Saturday, 14 November 2015

Corrie culture under the microscope on the BBC

Ken Barlow in Corrie's first ever episode, December 9 1960
There's a series running on BBC2 called Let Us Entertain You in which presenter Dominic Sandbrook looks at British Culture.  It's been an interesting watch so far.  In next week's show, Dominic looks at post-war culture.

"In our dreams and in our nightmares, we live in the shadow of the Victorians," says Dominic towards the end of next week's episode of his survey of British culture.  Coronation Street's Ken Barlow, he suggests, is the modern equivalent of Pip in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations - a man striving to escape his social class.

Tune in to find out what on earth he means on Wednesday 18 November at 9pm on BBC2.

You can watch a clip from the programme here.


Deirdre: A Life on Coronation Street - official ITV tribute to a soap icon. Available here.

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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous14 November 2015 at 21:28

    That's no doubt how the character began - but he never did escape. And now he must suffer retirement with a houseful of misfits and murderers. I bet he regrets not leaving for the bright lights years ago.

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  2. mcx15 November 2015 at 10:18

    The problem with Dominic's theory is that the comparisons made between Victorian and post-war culture are so general they can hardly fail to be true (someone striving to climb up the greasy pole and the results of their success/failure is a timeless theme). I have written about the first installment of Let Us Entertain You at length on my blog https://weneedtotalkaboutdominic.wordpress.com/

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