‘Boys from Blackstuff’ – Greg Miller from pebblemill on Vimeo.
In this video, film editor Greg Miller talks about the editing of the ‘Boys from the Blackstuff’ series. Greg edited ‘Yosser’s Story’ on film, whilst the other four episodes were recorded on lightweight video cameras and edited on 2″ videotape. Bernard Hill played Yosser.
Philip Saville directed the series, and Michael Wearing was the producer. The series was produced at Pebble Mill and went out in 1982.
\’Jobs for the Boys\’
Continuity polaroids of Bernard Hill, playing Yosser, in Boys from the Blackstuff. Photos by Maggie Thomas, no reproduction without permission.
These photos are not to be reproduced without permission.
Boys from the Blackstuff was transmitted in 1982, and consisted of 5 x 55 min episodes. It was produced by Michael Wearing, directed by Philip Saville, and written by Alan Bleasdale. The cast included Bernard Hill as Yosser Hughes, Michael Angelis as Chrissie Todd, Peter Kerrigan as George Malone, and Julie Walters as Angie Todd, with Tom Georgeson as Dixie Dean and Alan Igbon as Loggo Lomond.
The series continued the original Black Stuff ‘Play for Today’ group of characters, and focussed on unemployment and poverty in Liverpool at the height of Thatcherism.
It was a particular challenge for make up artist Maggie Thomas, as Yosser (Bernard Hill) had a series of injuries which had to partially heal, before new injuries were added, making continuity difficult.