The Dustbinmen

The Dustbinmen is a British television sitcom made by Granada Television for ITV, which starred Bryan Pringle, Trevor Bannister, Graham Haberfield and Tim Wylton. The show was a spin-off from a one-off 90-minute television film There's a Hole in Your Dustbin, Delilah (1968) written by Jack Rosenthal and directed by Michael Apted. This led to the sitcom which ran for three series between 1969 and 1970. Rosenthal wrote all of the episodes of the first series and, according to the insert in the Network DVD release, all the episodes of the second series too. However, the title credits for Episode 6 of Season 2 name the writers as Tom Brennand and Roy Bottomley. Main characters Cheese and Egg, Heavy Breathing, Winston Platt and Eric are the crew of dustcart 'Thunderbird 3' of the Corporation Cleansing Department—the name obviously an ironic reference to the spacecraft in Thunderbirds. Also known as 'Number 3 Gang', throughout the day they collect dustbins and treat each other, or anyone else, with rudeness and disdain. Cheese and Egg, whose real name is C. E. Petty, is a fervent communist and the natural-born leader of the gang; with his knowledge, the gang can escape sticky situations if they are lucky. Heavy Breathing, "the one with the good looks", is obliged to spend much of his time pleasuring housewives—something he finds quite annoying when he would prefer to be resting. Winston Platt, a die-hard fan of Manchester City, views player Colin Bell as a god. Welsh Eric, the more sensitive Coronation Street-fan, spends most of the time talking about television and saving to buy a colour TV for his mother. Other characters The Cleansing Department's inspector is always known as Bloody Delilah regardless of who he is. He keeps the nickname because, according to Cheese and Egg in episode 2.1, "They're all bloody Delilahs". Another character, who appeared in all 20 episodes, was Smellie Ibbotson. He starts as the scavenger on the tips but is later promoted to be Bloody Delilah's lapdog, reporting on who was skiving and what they are up to. Not everyone likes Smellie, not just because he was smelly, but also because he is difficult to understand (as he has no teeth).