AsSeenonTV: PortrayalsofLondonanditsPeople PeterRaynard

PeterRaynard

Aftermanaginga bettingshop, IstudiedInternational Politics (BA), then African Studies (MA), and

workedas an advisorandwriteron organisational accountability fora charity. Forthe past six years I have been a stay-at-home fatheroftwo ever-expandingsons, as well as a freelance writerandeditor. Just completedan MA in Creative Writing: Writingthe City.

FromBlackandWhitetoColour

The Londonscene up to the early1960s was adourblackandgrey, to the pointwhere the citybranded itselfasfoggy, thesettingforSherlockHolmestoinvestigate, hisdistinctiveprofilerecognisablethrough the haze. The reality, however, was deadly smog that killed some 4,000 in 1952, and even in 1962

consigned750Londonerstotheirdeath. TheCleanAirActsofthe‘50sand‘60stookthegreymiasmaoutofLondon’sairandputcolour inthecheeksofitsresidents.Thestreetswerequietbytoday’sstandards: smallcars,smallshops,eventhe people looked smaller. But, by the end ofthe decade, London was said to be swinging, replete with sweetshop colours, freeloveandbanthebomb. Londonevenchangedshape, growinginsizeto become GreaterLondon,althoughgreaterthanwhatwasunclear. Theprogrammesofthattimealsostartedoutgrey,bothinvisionandtheme. Hancock’s HalfHour was an unlikely groundbreaking show, centred on the tribulations of an out-of-work comedian with intellectual pretensions butrivenbyclass anxiety. Itmostlyshowedhimsittingonhis sofainabedsit(a recurrent setting for London programmes) failing to make headway with philosophers such as Bertrand

Russell. “Work?”hesays, “Well, notatthemoment. JustsohappensIdon’tagreewiththesocialsystem. AsitisI’vecontractedout.Ijustsithereandcontemplate.” Set in Cheam, a down-at-heel suburb in the south-western borderlands ofwhat was to become GreaterLondon, itwas one ofthe firstprogrammes to make the successful journeyfromradio to TVin thelatefifties. Itgrewinpopularityoverthenextdecadeandsetthetrendforsitcomsfeaturingfeckless, malecynicswhosawLondonasafailedopportunitytoflextheircerebralpowers. Butmoreimportantly, the show premiered an important characteristic ofLondon life: the misfit, and lonely individual –from Bedsit Girl in the 1960s (starring the young Sheila Hancock) to the flat-sharing of Bottom, Crapston

Villas, This Life, Spaced and most recently Peep Show. Ifyou want to know where the ‘odd bods’ of Londonendup,looknofurtherthanthemyriadbedsitsandflatsoccupiedbystrangers. ThewritersofHancock, Galton and Simpson wentontogreatersuccesswiththeequallyfeckless and(assomewouldsay)monstrous Steptoe andSon –apairofWestLondonrag-and-bonemen. Aswith theirfirstshow, thesituationandmuchofthecomedyrestedonBritain’sclasssystem, whichhasalways

been seen at its most exposed in the case ofLondon –with single streets serving as the dividing line betweensomeofthemostwealthyandmostdeprivedsectionsofthecountry. At one point, halfthe adult British population watched the programme, which for some was a worrying development; in 1964, with an upcoming election, the Labour leader Harold Wilson, nervous abouttheworkingclassvote,persuadedtheBBCnottoshowtheprogrammeonElectionDay. Giventhat he eventually secured an overall majority ofonly four seats, this may well have been his shrewdest politicalmove.

AdjustingtheTracking

Althoughthe airinLondonmayhave gotbrighteras the sixties progressed, its televisual subject matter didn’t. Out ofthe confines ofthe bedsit orthe knacker’s yard, the colour brought with it grittier shows,inparticularcrimetogetexcitedby. Uptothatpoint,your‘ordinarycopper’ Dixon ofDockGreen was the face ofcomforting and comfortable TV cops, starting each programme with a short speech as thoughhehadjustknockedyourdoorwithapieceofadvice. Heevensunghisownthemetune,aswould DenisWatermanfor Minder. He appeared to single-handedly deal with the misdeeds ofLondoners in the East End from the mid-50supuntilReganandCarter(oftheSweeney,nottheWhiteHouse)tookover. Dixonandhissquad wouldhavebeenappalledbytheanticsoftheheavysmokinganddrinkingInspectorJackRegan(played by John Thaw) and Detective George Carter (by Denis Waterman) of Sweeney Todd the Flying Squad.

This was whatcrime inLondonwas reallyabout: gangsters, corruption, bankjobs, and‘gettingitdone’ notexactlybythebook. As ateenageritthrilledmehowtheysaid, “baarstards”, howtheyalways hada woman on the go but never managed to keep her, and howthe criminals on the odd occasion even got away with it. They burst into flats first thing in the morning having been up all night drinking, kicked open the bedroom door and shouted at the geezer in bed with his bird, “Get your trousers on, you’re nicked.” Bothprogrammes,andthosethatfollowed,mostnotably The Bill,werealwaysbeingcomparedto ‘reallife’,asthoughthekeytoapolicedramalayinitslevelofauthenticity. ButthisisnotwhatIwanted,

noranyofmyfriends. With The Sweeney, itwasthegritandroughnessofthecoppersthathadtomatch uptotheircriminals. Putthemallinapoliceline-upandyouwouldhavebeenhardpressedtodistinguish thecopperfromthecon. And then we come full circle in this mini story of crime in London, with the most recent programmes hauntedbythe continuedfetishistfascinationwithJackthe Ripper, Whitechapel (ITV) and

Ripper Street (BBC). Psychogeographers mustbesmilingwryly, as theysoaktheirwalk-tornfeet, atthe continued link ofplace and action. And as with most things, the media is to blame. ITV itselfadmits, Writer and filmmaker (and king ofthe Psycho-G’s) Iain Sinclair, summed it up when reviewing the HollywoodversionofAlanMoore’s From Hell: “JacktheRipOff,”hecalledit.

AMiddleClassInterlude

Londonalsofeaturesasthesettingforanumberoflong-runningsitcoms. The GoodLife and Terry and June werethe(brown)breadand(unsalted)butterofearlyeveningprogramming, whichanewwave of angrier comedy would rail against in the 1980s. They showed a London that could actually be

anywhere(well,anywhereinMiddleEnglandatleast). The Good Life put together two middle-class couples; the counter-culture Goods and the conventional Leadbetters. The Goods let a make-do-and-mend self-sufficiency inform their allotment smallholding in suburban Surbiton. The showusedthemas a vehicle to satirise avaricious middle-class mores, with Margo (Maggie Thatcher’s TV twin sister) being its main target. But like Alf Garnett, Margo’scharactertookonalifeofitsownandelicitedgreatempathyfromitsaudience.

It’saKnockOff

Margo Leadbetter was a character the nation took to its heart, but she would have wrinkled her

noseattheothersfoundthere. ThesewerethetypeofcriminalthatGeorgeDixonwouldputinthecells,

but only overnight as a warning; Arthur (Arfur) Daly and Derek (Del Boy) Trotter personified the

wannabe wheeler-dealers, the modern-daycostermongers ducking anddiving theirwayroundtheirown

patchofthebigcity.

Arfurtooktothestreetswithlong-sufferingTerry(wholefttheSweeneytoworkontheotherside

ofthetracks), hiseponymousMinderintow. Theshowismeritedwithpopularisingtheterm‘minder’ to

meanpersonal bodyguard, althoughtodaythe termhas takenadip inpopularitybecause ofits negative

a lot ofthe laughs. Like his unrelated son Del Boy, Arfur was always optimistic about where the next skydiver, score, pony, monkey, or grand was coming from. Minder mixed the comical with London’s gritty criminal underworld, and took you to locations (derelict sites, warehouses, men’s drinking clubs) thatwerewayofftheTouristBoard’slistofcityattractions. And Only Fools andHorses (OFAH)applied thesamecomicalgrittoitsdifferentformat.

IfyouweretodoasurveyaskingpeoplewhattheyassociatedwithPeckham,Ireckonthemajority wouldsayDel BoyandRodney. JohnSullivan, thewriteroftheseries was “sickto deathofthekindof comedies Isawontelly…Nowwehadamodern, vibrant, multi-racial, newslangLondonwherealotof working-classguyshadsuitsandabitofdoshintheirpocketsandthatwasaverydifferentthing. That’s whatIwantedtowriteabout.Itwouldbemoreaggressiveandfeaturethepubs,clubsandtowerblocks.” The Trotters (Del Boy, his younger brother the gangly, awkward Rodney, and firstly their granddad, then Uncle Albert) lived high in the air in Nelson Mandela House, a delightfully unsubtle reference to the emerging multi-cultural London, and the so-called Loony Left councils of the time. Despitetheshow’sstrongensemblecast, DelBoystoletheshow. LikeArfurDaley, hehadhisownway ofusing language, which mainly consisted ofmisusing foreign phrases: mange tout (for my pleasure)

ménage a trois (as anexpressionofsurprise), orifevents reallytookaturnforthe worse, plume de ma tante (asanexpressionofgreatsurprise). On the surface TV’s spivs, minders, and wheeler-dealers showed a more light-hearted side to London’sunderbelly--onewhereyoucouldbeavoyeurbutnotfeelvoyeuristic. ButafewmoreLeagues down, Arthur Daley and Derek Trotter showed a way to survive and be happy in a London that was forever changing. Their cheeky, quasi-legal, yet benign actions sought to show how ‘real’ Londoners faceduptolife’swoes.

ChangingFaces

Early attempts to show the changing face of London’s multi-cultural community, such as the ‘comedy’ show Mind Your Language, triedto use the classroomas a metaphor (in this case an English language course withstudents/immigrants fromall overthe world), butreallywere justcrude devices to mocktheattemptsofintegration. IfMind Your Language was crude, Love Thy Neighbour made youcringe. However, like ourold friendAlfGarnett, manyofhis prejudices, andthoseofJackSmethurst(thewhite neighbourofanewly arrivedblackcouple)werequietlyembodiedintheprogrammes’ viewers. Formanyyears, ironicallylike the white working class itself, blackpeople onTVwere onlyidentifiedbythe colouroftheirskin. Not

until The Cosby Show, an ‘80s American sitcom -- and then Desmond’s in the 1990s -- did viewers managetoseetheordinarygoings-onof‘others’. TheDesmondfamily, infact, playedagameofcricket withtheCosby’sinaspecialepisodeoftheUSshow. AswithOFAHs, Desmond’s wassetinPeckham. Althoughyouwouldnothavethoughtanyblack people lived in Peckhamby watching OFAHs, it had much in common with its regional counterpart: it

featured intergenerational conflict, lots ofbanter, and most importantly a strong character, played by Norman Beaton -- the ingredients for any successful comedy. It even had its own wheeler-dealer, Lee ‘ThePeckhamPrince’ Stanley,whotriedtosellhisdodgygeartothoseonlywishingtogettheirhaircut. It lifted blackpeople out ofthe realmofstereotypes andsidekicks. As the academic Sarita Maliksays: “The series depicted a myriad of types, spanning across generations, lifestyles and politics and thus deconstructedanynotionoftherebeinganessentialblackBritishsubject. Indeed, generationalandother differencesamongcharactersoftentriggeredthehilarity.”

BeforetheTestCard

Whatalloftheabovehadincommon--from Hancock to Desmond’s, from Dixon ofDock Green

to The Bill -- were the portrayals ofordinary lives ofLondoners in the second halfofthe 20 th century.

They were crude and overburdened by double entendres and stereotypes, but they showed that class wasn’tconfinedtothemillsandminesoftheNorthofEnglandorWales; andthatLondonwasfluidand peoplestruggledtokeepup. Whenthethen-newcontrolleroftheBBC, DannyCohen, tookonhisroleat the end ofthe 2000s, he questioned the predominance ofmiddle-class sitcoms. Like the writer John Sullivan, who was driven to get more working-class drama and comedy on TV, Cohen highlighted the way in which we seem to have come full circle: TV sitcoms and dramas have once again become too middle class. One commentator jokedinresponse to this: “Ifthere were aworking-class sitcomforour times, I wouldn’t understandit. It wouldbe inPolish.” (I guess he didn’t realise that there is, infact, a

PolishprogrammesetinLondoncalled Londonczycy, atypeofPolish Hollyoaks, whichhas comeunder fire from The Federation ofPoles in Great Britain for portraying the expats as drunken, promiscuous criminals). However,aswithpolitics,themediahasdevolved. TheBBCisnolongercentralisedbutispartof a regionalised, cultural regeneration project, in which places such as Salford Quays become one ofits broadcastinghubs. Therearesuccessfulworking-classsitcomsanddramas; it’sjustthatthey’renolonger inLondon: RoyleFamily(somewherenear/inManchester),Shameless(kindofthesamearea),andGavin andStacey(BarryinWales,althoughthein-lawsliveinLondon).

Gone from the TV map of London are the likes of Peckham, taken back by the Absolutely Fabulous PRworldofwest or central London, or quasi-suburban streets of Our Family (taking its lead from Butterflies, withZoeWannamakerreplacingWendyCraig), Miranda, or The Peep Show. Innercity LondononTVis amicrocosmofLittle Britain (yes but, no but, surelynotbut), where the underclass is confinedtotheestatesbecausewhentheydobreakouttheyonlygoandriot.Moderndramas,suchas Top

Boy,centredonrivalblackgangcultureinHackney,personifythisattitude. But what about the soap opera Eastenders? Ofcourse, one can’t forget our perpetuation ofthat mythicalpartofLondonthatstillhostscheerycostermongers,laundretteattendantswhoknoweveryone’s business, publandlordsandladies, localgangsters, andlargefamiliesatwarwitheachother(don’tthink there are anyserial killers anymore, thankgod). Keep themoutthere. Like Thomas Burke’s Limehouse Nights, thefirsthomeoftheChinese, andwheretheghostofAlfGarnettresidesintheheartsoftheBNP ortheirusurperstheEDL, theEastEndofLondonis‘anotherplace’, aforeigncountry, whereyoumight visit(ifyoudare).Otherwise,bestwatchitontelly.

TheFlatScreenCity

The media shapes the way that cities are seen, and how city dwellers view each other and themselves. Theybrandthemselveswiththeircityidentities, theiraccentsandtheircarefulknowledgeof theirownpatch. Whentheygo to NewYorktheymightfeel like theyare inahundredmovies, inParis theysee themselves inblack-and-white photos, inWashingtoneverycornertheyturnfeels like walking intoanewsreport. Londonofcourseisverydifferentfromthosecities; itisnotdominatedbyaManhattan,norisita politicalhubadornedwithmuseums. Londonisaseriesofvillagesandtownsthatbleedintoeachother–KentishTownintoCamden,StockwellintoBrixton,CamberwellintoPeckham,andFulhamintoChelsea. Regionsaredefinedgeographicallybytheirtubestations,butculturallybytheirfictionalcharacters.

Andineachareathereareyourlocalcharactersthatsomehowpersonifytheplace. PeckhamisDel Boy,FulhamisWolfie,SurbitonisMargoLedbetter,WestHamisAlfGarnett,andGrangeHillisTucker Jenkins. NotalltheprogrammesuseLondonasmorethanagenericurbansetting; however,manyportray characters andevents specific to the capital, whetheritis the mythologisedcrime ofWhitechapel orthe politicalshenanigansinWestminster. Inessence,Londonisacharacter,asseenonTV.