IF YOU DON'T LAUGH, YOU'LL CRY

 

The Old Girl sent me a link: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7f5ggi

She's in Christchurch at present and knows that I like The Boys From The Blackstuff.

I first watched this in 1982 and was gobsmacked by it then. I've always liked gritty UK dramas and Alan Bleasdale and Allan Bennet were good at writing these. I've been looking out for ages for this series to watch again but have never seen it reappear on TV nor on the various streaming apps we subscribe to. With 'Daily Motion I need to watch it on the computer but that's OK when I expand the screen.

Boys from the Blackstuff is a five episode series that was a follow up to a television play The Blackstuff  that apparently was screened in 1980. I was unaware of the play - maybe it was never screened in New Zealand. 

I found The Blackstuff on The Daily Motion site and, after watching episode One of Boys from the Blackstuff  had a look and have watched the first 15 minutes of the hour an a half long play. It's just as good as the following series and sets the scene with the characters who later appear and their relationships with each other being sketched out, which explains the conflicts and history alluded to in the series.

The play and the series are set in Liverpool and follow the individual stories of the five now-unemployed men who lost their jobs following the events of the original play - The Black Stuff. Each episode focuses on a different member of the group.  This is powerful and gritty stuff showing the destructive effect of high unemployment and a broken social service system. The system was already broken before Margaret Thatcher came to power but the Thatcherite government really put the boot into people who were already down. While being humorous the stories are really a lament to the end of a way of life and the culture of the working classes. The jovial and cocky working man is shown to be becoming depressed and angry as the country's dire economics strip away support, family cohesion and dignity.

The location and time are far removed  from us today in New Zealand in 2024 but the themes are relevant. We're seeing social division and economic hardship in New Zealand that's far worse than anything I've seen in my lifetime before. Let's just hope that the 'Kiwi Spirit' can get us through as much as the indomitable British spirit was fabled to.

I recommend watching the play and the series or revisiting it if you, like me watched it in the 1980s. Some things are very memorable and have lasting effects on our lives. For me this is and has and I still remember outtakes like Yosser Hughes saying "Giz a job" or Chrissy's  wife Angie railing against the "If you don't laugh you cry" saying.