1 9 8 6 (UK)
5 x 50 minute episodes
Among a new breed of heroines, Hazel O’Connor – the chart-topping star of Breaking Glass (1980) – starred in Fighting Back, a five-part BBC drama about a penniless Bristol mother fighting to keep body and soul – and her two kids – together after fifteen years of unhappy marriage.
Shot on location in the city’s decaying inner core, the focal point of the series was a squat in a semi-derelict house.
32-year-old Viv Sharpe (O’Connor) has not had the smoothest of lives. After a youthful spell in prison (she took the rap for the father of her daughter), she has lived in Liverpool for 15 years. She finally walks out when she comes home from work and finds her husband playing Russian Roulette with their son.
So she runs off back to her hometown of Bristol with her two kids, 15-year-old Yvonne (Cheryl Maiker) and 11-year-old Neil (Tony Carney).
The third man in Viv’s life is local lawyer Eddy Patel (Madhav Sharma). They meet when he arrives with the owner of the large corner house in which Viv is squatting with feminist activists.
Despite its flaws (cheap plot coincidences, relentless histrionics etc) it was a thoughtful, sometimes funny series.
Viv Sharpe
Hazel O’Connor
Yvonne Sharpe
Cheryl Maiker
Neil Curran
Tony Carney
Bruce Curran
Derek Thompson
Danny Hopkins
Malcolm Frederick
Eddy Patel
Madhav Sharma
Gabriel
Larrington Walker
