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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Television»Shows by Decade»1970s Television
    1970s Television 1980s Television Drama Shows W 3 Mins Read

    When The Boat Comes In

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    1 9 7 6 – 1 9 8 1 (UK)
    51 x 50 minute episodes

    A gritty Northern drama set in the South Shields area after WWI, following the trials of ex-Sergeant Jack Ford and the Seaton family as they struggled with the problems of the day: The aftermath of the war, the great depression of the 1920s, trade union activists and an uncaring society.

    The characters also seemed to spend a lot of time drinking in and out of pubs.

    Viewers south of the Tyne learned about ‘bonnie lads’ and took O-level colloquial Geordie (so useful later for understanding the jokes in Auf Wiedersehen Pet). They also enjoyed good solid stories with vintage cars and cobbled streets, and the relationship between the roguish Ford and Jessie Seaton, the passionate but upright (till Ford had his way) heroine played by Susan Jameson (Bolam’s partner off-camera also).

    James Bolam was convincing as the cunning Jack Ford, a man who has seen ignorance and stupidity in the trenches and finds himself fighting against it in his role of Union boss during peacetime.

    At the end of the third season, Ford left for the USA, to return (on the run from the FBI) for redemption via participation in the Jarrow March and the Spanish Civil War.

    The stick-in-the-memory theme tune was a reworking, by David Fanshawe, of a traditional northeast nursery rhyme:

    Come here me little Jacky
    now ah’ve smoked me baccy
    let’s hev a bit of cracky
    till the boat comes in

    Dance to thee Daddy, sing to thee Mammy
    dance to thee Daddy, to thee Mammy sing
    Thou shalt hev a fishy on a little dishy
    thou shalt hev a fishy when the boat comes in

    Here’s thy mother humming
    like a canny woman
    Yonder comes thy fatha
    drunk – he cannat stand

    Dance to thee Daddy, sing to thee Mammy
    dance to thee Daddy, to thee Mammy sing
    Thou shalt hev a fishy on a little dishy
    thou shalt hev a haddock when the boat comes in

    Our Tommy’s always fuddling
    he’s so fond of ale
    but he’s kind to me
    I hope he’ll never fail

    Dance to thee Daddy, sing to thee Mammy
    dance to thee Daddy, to thee Mammy sing
    Thou shalt hev a fishy on a little dishy
    thou shalt hev a Bloater when the boat comes in

    I like a drop mesel’,
    when I can get it sly
    and thou, my bonny bairn
    will like’t as well as I

    Dance to thee Daddy, sing to thee Mammy
    dance to thee Daddy, to thee Mammy sing
    Thou shalt hev a fishy on a little dishy
    thou shalt hev a Mackerel when the boat comes in

    May we get a drop
    oft as we stand in need
    and weel may the keel row
    that brings the bairns tha breed

    Dance to thee Daddy, sing to thee Mammy
    dance to thee Daddy, to thee Mammy sing
    Thou shalt hev a fishy on a little dishy
    thou shalt hev a Salmon when the boat comes in

    Jack Ford 
    James Bolam
    Bill Seaton 

    James Garbutt
    Jessie Seaton 

    Susan Jameson
    Billy Seaton 

    Edward Wilson
    Bella Seaton 

    Jean Heywood
    Tom Seaton 

    John Nightingale
    Sarah Lytton 

    Rosalind Bailey
    Lady Caroline 

    Lois Baxter (1)
    Isla Blair (2)
    Channing 

    Christopher Benjamin
    Geordie Watson 

    Ian Cullen
    Duke of Bedlington 

    William Fox
    Sir Horatio Manners 

    Basil Henson
    Dolly 

    Madelaine Newton
    Ashton 

    Geoffrey Rose
    Matt 

    Malcolm Terris

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