Prospects — Season 1, Episode 5: Rodent avengers
Drama, Comedy • 60 min • 1 season, 12 episodes • ★ 7.0/10
Episode synopsis
Pincey and Billy become pest control experts, and take the work of another rat-catcher who does his best to get his own back. At first things go really well, but then the binmen accidently pick up their bottles of whiskey promised to a dour Scots customer, and they realise they should've set traps for the rodents, as usual things start to go pear-shaped.
About Prospects
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.