This is how it was...


You know, as someone who grew up in Liverpool in the 70's and 80's, over the years there have been various films and programmes about Liverpool that has attempted to portray the city and it's people in a realistic light, and to be honest they never really get it right and usually make me cringe.

But this is the only one that does.

It's a great series period, regardless of where it's set.

Yes, it's grim, unremitting, most of the humour is very dark ad comes from very dark places.

But it is how I remember those times, and I recognise those people.

There are many aspects of it that resonate, various scenes, lines etc -

The scene in the pub after the funeral, with all of the various characters and nutters, the manager on the verge of a nervous breakdown, the redundancy party, Shake-Hands, the whistling man. Yes, there were certain pubs that were like that, absolute bedlam...best avoided, to be honest.

The church scene, where the priest is droning on, and Chrissie stands up and say 'I'm sorry father but you're not on. We didn't come here to listen to this". And he's right. My early memories of going to church were the same, a man standing at the front just talking endlessly, reading from a book in a ridiculous, robotic fashion - and it meant absolutely nothing. It certainly meant nothing to Chrissie, who obviously felt the same way. Symtpomatic of the fact that though there were many who followed the catholic religion in Liverpool, the church didn't actually speak to them or for them.

The episode with Chrissy and Julie Walters trying to make ends meet. I can remember my parents hiding behind the door when the rentman came knocking (yes, guys actually went door-to-door collecting rent in those days). This perfectly illustrates the desperation and hopelessness of people living on the breadline - Liverpool in the early 70's particularly was a very depressed area, and was almost like the poverty you see of the immidiate post-war years in London.

But there is a line in this episode that probably sums up the whole series, and perhaps the city at the time for me, when Julie Walters is trying to motivate Chrissie and says

"I am fed up with this if-you-don't-laugh-you'll-cry attitude, this stupid sodding city is full of it!"

And it was - people had no money, but you could barely get into the pubs they were so crowded. That was a pervasive attitude, things are bad, but what the hell. Money and work was here today, possibly gone tomorrow so may as well enjoy it...worry about the consequences later.


Yossers story - possibly one of the bleakest and most powerful pieces of TV drama ever. Bernard Hill's tortured, manic performance is a career best. And yet it's shot through with some wonderful humour...

Yosser's penchant for headbutting people - when he tries to get himself arrested, the policeman tries to remonstrate with him and starts arguing. Yosser say something like "But officer...", and the officer says "Don't but me!" And Yosser just has this evil glint in his eye, suddenly realising the policeman has just given him, the perfect idea to surely get him arrested...cut to a shot of Yosser sitting in the back of a police car, and said copper holding a hankie to a bloody nose...

And the scene in the church confessional - Yosser, at the end of his tether, virtually suicidal goes to confession. The priest is sitting on the other side of the box, feet up, slippers on, cup of tea and a packet of biscuits, and with the most condescending and patronising manner imaginable...

Yosser explains he is feeling very low, the priest starts coming out with pahetic little bon-mot's like "Ah now my son, a trouble shared is a trouble halved" etc.

(Now some of you will know this, some may not. There was a famous English kids comic called The Dandy, and there was a regular strip in there for a character called Desperate Dan, a huge, square-jawed cowboy that liked to eat cow pie.)

And Yosser says "I'm desperate father"

Priest "Ah, call me Dan"

Yosser " I'm desperate, dan"


And Yosser, realising the complete absurdity of what he has just said, looks up, and just starts headbutting the wall in front of him continuously...


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My favorite is Yossers daughter, Ann-Marie sat in the back of the van.

She smiles at the social worker.

The social worker smiles back.

She raises her head and whallop!!! Head butts the social worker.

Classic.

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Alan Bleasdale's daughter that was.

I must agree with the OP in its entirity. (Though my experience of the time was in South Wales, not too dissimilar)

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I'm London born and only in my early 30s but all my family are from Liverpool, me mum me dad oldest sister and 3 oldest brothers and all my relatives are still there and I remember I was about 9 or 10 when BFTB was on and the impact it had.
I know it's very true of the time, my dad and uncles always spoke about it and a lot of other people. I know it impacted on the view of northerners and Irish too (Liverpool-Irish, London-Irish) and the quality of the show was always superior to most of what was on back then and definitely even now.
It was gritty, realistic, funny, moving and the acting was perfect.
Blackstuff has a place in my heart like most Liverpool drama and comedy coz it's speaken about my family's people( I'm London born Liverpool- Irish background).
I remember this and I loved Auf Wiedersehen Pet and still do.The TV of the early 80s was phenomenal. BFTB, AWP, Minder, OFAH, Scully, One Summer, Johnny Jarvis, Prospects - all shows funny and sad about Thatcher's Britain of the time.
You can see Shameless harks back slightly to BFTB and AWP but is more cynical with it.




"What like I only come round on giro day???!!!"

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Could not agree with the OP more, everything was exactly as it was. I remember my father and all his friends and family were from the scotland road area of Liverpool. Close to the docks, and close to the Green Man pub on Vauxhall Road (its the pub thats more reminiscent of fraggle rock in the show)and I remember that due to the relaxiation of tax on imported goods that some Biatch named margaret thatcher thought would be a good idea, dock and factory workers were getting made redundant on a daily basis as goods became cheaper to import through the so called 'free market'. However what was never made clear to these poor soul's was that there was not a new job for them to even apply to let alone start, and they all went on big p1ss ups with their redundancy money thinking they would have new jobs to go to yet Thatcher made sure they didn't have anything. Then to top it off you had pr1cks like Norman Tebbitt telling the very same people who they had shafted to get on their bikes and look for work when it was those Tory Bast@rds that removed any little chance of work for these men. Yet all those yuppies were looked after hence how we are all going to get shafted again over the next few years due to our so called betters gambling this countries future away at the world tote.

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I'm from Cardiff, and yep, a very similar place to Liverpool, with similar pubs too. At the time I was actually working in London, which was fairly isolated from the economic troubles the rest of the country was going through, but on my regular weekend breaks back to Cardiff I could see the plight the people were going through. I didn't know a single person there who had a job. Hard times indeed.






Boo!

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As I watch the news today which is infused with Cameron's "Big Society", the scale of expected local government cuts and the resulting unemployment and negative effects on the most vulnerable members of society, I felt I can't be the only one prompted into recalling this magnificent, resonant drama series.

In my search of some process of catharsis I may have to sit down and watch it all over again.


"I'm staring at the abyss.I don't like the look of the abyss"

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Cameron will finish off what Thatcher started..........

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And this is true. Ominous but true. God help us all. Where are Charles dickens and Alan Bleasedale when we need them? This country is desperate for a light to be shone into the darkest corners of our society.

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