1
00:00:06,160 --> 00:00:09,640
Behind me is the Tate Modern
art gallery here on the Thames
in London.

2
00:00:09,640 --> 00:00:11,480
It was opened in the year 2000

3
00:00:11,480 --> 00:00:14,760
and within a year, four million
people had visited it for free.

4
00:00:14,760 --> 00:00:18,800
Art, which had once been exclusive,
expensive, available to only a few,

5
00:00:18,800 --> 00:00:22,160
was now accessible
and available to everybody.

6
00:00:24,280 --> 00:00:25,960
Does that mean in turn

7
00:00:25,960 --> 00:00:29,760
that the class system
had undergone a comparable change?

8
00:00:29,760 --> 00:00:33,840
Today, working-class heroes
consort with princes,

9
00:00:33,840 --> 00:00:36,400
former East End barrow boys
are peers of the realm,

10
00:00:36,400 --> 00:00:39,080
children of the suburbs
are now ladies of the manor.

11
00:00:39,080 --> 00:00:41,160
Information has been democratised.

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Never has the opportunity
to consume, process

13
00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:47,240
and, above all, share culture
been easier.

14
00:00:47,240 --> 00:00:50,680
But perhaps the signs and symbols
of a three-tier class system

15
00:00:50,680 --> 00:00:54,560
are still there, just changed a bit
in the way they're presented.

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00:00:54,560 --> 00:00:56,800
In this final programme,

17
00:00:56,800 --> 00:01:00,440
I want to look at the last 30 years
of culture in this country.

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I want to meet the writers,
musicians, comedians, obsessives,

19
00:01:03,840 --> 00:01:07,640
people whose life and work
reflect and challenge old notions.

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Will they argue
that our nation has changed?

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00:01:10,200 --> 00:01:15,040
Changed and decayed or grown?
We all have an opinion on that.

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00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:16,840
I want to see if class,

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00:01:16,840 --> 00:01:19,520
that tangled web of divisions,
of sub-divisions,

24
00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:21,920
upper, middle, lower,
all that fuzziness,

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00:01:21,920 --> 00:01:25,680
who has, who has not, is still
at the heart of our culture today.

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In many ways, the last hundred years

27
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has moved us
towards a more equal society.

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The cataclysms of two world wars,

29
00:02:06,440 --> 00:02:09,520
followed by the feeling of
national unity in the '40s and '50s

30
00:02:09,520 --> 00:02:11,760
was reflected
in a culture that could be shared.

31
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In the '60s and early '70s,

32
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it seemed an even more culturally
inclusive Britain had emerged,

33
00:02:17,840 --> 00:02:22,280
driven by a socially mobile
generation from the grammar schools
and art schools

34
00:02:22,280 --> 00:02:24,400
and the rise of popular culture.

35
00:02:24,400 --> 00:02:28,600
We believed, whatever class you
came from, everything was possible.

36
00:02:28,600 --> 00:02:31,040
By the end of the '70s,
culture remained open,

37
00:02:31,040 --> 00:02:34,320
but it seemed that economics,
the oil crisis and recession,

38
00:02:34,320 --> 00:02:37,320
had driven us back
to the old class divisions.

39
00:02:37,320 --> 00:02:39,400
And since then, eliminating class

40
00:02:39,400 --> 00:02:43,000
has been a preoccupation
of successive Prime Ministers.

41
00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:45,880
In 1979, we elected a Prime Minister

42
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who became the embodiment
of a three-class system.

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It is, of course,
the greatest honour

44
00:02:50,960 --> 00:02:53,960
that can come to any citizen
in a democracy.

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00:02:53,960 --> 00:02:57,640
Margaret Thatcher cultivated a voice
that mimicked the upper classes.

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00:02:57,640 --> 00:03:01,000
Plenty thought she'd little interest
in the old working classes,

47
00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:04,360
and she championed her background
from the lower middle classes.

48
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The class system into which
she arrived was still well defined.

49
00:03:08,360 --> 00:03:10,440
Death duties had pegged them back,

50
00:03:10,440 --> 00:03:14,640
but much of the old aristocracy
held on to their vast estates.

51
00:03:14,640 --> 00:03:17,160
Despite her proud
lower-middle-class origins,

52
00:03:17,160 --> 00:03:20,040
Margaret Thatcher
still had a generous sprinkling

53
00:03:20,040 --> 00:03:22,240
of old Etonians
in her first Cabinet.

54
00:03:22,240 --> 00:03:25,680
Beneath these symbols of privilege,
the economic state was grim.

55
00:03:25,680 --> 00:03:29,080
Inflation was in double figures,
there was mass unemployment,

56
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and the country
had been crippled by strikes.

57
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But while aspirational tenants

58
00:03:34,240 --> 00:03:37,040
were encouraged
to move into the middle classes

59
00:03:37,040 --> 00:03:39,080
by buying their council homes,

60
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the great manufacturing industries
had collapsed,

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throwing the industrial
working class into crisis.

62
00:03:47,120 --> 00:03:52,280
And this was immediately reflected
in culture, in television drama.

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Alan Bleasdale's
Boys From The Blackstuff

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00:03:54,920 --> 00:03:57,160
followed the effects of unemployment

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00:03:57,160 --> 00:04:00,200
on Liverpool tarmac layers,
the black stuff of the title.

66
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It hit the nerve of the nation.
The series was built

67
00:04:03,240 --> 00:04:07,120
around the intense desperation
of the blue-collar worker.

68
00:04:07,120 --> 00:04:10,280
Gi' us a job. Go on, gi' us it.

69
00:04:10,280 --> 00:04:13,480
Well, I wrote the original
Blackstuff, I think, when I was 29,

70
00:04:13,480 --> 00:04:16,680
and it was
the Callaghan Labour Government.

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00:04:16,680 --> 00:04:19,720
I finished it off
in the Thatcher Government,

72
00:04:19,720 --> 00:04:27,000
and I knew that politically...
the Callaghan Government wasn't great

73
00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:29,760
but it was relatively benign.

74
00:04:29,760 --> 00:04:33,680
And what happened as I was writing
The Boys From The Blackstuff

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00:04:33,680 --> 00:04:37,120
is that Thatcher's Government
came to power

76
00:04:37,120 --> 00:04:39,000
and that was truly malignant.

77
00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:42,040
Did you feel the Thatcher Government
as a class attack?

78
00:04:42,040 --> 00:04:46,840
I don't think she cared about what
she would probably consider to be...

79
00:04:46,840 --> 00:04:51,520
people who didn't count,
and...that included me

80
00:04:51,520 --> 00:04:54,000
and the people
I was born and brought up with.

81
00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:57,080
And that, inevitably, made you angry.

82
00:04:57,080 --> 00:05:01,760
It was as if, unlike Dickens,
she would say, "They don't count,"

83
00:05:01,760 --> 00:05:06,080
and if they don't count, that means
that I don't count, we don't count.

84
00:05:06,080 --> 00:05:08,080
There were sections
of the working class

85
00:05:08,080 --> 00:05:10,320
that thrived
under Mrs Thatcher's vision.

86
00:05:10,320 --> 00:05:12,120
But in 1984,

87
00:05:12,120 --> 00:05:15,760
it felt as if the old industrial
working class was being threatened.

88
00:05:15,760 --> 00:05:20,040
The miners' strike was a war between
the Government and unionised miners,

89
00:05:20,040 --> 00:05:23,720
and it became a confrontation
between two working-class groups -

90
00:05:23,720 --> 00:05:26,720
the police and the strikers.

91
00:05:26,720 --> 00:05:28,160
With it went so much else -

92
00:05:28,160 --> 00:05:31,000
sense of worth, sense of dignity,
sense of community.

93
00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:34,200
And for populations
that grew up with not much money,

94
00:05:34,200 --> 00:05:37,720
but with this immense sense of
who they were, where they came from,

95
00:05:37,720 --> 00:05:41,560
several generations
in the same craft, unendurable.

96
00:05:41,560 --> 00:05:44,760
The romance of the country
for which the pit wheel

97
00:05:44,760 --> 00:05:48,280
was the most potent symbol of all,
all gone.

98
00:05:48,280 --> 00:05:50,200
It's very, very hard to take.

99
00:05:50,200 --> 00:05:54,120
Do you think it was
the biggest cultural...movement

100
00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:56,440
of the last 50, 60 years,

101
00:05:56,440 --> 00:05:59,160
the collapse
of the heavy industries,

102
00:05:59,160 --> 00:06:02,720
the great labour-intensive,
skill-intensive industries?

103
00:06:02,720 --> 00:06:05,880
I think one of the great gaps
in post-war British history

104
00:06:05,880 --> 00:06:07,760
that is still to be filled

105
00:06:07,760 --> 00:06:12,760
is to capture the magnitude
of the change to British society,

106
00:06:12,760 --> 00:06:16,280
when the "workshop of the world"
element finally went.

107
00:06:20,880 --> 00:06:23,000
And with the decline
of heavy industry

108
00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:26,680
went a hundred-year cultural
tradition of self-improvement,

109
00:06:26,680 --> 00:06:29,520
rooted in the pithead libraries,
colliery bands

110
00:06:29,520 --> 00:06:32,560
and art groups
such as the Ashington miners.

111
00:06:32,560 --> 00:06:34,080
But was there also a sense

112
00:06:34,080 --> 00:06:38,120
that large parts
of the industrial working class
were culturally conservative?

113
00:06:38,120 --> 00:06:40,720
The old suspicion
that certain forms of art

114
00:06:40,720 --> 00:06:43,680
are not for the likes
of the working classes

115
00:06:43,680 --> 00:06:47,160
could account for why there are few
lasting memorials to mining

116
00:06:47,160 --> 00:06:51,080
beyond the grassy slag heaps
and long defunct pits.

117
00:06:51,080 --> 00:06:55,440
But here, just off the M62
between Liverpool and Manchester,

118
00:06:55,440 --> 00:06:57,720
a piece of public art
has been erected

119
00:06:57,720 --> 00:07:00,800
on the site
of the old Sutton Manor Colliery.

120
00:07:00,800 --> 00:07:03,320
It's a cultural memorial to a class.

121
00:07:19,080 --> 00:07:23,040
Dream was made
by the Catalan artist Jaume Plensa,

122
00:07:23,040 --> 00:07:25,760
but the project was driven
by the local community,

123
00:07:25,760 --> 00:07:28,200
in particular
a group of former miners.

124
00:07:28,200 --> 00:07:30,160
When you decided to do this,

125
00:07:30,160 --> 00:07:34,200
people would say, "Let's have a new
sports field or build a new..."

126
00:07:34,200 --> 00:07:36,920
But to come to the idea
of a work of art,

127
00:07:36,920 --> 00:07:39,480
how did you arrive at that?
Was there much dispute?

128
00:07:39,480 --> 00:07:41,160
Quite a bit of dispute.

129
00:07:41,160 --> 00:07:43,560
They were split half and half
between the people

130
00:07:43,560 --> 00:07:46,480
who thought the money
could have been better spent on jobs

131
00:07:46,480 --> 00:07:48,800
and those who thought
it should be a work of art.

132
00:07:48,800 --> 00:07:51,760
Quite a lot were opposed to it
as an idea at the time.

133
00:07:51,760 --> 00:07:55,880
Others wanted a...mining memorial.

134
00:07:55,880 --> 00:08:00,000
Others objected because we didn't
get a British sculptor to do it.

135
00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:03,920
But what was very interesting
was our journey what we've been on,

136
00:08:03,920 --> 00:08:06,200
and it was a magnificent journey

137
00:08:06,200 --> 00:08:10,440
of us starting off wanting something
very mining literal here.

138
00:08:10,440 --> 00:08:16,520
Such as? A miner's lamp, a pick,
a coalman holding a shovel,

139
00:08:16,520 --> 00:08:18,600
something along them lines,

140
00:08:18,600 --> 00:08:21,440
what you would normally see
at any memorial.

141
00:08:21,440 --> 00:08:24,680
Can you tell us how you arrived
at this particular work?

142
00:08:24,680 --> 00:08:27,920
We wanted something
that would reflect the past

143
00:08:27,920 --> 00:08:30,560
but also look to the future.

144
00:08:30,560 --> 00:08:33,880
You know, it doesn't really reflect
the mining industry,

145
00:08:33,880 --> 00:08:38,480
but if you look at it
and you ask questions about it

146
00:08:38,480 --> 00:08:42,760
then it does, and don't forget
the base is a giant miner's tally,

147
00:08:42,760 --> 00:08:46,600
the type we used to use
here at Sutton Manor Colliery.

148
00:08:46,600 --> 00:08:51,120
People have a fairly low expectation
of working-class communities,

149
00:08:51,120 --> 00:08:53,960
what they might reach out to,
what they might do.

150
00:08:53,960 --> 00:08:56,960
What response have you had
around this area, around St Helens,

151
00:08:56,960 --> 00:08:59,760
for this piece, Dream,
now that it's there and standing?

152
00:08:59,760 --> 00:09:01,640
I think it's very positive.

153
00:09:01,640 --> 00:09:05,320
The people who came to me
criticising this five years ago

154
00:09:05,320 --> 00:09:07,400
are now coming up and saying,

155
00:09:07,400 --> 00:09:10,560
"I love it, it's beautiful
when you get up to it."

156
00:09:27,040 --> 00:09:30,120
There's always been a struggle
within the working classes

157
00:09:30,120 --> 00:09:34,160
that by allowing in unfamiliar
culture, by crossing the line,

158
00:09:34,160 --> 00:09:37,000
you are somehow
betraying your class.

159
00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:41,240
The film Billy Elliot brilliantly
portrayed this internal battle

160
00:09:41,240 --> 00:09:44,080
when it showed a boy
choosing to pursue an art form

161
00:09:44,080 --> 00:09:46,560
regarded with suspicion,
even hostility,

162
00:09:46,560 --> 00:09:48,360
by his own class and family.

163
00:09:48,360 --> 00:09:50,400
Two, three, pas de bourree.

164
00:09:50,400 --> 00:09:54,640
And a-one, two, three,
pas de bourree.

165
00:09:54,640 --> 00:09:56,600
You! Out!

166
00:09:56,600 --> 00:09:57,960
Now!

167
00:09:57,960 --> 00:10:02,560
I suppose Billy Elliot... I call it
a sort of fantasy autobiography

168
00:10:02,560 --> 00:10:05,320
because, you know, I'm not a dancer,

169
00:10:05,320 --> 00:10:08,560
but I think the experience
of growing up

170
00:10:08,560 --> 00:10:12,920
in a working-class community
then was...

171
00:10:14,600 --> 00:10:20,440
..in the '70s, was that really,
art wasn't for you at all.

172
00:10:20,440 --> 00:10:24,040
And something... Um...

173
00:10:24,040 --> 00:10:28,800
It was very odd that art was for
posh people, for middle-class people.

174
00:10:28,800 --> 00:10:33,440
It's still seen by a lot of people
in the community that I come from,

175
00:10:33,440 --> 00:10:35,840
they raise an eyebrow at it.

176
00:10:35,840 --> 00:10:40,240
In the early '80s, Sue Townsend,
a working-class mother of three
from Leicester,

177
00:10:40,240 --> 00:10:42,000
had her first novel published.

178
00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:44,440
You'd been writing for the best part
of 20 years

179
00:10:44,440 --> 00:10:47,400
up to the publication of Adrian Mole
but you kept it a secret.

180
00:10:47,400 --> 00:10:49,720
Why was that?

181
00:10:49,720 --> 00:10:53,800
Was it anything to do with
writing or publishing
is not for the likes of me?

182
00:10:53,800 --> 00:10:55,880
It was to do with...

183
00:10:57,120 --> 00:10:58,800
It was to do with...

184
00:11:00,120 --> 00:11:05,160
Sorry. I'm unexpectedly moved by it
because it was to do with

185
00:11:05,160 --> 00:11:10,400
my not wanting to move away
from my working-class background.

186
00:11:10,400 --> 00:11:16,120
The awful thing is that people
kind of despise you

187
00:11:16,120 --> 00:11:22,400
for what they consider
is a move away from them.

188
00:11:22,400 --> 00:11:24,840
Um...

189
00:11:24,840 --> 00:11:31,160
And there's another set of people
who do look down on you

190
00:11:31,160 --> 00:11:34,800
because of your
working-class background.

191
00:11:34,800 --> 00:11:40,800
So, it's a very awkward position
to be in, a working-class writer.

192
00:11:40,800 --> 00:11:44,960
You're desperate not to appear
to be pretentious

193
00:11:44,960 --> 00:11:47,680
or to be lording it over anybody.

194
00:11:47,680 --> 00:11:49,640
And the money's difficult.

195
00:11:49,640 --> 00:11:55,840
I mean, I said years ago
that if you give money to people

196
00:11:55,840 --> 00:11:57,880
they despise you

197
00:11:57,880 --> 00:12:00,560
and if you don't give it to them,
they despise you!

198
00:12:00,560 --> 00:12:03,760
I don't know how you manage that.

199
00:12:04,880 --> 00:12:09,600
The old dilemma for the
working-class artist propelled to
success still seem to be with us.

200
00:12:09,600 --> 00:12:13,280
Yet during the '80s,
the question of your background

201
00:12:13,280 --> 00:12:16,680
began to be eroded by the insistence
of new cultures

202
00:12:16,680 --> 00:12:19,240
which seemed to exist outside class.

203
00:12:19,240 --> 00:12:21,440
REGGAE MUSIC PLAYS

204
00:12:25,040 --> 00:12:27,760
Coventry in the early '80s
was a city in decline.

205
00:12:27,760 --> 00:12:29,960
Once the centre of the car industry,

206
00:12:29,960 --> 00:12:34,320
it had attracted a wave
of Asian and West Indian immigrants
in its boom years.

207
00:12:34,320 --> 00:12:36,960
Then in the '70s,
car manufacturing collapsed,

208
00:12:36,960 --> 00:12:40,600
leaving a whole generation from the
white and immigrant working class

209
00:12:40,600 --> 00:12:42,680
facing a future on the dole.

210
00:12:42,680 --> 00:12:45,880
They were also dealing with
virulent racism.

211
00:12:45,880 --> 00:12:48,600
But what emerged out of this
neglected generation

212
00:12:48,600 --> 00:12:52,760
was some of the most politically
charged and original pop music
of the decade.

213
00:12:52,760 --> 00:12:54,880
HE SHOUTS LYRICS

214
00:12:57,760 --> 00:13:01,520
The original creative force
behind Coventry band The Specials

215
00:13:01,520 --> 00:13:05,200
was in fact the middle-class son
of a dean, Jerry Dammers.

216
00:13:05,200 --> 00:13:08,160
But its musical blend of
British punk and Jamaican ska

217
00:13:08,160 --> 00:13:11,480
reflected the rest of the band,
from Coventry's white working class

218
00:13:11,480 --> 00:13:13,320
and first-generation West Indians.

219
00:13:13,320 --> 00:13:15,880
The result was the 2 Tone sound,

220
00:13:15,880 --> 00:13:19,600
the first significant musical
blending of the two cultures

221
00:13:19,600 --> 00:13:23,960
and an adjunct to the late '70s
Rock Against Racism movement.

222
00:13:23,960 --> 00:13:26,280
# Concrete jungle

223
00:13:26,280 --> 00:13:28,480
# Animals are after me

224
00:13:29,560 --> 00:13:34,240
# Concrete jungle
It ain't safe on the streets. #

225
00:13:34,240 --> 00:13:38,080
I met up with John Bradbury
and Terry Hall from The Specials.

226
00:13:38,080 --> 00:13:40,760
Coventry being the cosmopolitan city
that it was,

227
00:13:40,760 --> 00:13:43,520
you've got a high immigrant
population here,

228
00:13:43,520 --> 00:13:45,560
Indian, West Indian
and Caribbean music,

229
00:13:45,560 --> 00:13:47,640
and it was a big influence on me.

230
00:13:47,640 --> 00:13:52,720
We were all at a really good age
with the explosion of punk

231
00:13:52,720 --> 00:13:58,560
and I think pretty much nearly
all the band saw The Sex Pistols
and The Clash playing in Coventry.

232
00:13:58,560 --> 00:14:00,320
# God save the Queen

233
00:14:01,440 --> 00:14:03,760
# We mean it, man... #

234
00:14:04,920 --> 00:14:07,760
I do feel that punk empowered
working-class people

235
00:14:07,760 --> 00:14:12,240
and they haven't really gone back
since then.

236
00:14:12,240 --> 00:14:16,760
I feel that 2 Tone
was an adjunct, really, to that.

237
00:14:19,720 --> 00:14:23,120
The Coventry youth clubs were
where the two cultures blended.

238
00:14:23,120 --> 00:14:27,240
It was here where Specials guitarist
and singer Lynval Golding
started out.

239
00:14:27,240 --> 00:14:29,560
This is where we used to feel
the bass,

240
00:14:29,560 --> 00:14:32,360
the bass just thumping in our music,
you know?

241
00:14:33,720 --> 00:14:35,760
# Better think of your future... #

242
00:14:38,240 --> 00:14:41,680
Do you think those songs
that you did and the group did,

243
00:14:41,680 --> 00:14:46,960
do you think they helped people
to behave better to each other?

244
00:14:46,960 --> 00:14:49,840
Over the years
I've met so many people,

245
00:14:49,840 --> 00:14:53,320
I don't know how many bands I saw
where people say,

246
00:14:53,320 --> 00:14:56,440
"That song changed my life.
It said something to me."

247
00:14:56,440 --> 00:14:59,320
To me, it was unique

248
00:14:59,320 --> 00:15:04,440
to get that clash of two different
cultures working together, you know.

249
00:15:04,440 --> 00:15:07,000
It was such a good thing,
it really was a good thing

250
00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:11,320
for the black people in Coventry.

251
00:15:11,320 --> 00:15:14,760
I also think it was a very good thing
for the white people as well

252
00:15:14,760 --> 00:15:19,160
because there were a lot of
youngsters, as you perhaps realise,

253
00:15:19,160 --> 00:15:25,200
who didn't necessarily share
some of the nonsense
that was going on at that time,

254
00:15:25,200 --> 00:15:27,400
which was totally unnecessary.

255
00:15:27,400 --> 00:15:31,880
You know, I think that actually
made Coventry change a bit,
to be honest with you.

256
00:15:31,880 --> 00:15:35,080
You're talking about the racism
of the time? That's right.

257
00:15:35,080 --> 00:15:39,200
I think what they had in common,
they actually show people

258
00:15:39,200 --> 00:15:42,400
that black and white
can actually work together,

259
00:15:42,400 --> 00:15:45,680
not just in a factory,
not just in a hospital,

260
00:15:45,680 --> 00:15:51,600
but in a bigger picture
where they're exposed to the world

261
00:15:51,600 --> 00:15:53,360
and we're exposed to news camera.

262
00:15:53,360 --> 00:15:57,480
So, music has been an agent of
social change for you? Absolutely.

263
00:15:57,480 --> 00:16:00,680
So, culture has changed
the class system in a way?

264
00:16:00,680 --> 00:16:02,680
In a way, that's right. In a way.

265
00:16:02,680 --> 00:16:06,480
Do you still feel yourself, as it
were, as working-class artists?

266
00:16:06,480 --> 00:16:09,360
Or has the fact of your success
changed you? No doubt I do.

267
00:16:09,360 --> 00:16:11,160
I just feel like it's the work ethic

268
00:16:11,160 --> 00:16:16,680
that's burned into me
from a very early age.

269
00:16:16,680 --> 00:16:19,440
When I'm sipping macchiato
in Islington

270
00:16:19,440 --> 00:16:22,000
I'd like to think
it's a working-class thing,

271
00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:24,640
but it doesn't feel that way,
it really doesn't!

272
00:16:24,640 --> 00:16:29,120
I'm for ever trying to answer
my son who said,
"Are we working class, Dad?"

273
00:16:29,120 --> 00:16:32,440
I don't know. But it's still there.
It's still there.

274
00:16:32,440 --> 00:16:36,400
But, you know, at 50, living
in Islington, sipping macchiatos,

275
00:16:36,400 --> 00:16:39,240
I really don't know.
I really don't know.

276
00:16:39,240 --> 00:16:41,880
MUSIC: "Ghost Town" by The Specials

277
00:16:43,560 --> 00:16:48,480
2 Tone was a vital cultural fusion
of working-class
and immigrant culture

278
00:16:48,480 --> 00:16:52,720
but as often happens in pop,
it was usurped by a new pop culture.

279
00:16:52,720 --> 00:16:57,160
Not all-working class kids
were committed to expressing
social issues in their music.

280
00:16:57,160 --> 00:17:01,640
In the early '80s, there was
an almost Thatcherite spirit
of you could be what you want to be,

281
00:17:01,640 --> 00:17:06,200
even if the New Romantics
were more interested in flamboyant
costumes than in politics.

282
00:17:06,200 --> 00:17:09,800
Your cultural tribe was becoming
more important than your class.

283
00:17:09,800 --> 00:17:13,600
I think the first musical tribes
were Mods and Rockers

284
00:17:13,600 --> 00:17:18,280
and then punk kind of
turned all that on its head.

285
00:17:18,280 --> 00:17:21,600
Then after punk,
we had New Romantics

286
00:17:21,600 --> 00:17:25,400
where people wanted to dress up,
they wanted a reason to look lovely.

287
00:17:27,440 --> 00:17:31,480
Some of the New Romantic outfits
were frankly absolutely insane

288
00:17:31,480 --> 00:17:35,000
but it was something that
transcended class in a lot of ways.

289
00:17:35,000 --> 00:17:38,400
It was how you looked,
not where you'd been to school
or how you spoke.

290
00:17:39,760 --> 00:17:43,800
The working-class youth
created its own cultural tribes

291
00:17:43,800 --> 00:17:47,320
but with the upper classes you could
be born into a ready-made tribe.

292
00:17:53,000 --> 00:17:56,040
When Ann Barr and Peter York
wrote Sloane Rangers

293
00:17:56,040 --> 00:17:59,520
it was the most brilliant piece
of social observation.

294
00:17:59,520 --> 00:18:03,400
Not only were they talking about
a group of people
that already existed,

295
00:18:03,400 --> 00:18:06,880
instead of the people
they wrote about being kind of...

296
00:18:06,880 --> 00:18:10,960
feeling maligned or insulted
by this pigeonholing of them,

297
00:18:10,960 --> 00:18:13,720
they were proud
to be Sloane Rangers.

298
00:18:13,720 --> 00:18:16,520
Do you know,
I bloody hated Sloane Rangers.

299
00:18:16,520 --> 00:18:20,320
I hated them as much
as I hated hippies. Why?

300
00:18:20,320 --> 00:18:25,080
Thought they were superior.
You know, Mummy and Daddy
had paid for everything.

301
00:18:27,280 --> 00:18:31,960
But the emerging force of the '80s
was the ever-expanding
and amorphous middle class.

302
00:18:31,960 --> 00:18:34,480
Their ranks were now being swelled

303
00:18:34,480 --> 00:18:38,680
by the new home-owning
working classes
who were on the move upwards.

304
00:18:38,680 --> 00:18:40,680
MUSIC: Brookside Theme Tune

305
00:18:40,680 --> 00:18:45,080
Brookside was set in a classic
early '80s new-build housing estate.

306
00:18:45,080 --> 00:18:48,640
And here it is, at that time
Britain's best known cul-de-sac.

307
00:18:53,120 --> 00:18:55,480
The anchor family in the series
were the Grants.

308
00:18:55,480 --> 00:18:57,320
They lived here at number five.

309
00:18:57,320 --> 00:19:01,000
The father Bobby was a trade union
leader and the working-class Grants

310
00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:04,320
had moved up the social ladder
to middle-class Brookside.

311
00:19:04,320 --> 00:19:07,560
Bloody hell. Are you sure
you've got enough here, Sheila?

312
00:19:07,560 --> 00:19:10,800
Eh? Want to feed the starving hoards
of India while you're at it?

313
00:19:10,800 --> 00:19:13,800
It's not like having the shop
at the end of the road any more.

314
00:19:13,800 --> 00:19:16,400
It's in the boot of the bloody car.

315
00:19:16,400 --> 00:19:20,240
Moving in the other direction
socially was the Collins family.

316
00:19:21,360 --> 00:19:24,400
Forced to downsize from
their grand house in the Wirral,

317
00:19:24,400 --> 00:19:27,880
this upper-middle-class family
moved here, number eight.

318
00:19:29,440 --> 00:19:30,760
SHE SIGHS

319
00:19:30,760 --> 00:19:34,160
And next door at number nine
were Heather and Roger Huntingdon,

320
00:19:34,160 --> 00:19:37,640
a classic, young, upwardly mobile,
early '80s couple.

321
00:19:37,640 --> 00:19:41,040
Trade unionists
rubbing shoulders with Yuppies.

322
00:19:41,040 --> 00:19:43,760
Fallen toffs slumming it
with the middle class.

323
00:19:43,760 --> 00:19:46,840
This was Thatcherite
new-build Britain.

324
00:19:46,840 --> 00:19:50,440
Brookside showed that the classes
could live alongside each other

325
00:19:50,440 --> 00:19:52,680
and the soap
became a cultural landmark,

326
00:19:52,680 --> 00:19:55,600
despite its early struggle
to get viewers or good reviews.

327
00:19:56,880 --> 00:19:58,360
In reality, we may have had

328
00:19:58,360 --> 00:20:01,200
an all-embracing new middle class
in the early '80s,

329
00:20:01,200 --> 00:20:02,800
but it seemed they didn't want

330
00:20:02,800 --> 00:20:05,400
this culture thrown back at them
as entertainment.

331
00:20:05,400 --> 00:20:08,480
They preferred dramas
where the classes were more defined

332
00:20:08,480 --> 00:20:12,040
like Brideshead Revisited,
which pulled in 11 million viewers.

333
00:20:12,040 --> 00:20:14,960
Or they watched working-class soaps
like Coronation Street,

334
00:20:14,960 --> 00:20:16,880
which had audiences of 18 million

335
00:20:16,880 --> 00:20:18,800
and appealed, it seemed,
to everyone.

336
00:20:21,080 --> 00:20:24,520
But where we did enjoy
watching our middle-class world

337
00:20:24,520 --> 00:20:26,160
was when we could laugh at it.

338
00:20:26,160 --> 00:20:28,600
It's often in television comedy

339
00:20:28,600 --> 00:20:31,880
that the nuances of
middle-class culture are played out.

340
00:20:31,880 --> 00:20:35,760
There's a direct
Oxbridge comedy line
from Beyond The Fringe in the '60s,

341
00:20:35,760 --> 00:20:38,160
through Monty Python in the '70s,

342
00:20:38,160 --> 00:20:41,080
and Not The 9 O'Clock News
in the '80s.

343
00:20:41,080 --> 00:20:44,880
Now the alternative comics
from red brick universities

344
00:20:44,880 --> 00:20:48,880
were challenging the successful line
of Oxbridge comedians.

345
00:20:52,880 --> 00:20:56,200
Representing Footlights,
we have Lord Monty. Hello.

346
00:20:56,200 --> 00:20:57,840
Lord Snot.

347
00:20:57,840 --> 00:21:00,760
Miss Money-Sterling. Ah!

348
00:21:00,760 --> 00:21:02,960
And Mr Kendal Mintcake. Hi.

349
00:21:02,960 --> 00:21:05,560
And representing Scumbag,
we have Mike.

350
00:21:05,560 --> 00:21:07,000
Hello.

351
00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:09,240
Prick. What? Vyvyan.

352
00:21:09,240 --> 00:21:10,440
And Neil.

353
00:21:10,440 --> 00:21:12,880
Vegetable rights and peace.

354
00:21:16,800 --> 00:21:19,800
The middle-class strand
of alternative comedy

355
00:21:19,800 --> 00:21:22,840
began to dominate
on radio and television,

356
00:21:22,840 --> 00:21:24,960
but what's happened to live comedy?

357
00:21:24,960 --> 00:21:28,160
This is Pleasance Courtyard
at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

358
00:21:28,160 --> 00:21:29,560
It's a comedy theme park.

359
00:21:29,560 --> 00:21:32,560
Whatever your comic taste,
you can usually satisfy it here.

360
00:21:35,440 --> 00:21:38,680
With a huge expansion in live
stand-up over the last 30 years,

361
00:21:38,680 --> 00:21:41,120
I wanted to ask
the comedian Russell Kane

362
00:21:41,120 --> 00:21:45,320
if comedy could be this country's
great class and culture melting pot.

363
00:21:45,320 --> 00:21:49,120
Do you think among comedians working
now there are different classes?

364
00:21:49,120 --> 00:21:51,200
I'm not talking about class acts.

365
00:21:51,200 --> 00:21:55,680
I'm talking about class backgrounds
and class projections. Absolutely.

366
00:21:55,680 --> 00:21:58,920
Comedy more than
any other discipline -

367
00:21:58,920 --> 00:22:01,480
music, painting, anything -

368
00:22:01,480 --> 00:22:06,680
is democratic because the audience
response is so brutally measurably.

369
00:22:06,680 --> 00:22:09,320
If I'm double first Oxbridge
or I work in Tesco,

370
00:22:09,320 --> 00:22:12,200
the audience are either laughing
or they're not.

371
00:22:12,200 --> 00:22:15,680
There are some comedians, northern
comedians like Chubby Brown,

372
00:22:15,680 --> 00:22:19,120
who never get on the television
and seem to be excluded, almost.

373
00:22:19,120 --> 00:22:23,000
Roy Chubby Brown
is from the comic tradition
of working-class men's clubs

374
00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:27,240
where the material
is often considered too offensive
for mainstream television.

375
00:22:27,240 --> 00:22:30,280
Look, I'm not a racialist,
I swear down.

376
00:22:30,280 --> 00:22:34,720
My father said to me, "Never judge
a man by the colour of his skin."

377
00:22:34,720 --> 00:22:36,440
My answer to that is f...

378
00:22:36,440 --> 00:22:39,840
First of all, Roy Chubby Brown,
et cetera, are very successful

379
00:22:39,840 --> 00:22:44,080
and obviously are very funny
cos their assembled thousand people
are laughing.

380
00:22:44,080 --> 00:22:47,160
So, the democracy of laughter,
that argument, stands.

381
00:22:47,160 --> 00:22:50,960
So far as who is exposed
on television and in the mainstream,

382
00:22:50,960 --> 00:22:54,240
that is currently controlled
by an agenda which says,

383
00:22:54,240 --> 00:22:57,920
"It's probably better
to love people of colour
and gay people and get along."

384
00:22:57,920 --> 00:23:00,880
I'm glad that dominates.
I want it to continue to dominate.

385
00:23:00,880 --> 00:23:04,200
Were you defined by your upbringing
and the class you were born into?

386
00:23:04,200 --> 00:23:07,840
Absolutely. I do a bit about it
on stage and I stand by it in life.

387
00:23:07,840 --> 00:23:11,520
I wanted to do everything possible
to annoy my father.

388
00:23:11,520 --> 00:23:14,960
It was a horrible, passionate,
angry rebellion I hit

389
00:23:14,960 --> 00:23:17,080
when the puberty hormones
hit my body.

390
00:23:17,080 --> 00:23:19,720
He was racist, homophobic.
"I've never a read a book.

391
00:23:19,720 --> 00:23:21,920
"Never needed to read a book,
never will."

392
00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:24,680
Meat and metal working class.
Weightlifting.

393
00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:28,560
So, as quickly
as I could become an effeminate,
Penguin-classic-consuming,

394
00:23:28,560 --> 00:23:32,840
I-love-everyone-of-every-colour,
cover-me-in-hummus,
three-to-a-bed, I did.

395
00:23:32,840 --> 00:23:36,320
Then I fell in love with
the language that I was using

396
00:23:36,320 --> 00:23:38,760
for my own egotistical
and show-off reasons

397
00:23:38,760 --> 00:23:41,400
and I ended up
having a love affair with literature.

398
00:23:41,400 --> 00:23:43,400
The comedy thing's just an accident.

399
00:23:43,400 --> 00:23:47,880
What do you think of the Fringe?
Is it how it should be,
all classes mingling together?

400
00:23:47,880 --> 00:23:51,480
Things have changed in the last five
years since I've been doing comedy.

401
00:23:51,480 --> 00:23:54,760
Alternative has become the norm,
as it were.

402
00:23:54,760 --> 00:23:57,080
And there are all types of people
up here.

403
00:23:57,080 --> 00:24:01,000
I've had people come to my show
that have never seen me do stand-up.

404
00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:03,520
They just saw me on BBC One
dressed as Beyonce,

405
00:24:03,520 --> 00:24:06,160
raising money for charity
when I did a dance.

406
00:24:06,160 --> 00:24:10,240
At the same time, it's the people
doing what I call festival lip,
intellectual lip.

407
00:24:10,240 --> 00:24:12,800
They go, "Mm, so post-modern."
That's intellectual lip.

408
00:24:17,680 --> 00:24:21,560
I first came here
in the 1960s to make a film
for the arts programme Monitor,

409
00:24:21,560 --> 00:24:24,640
and I think I've come
to every Edinburgh Festival since.

410
00:24:24,640 --> 00:24:28,000
It's expanded hugely,
especially in the 1980s,

411
00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:31,320
when the Fringe established itself
in new venues like this,

412
00:24:31,320 --> 00:24:34,240
like the Assembly venues
and like the Gilded Balloon.

413
00:24:34,240 --> 00:24:38,160
The high culture of the main
festival was being challenged,

414
00:24:38,160 --> 00:24:41,720
even superseded by the varying
demands of the young middle classes.

415
00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:45,760
There was an audience
for the comedy festival,
but also for the literary festival,

416
00:24:45,760 --> 00:24:48,520
which started small in Edinburgh
in the '60s

417
00:24:48,520 --> 00:24:51,840
with a few thousand visitors,
but now welcomes over 200,000.

418
00:24:51,840 --> 00:24:55,960
It extends across the genres,
embracing the new energy in poetry

419
00:24:55,960 --> 00:24:59,400
which is exemplified by our
Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy,

420
00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:01,960
herself a working-class voice
from Glasgow.

421
00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:07,080
The traditional festival and
the Fringe have expanded mightily
and become more and more inclusive.

422
00:25:07,080 --> 00:25:10,280
But have they just drawn in
more and more of the middle classes?

423
00:25:10,280 --> 00:25:13,600
If that is the case, you might
well say, "What's wrong with that?"

424
00:25:13,600 --> 00:25:16,880
Over the last 30 years,
this rising middle class

425
00:25:16,880 --> 00:25:19,680
has fed and nourished
much of the arts.

426
00:25:19,680 --> 00:25:22,720
Theirs is the dominating voice
in mainstream culture.

427
00:25:22,720 --> 00:25:27,440
There's a certain kind of art that
only appeals to the middle classes.

428
00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:30,840
And that's theatre, opera?
A lot of the theatre.

429
00:25:30,840 --> 00:25:37,120
But what we have seen really explode
in popularity over the last decade

430
00:25:37,120 --> 00:25:40,240
is the popularity of musicals.

431
00:25:40,240 --> 00:25:41,680
We are...

432
00:25:41,680 --> 00:25:44,800
All the middle-class critics
and the middle classes think,

433
00:25:44,800 --> 00:25:49,760
"Oh, it's hen night material.
It's kind of common."

434
00:25:49,760 --> 00:25:53,000
So, even within
the theatrical experience,

435
00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:57,040
and in London on any night
of the week you've got something
for everyone,

436
00:25:57,040 --> 00:26:00,720
but there's still that kind of
unwritten class distinction

437
00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:03,560
between high art and low art.

438
00:26:03,560 --> 00:26:07,480
And low art is "Mamma Mia!".
High art is Hamlet.

439
00:26:07,480 --> 00:26:10,480
But quite a few musicals
attracted the middle class

440
00:26:10,480 --> 00:26:14,600
in their hundreds of thousands in
London over the last 20 or 30 years.

441
00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:18,000
Oh, Les Miserables. Well, maybe
not the Andrew Lloyd Webber ones,

442
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:22,480
although I actually like them. Well,
I do. I mean, Phantom did, Cats did.

443
00:26:22,480 --> 00:26:26,320
The Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals
dominated the West End

444
00:26:26,320 --> 00:26:29,760
and later the capitals of the world
in a way never seen before.

445
00:26:29,760 --> 00:26:33,200
His work was the cultural embodiment
of the three-class system,

446
00:26:33,200 --> 00:26:36,680
transformed into brilliantly crafted
popular culture

447
00:26:36,680 --> 00:26:38,640
for the ever-expanding
middle classes.

448
00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:40,720
He drew on the high art of opera,

449
00:26:40,720 --> 00:26:44,160
the middle ground of musical theatre
and the commonality of pop music.

450
00:26:44,160 --> 00:26:45,600
# Memory

451
00:26:45,600 --> 00:26:50,480
# All alone in the moonlight... #

452
00:26:50,480 --> 00:26:52,120
When I first came up with it,

453
00:26:52,120 --> 00:26:54,120
I thought,
"Well, you know, what do I do?"

454
00:26:54,120 --> 00:26:56,960
I did actually go and play it
to two or three people,

455
00:26:56,960 --> 00:26:58,800
the last of whom was my father.

456
00:26:58,800 --> 00:27:01,440
I said, "Does this sound like
anything to you?"

457
00:27:01,440 --> 00:27:03,520
He said, "Yes.
It sounds like $5 million!"

458
00:27:04,520 --> 00:27:06,880
# Touch me

459
00:27:06,880 --> 00:27:09,160
# It's so easy to leave... #

460
00:27:09,160 --> 00:27:12,480
Alongside this fantasy world
so widely enjoyed,

461
00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:16,560
another more down-and-dirty culture
was being consumed avidly.

462
00:27:19,720 --> 00:27:22,920
During the early '80s,
an underground comic began to appear

463
00:27:22,920 --> 00:27:26,080
in Newcastle record shops
and then across the country.

464
00:27:26,080 --> 00:27:28,920
It parodied everything
from the tabloids' letter pages

465
00:27:28,920 --> 00:27:31,200
to classic children's comic strips.

466
00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:36,840
The key characters came from round
here on Tyneside in the Northeast,

467
00:27:36,840 --> 00:27:40,280
where heavy industries
had gone in the 1980s,

468
00:27:40,280 --> 00:27:44,480
completely ripping away an entire
working-class economic structure.

469
00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:52,120
For its first five years,
Viz was a cottage industry,

470
00:27:52,120 --> 00:27:55,680
only available at alternative
record shops and some newsagents.

471
00:27:55,680 --> 00:28:00,560
In 1985, its creators struck a deal
with a major magazine publisher.

472
00:28:00,560 --> 00:28:04,400
By the end of the decade,
it was a nationwide bestseller.

473
00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:06,440
The magazine was started by

474
00:28:06,440 --> 00:28:09,640
a former clerk from
a Newcastle branch of the DHSS.

475
00:28:09,640 --> 00:28:13,880
My dad was working class
but he wanted to be middle class.

476
00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:17,200
He said, "Don't talk slang
if you use the Geordie accent."

477
00:28:17,200 --> 00:28:19,040
He wanted us to be sort of posh.

478
00:28:19,040 --> 00:28:21,000
As far as we could tell,
there was posh

479
00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:23,840
and there was the kids at school,
the sort of rough kids,

480
00:28:23,840 --> 00:28:26,360
who we called menties at the time.

481
00:28:26,360 --> 00:28:30,800
My brother Steve and I,
we were never comfortable
being a sort of middle-class kid

482
00:28:30,800 --> 00:28:33,480
cos we both failed our 11 Plus
and stuff

483
00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:36,520
and we weren't going to make it
as university material.

484
00:28:36,520 --> 00:28:40,600
But we weren't comfortable
being ordinary either.

485
00:28:40,600 --> 00:28:44,280
You felt like you were in the middle
and removed from everything.

486
00:28:44,280 --> 00:28:46,680
As a result,
you saw things as an observer.

487
00:28:46,680 --> 00:28:49,520
Are you lampooning
the Geordie working class?

488
00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:53,760
These are vivid...
Fat Slags, Biffa characters.

489
00:28:53,760 --> 00:28:56,840
Did you see that around you
at the time in the '80s?

490
00:28:56,840 --> 00:28:59,080
Oh, very much so.
They were all based on...

491
00:28:59,080 --> 00:29:04,160
The best ones would be sparked off
by an actual event or a person.

492
00:29:04,160 --> 00:29:06,960
Sid The Sexist
was based on a person.

493
00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:12,360
And Biffa Bacon, I was on a train
and there was two kids fighting.

494
00:29:12,360 --> 00:29:14,680
Their parents were sitting
either side of them

495
00:29:14,680 --> 00:29:17,440
and instead of saying,
"Sit down, behave yourself,"

496
00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:19,640
he said,
"Go on, son. I'm right behind you."

497
00:29:21,040 --> 00:29:24,480
The people you were taking the
mickey out of would come up and say,

498
00:29:24,480 --> 00:29:27,680
"Oh, my mates reckon that
I'm Sid The Sexist. Is it true?"

499
00:29:27,680 --> 00:29:31,080
They're proud of it cos even though
you're lampooning them

500
00:29:31,080 --> 00:29:34,560
and there's some people, probably
the top end of your readership,

501
00:29:34,560 --> 00:29:37,360
the intellectual people,
would be laughing at them,

502
00:29:37,360 --> 00:29:40,080
they're laughing at themselves,
laughing with you.

503
00:29:40,080 --> 00:29:42,840
The Guardian
started giving it good reviews

504
00:29:42,840 --> 00:29:45,960
and the Daily Telegraph
gave it a good review.

505
00:29:45,960 --> 00:29:49,440
We were always a bit uncomfortable
when we got highbrow reviews.

506
00:29:49,440 --> 00:29:52,320
On the other hand,
Auberon Waugh said

507
00:29:52,320 --> 00:29:55,520
if you want to know what's going on
in this particular period,

508
00:29:55,520 --> 00:29:58,720
better to read Viz than to read
Peter Ackroyd or Julian Barnes.

509
00:29:58,720 --> 00:30:04,440
Yeah, I was aware of his credentials,
so I was quite flattered by that.

510
00:30:04,440 --> 00:30:08,600
But just occasionally you thought,
this is all a bit silly, really.

511
00:30:08,600 --> 00:30:12,680
I don't know what level
people were getting it at.

512
00:30:20,560 --> 00:30:24,840
At its peak, Viz sold in excess
of a million copies an issue.

513
00:30:24,840 --> 00:30:27,200
It was one of the magazines
most bought

514
00:30:27,200 --> 00:30:30,280
by the sharp-elbowed young
professionals of the late '80s.

515
00:30:30,280 --> 00:30:32,920
So, a comic created by
a lower-middle-class Geordie

516
00:30:32,920 --> 00:30:35,560
lampooning his fellow
working-class Geordies

517
00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:38,760
had become an organ
of the metropolitan middle class.

518
00:30:38,760 --> 00:30:40,800
# I've got the brains

519
00:30:40,800 --> 00:30:42,800
# You've got the looks

520
00:30:42,800 --> 00:30:45,880
# Let's make lots of money... #

521
00:30:45,880 --> 00:30:49,120
In London in 1986,
Mrs Thatcher continued to dismantle

522
00:30:49,120 --> 00:30:52,600
what she felt
were old class barriers.

523
00:30:52,600 --> 00:30:55,240
The City's growing confidence
and drive

524
00:30:55,240 --> 00:30:58,280
owes a good deal to young people.

525
00:30:58,280 --> 00:31:02,720
Its vast new dealing rooms
are run by the young.

526
00:31:02,720 --> 00:31:06,640
People who made it
not because of who they know

527
00:31:06,640 --> 00:31:10,480
or what school tie they wear,
but on sheer merit

528
00:31:10,480 --> 00:31:13,960
and that is the kind of society
I want to see.

529
00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:18,000
As well as the old City gents
of the upper middle class,

530
00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:21,680
the Government had aristocrats and
their country estates in its sights

531
00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:24,680
with the looming prospect
of a new inheritance tax.

532
00:31:24,680 --> 00:31:26,680
£100,000.

533
00:31:27,800 --> 00:31:32,600
The sale of the century has just
finished at Christie's in London.

534
00:31:32,600 --> 00:31:39,800
70 drawings owned by the Duke
of Devonshire fetched £19,611,000.

535
00:31:39,800 --> 00:31:44,000
But this was simply old-fashioned
death duties by another name

536
00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:46,720
and just a token gesture
against the aristocracy.

537
00:31:46,720 --> 00:31:50,480
They were still rich, if not quite
as rich, in land and possessions.

538
00:31:50,480 --> 00:31:52,880
They may have lost their power
decades ago,

539
00:31:52,880 --> 00:31:54,600
but selling off a picture or two

540
00:31:54,600 --> 00:31:57,600
was an easy price to pay
for hanging on to their wealth.

541
00:31:57,600 --> 00:32:02,760
So, it was perhaps only symbolically
that the aristocracy
was under attack.

542
00:32:02,760 --> 00:32:04,880
And television was joining in
the bunfight

543
00:32:04,880 --> 00:32:07,000
with the Royal Family on its agenda.

544
00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:09,960
# Once I was adored
I was glorified

545
00:32:09,960 --> 00:32:13,640
# All I had to do was wave
and they were on my side

546
00:32:13,640 --> 00:32:18,280
# But then we had so many scandals
that their sympathy was lost

547
00:32:18,280 --> 00:32:22,200
# Now I have to pay my taxes
and one's children are divorced... #

548
00:32:22,200 --> 00:32:25,040
By 1992, the Royal Family
seemed to be in trouble.

549
00:32:25,040 --> 00:32:28,040
Their buildings burning,
their marriages dissolving,

550
00:32:28,040 --> 00:32:29,920
their taxes pending.

551
00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:34,360
Some thought this was
a defining moment for the keystone
of this country's upper class.

552
00:32:34,360 --> 00:32:39,040
In the words of one of my more
sympathetic correspondents,

553
00:32:39,040 --> 00:32:42,720
"It has turned out to be
an annus horribilis."

554
00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:45,520
Sue Townsend caught the spirit
of the times

555
00:32:45,520 --> 00:32:49,080
in her novel The Queen And I
by deposing the Royal Family

556
00:32:49,080 --> 00:32:51,840
and forcing them to live
among the working classes.

557
00:32:51,840 --> 00:32:55,960
What did the novel The Queen And I
say about the class system
in this country?

558
00:32:55,960 --> 00:32:59,920
I think by putting them
on a council estate

559
00:32:59,920 --> 00:33:04,840
and forcing them to mix with
their neighbours in the community,

560
00:33:04,840 --> 00:33:11,400
I think the classes
started to merge a little,

561
00:33:11,400 --> 00:33:13,080
just a little,

562
00:33:13,080 --> 00:33:16,880
when the Queen helped a young girl
to give birth to a baby

563
00:33:16,880 --> 00:33:23,200
and was able to do some kind deeds,
if you like.

564
00:33:23,200 --> 00:33:30,040
When the working-class people
eventually accepted the Queen,

565
00:33:30,040 --> 00:33:34,280
I think it was a way
of just saying what everybody knows,

566
00:33:34,280 --> 00:33:37,120
that we're all the same
under the skin.

567
00:33:37,120 --> 00:33:40,720
I mean, you know, I forced them
to live with each other

568
00:33:40,720 --> 00:33:43,560
and they largely got on well.

569
00:33:43,560 --> 00:33:45,120
And the Queen was happier.

570
00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:46,880
SHE CHUCKLES

571
00:33:46,880 --> 00:33:48,880
So, it's a true story, then?

572
00:33:48,880 --> 00:33:50,960
Oh, yeah(!)

573
00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:56,240
Ladies and gentlemen, we're leaving
Downing Street for the last time,

574
00:33:56,240 --> 00:33:59,280
after 11 and a half wonderful years

575
00:33:59,280 --> 00:34:03,720
and we're very happy
that we leave the United Kingdom

576
00:34:03,720 --> 00:34:05,840
in a very, very much better state

577
00:34:05,840 --> 00:34:09,840
than when we came here
11 and a half years ago.

578
00:34:09,840 --> 00:34:13,840
Mrs Thatcher had gone, but her dream
of middle England emerged again,

579
00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:15,800
this time in a more benign form.

580
00:34:18,520 --> 00:34:21,880
The new Prime Minister dreamed
of a lost middle-class Eden,

581
00:34:21,880 --> 00:34:24,480
of long shadows on cricket grounds,
warm beer,

582
00:34:24,480 --> 00:34:27,640
dog lovers,
and as George Orwell wrote,

583
00:34:27,640 --> 00:34:31,720
old maids bicycling to Holy
Communion through the morning mist.

584
00:34:31,720 --> 00:34:36,240
John Major's
kindly, nostalgic and very English
view of a middle-class England

585
00:34:36,240 --> 00:34:40,080
contrasted starkly
with a wider world in flux.

586
00:34:40,080 --> 00:34:41,920
RAVE MUSIC PLAYS

587
00:34:41,920 --> 00:34:45,480
As in the 1960s, class was
apparently subsumed and blurred

588
00:34:45,480 --> 00:34:48,360
into a frenzy of music and drugs.

589
00:34:48,360 --> 00:34:51,880
But there was a darker side
to this second summer of love

590
00:34:51,880 --> 00:34:56,560
when the hardening drug culture
collided with the social problems
of the time.

591
00:34:56,560 --> 00:35:00,200
During the '90s, we began to hear
references in the media

592
00:35:00,200 --> 00:35:03,880
to a new social group dismissively
referred to as the underclass.

593
00:35:03,880 --> 00:35:06,640
Jobless, said to be feckless,
possibly criminal,

594
00:35:06,640 --> 00:35:10,600
they were a swelling demographic on
Britain's blighted housing estates.

595
00:35:12,120 --> 00:35:15,320
They were from communities
left behind

596
00:35:15,320 --> 00:35:18,480
by the aspirational,
home-buying working class.

597
00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:23,160
In 1993, the author Irvine Welsh,

598
00:35:23,160 --> 00:35:25,760
who was born
in one of these crumbling estates,

599
00:35:25,760 --> 00:35:28,880
illuminated the world
of the scammers, dealers and pariahs

600
00:35:28,880 --> 00:35:31,640
of his neighbourhood
in Trainspotting.

601
00:35:31,640 --> 00:35:33,720
In the novel and the film adaptation

602
00:35:33,720 --> 00:35:36,360
some critics felt
that the underclass depicted

603
00:35:36,360 --> 00:35:40,440
was at best amoral
and at worst glamorised addiction.

604
00:35:40,440 --> 00:35:44,040
Would sir care for a starter?
Garlic bread, perhaps? No, thank you.

605
00:35:44,040 --> 00:35:47,560
I'll proceed directly to the
intravenous injection of hard drugs.

606
00:35:48,920 --> 00:35:52,120
As you wish, sir. As you wish.

607
00:35:54,560 --> 00:35:57,280
I went to Leith to ask Irvine Welsh

608
00:35:57,280 --> 00:36:01,400
if the world he came from was still
an issue when the book came out.

609
00:36:01,400 --> 00:36:03,360
When you published Trainspotting,

610
00:36:03,360 --> 00:36:06,880
did you feel you were in a literary
world that was itself class divided,

611
00:36:06,880 --> 00:36:09,600
not just the books
but the way it was run?

612
00:36:09,600 --> 00:36:11,520
You have to be realistic about it.

613
00:36:11,520 --> 00:36:15,160
Most writers are going to come from
the upper echelons of society

614
00:36:15,160 --> 00:36:17,840
because basically,
they've got more time to write.

615
00:36:17,840 --> 00:36:21,440
They're going to be in rooms
stuffed full of books

616
00:36:21,440 --> 00:36:25,240
and they'll have all this exposure
to all these cultural tools.

617
00:36:25,240 --> 00:36:29,000
You'll get your Jock right, or your
Paddy right, or your Asian right,

618
00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:31,920
to show how kind of cool
and multicultural we are,

619
00:36:31,920 --> 00:36:36,560
but the bedrock of it all is this
very kind of waspish kind of writing

620
00:36:36,560 --> 00:36:41,320
and I think it's always
going to be that way to an extent.

621
00:36:41,320 --> 00:36:47,200
Reading contemporary literature
over the last 30 years in Britain,

622
00:36:47,200 --> 00:36:52,720
do you find that it inhabits
the old class system,
the upper, the middle, the lower?

623
00:36:52,720 --> 00:36:55,800
Literature, in terms of the voices,

624
00:36:55,800 --> 00:37:00,040
it's probably the most conservative
kind of medium.

625
00:37:00,040 --> 00:37:04,840
I think it's the one that takes
a lot longer to catch up.

626
00:37:04,840 --> 00:37:07,760
You can see film making, TV,
has always kind of been

627
00:37:07,760 --> 00:37:10,800
a bit more democratic
about letting different voices in.

628
00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:16,240
The Play For Today stuff
I think was a massive influence
on a whole generation of writers.

629
00:37:16,240 --> 00:37:19,360
You must have read a lot
and that takes you into areas

630
00:37:19,360 --> 00:37:21,920
which defies your categorisation,
don't they?

631
00:37:21,920 --> 00:37:24,440
I think for a lot
of working-class kids,

632
00:37:24,440 --> 00:37:27,680
the big thing that chimed with me
first was Orwell.

633
00:37:27,680 --> 00:37:31,720
I was also interested in stuff
that was outside my own experience.

634
00:37:31,720 --> 00:37:35,320
One of the most important things
that we really have to remember

635
00:37:35,320 --> 00:37:37,880
through all the kind of class
and cultural thing,

636
00:37:37,880 --> 00:37:41,280
as soon as we posit the issue
of class or culture,

637
00:37:41,280 --> 00:37:43,920
we're immediately thinking
about the vision,

638
00:37:43,920 --> 00:37:45,760
but we do have a common humanity.

639
00:37:45,760 --> 00:37:49,600
That can be very strange because
I was in choirs when I was a kid,

640
00:37:49,600 --> 00:37:52,040
church choir, town choir,
school choir,

641
00:37:52,040 --> 00:37:56,320
and we sang some magnificent music
by the greatest composers

642
00:37:56,320 --> 00:37:59,120
and yet when the Third Programme
came on in our house,

643
00:37:59,120 --> 00:38:01,040
we knocked it off immediately.

644
00:38:01,040 --> 00:38:04,440
We didn't want to listen to that
sort of music that we were doing.

645
00:38:04,440 --> 00:38:06,840
A lot of people in that town
were singing that...

646
00:38:06,840 --> 00:38:08,560
It was a very strange thing.

647
00:38:08,560 --> 00:38:12,240
On one level, it wasn't for us and
on another level, we were doing it.

648
00:38:12,240 --> 00:38:17,160
So, you wanted to do it yourself
but you didn't want to watch
other people doing it and consume it.

649
00:38:17,160 --> 00:38:21,320
You started off as working class.
How would you describe yourself now?

650
00:38:21,320 --> 00:38:23,720
Probably upper class, really,

651
00:38:23,720 --> 00:38:26,640
because I think of
middle-class people as having...

652
00:38:26,640 --> 00:38:30,040
People say that I'm middle class
now, but I don't see that at all

653
00:38:30,040 --> 00:38:32,880
cos I think of middle-class people
as having mortgages

654
00:38:32,880 --> 00:38:38,720
and jobs and sort of
struggling a little bit, you know.

655
00:38:38,720 --> 00:38:43,600
But I'm... You know, I don't live
that kind of life, really.

656
00:38:43,600 --> 00:38:48,120
I have a very comfortable life
in terms of what my own needs are.

657
00:38:48,120 --> 00:38:49,360
I live quite a...

658
00:38:49,360 --> 00:38:53,200
I mean, I work hard
because I'm kind of driven to write,

659
00:38:53,200 --> 00:38:57,680
I enjoy doing it,
but I don't really see it as work.

660
00:38:57,680 --> 00:39:01,320
I see it as a kind of hobby
that I've been able to make pay.

661
00:39:01,320 --> 00:39:05,080
So, I see myself as quite a sort of
idle rich person, really.

662
00:39:05,080 --> 00:39:08,360
Is it nice?
Yeah, it's great! It's wonderful!

663
00:39:08,360 --> 00:39:12,640
Irvine Welsh's success made him part
of a new classless, cultural elite

664
00:39:12,640 --> 00:39:15,520
which he shared with a generation
of young British artists.

665
00:39:15,520 --> 00:39:17,720
They showed

666
00:39:17,720 --> 00:39:19,840
that provocative artistic gestures

667
00:39:19,840 --> 00:39:22,320
plus an acute sense of publicity

668
00:39:22,320 --> 00:39:26,320
was more important than if you came
from working-class Leeds or Margate.

669
00:39:26,320 --> 00:39:29,760
This new culture was also
being manipulated and bankrolled,

670
00:39:29,760 --> 00:39:32,520
not by an old art establishment,
but by collectors,

671
00:39:32,520 --> 00:39:35,920
most notably Charles Saatchi,
whose background in advertising

672
00:39:35,920 --> 00:39:40,520
gave him a particular skill
in spotting, even creating,
cultural trends.

673
00:39:40,520 --> 00:39:44,160
At the same time, money
for the national culture appeared

674
00:39:44,160 --> 00:39:46,200
on a scale never seen before.

675
00:39:46,200 --> 00:39:51,120
AUDIENCE: ..Four, three,
two, one. Go!

676
00:39:51,120 --> 00:39:58,000
And the first ever national live
lottery draw takes place on the BBC.

677
00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:00,840
The first number will be
coming out now. It's a green.

678
00:40:00,840 --> 00:40:05,400
The public may have seen
the National Lottery as a route
to becoming a millionaire,

679
00:40:05,400 --> 00:40:07,360
but for culture,
it was a turning point,

680
00:40:07,360 --> 00:40:09,800
providing funding
on an unprecedented scale.

681
00:40:09,800 --> 00:40:12,800
Its aim was to provide
access to culture for all.

682
00:40:12,800 --> 00:40:15,720
But was it as classless
as had been intended?

683
00:40:15,720 --> 00:40:19,480
Certainly there were thousands
of beneficiaries, not least up here.

684
00:40:19,480 --> 00:40:21,200
For example, the Gateshead Sage.

685
00:40:21,200 --> 00:40:26,280
Since 1994, the arts and heritage
have received over £8 billion
of Lottery funding,

686
00:40:26,280 --> 00:40:29,240
benefiting projects
from the major concert halls

687
00:40:29,240 --> 00:40:31,160
to the smallest town choirs.

688
00:40:31,160 --> 00:40:33,960
But did the bigger chunks of money
go to the bigger,

689
00:40:33,960 --> 00:40:36,120
middle-class institutions?

690
00:40:36,120 --> 00:40:39,320
And which class was controlling
this cultural enrichment?

691
00:40:39,320 --> 00:40:41,640
I went to the Royal Opera House,

692
00:40:41,640 --> 00:40:44,520
beneficiary of a vast Lottery grant,
to meet Lord Gowrie

693
00:40:44,520 --> 00:40:48,160
who was Chair of the Arts Council
of England when the money
was handed out.

694
00:40:48,160 --> 00:40:50,280
There was a feeling abroad
that the Lottery

695
00:40:50,280 --> 00:40:52,840
benefited those who had

696
00:40:52,840 --> 00:40:57,560
unduly and disproportionately
compared with the rest
of the country.

697
00:40:57,560 --> 00:41:01,520
Well, the argument was that more
poor people played the Lottery

698
00:41:01,520 --> 00:41:05,440
than rich people played the Lottery.

699
00:41:05,440 --> 00:41:11,520
We got round that,
not simply as a political fudge,

700
00:41:11,520 --> 00:41:16,400
but out of great belief,
by regionalising it.

701
00:41:16,400 --> 00:41:20,040
We did the great school of music
in the Northeast

702
00:41:20,040 --> 00:41:23,920
and we did the Baltic Exchange
and we did the Lowry Centre.

703
00:41:23,920 --> 00:41:26,840
We're here behind the stalls
in the Royal Opera House

704
00:41:26,840 --> 00:41:29,320
and there was a great controversy
in the '90s

705
00:41:29,320 --> 00:41:33,160
about the Lottery money
coming to the Royal Opera House,
the size of it.

706
00:41:33,160 --> 00:41:36,760
The idea behind the Lottery
was in order to be able to give money

707
00:41:36,760 --> 00:41:42,720
to things like the Opera House,
which was very unpopular
in terms of current funding.

708
00:41:42,720 --> 00:41:47,040
So, it was to help
those things in our culture

709
00:41:47,040 --> 00:41:49,680
and our society
which needed public money

710
00:41:49,680 --> 00:41:52,920
but which the public, on the whole,
didn't like getting money.

711
00:41:52,920 --> 00:41:56,440
So, it was an irony
that it was chosen in that way.

712
00:41:56,440 --> 00:42:00,080
Not helped by my friend
and somebody I very much admire,

713
00:42:00,080 --> 00:42:03,320
Jeremy Isaacs
was the intendant at the time,

714
00:42:03,320 --> 00:42:07,160
who popped champagne,
and my heart sank when I heard that.

715
00:42:07,160 --> 00:42:10,720
There were, and are,
a few affordable tickets
for the Royal Opera House

716
00:42:10,720 --> 00:42:13,680
but the public perception
was that their Lottery money

717
00:42:13,680 --> 00:42:17,560
was being handed out to institutions
that only the elite
could afford or enjoy.

718
00:42:17,560 --> 00:42:22,320
So, although over there
the Tate Modern welcomes four
million visitors a year for free,

719
00:42:22,320 --> 00:42:26,360
is there still a sense that somehow
things like opera, ballet,

720
00:42:26,360 --> 00:42:30,440
classical concerts, even theatre
are not for the likes of us?

721
00:42:30,440 --> 00:42:34,640
I remember I wrote a play
and it was on at the Haymarket

722
00:42:34,640 --> 00:42:40,280
and on the first night,
I'd invited all my relations,

723
00:42:40,280 --> 00:42:43,000
my extended family,

724
00:42:43,000 --> 00:42:48,400
and I was on the balcony looking
down, waiting for them to come

725
00:42:48,400 --> 00:42:54,280
and...there they were in their
best suits and shirts and ties.

726
00:42:54,280 --> 00:42:56,640
Everybody else
was in casual clothes,

727
00:42:56,640 --> 00:42:59,800
but they'd all had
their hair cut for the theatre

728
00:42:59,800 --> 00:43:02,840
and their shoes were shiny
and I really...

729
00:43:02,840 --> 00:43:06,040
I mean, I love them for it.
I love them for it.

730
00:43:06,040 --> 00:43:11,520
But I knew that that meant there was
an awful lot of anxiety as well.

731
00:43:11,520 --> 00:43:13,480
They hadn't been to the theatre.

732
00:43:17,640 --> 00:43:20,320
A massive injection of money
into arts and heritage,

733
00:43:20,320 --> 00:43:24,960
along with a booming economy,
was the welcoming arena
into which Tony Blair stepped.

734
00:43:24,960 --> 00:43:29,240
But like his predecessors,
he had a familiar mantra.

735
00:43:29,240 --> 00:43:35,520
Slowly but surely, the old British
establishment is being replaced

736
00:43:35,520 --> 00:43:40,280
by a new, larger,
but more meritocratic middle class.

737
00:43:40,280 --> 00:43:43,040
Where Tony Blair
diverged from Mrs Thatcher

738
00:43:43,040 --> 00:43:45,720
and John Major
was the way in which he spoke.

739
00:43:45,720 --> 00:43:48,960
Mrs Thatcher, a lower-middle-class
child of the '30s,

740
00:43:48,960 --> 00:43:51,760
cultivated an abrasive
upper-class voice.

741
00:43:51,760 --> 00:43:56,240
The lady's not for turning.

742
00:43:56,240 --> 00:43:58,640
But Tony Blair, public school
and Oxford educated,

743
00:43:58,640 --> 00:44:00,520
went in the opposite direction.

744
00:44:00,520 --> 00:44:04,160
He found a voice that he thought
would appeal across the classes.

745
00:44:04,160 --> 00:44:08,040
What do I need a bloke with a stick
and a pig's bladder for?
LAUGHTER

746
00:44:08,040 --> 00:44:10,320
I've got John Prescott,
he's much better!

747
00:44:10,320 --> 00:44:12,480
APPLAUSE

748
00:44:12,480 --> 00:44:15,760
As we all know, class is blurred
by accent, defined by accent,

749
00:44:15,760 --> 00:44:18,560
camouflaged by accent,
lied about by accent.

750
00:44:18,560 --> 00:44:21,480
The late John Peel
went to Shrewsbury Public School,

751
00:44:21,480 --> 00:44:24,880
but when he climbed the ladder
of success in Broadcasting House,

752
00:44:24,880 --> 00:44:27,440
he took his accent downstairs,
to Liverpool,

753
00:44:27,440 --> 00:44:29,160
to a sort of Beatles accent.

754
00:44:29,160 --> 00:44:33,800
Nowadays there are regional accents
all over the airways.

755
00:44:33,800 --> 00:44:40,560
MONTAGE OF REGIONAL ACCENTS

756
00:44:40,560 --> 00:44:44,400
But is this blurring of accents
really a sign
of the blurring of the classes?

757
00:44:44,400 --> 00:44:48,280
Is it a step along the way
towards a classless society?

758
00:44:48,280 --> 00:44:51,600
Or is it merely an attempt
to mask your privileged background

759
00:44:51,600 --> 00:44:53,720
because now it isn't cool
to be posh?

760
00:44:53,720 --> 00:44:56,840
Tony Blair certainly saw
cross-cultural coolness

761
00:44:56,840 --> 00:44:59,200
as part of his new classless vision.

762
00:44:59,200 --> 00:45:02,560
And as for this new, inclusive,
smart, middle-classless culture,

763
00:45:02,560 --> 00:45:05,320
there was a perception
from many parts of the country

764
00:45:05,320 --> 00:45:07,520
that it was all
a bit too metropolitan.

765
00:45:09,600 --> 00:45:13,000
And this assumption that our society
was now open, more liberal

766
00:45:13,000 --> 00:45:15,840
and inclusive as reflected
in our cultural tastes,

767
00:45:15,840 --> 00:45:20,080
now came up against something more
traditional - voices from our past.

768
00:45:20,080 --> 00:45:25,640
On the 22nd of September in 2002,
400,000 people marched to here,

769
00:45:25,640 --> 00:45:28,680
Hyde Park in the middle of London,
to protest

770
00:45:28,680 --> 00:45:31,520
at what they saw as a threat
to the way of life

771
00:45:31,520 --> 00:45:33,520
of the British countryside.

772
00:45:35,480 --> 00:45:39,040
The issue that mobilised most people
was political,

773
00:45:39,040 --> 00:45:43,360
the Government bill
to ban fox-hunting,
but there was a wider schism.

774
00:45:43,360 --> 00:45:45,320
It seemed to highlight
a class division

775
00:45:45,320 --> 00:45:48,560
between the governing metropolitan
bureaucrats here in London

776
00:45:48,560 --> 00:45:53,400
and the ancient loyalties
and hierarchies of the countryside.

777
00:45:53,400 --> 00:45:58,880
It was the ancient medieval divide
between the city and the country

778
00:45:58,880 --> 00:46:00,480
in a modern form.

779
00:46:00,480 --> 00:46:03,360
If you define class
in terms of income and occupation,

780
00:46:03,360 --> 00:46:08,680
that was a huge concertina of class
on the move from the countryside

781
00:46:08,680 --> 00:46:12,960
and what brought them together,
the core of the alliance,

782
00:46:12,960 --> 00:46:15,840
was that you metropolitan types
don't understand us.

783
00:46:15,840 --> 00:46:18,040
You think we're bloodthirsty,

784
00:46:18,040 --> 00:46:21,080
our motivation in life
is slaughtering fur and feather.

785
00:46:21,080 --> 00:46:24,520
"You are metropolitan wankers,
we are the real people."

786
00:46:24,520 --> 00:46:29,000
But it was a class society, plural,
on the move

787
00:46:29,000 --> 00:46:31,520
against a different kind
of class society

788
00:46:31,520 --> 00:46:34,080
and they too, I suspect,
had a parody view

789
00:46:34,080 --> 00:46:38,320
of the people they thought neither
understood them nor wanted to.

790
00:46:38,320 --> 00:46:39,920
Fascinating phenomenon.

791
00:46:41,200 --> 00:46:44,720
These two groups,
so seemingly opposed to one another,

792
00:46:44,720 --> 00:46:47,640
nonetheless share a fear
and distaste for the class

793
00:46:47,640 --> 00:46:50,320
that finds itself
at the bottom of the heap.

794
00:46:50,320 --> 00:46:53,160
They've been called chavs
and the wide use of the word

795
00:46:53,160 --> 00:46:55,560
seems symptomatic
of this growing contempt.

796
00:46:56,840 --> 00:46:59,640
The problem with the word "chav"
is it's not a sub-culture

797
00:46:59,640 --> 00:47:02,000
like Goths, for example.

798
00:47:02,000 --> 00:47:05,560
It's not something really people
describe themselves as such.

799
00:47:05,560 --> 00:47:11,040
But basically, what it sums up are
things like antisocial behaviour,

800
00:47:11,040 --> 00:47:14,120
being work-shy, teenage pregnancy,

801
00:47:14,120 --> 00:47:17,440
spending money in a tacky way,
but all of those things

802
00:47:17,440 --> 00:47:20,800
exclusively associated with people
from a working-class background.

803
00:47:20,800 --> 00:47:23,440
50 years ago,
the novelist Nancy Mitford

804
00:47:23,440 --> 00:47:26,880
wrote about the notion of you and
non-you vocabulary which was used

805
00:47:26,880 --> 00:47:30,120
by the upper classes
to look down on those beneath them.

806
00:47:30,120 --> 00:47:34,320
"Chav" seems to be a continuation
of this invidious class superiority.

807
00:47:34,320 --> 00:47:38,480
The writer Ferdinand Mount sees this
as indicative of a demonisation

808
00:47:38,480 --> 00:47:42,120
of the working class that comes out
of a wider social context.

809
00:47:42,120 --> 00:47:46,960
The huge expansion of
the middle class, which in general,

810
00:47:46,960 --> 00:47:51,560
is a very good development,
has had a bad side effect

811
00:47:51,560 --> 00:47:56,720
which is that those
who are in the bottom class

812
00:47:56,720 --> 00:48:00,200
are regarded
as having been left behind,

813
00:48:00,200 --> 00:48:07,520
they have become a class to be
pitied, and in some cases despised.

814
00:48:07,520 --> 00:48:09,720
And it is reflected too
in television.

815
00:48:09,720 --> 00:48:11,160
Still wouldn't want ya.

816
00:48:11,160 --> 00:48:13,400
Cos he knows a bit of class
when he see it.

817
00:48:13,400 --> 00:48:16,640
SHE SCOFFS
Class? Class?!

818
00:48:16,640 --> 00:48:19,400
You peroxide chav!

819
00:48:19,400 --> 00:48:22,360
Uh, who you calling a chav?
You're an ugly ginger muggler!

820
00:48:22,360 --> 00:48:26,400
In the post-war period, you at least
had positive representations

821
00:48:26,400 --> 00:48:30,480
or an attempt to positively represent
working-class people.

822
00:48:30,480 --> 00:48:34,120
You had things like the Likely Lads,
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet,

823
00:48:34,120 --> 00:48:38,240
whilst today you don't really get
any positive representations.

824
00:48:38,240 --> 00:48:39,920
You get grotesque caricatures.

825
00:48:39,920 --> 00:48:43,600
Vicky Pollard, I suppose, being
probably the most striking example.

826
00:48:43,600 --> 00:48:46,120
Did you bite Jacquie Hayes?

827
00:48:46,120 --> 00:48:48,960
I never even done nothing.
Let me tell you the whole thing.

828
00:48:48,960 --> 00:48:52,000
Julie wrote on the wall
about Lorraine being a 100% minger,

829
00:48:52,000 --> 00:48:54,840
and then Samantha came into our dorm
to stir it all up,

830
00:48:54,840 --> 00:48:56,840
but Carlie found a pube
in her lasagne.

831
00:48:56,840 --> 00:49:01,560
I think dramatists, especially,
have always taken the piss

832
00:49:01,560 --> 00:49:05,560
out of working-class characters,
underclass characters,

833
00:49:05,560 --> 00:49:09,440
you know, the village idiot,

834
00:49:09,440 --> 00:49:13,720
the fool is part of the, you know...

835
00:49:13,720 --> 00:49:16,520
It's the dramatist persona
if you're a dramatist.

836
00:49:16,520 --> 00:49:19,000
Six kids,

837
00:49:19,000 --> 00:49:20,920
kids to keep on top of.

838
00:49:20,920 --> 00:49:23,320
You never had to do stuff before.

839
00:49:23,320 --> 00:49:27,320
Massive...and clothes
for school, massive.

840
00:49:27,320 --> 00:49:30,400
I see it as a very old tradition

841
00:49:30,400 --> 00:49:33,840
of the satirist
from Gillray, Rowlandson

842
00:49:33,840 --> 00:49:39,080
and the great Victorian novelists,
of celebrating people

843
00:49:39,080 --> 00:49:43,200
who are resistant to the status quo.

844
00:49:43,200 --> 00:49:46,040
When people come back
and defend the use, they'll say,

845
00:49:46,040 --> 00:49:49,280
well, it's not just used against
people who are working class,

846
00:49:49,280 --> 00:49:52,320
it's used against people
who are actually really wealthy,

847
00:49:52,320 --> 00:49:56,560
like Cheryl Cole, like Katie Price,
like David Beckham, for example.

848
00:49:56,560 --> 00:49:58,840
He's sometimes called a chav.

849
00:49:58,840 --> 00:50:01,680
And of course, what unites
all of those celebrities

850
00:50:01,680 --> 00:50:05,520
is they're from a working-class
background and there's this sense,

851
00:50:05,520 --> 00:50:07,800
and this is sometimes
how "chav" is used,

852
00:50:07,800 --> 00:50:12,440
is that when working-class people
get money, they don't know
how to spend it properly.

853
00:50:12,440 --> 00:50:15,680
They spend it in the wrong way,
they don't have the taste,

854
00:50:15,680 --> 00:50:18,320
the discretion, you know,
the elegance, whatever,

855
00:50:18,320 --> 00:50:20,960
that middle-class people have
when they have money.

856
00:50:20,960 --> 00:50:24,240
So, although there seems to be
a new destructive contempt

857
00:50:24,240 --> 00:50:27,840
for the lives and cultural taste of
those from the modern working class,

858
00:50:27,840 --> 00:50:31,720
it hasn't stopped the middle class
from colonising
their great institutions.

859
00:50:31,720 --> 00:50:35,600
This is Old Trafford, the biggest
football ground in the country.

860
00:50:35,600 --> 00:50:40,280
It's the home of the most successful
English football team
of the last 30 years.

861
00:50:40,280 --> 00:50:45,240
With a billionaire American owner
and a fleet of trophy-winning
international stars,

862
00:50:45,240 --> 00:50:46,760
it's also a global brand.

863
00:50:46,760 --> 00:50:49,200
This club's now worth
more than a billion pounds

864
00:50:49,200 --> 00:50:52,640
but it started like all of them,
in very humble circumstances.

865
00:50:52,640 --> 00:50:56,920
Formed in 1878 out of a local
railway company, Manchester United

866
00:50:56,920 --> 00:51:00,800
is a football club rooted
in the industrial working class.

867
00:51:00,800 --> 00:51:03,800
And the players are still
overwhelming working class,

868
00:51:03,800 --> 00:51:07,560
as is their manager, Sir Alex
Ferguson, a former shop steward.

869
00:51:07,560 --> 00:51:09,920
But at the top level
in places like this,

870
00:51:09,920 --> 00:51:12,960
football culture's changed radically
over the last 100 years

871
00:51:12,960 --> 00:51:14,400
like so much else.

872
00:51:14,400 --> 00:51:18,800
Peter Hargreaves has been going to
Old Trafford since 1954.

873
00:51:18,800 --> 00:51:21,200
As well as being
a season ticket holder,

874
00:51:21,200 --> 00:51:25,760
he's also part of the Sad Red
Bastards Club that attends
every reserve and youth game.

875
00:51:25,760 --> 00:51:30,240
What is going on today
in terms of the crowds going,

876
00:51:30,240 --> 00:51:32,080
in terms of the prices
being charged?

877
00:51:32,080 --> 00:51:35,320
I've had a season ticket since 1969.

878
00:51:35,320 --> 00:51:39,800
In 1969,
it cost £12 for the whole season.

879
00:51:39,800 --> 00:51:44,640
My season ticket this season
is £950.

880
00:51:44,640 --> 00:51:47,360
Exactly the same seat,
I haven't moved.

881
00:51:47,360 --> 00:51:51,560
So, it's now double
the average weekly wage

882
00:51:51,560 --> 00:51:54,640
and what I think happened,
I think somebody had been to America

883
00:51:54,640 --> 00:51:59,080
and went to an American football
match and saw it was exclusively
middle-class people

884
00:51:59,080 --> 00:52:00,920
and thought, "This is what we want.

885
00:52:00,920 --> 00:52:04,240
"This is what we want
football in Britain to be like."

886
00:52:04,240 --> 00:52:07,280
Would you say a different class
of people go to football now?

887
00:52:07,280 --> 00:52:09,640
Yeah, I think so,
I think it's likely.

888
00:52:09,640 --> 00:52:14,720
Plainly, there are still a lot of
working-class people go, like me,

889
00:52:14,720 --> 00:52:19,000
who have had to cut
other bits of expenditure,

890
00:52:19,000 --> 00:52:24,080
change, reshape their budget,
to accommodate the increases.

891
00:52:24,080 --> 00:52:26,520
I think by necessity,
the profile's changed.

892
00:52:26,520 --> 00:52:29,120
I mean, I see people
walking into Old Trafford

893
00:52:29,120 --> 00:52:33,160
who are dressed in outfits
that are worth more than my car.

894
00:52:33,160 --> 00:52:36,440
There's also the fact that a lot
of people who were working class

895
00:52:36,440 --> 00:52:39,320
and have, in the last 50 years,
one way or another,

896
00:52:39,320 --> 00:52:41,960
made a bit more money,
they're going and they would say,

897
00:52:41,960 --> 00:52:45,960
"We're middle class now
but we were working class
and we can't be blamed for that."

898
00:52:45,960 --> 00:52:47,720
No, no, I'm not blaming anybody.

899
00:52:47,720 --> 00:52:50,680
No, no, honestly, I'm not,
and I'm not criticising.

900
00:52:50,680 --> 00:52:54,720
People are people
irrespective of what they've got.

901
00:52:54,720 --> 00:52:59,160
But what about the pay on the pitch,
because I remember my dad's idol

902
00:52:59,160 --> 00:53:02,360
was Tom Finney and one of the things
he liked about Tom Finney,

903
00:53:02,360 --> 00:53:05,280
Preston North End, you know that,
best winger we ever had...

904
00:53:05,280 --> 00:53:07,280
Yep. ..was that he was a plumber

905
00:53:07,280 --> 00:53:10,600
and at home games, he would work on
a Saturday morning at his plumbing

906
00:53:10,600 --> 00:53:14,040
then catch the bus into the ground
and play his game in the afternoon.

907
00:53:14,040 --> 00:53:16,440
Now, that is...
that's a planet away, isn't it?

908
00:53:16,440 --> 00:53:18,400
It's totally different.

909
00:53:18,400 --> 00:53:23,360
Yeah. I mean, equally, had that
facility been available to Tom Finney

910
00:53:23,360 --> 00:53:26,200
he would not have refused it,
he wouldn't have said,

911
00:53:26,200 --> 00:53:31,320
"Oh, no, I don't want
the £200,000 a week. I'd just go
and sooner fix this U-bend."

912
00:53:31,320 --> 00:53:34,880
So, with priced out working-class
fans, millionaire players

913
00:53:34,880 --> 00:53:36,200
and billionaire owners,

914
00:53:36,200 --> 00:53:40,240
is top division football nowadays
less for the working class

915
00:53:40,240 --> 00:53:42,560
and more for the rich,
or the super-class?

916
00:53:54,160 --> 00:53:57,320
What do we mean when we say
somebody's upper class these days?

917
00:53:57,320 --> 00:54:00,320
Is it their dress sense,
their accent, their education,

918
00:54:00,320 --> 00:54:01,880
their house, their title?

919
00:54:01,880 --> 00:54:05,440
Increasingly over the last three
decades, entry into the elite

920
00:54:05,440 --> 00:54:10,280
has been guaranteed by one thing
above all - money, loads of money.

921
00:54:10,280 --> 00:54:13,120
It seems the ancient cultural
symbols of the aristocracy

922
00:54:13,120 --> 00:54:15,880
have been appropriated by new money,

923
00:54:15,880 --> 00:54:19,440
particularly from
the City of London, hedge funds

924
00:54:19,440 --> 00:54:23,200
and the internationally
global elite, but this is
no recent development.

925
00:54:23,200 --> 00:54:25,520
There have always been new men
and new money.

926
00:54:25,520 --> 00:54:27,520
I mean,
there were people who did well

927
00:54:27,520 --> 00:54:29,760
out of the dissolution
of the monasteries

928
00:54:29,760 --> 00:54:31,720
and there were people who did well

929
00:54:31,720 --> 00:54:34,480
out of the dissolution
of the nationalised industries.

930
00:54:34,480 --> 00:54:38,320
And new money comes from new trades.

931
00:54:38,320 --> 00:54:41,600
Over the last 30 years,
with the rise of new media

932
00:54:41,600 --> 00:54:46,040
and the entertainment industries,
another elite has emerged.

933
00:54:46,040 --> 00:54:51,080
It's made up of the pop stars,
sports stars and TV stars who feed
the media and the media, in turn,

934
00:54:51,080 --> 00:54:53,480
builds their status
and financial value.

935
00:54:53,480 --> 00:54:55,600
Instead of a class
creating a culture,

936
00:54:55,600 --> 00:54:59,000
a culture through magazines,
internet gossip, hit TV shows,

937
00:54:59,000 --> 00:55:01,720
has created a celebrity super-class.

938
00:55:03,720 --> 00:55:07,760
So, has that classless pop culture
idealism that we saw in the 1960s

939
00:55:07,760 --> 00:55:11,040
been eclipsed by instant fame
and the riches that go with it?

940
00:55:11,040 --> 00:55:13,640
Where do we look now for new forms,
new groupings,

941
00:55:13,640 --> 00:55:15,680
a new cultural charge?

942
00:55:17,520 --> 00:55:21,000
At the beginning of this programme,
we met a de-industrialised country

943
00:55:21,000 --> 00:55:23,600
that had sidelined
both the working classes

944
00:55:23,600 --> 00:55:25,880
and our immigrant population.

945
00:55:25,880 --> 00:55:28,520
But a creative moment
emerged from this time

946
00:55:28,520 --> 00:55:31,880
that showed the growing importance
of our immigrant culture.

947
00:55:31,880 --> 00:55:33,760
# ..Out tonight

948
00:55:33,760 --> 00:55:35,960
# I don't know if I feel all right

949
00:55:35,960 --> 00:55:38,400
# Everyone... #

950
00:55:38,400 --> 00:55:41,120
Three decades on from 2 Tone,

951
00:55:41,120 --> 00:55:44,640
and even if only 13%
of our population
is considered of ethnic origin,

952
00:55:44,640 --> 00:55:47,520
the cultural influence
is fully anchored.

953
00:55:49,600 --> 00:55:52,920
Pop music is at the heart of this,
and recently grime,

954
00:55:52,920 --> 00:55:55,200
an original form
of urban British music,

955
00:55:55,200 --> 00:55:57,360
has produced several pop superstars

956
00:55:57,360 --> 00:55:59,920
from a generation
that some wanted to write off.

957
00:55:59,920 --> 00:56:03,040
# It was nothing but a quick thing
Kids' games, kiss chase

958
00:56:03,040 --> 00:56:05,440
# Just a quick fling, now I'm hoping
you never go missing... #

959
00:56:05,440 --> 00:56:08,040
Brought up one of east London's
roughest estates,

960
00:56:08,040 --> 00:56:11,360
Tinchy Stryder
is from this generation.

961
00:56:11,360 --> 00:56:14,400
He's still only 23
but his career has taken him

962
00:56:14,400 --> 00:56:19,080
from being a 14-year-old rapper on
pirate radio to two UK number ones.

963
00:56:19,080 --> 00:56:24,440
The music definitely rose above all
the differences in the background

964
00:56:24,440 --> 00:56:28,600
because music, I guess, is like a
language everyone understands, like,

965
00:56:28,600 --> 00:56:30,400
if you hear music and you know it...

966
00:56:30,400 --> 00:56:32,120
But just to relate to, like...

967
00:56:32,120 --> 00:56:35,040
I guess that's why
it opened my mind up before, like,

968
00:56:35,040 --> 00:56:37,320
you know,
what I like and what I listen to

969
00:56:37,320 --> 00:56:39,800
only people that might have grew up

970
00:56:39,800 --> 00:56:42,640
or been around where we've been
might understand that.

971
00:56:42,640 --> 00:56:45,280
I feel like it's come together
much more recently

972
00:56:45,280 --> 00:56:48,120
when you hear people
from different genres of music

973
00:56:48,120 --> 00:56:51,160
coming together and collaborating
and making music

974
00:56:51,160 --> 00:56:55,640
and it feels like it gets
kind of rounded up a bit more.

975
00:56:55,640 --> 00:57:00,200
Britain's multicultural inheritance
has shown that cultural mobility

976
00:57:00,200 --> 00:57:03,160
can burst through
social restriction,

977
00:57:03,160 --> 00:57:06,160
both celebrating and subverting
the usual stereotype of hoodies,

978
00:57:06,160 --> 00:57:08,760
gangsters and blighted estates.

979
00:57:08,760 --> 00:57:11,080
This is one modern triumph
of culture over class.

980
00:57:11,080 --> 00:57:16,320
There are now few boundaries,
alternative to commercial,
pop to classical, black to white.

981
00:57:16,320 --> 00:57:18,200
# Dodgin' police Constables

982
00:57:18,200 --> 00:57:21,200
# Walking with ...
Jeans too low to ever consider

983
00:57:21,200 --> 00:57:23,040
# Running or jumping walls

984
00:57:23,040 --> 00:57:25,320
# When I walk round here
There's a couple of rules

985
00:57:25,320 --> 00:57:26,960
# No bling round here
Tuck your jewels

986
00:57:26,960 --> 00:57:28,760
# Unless you wanna get done
by the wolves... #

987
00:57:28,760 --> 00:57:31,360
So, what's changed
over the last 100 years?

988
00:57:31,360 --> 00:57:33,640
You could say, "Not very much".

989
00:57:33,640 --> 00:57:36,160
Although free education for all
has flourished,

990
00:57:36,160 --> 00:57:40,120
around 60% of the current Cabinet
were privately educated at schools

991
00:57:40,120 --> 00:57:43,240
that still represent
only 7% of the population

992
00:57:43,240 --> 00:57:45,800
and the consequences
that flow from that.

993
00:57:45,800 --> 00:57:49,680
The upper classes are still with us,
joined by the new super-class,

994
00:57:49,680 --> 00:57:52,520
still forming
an economic upper crust.

995
00:57:52,520 --> 00:57:55,160
While at the other end,
some of the lower class

996
00:57:55,160 --> 00:57:59,320
appears to have been abandoned,
demonised by the more privileged.

997
00:57:59,320 --> 00:58:02,880
But it seems to me that the middle
class has just grown and grown.

998
00:58:02,880 --> 00:58:05,720
An avalanche of access
to all the arts has given them

999
00:58:05,720 --> 00:58:08,440
a command across culture,
from festivals to galleries,

1000
00:58:08,440 --> 00:58:12,200
through television, radio
and the internet and theatre,
wherever you look,

1001
00:58:12,200 --> 00:58:14,880
their appetite for culture
appears to be insatiable.

1002
00:58:14,880 --> 00:58:17,520
And it's the multicultural tastes
and ambition

1003
00:58:17,520 --> 00:58:21,080
of this new mass intelligentsia
which characterises us now.

1004
00:58:21,080 --> 00:58:24,600
After a tumultuous century,
many people have, I think, emerged

1005
00:58:24,600 --> 00:58:28,600
as more tolerant, more ambitious,
now defined by their culture.

1006
00:58:28,600 --> 00:58:32,120
Class, especially expressed
in money, still matters,

1007
00:58:32,120 --> 00:58:34,720
but culture is in the ascendant.

1008
00:58:34,720 --> 00:58:37,880
Britain 100 years ago
seems rather like a foreign country.

1009
00:58:37,880 --> 00:58:41,160
We all do things differently now
and on the whole, in my view,

1010
00:58:41,160 --> 00:58:43,280
much, much better.

1011
00:58:43,280 --> 00:58:47,160
# I wanna live like common people

1012
00:58:47,160 --> 00:58:50,160
# I wanna do
whatever common people do

1013
00:58:50,160 --> 00:58:53,600
# Wanna sleep with common people

1014
00:58:53,600 --> 00:58:58,480
# I wanna sleep with common people
like you

1015
00:58:58,480 --> 00:59:00,800
# Well, what else could I do?

1016
00:59:00,800 --> 00:59:03,960
# I said, "I'll see what I can do." #

1017
00:59:06,240 --> 00:59:09,680
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