In defence of Corrie

Over at Labour Uncut, someone claims that Corrie is "a bastion of petit bourgeois Tory values".This is contrary to reason and evidence.

The small businessman does no wrong.

Tony Gordon, owner of Underworld, was a murderer. So was financial adviser Richard Hillman. Charlie Stubbs the builder and Les Clegg the shop-owner were wife-beaters.Arnold Swain the pet-shop owner was a bigamist. Owen Armstrong the builder has arrganged for a love rival to be beaten up and is quite possibly responsible for the explosion at the Joinery.Numerous businesspeople - Leonard Swindley, Annie Walker, Norris Cole - have been pompous snobs. Nick Tilsley, owner of the Joinery is just a bell-end. 

The poor are usually loveable buffoons. Simpletons like Tyrone. Bone-idle shirkers like Jack Duckworth. Harridans like his wife Vera. Feckless dole dossers like Les Battersby.

Yes, anyone with book-learning and ambition, such as Todd Grimshaw or Andy MacDonald, leave two-up, two-downs.But this glib dismissal overlooks the hard-working honesty of Tyrone, the decency and - in his old age - wisdom of Jack Duckworth. And even Les Battersby had his good points; he was a decent father.There are virtues other than pseudo-intelligence and ambition. Corrie knows this, even if our ruling class does not.
The fact is that Corrie was pretty much the first mainstream TV show to feature real working class people. And even now, it shows them to be far more rounded characters than they are ever portrayed by the media-political class.   

"Mr Baldwin” never once received the comeuppance he sorely deserved

But that's capitalism. Sweat-shop bosses don't get their comeuppance. Anything else would not be realistic.

Hoity toity Rita dispenses wine gums, Weatherfield Gazettes and matronly Tory smugness. (Of her surname I have long since lost track, given a predilection for matrimony that makes Liz Taylor look like a one-man gal).

Rita's relationship with Alan Bradley did more than perhas any other TV programme to bring domestic violence to public attention. She has been unswervingly supporting of Sian and Sophie's lesbian relationship. She has been married just twice.

Car mechanic Kevin is a reliable son of toil.

Will someone tell him?

Rosie has graduated into a poster girl for sluttish wastrels everywhere. Sally would have been better sending her to Weatherfield High.

Exactly. How many other TV programmes portray private education so badly, and so stand up for state education (note that, for all his faults, John Stape is a dedicated teacher).

Social mobility has definitely slammed into reverse for Audrey’s brood.

Again, this mirrors society.

There has not been a single trade unionist on those famous cobbled streets in living memory.

Ida Clough. Ivy Tilsley. Peggy Barton.

Ethnic characters are sparingly shoe-horned in. And, wouldn’t you know it, end up running the corner shop.

Lloyd is a cabbie. Cheryl is a barmaid, as was Poppy. Amber and Minnie were students. Nathan was a mechanic.Fiona was a hairdresser. Shirley, Kelly, Jessie and Joanne were machinists.
So who wrote this pish?

Kevin Meagher is a campaign consultant and former adviser to Labour ministers.

Explains a lot, doesn't it?

Comments

[Ahammerschmiedt]

Blog of the week. Thing is though, lefties do not recognise facts if they do not fit into their socialist paradigm and actively deny them.

[Iain]

But it goes back a long way. I think I can recall Richard Hoggart describing it is a parody of working class life when it was first broadcast.

[Abdullah]

'Yes, anyone with book-learning and ambition, such as Todd Grimshaw or Andy MacDonald, leave two-up, two-downs.'

Quite so. That's what Terry Leahy did.

[Luis Enrique]

this is a very nice post

[Churm Rincewind]

Excellent post. And what makes the original comment on Labour Uncut even more fatuous is that even the most casual student of popular culture cannot fail to notice the extent to which the Bernstein family's long term commitment to the Labour cause was a key informant of Granada's programming over many decades, and casts a long shadow even today.

[jealpcoleman]

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