This gritty comedy drama series featured two unemployed likely lads' adventures throughout East London, during the grim days of Thatcher's Britain in the mid eighties. Pincy and Billy, the series main characters, were continually 'duckin' and divin' across an area of London called The Isle of Dogs, as they struggled to survive on their 'social' (Government Benefits) and earn a meagre crust from the odd dodgy employer.
All cash in hand, of course.
The series covered many topics such as the racism that Billy encounters, as the only (just about) black person to regularly appear in each episode. Pincy sometimes comes to his friend's aid when these situations arise, which often causes resentment on Billy's part, as he is fed up of meeting discrimination whenever he tries to improve his lot. The two actors who portrayed the main characters, the late Gary Olsen as Pincy, and Brian Bovell as Billy, seemed to have quite an amiable chemistry together. And it's quite clear that in some scenes that they were having much fun during production of the series. In one hilarious episode that I remember very well, the boys take their new girlfriends on a camping trip. But unfortunately they pack only one small tent by mistake, which collapses during a heavy downpour. They go through many women during the series, as they ironically never seem to have much prospects...or money.
All in all, Prospects was well written, acted, and produced, by Channel 4. Alas, only one series was made.
It is much missed by fans such as myself.
