Morally repugnant: Boys From the Blackstuff, at the Garrick Theatre, reviewed

Yosser Hughes is regarded as a national treasure. He first appeared in 1982 in Alan Bleasdale’s TV drama, Boys from the Blackstuff, which followed a crew of Liverpool workers who lay tarmac (‘black stuff’) for a living. When their contract expires the lads are left shocked and helpless even though job security is not a perk of their profession. The atmosphere of the show, adapted by James Graham, may come as a surprise to those who know Yosser by reputation only.

Far from being a worker’s champion, Yosser is a crook, a hypocrite and a class-traitor. He and his friends moonlight for cash while claiming state benefits, which are, of course, levied on the wages of honest workers. And they pilfer from Liverpool docks which increases the prices paid by customers who aren’t cheats. There are few scams they won’t stoop to. They expect to be coddled by the state from the cradle to the grave and yet they feign outrage when investigators accuse them, quite correctly, of fraud.

Yosser himself is a mountain of self-pity and aggression. His opening line is delivered to a girl at the Job Centre: ‘Sort me soddin’  Giro [payment] before I knock you into the disability office.’ Not exactly gallant repartee. Yosser is useless at everything except fathering kids and headbutting people in the face if their attitude displeases him. He mimics the conduct of a pre-revolutionary French aristocrat, leeching off the toil of others and squealing like a kitten if his privileges are curtailed. He and his pals are so precious that when one of them gets a nosebleed they call an ambulance. Who summons a team of paramedics to deal with a tiny trickle of blood?

Yosser is also a menace to the public.