When a Tyneside accent finally made mainstream TV in 1976

Back in 1976, BBC1 started screening the drama series When the Boat Comes in, starring James Bolam as union leader Jack Ford.

‘You shall have a fishy, on a little dishy’

Right from its distinctive opening title song, with the memorable couplet – ‘you shall have a fishy, on a little dishy’ – it was distinctively northern.

In the roasting hot summer of ’76, the cast descended on Readhead’s shipyard in South Shields to film part of the second series.

Chatting next to the engine shop

Our Gazette photographer captured Bolam and his sidekick Matt Hedley, actor Malcolm Ferris, being filmed walking, talking, and finally arguing, in the alleyway alongside the yard’s Victorian-built engine shop.

But although some of the series was filmed in Wallsend and Durham, the bulk of scenes were shot down south, particularly in Reading and Folkestone.

Jeremy Owen, the show’s production assistant, said: “Our headache is that we are finding it difficult to get the scenes we want in the Newcastle area because so many old buildings are being pulled down.”

Elsewhere in the news, ‘STAY cool’ was the message in the blistering summer of 1976

Gatoff of Fowler Street, South Shields, was urging customers to relax in comfortable garb. They had casual shirts for £2.50 and ‘cricket trousers by Fred Perry for £6.75.

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