Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Members
Stats
  • Total Posts: 5,559,182
  • Total Topics: 106,348
  • Online Today: 719
  • Online Ever: 3,311
  • (July 08, 2021, 03:14:41 AM)
Users Online
Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 29, 2024, 04:37:58 AM

Login with username, password and session length

Boys From The Black Stuff

Started by Endicott, July 06, 2022, 08:02:52 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Endicott

I just noticed that it's showing tonight on BBC4 at 10pm, at least the first 3 episodes anyway. The next two are on in a week, I presume the last one will show after that.

If you've not seen it, it's an absolute classic of British TV. Well worth a watch.

shiftwork2

Thanks for the info.  As fresh and powerful as it was when broadcast.  Please treat yourself if you have not seen it.

LordMorgan

I rewatch this programme often, I think it would be worth BBC4 to repeat the drama "the blackstuff" that basically tells the story of what snapped Yosser
 It also gives context to them referencing "Middlesbrough" in the boys from... series

itsfredtitmus

#3
the police beating scene in yozzer's story with the social board watching makes me weep

KennyMonster

I saw this about 8 years ago, finally got around to downloading my DVDs to my ipad to keep me going during a boring work trip abroad.

Will the Tory-toadying BBC make something like this again?

Did anything get made like this post Austerity by the BBC, current poverty levels are worse than back then.

I Daniel Blake is the only thing that comes to mind, which is quite damming isn't it?

Cuntbeaks

Bought the box-set years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Yosser's Story is relentlessly bleak and desperate, definitely the most hard hitting of the series.

Rich Uncle Skeleton

Quote from: LordMorgan on July 07, 2022, 08:11:17 AMI rewatch this programme often, I think it would be worth BBC4 to repeat the drama "the blackstuff" that basically tells the story of what snapped Yosser
 It also gives context to them referencing "Middlesbrough" in the boys from... series

Agreed,  but very glad to see it on iplayer nonetheless!

Quote from: LordMorgan on July 07, 2022, 08:11:17 AMI rewatch this programme often, I think it would be worth BBC4 to repeat the drama "the blackstuff" that basically tells the story of what snapped Yosser
 It also gives context to them referencing "Middlesbrough" in the boys from... series

They showed it in November 2020 (just checked the date). I'd never seen it before. Unfortunately, it wasn't kept on the iPlayer for long.


jamiefairlie

Quote from: Cuntbeaks on July 09, 2022, 10:43:04 PMBought the box-set years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Yosser's Story is relentlessly bleak and desperate, definitely the most hard hitting of the series.

It was funny when he said 'gizza job' and 'Ah can do dat" and "ah look like you" to Graeme Souness, that was funny.

Goldentony

it has to be a con job by people making documentaries to get people to watch the show by making it all look like Auf Wiedersehen Pet laughs and tears and then stuff like the Yosser episode is like a never ending shit waterfall of grief.

some of the accents are proper howlers though, that guy on the boat who pronounces Dixie's name like YALRIGHT ZYIGGSHEE LAD WHAT ZAAAZ ZHEW ARE YE.

Yosserr's street isn't far from here, hasn't changed much. Love the show though. Fun to see Ron Dixon as a shite wall building little bollock man.

KennyMonster

Quote from: jamiefairlie on July 10, 2022, 03:30:41 AMIt was funny when he said 'gizza job' and 'Ah can do dat" and "ah look like you" to Graeme Souness, that was funny.

In a confessional

Yosser: "I'm desperate father,"

Priest: "Call me Dan,"

Yosser: "I'm desperate Dan."

KennyMonster

Quote from: Goldentony on July 10, 2022, 04:47:03 AMit has to be a con job by people making documentaries to get people to watch the show by making it all look like Auf Wiedersehen Pet...........

According to Clement & La Frenais, there was a Newcastle vs Liverpool football match at St James' Park wher ethe home fans were chanting "Oi Oi Oi, Oz is tougher than Yosser."

kalowski

Quote from: jamiefairlie on July 10, 2022, 03:30:41 AMIt was funny when he said 'gizza job' and 'Ah can do dat" and "ah look like you" to Graeme Souness, that was funny.
"...and Magnum."

Sebastian Cobb

Ooh ta, I've been meaning to watch this.

madhair60

That final frozen shot in Yosser's Story is more upsetting than any horror film. Which, on reflection, it sort of is, I suppose, except for being nightmarishly plausible (more than plausible, of course; reality for many)

Caught the Tom Georgeson episode, which was good, and the Micheal Angelis episode, which was a tough, tough watch. Got the remaining two on record.

A modern 'update' might be Life and Death in the Warehouse, a BBC3 thing from a month or two ago, which was properly unsettling, almost like a horror film in how it was presented.

Norton Canes

The most upsetting moment for me in Yosser's Story is when he's haplessly attempting to fry fish fingers. Sometimes it's the little things.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: KennyMonster on July 07, 2022, 09:14:48 AMI saw this about 8 years ago, finally got around to downloading my DVDs to my ipad to keep me going during a boring work trip abroad.

Will the Tory-toadying BBC make something like this again?

Did anything get made like this post Austerity by the BBC, current poverty levels are worse than back then.

I Daniel Blake is the only thing that comes to mind, which is quite damming isn't it?

I'm surprised Jimmy McGovern hasn't managed to do something as he'll happily have a pop at the establishment, and he's done recent things critical of prisons and care homes, but it doesn't look like he's broached poverty.

KennyMonster

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on July 11, 2022, 02:26:01 PMI'm surprised Jimmy McGovern hasn't managed to do something as he'll happily have a pop at the establishment, and he's done recent things critical of prisons and care homes, but it doesn't look like he's broached poverty.

There also has to be a TV channel agreeing to air anything.

They're much more likely to commission another series of "Dole Scum" hosted by one of Alan Sugar's nodding goons.

itsfredtitmus

BLACKSTUFF CHICKENS WILL BE MANGLED

checkoutgirl

Quote from: LordMorgan on July 07, 2022, 08:11:17 AMI rewatch this programme often, I think it would be worth BBC4 to repeat the drama "the blackstuff" that basically tells the story of what snapped Yosser

Was The Boys From The Blackstuff like a spin off from a previous series with individual stories and Yosser was one of them? I seem to have the name "Muscle Market" popping into my head?

itsfredtitmus

#22
there's a one-off about the dodgy foreman that was meant to be included in the original running of blackstuff and the stories from the boys on it but it didn't really fit in and was aired as a play for today

it's quite an airtight paranoia thing, like the moonlighting skiv episode of blackstuff. i watched it a few years back and couldn't stop thinking about the capers of the coens and their suitcase thriller shenanigans

itsfredtitmus

i loved the cancelled 5th episode that was from the pov of the dole spies that showed the humiliation they had to go through disguising themselves as avon representatives knocking on their doors giving them confusing phone calls to see who answers and catch em out

checkoutgirl

Quote from: itsfredtitmus on July 12, 2022, 11:40:22 AMthere's a one-off about the dodgy foreman that was meant to be included in the original running of blackstuff and the stories of the boys on it but it didn't really fit in and was aired as one of those play for today things

Ah, looking on wikipedia it's grouped in almost as a second episode so I must have watched a later collection of these episodes a few years ago.

The subsequent attempts at things like this such as I Daniel Blake highlight the importance of a strong lead like Bernard Hill. He sort of transcended the entire series and became a symbol of the shitty Tory practice of crushing the working class in a compressor.

I reckon an honest Labour politician would admit we can't help everyone but we have to at least try. Whereas the Tory would say why bother even trying? We'll make their situation even worse and hopefully they just die and we won't have to deal with them. And that's Yosser, smashing himself in the face with a plate full of fried eggs.

itsfredtitmus

Quote from: Norton Canes on July 11, 2022, 11:05:24 AMThe most upsetting moment for me in Yosser's Story is when he's haplessly attempting to fry fish fingers. Sometimes it's the little things.
Not sure if it's after that or before but when he's drunkly trying to clean the oil off his kitchen cupboards and stove before the social services arrive and muttering stuff about "not fit to be a father?" over and over to himself

Sebastian Cobb

Watched the ones on there last night. All been good so far, but probably Chrissy's story being the saddest yet. I like how even the police have contempt for the dole-office detectives and how they all have their own individual idiosyncrasies.

Sebastian Cobb

Oh also, if anyone wants to watch the original teleplay (or this series after it's dropped off iPlayer) then it's on archive.org:
https://archive.org/details/pilot.-ep-1.-the-black-stuff

No joy finding The Muscle Market that aired between the play and the series. The above looks like an archive of a torrent bundle that contained the series + play.

Watched the last two. Early Ricky Tomlinson. Barbs at the Alliance. Pissed up Sam Kelly.

Bernard Hill is brilliant. Also like how they've made his skin almost monochromatic.