a mysterious drug dealer, known as "The Colonel", holding Lipton to ransom in his mother's tower-block flat at the same time that Jarvis' fortunes are no better, minding his child in a bed-sit whilst his girlfriend, the complicated Stella (Johanna Hargreaves), brings in the sole wage in order to support them all. School associates of Jarvis and Lipton, skinhead Manning (Jamie Foreman) and black carpenter Paul Turner (Alrick Riley) provide an intertwined story of inner city racial conflict which highlights that period of street disturbances in British History (1981-1985). The theme music and original songs were written by Gary Shail (Quadrophenia, Metal Mickey) and arranged by John Altman. The principal message of the series is a thinly-veiled attack on (then) Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's Britain and the wasted resource of schoolchildren emerging from education to find no jobs and precious few prospects awaiting them. Episodes "1977-1978" (first broadcast 10 November 1983) "The unlikely friendship between Johnny Jarvis and Alan Lipton begins in their last year at a comprehensive in Hackney. Jarvis, the loveable clown with a surprising talent for welding. Lipton, the apparently talentless reject, fantasising about the future and the father he has never met. At the end of the year they have to confront the adult world" "1978-1979" (first broadcast 17 November 1983) "Lipton and Jarvis encounter the amazing Stella for the first time. Turner finds work - of a fairly eccentric kind. Jake remains mysterious and evasive. For both Lipton and Jarvis their relationships with their fathers take a dramatic turn." "1979-1980" (first broadcast 24 November 1983) "Life at the squat for Stella and Lipton isn't easy. Jake has disappeared again. Both Lipton and the mysterious "Colonel" want to find him - and the Colonel isn't too fussy about his methods. However, Turner is in work - if not earning money; and Jarvis is busy at Technical College, where he acquires a girlfriend." "1980-1981" (first broadcast 1 December 1983) "Lipton and Guy become the self-appointed leaders of a band at the hostel, singing Alan's songs. Stella moves in to live with Johnny - and his mother. Then a surprising newcomer turns up at the hostel" "1981-1982" (first broadcast 8 December 1983) "A shadowy drug dealer called The Colonel holds the rock writer Lipton as a prisoner in his mother's council flat. Jarvis is also flat-bound, compelled to baby-sit while Stella goes out to work" "1982-1983" (first broadcast