G.B.H. (1991)

Directed by

Robert Young

Genre

drama

Country

United Kingdom

Length

1 season, 7 episodes

Rating

6.3 of 10 from 17 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A hard-left city council leader in Northern England clashes with a special school headmaster. The story follows his chaotic political career and personal life as a satire of British politics and society.

satiricalbleakly comicfast-pacedpolitically chargedabsurdgrittycynicalbiting

What happens

G.B.H. is a seven-part British television drama written by Alan Bleasdale shown in the summer of 1991 on Channel 4. Described by Bleasdale as "one caring, liberal madman's odyssey through the appalling farce of life in Britain today", its protagonists are Michael Murray (played by Robert Lindsay), the hard-left Labour leader of a city council in the North of England, and Jim Nelson (played by Michael Palin), the headmaster of a special school. In normal parlance, the initials 'G.B.H.' refer to the criminal charge of grievous bodily harm (i.e. causing someone serious injury). However, Bleasdale claimed in an interview on the DVD that the title is supposed to stand for 'Great British Holiday'. The series was controversial partly because Murray appeared to be based on Derek Hatton, former Deputy Leader of Liverpool City Council. After the first episode was aired, Channel 4 declined to provide preview tapes of the remaining instalments to Merseyside Police, who were concerned the programme could affect Hatton's court case regarding corruption. Bleasdale downplayed the connection, leading Hatton to comment, "the only person in the world who does not seem to think that Michael Murray is me, is Alan Bleasdale". (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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