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Anne McElvoy on Theatre

● ALAN BLEASDALE’S TELEVISION classic Boys from the Blackstuff is proof that when it comes to TV drama, less can be more. The five-part series was a masterpiece of compression, following a group of unemployed working-class men dodging the DHSS “sniffers” targeting dole fraud, rubbing donkey-jacketed shoulders with right-on clerics and lofty bureaucrats, and enduring (and sometimes relishing) Tom-and-Jerry chases with debt collectors. The series became as central to the culture of the 1980s as Margaret Thatcher, Wham! and shoulder pads — a feat of one-liners and mordant comedy set in the worst days of Liverpool’s decline. “We’re facing the wrong way, lad,” diagnoses George, the Marxist sage of the gang, as cargo trade blossoms with the European Union and the empty docks of the north-west become a place of…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, November 2023

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