The Spongers
In the days leading up the Queen's Silver Jubilee, Pauline, a recently separated single mother, receives a visit from a bailiff and is given 15 days to address her overdue rent payments. Meanwhile, the local council is under pressure to cut expenditure, and their decisions result in Pauline's mentally handicapped daughter Paula being transferred from a care home for special needs children to an old people's home, where she is all alone.
Main Cast
Christine Hargreaves
Christine Hargreaves (March 22, 1939 – August 12, 1984) was an English actress.
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Bernard Hill
Bernard Hill (17 December 1944 – 5 May 2024) was an English actor. He was known as a character actor of film, stage and television, having acted in nearly 130 projects. He is best known to British television viewers for playing Yosser Hughes in the groundbreaking 1982 TV series Boys from the Blackstuff. On film he has played Captain Edward John Smith in Titanic, King Théoden in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, and the Warden of San Quentin Prison in the Clint Eastwood film True Crime. Hill is the only actor to have appeared in more than one of the three films awarded 11 Oscars, and one of only three actors to have starred in more than one film grossing more than $1 billion USD, namely: Titanic and The Return of the King (the others being Orlando Bloom who also starred in The Return of the King, as well as Pirates of the Caribbean and Johnny Depp who also starred in Pirates of the Caribbean, as well as Alice in Wonderland). Hill has appeared in three films which have won Best Picture: Gandhi, Titanic, and The Return of the King. Hill died on 5th May 2024 at the age of 79.
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Peter Kerrigan
Peter Kerrigan was a Liverpudlian actor famous for his work on a series of TV plays, many of which were directed by Ken Loach, and for his role as George Malone in Alan Bleasdale's Boys From the Blackstuff. Born in Bootle in 1916, Kerrigan was a docker originally and, as a Communist Party member, founded the Birkenhead Port Workers Defence Committee. At some point in the '50s, he joined the National Association of Stevedores and Dockers and he wrote the 1958 pamphlet, 'What Next For Britain's Port Workers?' on behalf of the Socialist Labour League - the party he had joined following his departure from the CP. In official retirement Kerrigan became an actor appearing in the militant dockworkers drama The Big Flame, written by Jim Allen and directed by Ken Loach. The play stimulated the formation of a political group of the same name, largely based in Liverpool. He was soon in demand, appearing in Loach's The Rank and File and Days of Hope, as well as the Play For Today's The Spongers and United Kingdom, and the drama The Gathering Seed - all of which were again written by Allen. He also appeared in Z Cars, The Sweeney, Family at War, Strumpet City, Crown Court, Brookside and Scully. But he'll perhaps be best remembered as George Malone in The Blackstuff and its subsequent spin off series, Boys from The Blackstuff, in which he played a blacklisted former docker and trade unionist.
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Paula McDonagh
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Dawn Booth
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Angela Catherall
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Unknown Actor
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Bernard Atha
Bernard Atha CBE was an actor known for his many appearances in Ken Loach films and various notable Play for Today productions. He also served as a Labour councillor for the Kirkstall ward in Leeds for 57 years (1957-2014) and was once the Lord Mayor of the city. He trained in ballet and law before taking up his career in acting and politics. He died aged 94 on 22nd October 2022.
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Donald Gee
Donald Gee is a British film and television actor.
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Roger Sloman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Roger Sloman (born 19 May 1946) is an English actor. Born in the Harlesden district of London, he has performed in dozens of television and film appearances since the late 1970s. He is perhaps most famously remembered as Keith in Nuts in May. Description above from the Wikipedia article Roger Sloman, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Josephine Antosz
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Marion Shakespeare
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Ann Haydn-Edwards
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Joanna Clay
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Ken Rose
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Johnny Allan
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Anthony Dutton
Anthony Dutton was born on June 4, 1934 in Clitheroe, Lancashire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Department S (1969), The Avengers (1961) and EastEnders (1985). He died on November 30, 2013 in Brinsworth House, Twickenham, Middlesex, England, UK.
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Gwyll Williams
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Johnny Hackett
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Bill Moores
Bill Moores was born on 16 October 1934 to George and Lillian Moore – but he became Moores after his father accidentally wrote an extra “S” on the birth certificate. He grew up in Old Swan and Huyton Quarry, and lived in Prescot until his death on Monday 13 April 2015 at the age of 80. He began his acting career in local am-dram, performing with the Rainhill Garrick Society and the Rainhill Amateur Operatic Society. On TV, he was best-known for a long stint as Cedric – perpetually drunk and always propping up the bar – in the Liverpool-set sitcom Watching (1987-1993). He also starred in Our Day Out (1977), The Spongers (1978), The Muscle Market (1981), Boys from the Blackstuff (1982), No Surrender (1987) and Riff-Raff (1991). Alongside his TV and theatre work, he was head of the Liverpool division of actors’ union Equity for several years. He was also a familiar face behind the counter at HLS Motor Factors on Warrington Road, Prescot, and KLS on Hall Lane. In his later years he toured retirement homes with an acting company.
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Stuart Lee
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Movie Details
Production Info
- Director:
- Roland Joffé
- Writer:
- Jim Allen
- Production:
- BBC
Key Crew
- Editor:
- Bill Shapter
- Producer:
- Tony Garnett
Locations and Languages
- Country:
- GB
- Filming:
- GB
- Languages:
- en