All Episodes of When the Boat Comes In
Browse all episodes of When the Boat Comes In
When the Boat Comes In is a British television period drama produced by the BBC between 8 January 1976 and 21 April 1981. Taking place between 1919 to 1937, Jack Ford is a First World
Season 1
8.8/1022 votesKing for a Day
Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 3/11/1976
Dolly is pregnant and Jack jobless so he agrees to a proposition from Manners, who wants to buy a house from Lord Calderbeck. Jack, posing as a parvenu car parts tycoon, will act as front man. At the house, he meets Freddy, Calderbeck's nephew and heir, though his Lordship resents him as he survived the war, unlike Calderbeck's sons. Freddy is suspicious of Jack but the merry widow Jane Cromer, Freddy's fiancée, is partial to a bit of rough and climbs into Jack's bed. Ultimately, Jack persuades her to marry Freddy and, thanks to inside information from Billy, working on his Lordship's land, gets a good sale for the house with a healthy commission for himself.
Director: Paul Ciappessoni
Writer: James Mitchell
8.4/1032 votesA Land Fit for Heroes and Idiots
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 1/8/1976
1919: Jack Ford returns to Gallowshields on Tyneside after service in the Great War. He befriends the Seaton family—parents Bill and Bella, and their children: Jessie, attractive schoolteacher Jessie, Socialist medical student Billy, and black sheep Tom. Billy and Jessie try to involve Jack in the local Labour Party against the Liberal candidate and magistrate, former Major Pinner, who is against votes for women. Pinner not only wins, but makes himself unpopular by trying a shell-shocked war hero who got into a fight whilst confused and scared.
Director: Ronald Wilson
Writer: James Mitchell
8.4/1020 votesSwords and Pick Handles
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 1/29/1976
Jack visits Sir Horatio Manners, father of his late commanding officer, to gift him a sword. Manners knows this is a ploy for Jack to ingratiate himself but is regardless impressed by his guile and offers him a job at his new factory, supervising non-Union workers. This angers Jessie, who sees Jack as betraying his kind but they reconcile after Jack rescues Tom, in need of money and working as a 'black-leg', from being beaten up by his striking colleagues.
Director: Gilchrist Calder
Writer: James Mitchell
8.3/1019 votesEmpire Day on the Slag Heap
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 2/12/1976
The strike ends with no concessions won by the colliers. Jack triumphs at the factory and Manners suggests that he could do better than Jessie. Jessie goes on a date with the older, formal Arthur Ashton, who proposes, though she turns him down. Matt tells Jack that Dolly is pregnant and so he agrees to marry her. Bill, injured at the pit, is offered a payment by the mining company but at the expense of admitting his own liability. Jack bitterly opposes this and holds out for a better settlement, winning Jessie's admiration.
Director: Paul Ciappessoni
Writer: James Mitchell
8.3/1019 votesPaddy Boyle's Discharge
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 2/26/1976
Mary dies. Jack is in a pub when he meets old army colleague Sid Hepburn, still a professional soldier who suggests that Jack reenlist as soldier's pay is very good. Paddy Boyle, an Irish member of Jack's sheep-stealing gang, is convinced that Hepburn and his friend Bartram are the two British soldiers responsible for rape and murder back in Cork. Jack realises that Paddy is a member of Sinn Fein. Having considered Hepburn's offer, Jack declines rejoining the army but is too late to stop carnage when Bartram and Hepburn are shot by Paddy and his Sinn Fein comrade Lynch. Despite a warning cry from Jack, Paddy is also shot by a British soldier.
Director: Leonard Lewis
Writer: James Mitchell
8.2/1019 votesA First Time for Everything
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 2/19/1976
Encouraged by French onion seller Pierre, Bella turns the front of the house into a shop, using some of Bill's compensation. Bill, still bound to a wheelchair, is initially hostile but sees the need for income. Jessie is impressed by the intelligence of 14-year-old pupil Ronnie and tries to dissuade him from working in the mine but his mother is a widow and he wants to earn 'man's money'. He goes to work in the pit and is killed, causing Tom, who was looking after him, to quit. Jessie gets engaged to Ashton whilst Jack weds Dolly at the registry office.
Director: Gilchrist Calder
Writer: Alex Glasgow
8.1/1021 votesCoal Comfort
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 2/5/1976
As the strike continues, Bill approaches an old friend, regarding the location of a mine shut down fifty years earlier. Tom pursues two children who have stolen leeks from his allotment but, on discovering that their mother is a war widow with no pension, makes a gift of leeks to them. Billy decides to quit his studies and, while Bill initially offers no opposition, he belittles the lad in the hopes that he will change his mind. The three Seaton men work on the shallow pit that Bill begins to dig under the floorboards — and eventually, Tom holds up a lump of coal in triumph.
Director: Ronald Wilson
Writer: Alex Glasgow
8.1/1018 votesHappy New Year, Some Say
Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 3/18/1976
It is New Year's Eve and Glaswegian socialist lecturer Sandy Lewis joins Jack, whom he tells that the Labour party is in the ascendancy, at the George Hotel, where Billy is bartending and Tom avoids capture, having stolen from the cloak-room. They join Bill and Bella at a party given by Jessie and Ashton, to whom she is now married. The next day, the Seatons are summoned for allowing their shop to remain open in the evening. Bill suspects they were grassed up by rival shopkeeper Davidson.
Director: Bill Hays
Writer: Alex Glasgow
8.1/1015 votesKind-Hearted Rat with a Lifebelt
Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 4/1/1976
Tom is caught and remanded. Jack becomes the deputy branch secretary of the Union, getting the miners on side to dissuade them from strike action. The widow Downey – who actually informed on Tom – faces eviction as she is unable pay the rent and is locked out by the landlord. When Jack and Tom appear in court, Tom is sentenced to three months' incarceration and Jack to one, but Jack is released to a hero's welcome.
Director: Paul Ciappessoni
Writer: James Mitchell
7.9/1026 votesFish in Woolly Jumpers
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 1/22/1976
Times are hard as the miners strike over a pay claim and Tom, now married with a son to keep as well as Mary, who has tuberculosis, borrows money from the seemingly flush Jack. Jack meets Matt's sister Dolly Mather, a war widow with whom he has an affair. Aware that Jack is involved in some sort of scam, Tom threatens to expose them unless Jack counts him in so Jack and Matt take Tom on their nocturnal 'fishing trip', in reality stealing sheep. They have a narrow escape after a run-in with a policeman but Jessie, against Jack's expectations, condones his activities.
Director: Paul Ciappessoni
Writer: James Mitchell
7.8/1024 votesSay Hello... Say Tirra
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 1/15/1976
Billy, Tom and old army buddy Matt try to involve Jack in the Labour movement but he seems disinterested. Bella takes in Harry, a young orphan. Father Keenley, the local priest, tells Bella that she could adopt but this would put a strain on resources and it might be better if she allows the boy to be sent on an emigration scheme to Australia.
Director: Gilchrist Calder
Writer: Tom Hadaway
7.8/1016 votesHeads You Win, Tails I Lose
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 3/25/1976
To the annoyance of her husband, Jessie has been nominated for the Labour Party executive and Jack antagonizes Dolly – who senses an ulterior motive in backing her. Jessie's nomination is successful. She has a bright pupil, Robert Armstrong, for whom she is seeking a scholarship and romance seems to be in the air between Matt and Robert's mother Lizzie. However, Lizzie is independent and rejects Matt after securing a well-paid cleaning job. Meanwhile, Tom is on the run, wanted for theft and illegal gambling, and Jack, having patched things up with Dolly, plans to help him escape to London.
Director: Leonard Lewis
Writer: Sid Chaplin
7.3/1017 votesAngel on Horseback
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 3/3/1976
Nurse Rosie Trotter returns to Gallowshields and is mutually attracted to Tom, though, out of respect for Mary, they agree to postpone their nuptials for a year. Meanwhile, Bella's uncle Mick dies in hospital, having first placed a bet on a horse in Bella's name. To compensate for his funeral, Bella does cleaning work and is pleased to feel independent, which Bill resents. Mick's funeral is well-attended and the horse he backed won but unfortunately, the bet was never formally placed as the bookie was operating illegally.
Director: Bill Hays
Writer: Sid Chaplin