Alan Bleasdale's five-part series relates the further experiences of unemployed Liverpudlian tarmac layers Dixie, Chrissie, Loggo and Yosser, and their revered older friend, retired longshoreman and union leader, George Malone. As they struggle to make ends meet in a depressed economy, and to hold together their financially battered families, they are harrassed by the petty bureaucrats of the DHSS. But the lumbering investigational juggernaut is, both comically and tragically, guided by drivers with only a provisional license.

Bernard Hill, Michael Angelis, Tom Georgeson, Alan Igbon, Peter Kerrigan, Gary Bleasdale, Julie Walters, Jean Boht, David Fleeshman, David Ross, David Neilson, Shay Gorman, Chris Darwin, Jean Heywood, Tony Scoggo, James Ellis, Clive Russell, Paul Barber, Tony Haygarth, Ricky Tomlinson, Eileen O'Brien, Sam Kelly, Noreen Kershaw, Struan Rodger, Karl Lornie, Stephen Moss, Cheryl Leigh, Vince Earl, Gilly Coman, Bill Moores, Martin Wyldeck, Jimmy Coleman, Syd Newmann, Nicola Hollinshead, Jean Warren, Joey Kaye, Lloyd Peters, Peter Christian, Nick Maloney, Lesley Nightingale, Harry Goodier, Jason Cunliffe, John Carr, Iggy Navarro, Al T. Kossy, Eric Granville, James Culshaw, Doña Croll, Mike Hayden