The Boys From The Black Stuff

This episode ollows Dixie Dean (Tom Georgeson) in his new position as a security guard, where he is strongarmed into accepting bribes for allowing the removal of goods under his charge in a docked ship.

The boys take a cash-in-hand job on a building site whilst still claiming unemployment benefit. It is later revealed that the building being renovated is going to be used by the Department of Employment. They are followed by the authorities and Snowy Malone falls to his death trying to flee during a subsequent raid by the "sniffers" (undercover social security officers).

This episode concentrates on Chrissie (Michael Angelis) and the domestic pressure unemployment and the attentions of the benefit fraud officers place on him and his wife (Julie Walters). Chrissie is driven to strangle and shoot his geese, and worries about his children's rabbits...

this is the most often cited episode of the series, following Yosser's struggle to prevent losing his children to the authorities as his mental health disintegrates. Graeme Souness and Sammy Lee of Liverpool FC make cameo appearances in this episode.

In this episode we find out something of George's politically active past. His trip (Chrissie wheeling him in his chair through the docks) leads him to reminisce about his younger days, the contrast between his recalled hopeful youth with the abandoned industrial infrastructure around him is marked. The death of George causes the main characters to be reunited if, in some cases, only briefly. The episode concludes with a well-known yet surreal scene at The Green Man pub in Liverpool.