Prospects poster

Prospects (1986)

Comedy · Drama

Prospects is a British television comedy drama series that was written by Alan Janes and originally shown on Channel 4 in 1986. Created by Euston Films who had a pedigree of producing successful, gritty drama such as The Sweeney and Minder, it followed the exploits of two East End 'geezer' characters - Jimmy 'Pincy' Pince played by Gary Olsen and Billy played by Brian Bovell and their trials and tribulations of making a living in London's Isle of Dogs. Comprising 12 episodes Prospects - with a comic slant, dealt with many of the major issues affecting British society at the height of the "Thatcherite" '80's including unemployment, crime, poverty, regeneration, social change and racism. Prospects gained a cult following and ratings wise it performed well above expectation for Channel 4. At that time Channel Four received a large subsidy from the rival commercial network ITV in exchange for the right to sell airtime; this gave ITV a significant input into the management of the station. The success of Prospects and the fact that it was produced by a subsidiary of the ITV network's largest station Thames Television meant it was moved to a 9pm prime-time repeat slot on ITV in the Spring/Summer of 1987. This fuelled rumours that the network wanted to develop Prospects into a long-running comedy drama series. However despite seeing potential ITV declined the opportunity to develop it beyond the original first series.

IMDb rating
8.5 (213 votes)
Seasons
1
Streaming (US)
Hoopla · Fawesome
Language
EN
Type
TV series

Ratings refreshed Jul 3, 2026 · 1 season indexed

Cast

Seasons

Season 1 (1986)

7.54 avg 10 episodes 7.8 → 6.8

Ep 1: 7.8 · 10 votesEp 2: 8.1 · 7 votesEp 3: 8.4 · 5 votesEp 4: 7.4 · 5 votesEp 5: 8.0 · 6 votesEp 6: 7.5 · 6 votesEp 7: 7.6 · 7 votesEp 8: 7.2 · 6 votesEp 9: 6.6 · 7 votesEp 10: 6.8 · 8 votes
Season 1 episodes — IMDb ratings
#TitleRatingVotes
1The P to S Day7.810
2Partners in Brine8.17
3Uncle Harry's System8.45
4Dirty Weekend7.45
5Rodent Engineers8.06
6Standing on Your Own One Foot7.56
7Subterranean Pig Sick Blues7.67
8Frying Tonight7.26
9Four Men in a Boat6.67
10Follow the Yellow Brick Lane6.88