To resist the frigidity of old age, one must combine the body, the mind, and the heart. And to keep these in parallel vigor one must exercise, study, and love.

This latter play concerned the story of a group of Liverpudlian tarmac layers. The series Boys from the Blackstuff was transmitted on BBC Two in 1982. It benefitted enormously from a brilliant cast led by Bernard Hill in the (in)famous role of Yosser Hugheswhose catch-phrase "Gissa job" came to represent the Thatcher years.

Alan Bleasdale (born 23 March 1946) is an English television dramatist best known for social realist drama serials based on the lives of ordinary people.