When the Boat Comes In (1976)

James Bolam's Jack Ford is one of the great charming chancers of British TV: a First World War veteran who comes home to the fictional North East town of Gallowshield and talks, hustles and organizes his way up, never quite on the side you expect. James Mitchell wrote most of the episodes, and the dialogue has a hard, funny edge that keeps the poverty and politics from turning into worthy history. The story runs from 1919 to 1937 across 51 episodes; the early series, steeped in strikes and unemployment, are the strongest.