Season 4 • Episode 6
LatestFreda has recently been promoted to supervisor and found love with builder Kenny, but when she feels slighted by Pat, she starts a malicious campaign against the factory manager that spirals out of control.
Clocking Off is a British television drama series broadcast on BBC One for four series from 2000 to 2003. It was produced by Red Production Company, and created by Paul Abbott. Effectively an anthology programme that followed the lives of a group of workers at a Manchester textile factory, with each episode focusing on the private life of a different character. How much do you know about the person working next to you? From the outside, life at Mackintosh Textiles appears to run smoothly, but in a community with so many secrets to hide, things are far from straightforward. In six powerful, self-contained dramas, everyday life is fractured by tumultuous marriages, snatched passions, disappearing spouses, and gang harassment.
Writing
Paul Abbott's early voice—Shameless DNA with more restraint.
Acting
Northern actors given space to devastate, not perform.
Production
Mackintosh Textiles: a character more suffocating than any human.
Creator
Paul Abbott
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Abbott drew from his own Manchester upbringing; the factory's claustrophobia mirrors his council estate childhood.
The anthology format let Abbott test characters who'd later evolve into Shameless's Gallagher chaos.
GB
