User Reviews

This was Jim Allen's first script for the Play For Today series, it was shown this month (January 2016) in a retrospective at Manchester Home. The story features Mike, a student working on a building site temporarily during the summer holidays, and Yorkie, a bricklayer and old trade unionist, who is becoming disillusioned by his failure to make any headway in getting other building workers to unionise against the exploitation in the trade. This includes frequently employing workers 'on the lump', that is, off the books and paid cash. Yorkie gets blacklisted for his activities and has to work on the lump himself using a false name. The play is still relevant because the same conditions still exist in the building trade, with the same non-existent safety standards. The only difference is, the trade now mostly exploits East Europeans instead of Irish. (This I gleaned in the after-show discussion, which included some recently retired building workers.)The political discussions between Mike and Yorkie might be a little dense for some, and take careful listening, but the development of the characters is intriguing, with Mike and Yorkie moving in different political directions from their starting point. The authentic setting and intensity of the action makes up for the slight lack of polish in the acting. Catch this if you can, and don't be put off by it being a black-and-white low budget 'old' TV programme. I was biting my nails as the action progressed towards its tragic end. Jim Allen deserves to be better known. Few script writers can entertain and also say something meaningful about the contemporary world.