Looking After Jo Jo

All Episodes 1998

  • Ended
  • #<Network:0x00007f9fb45d0010>
  • 1998-01-12T00:00:00Z
  • 42m
  • 2h 48m (4 episodes)
  • Frank Deasy
  • United Kingdom
  • English
  • BBC Scotland
  • Drama
John Joseph McCann has been a habitual criminal since childhood, when he pilfered cash boxes for his dad. He's been in and out of prison ever since. He lives in a high rise council flat with his mother and sister. It is set in and around the North Sighthill housing estate. Looking After JoJo traces the career of a petty thief turned drug dealer in 1980's Edinburgh. The title character is a pleasant if misguided young man surviving in a bleak housing estate and aspiring to the trappings of a successful criminal. Unfortunately for him, and for most of the other characters in the mini-series, it is a time of heroin addiction and AIDS. We watch JoJo become ensnared in the drugs scene and his deterioration is both painful to watch and very moving. Robert Carlyle's performance is extraordinarily complex and textured. He is ably supported by Jenny McCrindle, Ewan Stewart and Trainspotting's Kevin McKidd. This isn't the fast-moving MTV drug scene of Trainspotting but a more character-oriented, leisurely look at the human cost of drug addiction.

4 episodes

Series Premiere

1998-01-12T00:00:00Z

1x01 Steal the Herd

Series Premiere

1x01 Steal the Herd

  • 1998-01-12T00:00:00Z42m

Family loyalties are tested to the limit by his determination to set up a crime empire in opposition to his uncle, the local underworld kingpin who has a few ruthless ideas of his own.

1998-01-19T00:00:00Z

1x02 Working Week

1x02 Working Week

  • 1998-01-19T00:00:00Z42m

The attraction of making big money dealing heroin proves too much for recently acquitted Jo Jo, who jumps on the bandwagon at the first opportunity. But evil undercurrents of violence and addiction soon surface as he becomes consumed by Edinburgh's drug culture, prompting him to think carefully about his future.

1998-01-26T00:00:00Z

1x03 Sink the Belgrano

1x03 Sink the Belgrano

  • 1998-01-26T00:00:00Z42m

Money begins to roll in at long last as Jo Jo's heroin business takes off in earnest. But what he doesn't take into account, is that his dodgy dealings are about to destroy everything he loves.

1998-02-02T00:00:00Z

1x04 When Love Goes Wrong

1x04 When Love Goes Wrong

  • 1998-02-02T00:00:00Z42m

The walls of Jo Jo's world come tumbling down as he finally uncovers the truth about his father's death. Meanwhile, the community spirit of the estate collapses under the pressure of Sarah's imprisonment, Charlie McCann's murder and a rampant Aids epidemic.

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