Meantime

Meantime 1983

6.60

A working-class family in London's East End is struggling to stay afloat during the recession under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's premiership. Only the mother Mavis is working; father Frank and the couple's two sons Colin, a timid, chronically shy individual and Mark, an outspoken, headstrong young man, are on the dole. This situation is contrasted by the presence of Mavis's sister Barbara, and her husband John, whose financial and social loftiness appears to be a comfortable facade over the unspoken soreness of a lackluster marriage.

1983

Habit

Habit 2017

5.30

Manchester, the present. Michael divides his time between the job center and the pub. A chance meeting with Lee, an introduction to her Uncle Ian and a heavy night on the lash lead to a job working the door at a Northern Quarter massage parlor. After witnessing the violent death of one of the punters, Michael experiences blood-drenched flashbacks and feels himself being sucked into a twilight world that he doesn't understand but that is irresistibly attractive. When he eventually finds out what goes on in the room below Cloud 9, Michaels' life will never be the same again.

2017

Tony

Tony 2010

5.90

Unemployed and unemployable, Tony is a sympathetic recluse with severe social problems, an addiction to VHS action films and a horrible moustache. Occasionally he snaps and murder is the result…

2010

Attention danger travail

Attention danger travail 2003

6.80

With the energy of the dying, those in power apply themselves to reasserting the value of work – with force, if need be. But more and more workers have understood that, to truly value their work, they have to do without it. They also have to get rid of the society of consumption that goes along with it. It may not be easy, but it is certainly amusing. We present a panorama of a mass desertion destined to spread.

2003

Living It Up

Living It Up 1994

6.50

A recently laid off steel mill worker in a little seaside town starts losing his wife to a local TV anchor.

1994

Praise

Praise 1999

4.70

An unfocused twentysomething moves in with a former co-worker, who is suffering from low self-esteem because of her weight, looks, and a case of eczema. Their relationship is based on unending drink, drugs, and sex.

1999

Poor Kids

Poor Kids 2011

1

3.5 million children are growing up in poverty in the UK. It’s one of the worst rates in the industrialised world and successive governments continue to struggle to bring it into line. Struggling & without a voice, 'Poor Kids' shines a light on this pressing issue.

2011

Deleted

Deleted 1970

1

A short documentary following the last 5 hours of a 59-years-old man, Ahmed before becoming homeless due to the late payments and bureaucracy by the Department for Work and Pensions.

1970

Benefits

Benefits 2017

1

In a not-so-distant future, Adeel must comply with the machines to survive.

2017

Bread

Bread 1986

7.10

Bread is a British television sitcom, written by Carla Lane, produced by the BBC and screened on BBC1 from 1 May 1986 to 3 November 1991. The series focused on the devoutly-Catholic and extended Boswell family of Liverpool, in the district of Dingle, led by its matriarch Nellie through a number of ups and downs as they tried to make their way through life in Thatcher's Britain with no visible means of support. The street shown at the start of each programme is Elswick Street. A family called Boswell had also featured in Lane's earlier sitcom The Liver Birds and Lane admitted in interviews that the two families were probably related. Nellie's feckless and estranged husband, Freddie, left her for another woman known as 'Lilo Lill'. Her children Joey, Jack, Adrian, Aveline and Billy continued to live in the family home in Kelsall Street and contributed money to the central family fund, largely through benefit fraud and the sale of stolen goods.

1986

The Job Lot

The Job Lot 2013

7.30

The daily troubles of the people who work in a busy West Midlands Job Centre, and the people who don’t work there, or anywhere else for that matter.

2013

Benefits Street

Benefits Street 2014

6.30

This documentary series reveals the reality of life on benefits, as the residents of one of Britain's most benefit-dependent streets invite cameras into their tight-knit community

2014