lister attempts to revitalize her inherited home, Shibden Hall. Most notably for the time period, a part of her plan is to help the fate of her own family - by taking a wife.

7.3

Ambitions

A multigenerational family saga centered around one woman who, having recently relocated and intent on revitalizing her marriage, finds herself going head to head with some of the most powerful and deceitful players in the city.

6.7

Suspicion

Four ordinary Brits are accused of kidnapping the son of a prominent U.S. media mogul. They embark on a desperate race against time to prove their innocence, but will anyone believe them—and are they telling the truth?

6.3

The Hitchhiker

A young hitchhiker introduces characters who are about to experience a frightening and sometimes supernatural incident of some kind in this moody anthology series.

6.6

The Essex Serpent

London widow Cora Seaborne moves to Essex to investigate reports of a mythical serpent. She forms a surprising bond of science and skepticism with the local vicar—but when tragedy strikes, locals accuse her of attracting the creature.

7.3

Julia

Through Julia Child’s life and her singular joie de vivre, the series explores a pivotal time in American history – the emergence of public television as a new social institution, feminism and the women's movement, the nature of celebrity and America's cultural evolution.