Market In Honey Lane

For the past 30 years one of the most popular shows on British TV has been EastEnders and before there was EastEnders there was......Market In Honey Lane, a late 60's drama which ran for 91 episodes over a two year period. Only the first 13 episodes survive today. (I believe that's because they were transferred to film and sent to another country where they were archived and recovered.) After this first series the title was shortened to just Honey Lane. The show was created by Louis Marks, who had a long distinguished career in TV. 
"A 1960s forerunner to EastEnders, this highly engaging series captures all of the camaraderie and humour, rivalry and chicanery, graft and greed of a bustling Soho market where stalls may be inherited, bought, or "acquired". This set contains the complete first series from 1967 - all that remains of this well-remembered and high popular street life drama and its sequel Honey Lane.

Jimmy, a life-long stallholder in his sixties, sells little more than carrots, spuds and cabbages. Beside him is Billy, a hard-bitten gambler who's usually facing economic disaster on a major or minor scale. Vegetable seller Dave's after a spot for his brother, widow Polly runs a busy fruit stall, while her dim-witted son Danny does odd jobs to earn a bit of cash. Then there are the fly pitchers: boys who work out of a suitcase, drumming up a crowd to make a sale and swiftly moving on. Jacko is among them, and his one ambition is to get a stall - at any cost!

The market in Honey Lane may be a human jungle but its traders know how to bury their differences, weed out real rats and deal with interlopers like scheming, corrupt and ever-unpopular market inspector Mr. Tooke..."