Tuesday, 16 February 2010

The Walford Hillbillies

London is the capital of the world, they say. The most polyglot city on earth. Unlike in America, or indeed almost anywhere, the mixed-race groups of friends, the mixed-race couples and the mixed-race children are all over the place, without the slightest self-consciousness.

Well, London projects itself to the nation and to the world by means of one of the most watched programmes on British television. This week, one of its characters will re-marry one of her previous husbands, who happens to be her grandmother's former stepson, and who was previously married to the daughter of another of his former stepmothers.

There is more, and, like early twentysomething divorcees and people in their thirties who are onto or even beyond their third marriages, such situations are far from unusual on EastEnders, London's desired view of itself on the part of everywhere else.

Frankly, I am surprised that it does not feature Burt Reynolds negotiating the Thames in a canoe.
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12 comments:

  1. Anonymous16 February 2010 at 17:08

    "Well, London projects itself to the nation and to the world by means of one of the most-watched programmes on British television. This week, one of its characters will re-marry one of her previous husbands, who happens to be her grandmother's former stepson, and who was previously married to the daughter of another of his former stepmothers."

    Remove the prefix "step" and that is a typical domestic set up in St Helena.

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  2. David Lindsay16 February 2010 at 17:10

    It isn't, and that is my point. It isn't in the North. It isn't in the countryside. But London clearly wants the world to think that it is in London.

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  3. Anonymous16 February 2010 at 17:16

    Every time I see it I give thanks that I don't live in London. You are right, this is the flagship, this is how they want everyone else to see them. They think that the rest of the country wants to be them, and this is what they think that we want to be.

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  4. Ex East Ender16 February 2010 at 17:18

    EastEnders shows London is an absolutely awful light. Screeching, contract killings, everyone in the pub all the time, women marrying their dead husband's brothers. That is what trendy BBC types think working class life is like.

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  5. David Lindsay16 February 2010 at 17:23

    But note that they all own their own houses, as if anyone like that could buy a house in the East End since the Beeboids and their ilk moved in.

    What IS that accent that the younger characters have? And one of the trio of new teenagers, a boy who seems to be Asian although it is not clear, speaks in a private language, totally incomprehensible to the viewer, though apparently posing no difficulty to his (as it happens, white) peers.

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  6. Anonymous16 February 2010 at 17:32

    That's not a bad light, Ex East Ender, that's London: screeching, contract killings, everyone in the pub all the time, women marrying their dead husband's brothers.

    But remember, they are the sophisticates, we are the yokels, just ask Anonymous 17:08. Or the writers and producers of EastEnders, who want the world to see their city like that so it must be.

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  7. Will16 February 2010 at 18:32

    "London's desired view of itself on the part of everywhere else."

    Well this is mainfest nonsense.

    There are, what, six million people in London?

    You fool.

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  8. David Lindsay16 February 2010 at 19:01

    EastEnders is the (very London) BBC's flgaship depiction of its city to the nation and to the world. And what a depiction it is.

    Odd to think that initially there was worry that no one would watch a soap set in the South. It remains the only one. Even Holyoaks is notionally set in Chester.

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  9. Dustman16 February 2010 at 19:33

    It's not nonsense Will. I live in London and am personally consulted on the storylines in Eastenders, just to make sure it adequately reflects my lifestyle to the world. It's quite time-consuming filling out a character-by-character wishlist, but by God it's worth it.

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  10. David Lindsay16 February 2010 at 19:38

    The writers and producers are from London, the BBC has London running through it like a stick of rock, and this is the principal means whereby they depict London to the world, or at least to rest of Britain.

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  11. Will17 February 2010 at 19:16

    No, no, David. None of this 'BBC' nonsense. Not mentioned in your blogpost. What you said was this:

    "Well, London projects itself to the nation and to the world by means of one of the most watched programmes on British television."

    "London projects itself"

    I mean, really.

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  12. David Lindsay18 February 2010 at 17:15

    Really.

    If the BBC isn't London, then what the hell is it? And what the hell is?

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