G.B.H. 4 Classic Episodes

Alan Bleasdale's incendiary, often surreal, seven-part satire hasn't lost its edge since it was first shown on Channel 4 in 1991. Focusing on the stressful, heady misadventures of working class, 'Labour' politician Michael Murray (an excellent Robert Lindsey) and mild mannered, hypochondriac headmaster Jim Nelson (Michael Plain) 'G.B.H' is a masterful, humorous and well written account of good intentions, bad decisions, Machiavellian schemes and the manipulation of a long gestating vendetta. Julie Walters co-stars as Michael's mother, but the floor belongs to Robert Lindsey; who manages to imbue the ambitious, embittered and hubristic Northerner with eloquence, wit, arrogance and charm; to create a complicated, deeply flawed but ultimately sympathetic, character. 'G.B.H' just about manages to rival Bleasdale's 1980's anti-Thatcherite opus 'Boys From The Black Stuff' and is a reminder of the serious, quality dramas that seem to be missing from our screens today.