‘Gizza a job. Go on, gizza job. I can do that.’
That desolate plea for help from a broken Yosser Hughes helped make Boys From the Blackstuff one of a series of epochal TV series that marked out the newly created Channel 4 as the nation’s social conscience as our industrial heartlands were decimated by Thatcherism.
Scouser Alan Bleasdale used all five episodes of his 1982 BAFTA winning masterpiece to follow a bunch of unemployed former asphalt layers – gentle Chrissie, young buck Loggo, wise George, sensible Dixie and Yosser who is prone to headbutting people – who are desperately trying to keep their heads above water working on building sites while claiming the dole as Liverpool’s industries die around them. Bleasdale used these desperate and often broken men as a metaphor for the misery being visited on proud working-class people across the country.
Bleasdale had always refused to adapt it for the stage so handed the pen over to James Graham, who is a gifted political playwright. Graham was faced with the tricky task of distilling five hour of often really gritty TV into a two hour play with mixed results.
The first act on Amy Jane Cook’s stark post-industrial set opens with the boys being interrogated in a stark dole office, and is far too bitty, never establishing any emotional depth in the characters, and left me feeling nowhere near as furious as I was when it was on the small screen. There is plenty of dark humour in the source material, but it felt a bit too much played for laughs, and iconic scenes like Yosser’s battle of wills with pub bully Shake Hands felt thrown away.
For some reason Graham shoehorned a vignette from the original Play For The Day which the TV series was based on that didn’t add any dramatic tension, and there was far too much from the DHSS ‘sniffers’ determined to criminalise the gang when I wanted more from the victims. The ensemble did a good job portraying a rotating cast of supporting characters but were often quite distracting.
Aside from one woeful ‘comedy’ vignette the second half was much better. It was more in tune with the despair and anger of the source material as George Caple’s well played Chrissie finally cracked after a massive martial bust up with Sian Polhill-Thomas’ Freda who called on her own experience of growing up in Liverpool 8. The highlight was a beautifully played scene where the dying George, who had acted as an unofficial socialist community advice bureau, received his friends for the last time. Veteran Ged McKenna gave George the necessary quiet dignity and socialist fire, especially on his moving final journey with his surrogate son Chrissie which should have been the end scene.
Another old hand Mark Womack skilfully managed to offer some substance to an underwritten Dixie and Emmerdale regular Jurrell Carter made an impressive stage debut as the fiery Loggo who refuses to buckle. The big misstep was Yosser whose backstory was all over the place in the narrative, so instead of a man suffering a catastrophic mental breakdown he all too often came across as a psychopath. Jay Johnson and the big moustache did some good work but never quite dispelled the ghost of Bernard Hill.
After an uneven start Boys From the Blackstuff did spark the necessary fury as five men were ground down before our eyes by a system that robbed them of any hope or dignity. The really tragic thing is the human cost of unfettered market forces to the Boys From the Blackstuff are just as relevant today as they were 43 years ago.
Boys From the Blackstuff is at Leeds Grand until Saturday 17th May. To book 0113 2430808 or www.leedshertitagetheatres.com
Reviewer: Paul Clarke
Reviewed: 13th May 2025
North West End UK Rating: