Introduction

The aim of this article is to provide a background to some key social issues and to explore the way in which drama, both on stage and on the small screen has reflected and shaped society’s attitudes and values. Stereotyping is of course a key issue and what British drama does best is play with the expectations an audience has of itself and the way contemporary society is depicted. From Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) to Mathew Graham and Ashley Pharoah’s Ashes to Ashes (2009), British drama both mirrors and informs society’s ideas about itself and its shared history.

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Social Class

Social class is logical place to start our investigation because, in an age before television, drama in the theatre was dominated by drawing room comedies. Unlike the Shakespearian stage, the plays of Terrence Rattigan and Noel Coward appealed principally to upper-middle class audiences with the income and leisure time to enjoy an evening at the theatre.

That Britain was a more class conscious society is evident in the work of Bernard Shaw: Pygmalion (1913), for example, is an exploration of the humorous endeavours of an upper-class phonetician, Henry Sweet, as he attempts to turn a working class flower girl into refined Society lady. Just as Shaw’s work drew upon Greek mythology so too did it influence both Alan Jay Lerner’s West End musical My Fair Lady (1956) and Willy Russell’s Educating Rita (1980). 

Of course the theme of social aspiration and middle-class snobbery is favourite theme of television writers like David Nobbs whose ITV series A Bit of a Do (1989) explored the etiquette that underpins a series of social gatherings (‘dos’) in a provincial Yorkshire town. Sitcom, for example, is riddled with characters whose social pretension is the source of the comedy: just imagine The Good Life (1975) without Margo or Keeping up Appearances (1990-1995) without Hyacinth. 

That said, in mainstream theatre, the late 1950s saw a radical shift with a generation of playwrights that became known as the Angry Young Men. Largely a product of the widening of access to Grammar Schools in the wake of the 1944 Education Act, writers like John Osborne, Arnold Wesker and Shelagh Delaney wrote plays about their own experiences of working class culture. These plays were of course well suited to television: in part because their subject matter had wide appeal but also because their ‘kitchen sink’ locations were easy to reproduce in a studio. Definitional of the genre is Osborne’s Look Back in Anger (1956), which explores the complex relationship between the working class Jimmy Porter and his socially superior wife.

Regional Identity

One of the key legacies of the Angry Young Men was not only the repositioning of social class within mainstream drama but also the representation of regional identity. While the BBC had traditionally broadcast in the clipped tones of Received Pronunciation, the launch of ITV in 1955 and the success of Coronation Street (1960) brought regional identity to the forefront of the public consciousness.

Produced in the ITV Northwest region’s Granada Studios, Coronation Street brought the everyday lives of the working class residents of a terraced backstreet in Weatherfield (a fictional town in Greater Manchester) to the attention of a national audience. When the first episode was broadcast on 9th December 1960 the script featured colloquial expressions like ‘chuck’, ‘nowt’ and introduced audiences to working class matriarchs like Elsie Tanner and Ena Sharples. The relationship between regional identity and soap is of course a close one. Just watching the title sequence to Brookside or Eastenders leaves the viewer in no doubt as to the regional identity of the program. Even a show like Hollyoaks, the most middle class and suburban of TV soaps, is synonymous with the social aspiration and pretension of Cheshire’s county town. 

Indeed, it would be a mistake to assume that the representation of regional identity is synonymous with working class identity and urban grit. Gerard Glaister’s Howard’s Way (1985 to 1990) was a BBC drama series inspired by glamorous American TV shows like Dallas (1978 to 1991) and Dynasty (1981 to 1989). Mirroring the polarity of wealth in Britain during the second half of Margaret Thatcher’s tenure as PM, the production celebrated the material aspirations of the well-heeled yachting fraternity in the fictional Hampshire town of Tarrant. Likewise, the exotic mise-en-scene of Bergerac (1981 to 1991), a detective series set on the Channel Island of Jersey, encouraged viewers to adopt a tourist like gaze.

Race and Ethnicity

When considering the representation of race in British drama it is of course important to remember the legacy of the British Empire. Though by the end of the Nineteenth Century the dominance of America and Germany had eroded Britain’s economic power, in both First and Second World Wars Britain leant heavily on the Colonies. Indeed, it was not until 1947 that India was declared an independent country. These final days of the British Raj are of course the subject matter of ITV series The Jewel in the Crown (1984), starring Charles Dance, Art Malik and Peggy Ashcroft. The series, which ran for 14 episodes, was one of a number of productions in the 1980s to re-explore the legacy of Empire.

Of course, one of the most significant events in the history of black Britain is the arrival of the passenger ship Empire Windrush in 1948, which brought the first wave of Caribbean immigrants to Britain after the end of the Second World War. Though immigration from the Caribbean and later India was concurrent to the proliferation of television in the UK, it was a long time before representations of black British identity on the small screen matched the lived experience of those people who had grown up in Trinidad and Jamaica.

Typical of television dramas up until the 1980s that dealt with issues of race was the Thames television sitcom Love Thy Neighbour (1972 to 1977) which starred Rudolph Walker, an actor who came to Britain in 1960 from Trinidad. The series ran on ITV and explored the comedic interaction between two working class couples who live next door to each other: the Booths (who are white) and the Reynolds (who are black). Though Walker is proud to have been one of the first black actors to be regularly seen on British television, the series courted criticism for its racist humour. The shows producers claimed that the laughs were at the expense of both black and white characters, however, for many the stereotyped representation of black British identity was unrealistic and offensive.

The tide began to turn in the 1980s with the launch of Channel 4 in 1982 and creation of programs like No Problem! (1983 to 1985) and, subsequently, Desmonds (1989 to 1994). While both shows courted a fairly mainstream audience they had the distinction of being created by black British producers. As a consequence, while the drama explores issues of black British identity, unlike Love Thy Neighbour the narrative structure is not focused on ‘otherness’ and cultural difference. 

Disability/Ability

Representations of disability on screen continue to be a taboo subject in British drama. The kind of ground-breaking work performed by The Mickee Faust Club in America (a performing ensemble composed of physically disabled actors) has yet to permeate television screens in the UK. The Faustketeers, as they are known, write and perform their own black comedy, which confronts the preconceptions of an able bodied audience. Central to this is the right to take risks: one of the key philosophies of the group is that people with disabilities do not need protecting from themselves.

While some sitcoms, like BBC3’s Nighty Night (2004) have featured actors in wheel chairs, as Lynne Roper of the Stirling Media Research Institute points out, often these actors are not actually physically disabled themselves. Groundbreaking in this sense was the series All About Me (20020 to 2004), which starred the comedian Jasper Carrott as the father of a teenage boy with cerebral palsy played by Jamil Dhillon.

Of course the most significant work of contemporary British drama exploring issues of ability and disability is Dennis Potter’s semi-autobiographical masterpiece The Singing Detective (1986). Unlike clichéd depictions of able-bodied actors strapped into wheel chairs, Potter’s drama explores the inner world of Philip E Marlow a bed ridden detective writer during a stay in hospital. Effectively a prisoner in his own body, Marlow is suffering from a severe bout of psoriatic arthropathy (a chronic skin and joint disease), which Potter also endured for much of his adult life.

Potter’s work is groundbreaking on a number of levels: not least for the way in which it blurs the distinction the real and the simulated, as the drama shifts between the mundane life on the ward and the seedy underworld of wartime London. Likewise, it is an extremely stylised production that utilises ambitious camerawork and meticulous mise-en-scene detail. However, it is the way in which we begin to value Marlow’s perspective from the bed that is most transforming in terms of the representation of disability: Marlow is not someone peripheral to the action but is its creator; his removedness offers a unique vantage point, what Potter himself viewed as a compensatory ability.

Gender and Sex

From Lady Macbeth to Lady Bracknell the history of British drama is littered with powerful female characters. However, more often than not, these are notable because they are the exception rather than the rule. In the representation of gender and sex on television the 1970s were a time of transformation. The rise of Feminism meant that representations of female characters were not restricted to the kitchen sink matriarchs of the generation that preceded them.

One of the most memorable characters from this period is of course Beverley in Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party (1978). Originally broadcast as part of the BBC’s Play for Today series, the drama starred Alison Steadman as the over-bearing host of a suburban cocktail party. In keeping with Leigh’s other work, the play was put together in rehearsal through the improvisations of the cast. Though Steadman’s creation relies upon her husband to pay for the mortgage and the shopping, socially she is more emancipated: ridiculing his class pretensions and undermining his masculinity with her sexually provocative flirtations with her friend’s husband.

Drama is of course a product of its time and it is interesting to note that a dominant theme in drama from the 1980s is the role of women in the work place. Kate O’Mara’s role as Katherine Laker in the ill-fated BBC drama Triangle (1981 to 1983) (set aboard a North Sea car ferry) explores the tension created by the appointment of women to a position of power. Perhaps, the most explicit parody of Margaret Thatcher, however, was the character of Jan Howard in the BBC’s Howards’ Way. Following the demises of her marriage, Jan embarks upon a business career in the fashion world aided no doubt by the power suits and big hair for which the UK’s first female PM was also famous.

If the 1970s and 80s were about women, increasingly the 90s was more plural in their representation of gender and sex. Though This Life (1996), a drama series focused on the exploits of a group of 20-something law graduates was revered at the time for its ground breaking camerawork and editing, in retrospect it seems like a watershed moment in the representation of gender. Watching This Life at the time, it was the characters of Warren and Anna that seemed most controversial. The mild mannered Warren’s life as an openly gay London professional challenged the stereotyped representations of homosexuality of a previous generation. Likewise, the character of Anna shocked audiences with her upfront attitude towards sex. However, it was perhaps the character of Egg (played by Andrew Lincoln) that was most interesting. 

Uncommitted to a career in the law, Egg drifts through much of the first series, supposedly writing a Fever-Pitch-esque novel about football. Taking financial support from girl friend Millie, Lincoln’s character challenges the representation of men as the breadwinner. Likewise a storyline that revolves around Egg’s loss of sex-drive reverses stereotypes about gender and libido. For a decade that gave us ‘Lad Mags’, like Loaded and FHM, watching This Life it would seem that the success of those titles were a symbol of a more widespread crisis in modern masculinity.

Moving into the 21st Century and a more balanced representation of modern masculinity has emerged. The actor John Simm, for example, has come to specialise in characters that embody a more subdued masculine code. The tension between this and his 1970s forebears is of course a central device in Life on Mars: the tension between the modern masculinity of Sam Taylor and misogynist attitudes of Gene Hunt propels much of the drama in the sixteen episodes of series one.

Age

In the depiction of older people, it is perhaps the work of Alan Bennett that has done most to challenge stereotypes. Talking Heads (1987), a series of 30 to 40 monologue broadcasts featured a role call of famous names and, like Potter’s Singing Detective, is widely regarded as Bennett’s masterpiece. Among representations of older people that confront expectation is that of Irene (played by Patricia Routledge): a spinster in her late 50s who exchanges sexual favours for money with an ageing chiropodist. Likewise, Thora Hird’s depiction of Doris, a woman of 75 who fears moving into a care home explores the demeaning way in which society treats the elderly.

Other works by Bennett that explore the complexities of growing older include Forty Years On (1968) and The History Boys (2004). The later of course was made into a successful film in 2006, focusing upon the sexual chemistry and intellectual exchange between a group of grammar school boys preparing for Oxbridge exams and their much older schoolmasters. In the past decade it has been the depiction of homosexuality that has caused most controversy in the representation of young people. This reflects the lowering of the age of consent for gay men between 1997 and 2000 from 21 to 16. 

Typical of this was Queer as Folk (1999), a Channel Four drama produced by Russell T Davies (Doctor Who) that aired for two series at the turn of the Millennium. The show caused controversy for the relationship between 15-year-old Nathan and the much older Stuart. Another production that explored similar themes was the television film Clapham Junction (2007) written by Kevin Elyot to commemorate 40 years since the decriminalisation of homosexuality. Likewise, Julie Burchill’s Sugar Rush (2006) focused on the life of 15 year old lesbian Kim Daniel’s: reprising themes explored twenty years earlier in the BBC’s adaptation of Jeanette Winterson’s novel Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit (1985) (albeit less explicitly).

However, in recent years, the drama that has done most to challenge the depiction of young people is E4’s Skins (2007 to present). Produced by Chris Cloud and set in Bristol the series pulls no punches in its depiction of the lives of teenagers exploring issues such as under age sex, homosexuality, alcoholism and drugs. Indeed the title has itself become a by word for teenage excess with many unofficial ‘skins parties’ being promoted on social networking sites like Facebook and Bebo.

Conclusion

Studying TV Drama is extremely challenging as the subject matter is so diverse. While the specification may dictate that the extract used in the exam will be from a British drama series or one off production (excluding sitcom but including soap), to restrict students study of the genre to the technical terms used for analysis is to curb their understanding of the way in which representations are a product of social history. Moreover, the history of TV drama is not discrete. Even allowing for soap and sitcom, the evolution of the genre cannot be considered in isolation from developments in film, theatre and literary fiction. Beyond this, in so far as TV Drama both shapes and reflects British society, the most significant moments in its history are intimately connected with the way in which we think about ourselves and our collective identity.