Prospects (TV series)

Prospects is a British television comedy drama series that was written by Alan Janes and originally shown on Channel 4 in 1986. Created by Euston Films who had a pedigree of producing successful, gritty drama such as The Sweeney and Minder, it followed the exploits of two East End 'geezer' characters - Jimmy 'Pincy' Pince played by Gary Olsen and Billy 'Bill' Pearson played by Brian Bovell and their trials and tribulations of making a living in London's Isle of Dogs.

Comprising 12 episodes Prospects - with a comic slant, dealt with many of the major issues affecting British society at the height of the "Thatcherite" '80's including unemployment, crime, poverty, regeneration, social change and racism.

The shows featured many actors, some known like Ken Jones who played 'Horrible Ives' in Porridge and some unknown who went on to find fame elsewhere. These include: Billy Hartman 'Terry Woods' in Emmerdale.

Prospects gained a cult following and ratings wise it performed well above expectation for Channel 4. At that time Channel 4 received a large subsidy from the rival commercial network ITV in exchange for the right to sell airtime; this gave ITV a significant input into the management of the station. The success of Prospects and the fact that it was produced by a subsidiary of the ITV network's largest station Thames Television meant it was moved to a 9pm prime-time repeat slot on ITV in the Spring/Summer of 1987. This fuelled rumours that the network wanted to develop Prospects into a long-running comedy drama series. However, ITV declined the opportunity to develop it beyond the original first series.

The 12 episodes of Prospects followed Billy and Pincy's exploits as follows:

All 12 episodes of Prospects were given an official Region 2, DVD release by Network DVD in March 2013.

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