Going Out was written by Phil Redmond (Grange Hill, Brookside etc). Shown in late night slots in most ITV regions around the latter part of 1981 and again in the early days of Channel 4. It was made and distributed by the now defunct Southern Television. The series has never been released for retail on VHS or DVD.

Going Out tells the story of a group of mates as they leave school in 1981 with a future full of despair and despondency. Where the only real direction is straight into the dole office. A feeling that many of us had at the time. I left school at the same time as the characters, with as much future before me as they had.

Sean, Roger and Sammy have just left school, together with their mate Dikey, who left school the previous year, the six 30minute episodes follow the first six weeks of life after Meadowcroft Comprehensive School.

Sean’s attempts to woo the sexy Cathy, and Rogers failed attempts to get into Gerrys pants make for some great memories. (My sons woo their girlfriends by text message now – how much easier is that!!??).

Dikey spends a lot of time on the booze, its not explored why, it just is. That’s how things were then, you didn’t have to have a committee or a quango to put a reason to why you were, or weren’t something. You just were and you dealt with it as best you could.

Sammy spends most of his time waiting for Sean and Roger to get blown out by their respective girls; or waiting for Dikey to sober up.

If you left school between 75 and 85 this will bring those memories flooding back. The early days of Thatcher’s Britain, where values, traditions, working lives and industries would be changed forever.

We’d had enough of the hippies and the Prog Rock movement. We were punks, skinheads, mods, rude boys, etc and we all had one thing in common, we were pissed off. It showed in our music, our clothes and our attitude.

Going Out doesn’t try to answer any questions. It just shows how it was. Endless days sat in the park, or dishing out and receiving a few slaps, or spending a week working out how best to get into your latest girls pants and then completely failing to do so on Friday night! But we had a laugh, we didn’t get too depressed about it. We didn’t see counsellors or attend Job Clubs – we just got on with it the best we could.

I’m glad I was born and grew up when I did, I wouldn’t have changed it for the world.