Watched it again a couple of years ago. It's not perfect (some episodes could be chopped without you noticing), but a Tory smear it ain't. Alan Bleasdale was "T

Watched it again a couple of years ago. It's not perfect (some episodes could be chopped without you noticing), but a Tory smear it ain't. Alan Bleasdale was "True Labour" (way to the left of The Third Way), he just had no time for the Derek Hattons of the world and believed Militant was an unwitting tool of the establishment (something he made explicit in the plot). Complicated by the fact he made Murray way more interesting than Hatton, ofc. Nelson is Bleasdale's hero: long standing Labour member. Wants to teach kids, but would never cross a picket line. Doesn't use the personal stuff the establishment have dug up to discredit Murray. &c Incidentally, I lived near Hatton back in the day. He had done extremely well financially out of his time at the council.