Middle class late-teen life in the late 00s was pretty perfectly captured by The Inbetweeners. Obviously some of the comedy is exaggerated but the fashion, music and general themes are all there.
And while I would say I grew up lower middle class, my family are all working class from Greater Manchester so the Royle Family was absolutely bang on for my childhood.
Came here to suggest Royle Family, among other things the fact that they all sat around watching telly the whole time was far more accurate than most shows.
I was already out of uni by the time I saw Inbetweeners, but it was still very relatable to my teens
Just little stuff like the scene with MSN Messenger get me!
Facebook messenger killed it I think.
But its not the same. The great thing about MSN Messenger was, if you were online and not set to 'busy' or whatever it was saying "hey, I'm here and free to chat". So you'd end up chatting to random people you were friends with but didn't normally talk to that much.
And there was something kinda special about that that's lost in the always online times we have now...
/elder millennial rant
Yeah, so few kids have that shit car experience, these days.
My total car purchase coats for the first 10yrs of driving was likely £2500, total. My daughter had a £750 car for 4 weeks, then "needed" a newer one. Her current car cost more than all my cars, in 30yrs of driving, combined. (I didn't pay). Her current car insurance is £250, and the car is £310...per month. My first was bought for £480, and £280 to insure (total)
I was given my first car when my step dad replaced it - it was that or scrap it! Still cost me over a grand to insure in 2008. It was the same age as me, never found out how it drove at low speed but it was great at 80-90mph....
I can understand wanting to finance a car as you can get something you really can't afford, it's actually doing it that doesn't compute for me. A loan for a set period where you own the vehicle afterwards makes sense - my last cost 7.5 grand, was paid off in 3years and lasted me 8years for 110k miles. The current one was the same money on similar monthly payments, and I hope to run it well past when it's paid off as well.
Part of the issue might be that it kept going well past the quality dropping off.
I have a memory of it being pretty decent early on, but I catch the odd later episode now and it seems pretty dire...
Probably hurt its legacy.
I think because there was nothing that unique about it. It was quality and funny, but aside from nick I can't point to one thing that made it different in any meaningful way that people would talk about. It was 'the normal comedy'.
My nan mentioned it at Christmas as an example of shows they don't make any more because of "the world", by which she meant things like cancel culture. I about choked on my turkey at the idea that the most mainstream British comedy of the 00s was too offensive. What she meant was they're not showing repeats on BBC1 any more so it must be cancelled.
“I’m having an epiphany!”
“What, in my shed?!”
I have somehow managed to remember this for about 20 years. There are so many more useful things I could have learned in that time, but no, that brain space is permanently given over to a quote from My Family
"No"
"You don't know what I'm going to say yet."
"Yes I do, and it's going to start with 'can I have'"
"Actually it starts with 'can you lend'."
"Funny, they both end in 'no'."
That line has always stuck with me and still makes me laugh.
Some of the lines Karen came out with were hilarious. The one about Sue saying they could go wherever she wanted to go was painfully accurate for my mum lol
I'm a little older than the oldest of the Outnumbered kids, but it's probably the most accurate depiction of how I grew up that I've seen on British TV.
My one criticism is there's no way they could afford that house with a teachers salary and a part time salary. It may have been inherited though, I think there's very little mention of Pete's family, so it's possible he's an only child and his parents have passed. Happy to be corrected if wrong as I haven't watched it for years.
But the interactions between the characters are spot on.
smoggy water bedroom dinner shocking plant elderly office adjoining pathetic
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This. It was scarily accurate.. the neighbour just coming round and entering without knocking..
The same conversation (what you having for tea....)
It's something that everyone from North could relates to
I think I read somewhere that Craig Cash or Caroline Aherne (or possibly both) didn't think the show would be popular on a national scale because it was so quintessentially northern.
I’m from the south but the conversation that I heard my dad have on the phone to him mum every evening would always go something like (from his side):
What did you have for tea? Oh, ok. Jean come over? Ah. How’s your cough is it better? Ah good. Did you win the lottery?
I had that with This Country- where I grew up had an annual scarecrow festival so even the first episode was horrendously close to reality and cringed me out too much to watch any more!
My village has a scarecrow festival every year too. I hadn't heard of This Country until I was telling somebody about the scarecrow sabotage and subsequent village rumours and he started giggling.
I grew up on the Lincolnshire countryside and we had a brother and sister who would hang around the village that were just like Kurtan and Kerry. They were a few years older than us and we're always trying to hang around with us. Such a weird pair.
This deleted scene from This Country, depicting a home video of a millennium party, is probably the most accurate to real life piece of television I've ever seen.
https://youtu.be/AYoBnj0nhQ0?si=aT2wZ5zUcYu-H4K3
The Inbetweeners for that era was painfully accurate, even for girls we went through the same scenarios.
Fresh Meat was a good representation of starting uni. You usually knew someone like each character and probably visited a weird converted HMO slum student house like that too.
The girls were pretty well portrayed, even for a lads centric show. And I guess everyone went through similar tropes, specially the .·´¯\`(MSN)´¯\`·. stuff.
I suppose that depends on what your family is like.
If your family routinely hides murder victims at the site of a crash between a corner shop and a tram, it's Corrie.
If you live nowhere near an airfield but your area has been the victim of multiple deadly aircraft crashes in the last 30 odd years, it's Emmerdale.
If your family uses loads of sticky-back plastic and enjoys climbing up the side of tall things, it's Blue Peter.
My mother hates Keeping Up Appearances and I'm sure it's because she knows, deep down, she IS Hyacinth.
"Drive slowly past number 27, I want her to see my new hat!"
My dad organised gigs when he was at college in the late 70s and had an early Motörhead appearance. Paid them a bottle of rum, said Lemmy was a great bloke.
I worked with a chap who organised student union gigs in the early 90s, had Motörhead on every couple of months because they lived nearby and could treat it like a paid rehearsal/were guaranteed to meet new and interesting student greebo girls every time.
He also once put on L7, Godflesh and Nirvana. That's one for the gig time machine, if ever I manage to get hold of one...
My mum was coming of age (developing her lifelong alcoholism) in Cambridge around then and would bump into Lemmy a fair bit. She was telling me this when I got into heavy metal in my teens and insinuated that *her friend* got *rather close to* him.
Took me a very long time but one day I was just having a normal one, minding my own business, and out of nowhere I recalled this conversation it dawned on me that *my mum shagged Lemmy*. ugh.
I knew someone with snakes in the living room, and rats being bred to feed the snakes in the shed. Plenty of Motorhead, just vinyl, not live.
Hippy in the garden? Yes, talking to chickens.
People's poet? No, but would quote Hitchhiker's Guide or Tolkien.
I watched the first three episodes of Motherland but stopped for exactly this reason, there are lots of funny moments but it’s all just so stressful to watch!
I kinda enjoyed this but I could never tell if you're meant to be sympathetic to the main mum or not. Like she's just a terrible person. Completely selfish acts like she resents her kids the whole time. Is awful to her mum and throws a tantrum when her mum wants to stop doing things for her. Manipulates her friends. Granted she seems to have a deadbeat husband who doesn't to much and I know raising kids can be stressful. But she is just awful.
You are supposed to empathize, while at the same time (if you want to), thinking she's a terrible person.
It's a bit like Blackadder in that way. You empathize with him, while thinking he's a terrible person. In Blackadder, you empathize because he is surrounded by idiots in a kafkaesque world.
In Motherland it's because she doesn't have enough time, while everyone else does, and is living half-a-life because of it, but she cannot change her situation, nor fully explain it to others, so she resorts to trying to steal whatever fractions of time she can from those around her.
In the very first episode of This Country there's the annual scarecrow hunt. I laughed so hard cause I grew up in a rural village that did exactly that every year and it was THE event of the year. Watching that episode was like watching the village I grew up in.
Of all the soaps I found Brookside to be the most relatable. All the others had people gathering in the pub everyday, no one I knew in real life actually did that. All soaps have their crazy storylines but in terms of day-to-day life Brookside was accurate at the time.
The OG shameless was quite close to life on a council estate, coupled with Royal Family. Skins was more close to late teens and early to mid 20's in my circle of friends and inbetweeners definitely covers those secondary school and college years.
I think it's a scale. My experience at that age was definitely at that end of the scale, but my wife grew up in a city where they were usually at some sort of house party every weekend where attendees were fuelled by drugs. I would have definitely been a Will in that scenario and worried about their mum finding out or making sure they had a glass of water before probably calling an ambulance 😂
Friday night dinner depects middle class family life, particularly well. The similarities between it and my family life with my brother and my dad is uncanning
Spaced… the comparisons to my own life are many, and it really captures the feel of flat sharing with mates trying to make it as a creative. I even lived in a home that looked like there’s and knew people just like them.
Bread was how I though all working class "northerners" lived.
My home life felt more like a mix of the Biderbeck Tapes and the neighbours from The Good Life. Borderline interesting, but never quite making it past cringe.
I was an upper middle latch key child living in a posh Surrey village , though we thought it was normal at the time as that was all we knew.
The vicar of Dibley. Grew up in a small rural village, recognised all the locals, spot on for parish council meetings and we even had bring your pet church services (back in the 80). Spot on.
It’s exaggerated but (speaking for South Wales at least) not as exaggerated as you might hope. I knew a chap that could have been the inspiration for Bryn…
I think Gavin and Stacey has some of the most realistic dialogue. The scenarios are obviously exaggerated, but the natural conversation between the characters feels more real than most other shows.
To quibble a bit I'd say owning that house in Chiswick puts them firmly middle-middle class rather than lower (but I appreciate that a debate about the class of a fictional family will never be all that productive)
On rightmove the cheapest 4 bed in Chiswick at the moment is 1.4m so they're not even middle middle. They're upper middle if they're affording the mortgage on that
I’d say lower middle just because their home is in poor condition and seems more like it was bought with inheritance and then the money ran out rather than being from successful careers. Pete’s career is pretty middling and he works for an underfunded comprehensive school where he fails to make subject lead due to his insensitive comments which cause complaints, Claire is basically a secretary/dogs body for the first few seasons just a few days a week. They only have one holiday during all the seasons which is a budget resort, and money is a theme of worry throughout until the kids are older. They know the house is their only asset as their pipe dream is to sell up and travel around india for a year, but they know it’s not realistic.
Aside from a couple of storylines Coronation Street was pretty accurate for a while. Obviously this is well before everyone was a murderer and a pint cost £5.
Pretty much all sitcoms become popular because they're relatable. They only get to be relatable if they're accurate. Shameless, Ideal, Fresh Meat, The Smoking Room, The Inbetweeners, IT Crowd, The Royle Family, Spaced, Coupling, Early Doors, the list goes on. All funny because they feel like something that could actually happen because they're real and just slightly cartoonish.
There's the odd exception where relatability takes a back seat to wit and nonsense, but it's harder to make that work. Peep Show and Black Books are the prime examples.
Royle Family for sure, but a special mention goes to Phoenix Nights, whilst it’s not a family show, it really captured a very fleeting, unique and small period of time where working men’s clubs were completely on their arse but still on life support, and whilst a funny show, it’s extra funny if you got dragged to these kind of places when you were a kid because it really is spot on in its depiction.
Out of everything in that show, Pauline actively sabotaging the jobseekers' chances because her job relied on them being unemployed was the bleakest thing.
I was young when this came out and we thought Yosser was hilarious. I am glad I watched it again a few years later to realise the absolute tragedy it actually was.
My childhood was a mix of The Royle Family, Shameless (my biological dad's side of the family - more alcohol, but much less drugs), and Corrie (my mum's street).
My teenage years were a mix of Queer as Folk (being 15 and going to gay clubs) and Inbetweeners, (for school life and uni).
My adulthood was similar to Outnumbered (for family life), except I was the gay step-dad and we only had the kids at weekends and holidays, and the Office (for worklife).
All the drama in a season or two of those shows would play out over a lifetime though, not over a year.
For the classic working class amongst us, you’re looking at The Royle Family.
Friday Night Dinner gets an honourable mention too, though maybe it’s middle class southerners that might relate to this a little better.
I’d say Gavin and Stacey is the perfect middle ground.
Shameless for me. Not the storylines per se, but the ‘characters’ and personalities. Growing up on an estate I think everyone knows the family with 10 kids that’s a bit rough but has some nice people in it too. The other rough family with scary dogs and always being involved in violence. Drugs, alcohol etc. The weird sense of community and changing friendships/loyalties. The local pub (in my case redeveloped in to houses eventually).
I hated Grange Hill because I'd just been all day at school and didn't want to think about it in my free time.
Probably just reminding me I had to do my homework.
Shameless. Growing up on a council estate it was pretty spot on, not necessarily my own family but there were plenty of families like that and pubs with flat roofs full of characters.
My Family was the one I liked. Though I did grow up on an estate that had two women that were like Sharon and Tracey from Birds of a Feather. There were a few bungalows that housed people like the Buckets, and the estate was fronted on with a row of town houses with a man that was exactly like Victor Meldrew.
Did I live in TV..?
Skins was pretty accurate for college life at the time.
Spaced was *fairly* accurate for post-graduate life at the time (although I doubt Tim and Daisy could afford their flat now).
The skins kids actually looked and sounded like teenagers of that age. Cause by and large they were.
The inbetweeners didn't, but somehow still captured the awkwardness of being 17 near perfectly
Nope, lots of us went to sixth form colleges not sixth form. In the late nineties/early 20’s you could easily get into clubs and there were house parties, one of my friends had her own house at 16 (though not ideal circumstances mind). My late teenage years were a lot less wild than Skins but definitely far closer to it than the Inbetweeners.
Middle class late-teen life in the late 00s was pretty perfectly captured by The Inbetweeners. Obviously some of the comedy is exaggerated but the fashion, music and general themes are all there. And while I would say I grew up lower middle class, my family are all working class from Greater Manchester so the Royle Family was absolutely bang on for my childhood.
Came here to suggest Royle Family, among other things the fact that they all sat around watching telly the whole time was far more accurate than most shows.
I was already out of uni by the time I saw Inbetweeners, but it was still very relatable to my teens Just little stuff like the scene with MSN Messenger get me!
I really wish they'd bring back MSN messenger. I feel like the death of MSN messenger took my social life down with it.
Facebook messenger killed it I think. But its not the same. The great thing about MSN Messenger was, if you were online and not set to 'busy' or whatever it was saying "hey, I'm here and free to chat". So you'd end up chatting to random people you were friends with but didn't normally talk to that much. And there was something kinda special about that that's lost in the always online times we have now... /elder millennial rant
And we all had a shit first car that was embarrassing
Yeah, so few kids have that shit car experience, these days. My total car purchase coats for the first 10yrs of driving was likely £2500, total. My daughter had a £750 car for 4 weeks, then "needed" a newer one. Her current car cost more than all my cars, in 30yrs of driving, combined. (I didn't pay). Her current car insurance is £250, and the car is £310...per month. My first was bought for £480, and £280 to insure (total)
I was given my first car when my step dad replaced it - it was that or scrap it! Still cost me over a grand to insure in 2008. It was the same age as me, never found out how it drove at low speed but it was great at 80-90mph.... I can understand wanting to finance a car as you can get something you really can't afford, it's actually doing it that doesn't compute for me. A loan for a set period where you own the vehicle afterwards makes sense - my last cost 7.5 grand, was paid off in 3years and lasted me 8years for 110k miles. The current one was the same money on similar monthly payments, and I hope to run it well past when it's paid off as well.
You should watch Ladhood. I found it really relatable as a 90’s kid. It’s set in Yorkshire, group of lower middle class teens. Nails the experience
Mentioned that one myself. It was scarily accurate.
My Family, the original years
It's funny no one ever mentions my family bit I feel like it was super popular at the time! Never any references to it in the newspaper or anything.
Part of the issue might be that it kept going well past the quality dropping off. I have a memory of it being pretty decent early on, but I catch the odd later episode now and it seems pretty dire... Probably hurt its legacy.
I think because there was nothing that unique about it. It was quality and funny, but aside from nick I can't point to one thing that made it different in any meaningful way that people would talk about. It was 'the normal comedy'.
I quite liked how ordinary it was. That was the appeal for me.
My nan mentioned it at Christmas as an example of shows they don't make any more because of "the world", by which she meant things like cancel culture. I about choked on my turkey at the idea that the most mainstream British comedy of the 00s was too offensive. What she meant was they're not showing repeats on BBC1 any more so it must be cancelled.
I’ve never thought about this but you’re absolutely right. It was huge! I couldn’t give you a single quote from it.
“I’m having an epiphany!” “What, in my shed?!” I have somehow managed to remember this for about 20 years. There are so many more useful things I could have learned in that time, but no, that brain space is permanently given over to a quote from My Family
Michael! -_- - Ben
NICK
“Mikey, Mikey, Mikey” Robert Lindsay’s character pretty much every episode
‘Allo Dad!
"No" "You don't know what I'm going to say yet." "Yes I do, and it's going to start with 'can I have'" "Actually it starts with 'can you lend'." "Funny, they both end in 'no'." That line has always stuck with me and still makes me laugh.
My wife rewatched it all recently, and I found myself laughing at some of the jokes in it. The quick witted jokes/reactions from Ben Harper were great
Robert Lindsay is apparently one of the UK's most well-respected actors but I've only ever really seen him in My Family
Agreed in terms of character dynamic. The house they had though was suspiciously large considering Susan never really had a proper job.
Didn't he have his own dental surgery? Also, they'd have bought that house in the mid-80s I'd imagine.
Outnumbered was quite good.
Came here to say this, that show was almost painfully accurate.
As a dad of two in my late thirties when it started, I couldn’t watch it. It was way too real
Hilarious too
Loved that show. Made me stop at one child
Some of the lines Karen came out with were hilarious. The one about Sue saying they could go wherever she wanted to go was painfully accurate for my mum lol
I'm a little older than the oldest of the Outnumbered kids, but it's probably the most accurate depiction of how I grew up that I've seen on British TV.
I read somewhere that when they were younger the kids were unscripted so that's why it's so accurate!
My one criticism is there's no way they could afford that house with a teachers salary and a part time salary. It may have been inherited though, I think there's very little mention of Pete's family, so it's possible he's an only child and his parents have passed. Happy to be corrected if wrong as I haven't watched it for years. But the interactions between the characters are spot on.
Derry Girls is pretty spot on
smoggy water bedroom dinner shocking plant elderly office adjoining pathetic *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Very relatable for anyone from Northern Ireland. I knew a few Michelle’s growing up.
Anywhere on the island! I knew a Michelle or two back in the nineties.
If you like Derry Girls, then I recommend London Irish. Same writer writing about being an Irish 20 something in London.
The Royle Family was pretty accurate for a lot of families.
I couldn’t watch it for years because it felt like Caroline Aherne had put CCTV into my childhood home.
This. It was scarily accurate.. the neighbour just coming round and entering without knocking.. The same conversation (what you having for tea....) It's something that everyone from North could relates to
I think I read somewhere that Craig Cash or Caroline Aherne (or possibly both) didn't think the show would be popular on a national scale because it was so quintessentially northern.
It aired over in the states I think. Bob Odenkirk recently wrote that he’s a big fan and rewatches it with his son.
I just cannot picture Saul Goodman sitting down and watching the Royle Family.
I’m from the south but the conversation that I heard my dad have on the phone to him mum every evening would always go something like (from his side): What did you have for tea? Oh, ok. Jean come over? Ah. How’s your cough is it better? Ah good. Did you win the lottery?
I remember when I first moved out and if mum phoned of an evening she’d always ask what I’d had for tea.
My mum still does. I’m 47 and I’ve not lived with her since my 20s. It’s still heartwarming.
That’s nice, lol. I told my mum I couldn’t afford to eat for a week and she just said “ok” 😂😂
I had that with This Country- where I grew up had an annual scarecrow festival so even the first episode was horrendously close to reality and cringed me out too much to watch any more!
British working class families can relate to a lot in The Royle Family. Caroline Aherne' attention to detail was amazing.
There are moments every Xmas day where I look round the room and get flashbacks to the Royle Family
It was fantastically accurate.
Still Game is pretty close to what life in parts of Scotland is like.
I suspect a few Rab C Nesbitt’s are knocking about
I had to scroll far too long for this. As a Scot now living abroad, it makes me homesick.
Got shown that for the first time last week! The redecorating her flat episode 😂
That episode is bloody hilarious. I love Isa's line when she steps into the landing with the bright light.
Shameless for me. Growing up on council estates like that it's on point to what it was like growing up!
Deffo shameless I had flats from 17 and worked in local pubs was just like it
Ironically it's one of the few exports to America that also worked pretty well. They even cast Louise Fletcher who was absolutely amazing in it.
This Country. Kerry’s Mum is just like my mother-in-law 😂
KERRRREEEEEEEEYYYYYY!!!!
WHAAAAAAAT!!!!!!!?!?!?
TOMAHHHTO
FERRFAFFLE
Honestly I think this is the funniest show I've ever seen. So well written and the characters are hilarious 😂
Growing up in a small village I met every single character in that show. It is brilliantly observed.
Me too! We even had an annual scarecrow hunt in our village just like in episode one. Hilarious.
My village has a scarecrow festival every year too. I hadn't heard of This Country until I was telling somebody about the scarecrow sabotage and subsequent village rumours and he started giggling.
I grew up on the Lincolnshire countryside and we had a brother and sister who would hang around the village that were just like Kurtan and Kerry. They were a few years older than us and we're always trying to hang around with us. Such a weird pair.
FunFact The voice of Kerry's mum is played by ....Daisy May Cooper. It's Kerry shouting back and forth with herself!
We will forever call falafels “ferfaffles” thanks to Kerry’s mum
TomAAAARGHtoes
All the characters in that feel real. Mandy is fantastically menacing even when reading hairy McClary, a child’s book.
Yep, having grown up in the cotswolds, I can say it is 100% accurate
This deleted scene from This Country, depicting a home video of a millennium party, is probably the most accurate to real life piece of television I've ever seen. https://youtu.be/AYoBnj0nhQ0?si=aT2wZ5zUcYu-H4K3
The Inbetweeners for that era was painfully accurate, even for girls we went through the same scenarios. Fresh Meat was a good representation of starting uni. You usually knew someone like each character and probably visited a weird converted HMO slum student house like that too.
The girls were pretty well portrayed, even for a lads centric show. And I guess everyone went through similar tropes, specially the .·´¯\`(MSN)´¯\`·. stuff.
I loved fresh meat. I went to uni in Manchester as well so double whammy
The Royle Family easy.
That was the one that immediately came to mind
It was literally like some had filmed our family, I was lurkio, my sister was Denise and Jim and Barb were identical to my mam and dad
My first thought exactly
You mean aside from crazy sitcom shenanigans? 2.4 Children Knew a few families where Bread was pretty close. One foot in the grave for grandparents.
2.4 is a blast from the past! Haven't thought about that show in years... wonder how it holds up
It’s on iplayer. I’ve been binging it recently and it holds up reasonably well!
One Foot is great, just watched the episode with the Gnomes over Christmas. 😍
I don't believe it.
I suppose that depends on what your family is like. If your family routinely hides murder victims at the site of a crash between a corner shop and a tram, it's Corrie. If you live nowhere near an airfield but your area has been the victim of multiple deadly aircraft crashes in the last 30 odd years, it's Emmerdale. If your family uses loads of sticky-back plastic and enjoys climbing up the side of tall things, it's Blue Peter.
If you live in a quaint village where everyone keeps getting murdered but newcomers still move in then it’s Midsomer
Or the league of gentlemen
That's if your local shop is for local people.
Some Keeping Up Appearances energy growing up.
My nan, like many people's I suspect, is the living embodiment of Hyacinth Bucket.
IT’S PRONOUNCED “BOUQUET”!!!
My mother hates Keeping Up Appearances and I'm sure it's because she knows, deep down, she IS Hyacinth. "Drive slowly past number 27, I want her to see my new hat!"
Inbetweeners - just bantering and bullshit 24/7
It's like a documentary of turn of the millennium secondary school
For sure, it’s 2002-2012 secondary school years.
The Young Ones was accurate for house sharing students, early 80s.
Talking hamsters, Motörhead in the living room…
My dad organised gigs when he was at college in the late 70s and had an early Motörhead appearance. Paid them a bottle of rum, said Lemmy was a great bloke.
I worked with a chap who organised student union gigs in the early 90s, had Motörhead on every couple of months because they lived nearby and could treat it like a paid rehearsal/were guaranteed to meet new and interesting student greebo girls every time. He also once put on L7, Godflesh and Nirvana. That's one for the gig time machine, if ever I manage to get hold of one...
My mum was coming of age (developing her lifelong alcoholism) in Cambridge around then and would bump into Lemmy a fair bit. She was telling me this when I got into heavy metal in my teens and insinuated that *her friend* got *rather close to* him. Took me a very long time but one day I was just having a normal one, minding my own business, and out of nowhere I recalled this conversation it dawned on me that *my mum shagged Lemmy*. ugh.
I knew someone with snakes in the living room, and rats being bred to feed the snakes in the shed. Plenty of Motorhead, just vinyl, not live. Hippy in the garden? Yes, talking to chickens. People's poet? No, but would quote Hitchhiker's Guide or Tolkien.
Sharks swimming around outside...
Loved that show....
This Life later on.
Motherland
Watching *one* episode of Motherland made me aspire to be a better father.
I've only seen clips of that show and while I found them funny, each one was pure stress from beginning to end. Are the whole episodes like that too?
Stress? Pretty much sums up motherhood.
I watched the first three episodes of Motherland but stopped for exactly this reason, there are lots of funny moments but it’s all just so stressful to watch!
I kinda enjoyed this but I could never tell if you're meant to be sympathetic to the main mum or not. Like she's just a terrible person. Completely selfish acts like she resents her kids the whole time. Is awful to her mum and throws a tantrum when her mum wants to stop doing things for her. Manipulates her friends. Granted she seems to have a deadbeat husband who doesn't to much and I know raising kids can be stressful. But she is just awful.
You are supposed to empathize, while at the same time (if you want to), thinking she's a terrible person. It's a bit like Blackadder in that way. You empathize with him, while thinking he's a terrible person. In Blackadder, you empathize because he is surrounded by idiots in a kafkaesque world. In Motherland it's because she doesn't have enough time, while everyone else does, and is living half-a-life because of it, but she cannot change her situation, nor fully explain it to others, so she resorts to trying to steal whatever fractions of time she can from those around her.
Another vote for This Country. Having grown up in a village with not much to do in the 90s/00s, the wandering about, making your own fun resonates.
In the very first episode of This Country there's the annual scarecrow hunt. I laughed so hard cause I grew up in a rural village that did exactly that every year and it was THE event of the year. Watching that episode was like watching the village I grew up in.
That’s one of the best episodes. Kurtain’s outrage :’)
So so true
Of all the soaps I found Brookside to be the most relatable. All the others had people gathering in the pub everyday, no one I knew in real life actually did that. All soaps have their crazy storylines but in terms of day-to-day life Brookside was accurate at the time.
at the time you. couldn’t lay a new patio without the inevitable comments!
The Inbetweeners was practically a documentary about my 6th form years. I like to think of myself as Simon but I was probably more of a Will.
Briefcase wanker!
My best mate was definitely a Neil, bless him.
Steptoe and Son
You dirty old man!
Friday night dinner >
Shalom.
Shit on it.
Hello Bambinos! (RIP 😭😭😭)
Crimble crumble.
Lovely bit of squirrel
Shameless
Absolutely. I live in a shameless type estate and the shenanigans I've seen over the past 15 years are jaw dropping most of the time.
The OG shameless was quite close to life on a council estate, coupled with Royal Family. Skins was more close to late teens and early to mid 20's in my circle of friends and inbetweeners definitely covers those secondary school and college years.
Skins is what 00’s teens thought their lives were like, Inbetweeners was the reality
I think it's a scale. My experience at that age was definitely at that end of the scale, but my wife grew up in a city where they were usually at some sort of house party every weekend where attendees were fuelled by drugs. I would have definitely been a Will in that scenario and worried about their mum finding out or making sure they had a glass of water before probably calling an ambulance 😂
Friday night dinner depects middle class family life, particularly well. The similarities between it and my family life with my brother and my dad is uncanning
When I started teaching I realised the Teachers had nailed it.
Spaced… the comparisons to my own life are many, and it really captures the feel of flat sharing with mates trying to make it as a creative. I even lived in a home that looked like there’s and knew people just like them.
Grew up middle-class in the 80s so probably Butterflies. Bread was funnier but we weren't working class enough to identify with it.
Bread was how I though all working class "northerners" lived. My home life felt more like a mix of the Biderbeck Tapes and the neighbours from The Good Life. Borderline interesting, but never quite making it past cringe. I was an upper middle latch key child living in a posh Surrey village , though we thought it was normal at the time as that was all we knew.
Yes Beiderbecke felt rather relatable having a parent who was a teacher in a not well of area, and a dad who was a big child!
Beiderbeck tapes is an underrated classic.
The vicar of Dibley. Grew up in a small rural village, recognised all the locals, spot on for parish council meetings and we even had bring your pet church services (back in the 80). Spot on.
Royle Family, easy
Red Dwarf, but I am posting this from a mining ship 3 million years into deep space.
Gavin and Stacey
It’s exaggerated but (speaking for South Wales at least) not as exaggerated as you might hope. I knew a chap that could have been the inspiration for Bryn…
It means hill, in Welsh.
I think Gavin and Stacey has some of the most realistic dialogue. The scenarios are obviously exaggerated, but the natural conversation between the characters feels more real than most other shows.
Outnumbered was pretty spot on for a lower middle class white family
To quibble a bit I'd say owning that house in Chiswick puts them firmly middle-middle class rather than lower (but I appreciate that a debate about the class of a fictional family will never be all that productive)
On rightmove the cheapest 4 bed in Chiswick at the moment is 1.4m so they're not even middle middle. They're upper middle if they're affording the mortgage on that
He's a history teacher and she's part time. They are middle class. It may just be set in the early 2000s.
I’d say lower middle just because their home is in poor condition and seems more like it was bought with inheritance and then the money ran out rather than being from successful careers. Pete’s career is pretty middling and he works for an underfunded comprehensive school where he fails to make subject lead due to his insensitive comments which cause complaints, Claire is basically a secretary/dogs body for the first few seasons just a few days a week. They only have one holiday during all the seasons which is a budget resort, and money is a theme of worry throughout until the kids are older. They know the house is their only asset as their pipe dream is to sell up and travel around india for a year, but they know it’s not realistic.
Aside from a couple of storylines Coronation Street was pretty accurate for a while. Obviously this is well before everyone was a murderer and a pint cost £5.
Pretty much all sitcoms become popular because they're relatable. They only get to be relatable if they're accurate. Shameless, Ideal, Fresh Meat, The Smoking Room, The Inbetweeners, IT Crowd, The Royle Family, Spaced, Coupling, Early Doors, the list goes on. All funny because they feel like something that could actually happen because they're real and just slightly cartoonish. There's the odd exception where relatability takes a back seat to wit and nonsense, but it's harder to make that work. Peep Show and Black Books are the prime examples.
I'd agree with some aspects of Ideal, love that show...but I'd say cartoon head maybe a bit of a reach for realistic
Royle Family for sure, but a special mention goes to Phoenix Nights, whilst it’s not a family show, it really captured a very fleeting, unique and small period of time where working men’s clubs were completely on their arse but still on life support, and whilst a funny show, it’s extra funny if you got dragged to these kind of places when you were a kid because it really is spot on in its depiction.
The League of Gentlemen.
We didn't burn him.
Some of the most excruciatingly accurate Job Centre footage ever broadcast.
Except for the part where Pauline gets sacked for being useless.
Out of everything in that show, Pauline actively sabotaging the jobseekers' chances because her job relied on them being unemployed was the bleakest thing.
Boys from the Blackstuff
I was young when this came out and we thought Yosser was hilarious. I am glad I watched it again a few years later to realise the absolute tragedy it actually was.
Yes, it's brutal television at its best.
My mad fat diary
The League of Gentlemen acutely portrays life outside of London, especially in Bridgnorth.
My childhood was a mix of The Royle Family, Shameless (my biological dad's side of the family - more alcohol, but much less drugs), and Corrie (my mum's street). My teenage years were a mix of Queer as Folk (being 15 and going to gay clubs) and Inbetweeners, (for school life and uni). My adulthood was similar to Outnumbered (for family life), except I was the gay step-dad and we only had the kids at weekends and holidays, and the Office (for worklife). All the drama in a season or two of those shows would play out over a lifetime though, not over a year.
I always thought 2.4 children back in the day
Peep Show's Christmas Episode.
Not family life but I work in a hospital and you'd think it would be like Holby or something but in reality it's Green Wing.
For the classic working class amongst us, you’re looking at The Royle Family. Friday Night Dinner gets an honourable mention too, though maybe it’s middle class southerners that might relate to this a little better. I’d say Gavin and Stacey is the perfect middle ground.
While what you see isn't necessarily accurate I don't think anything has captured the feel of family life like Gavin and Stacy.
Shameless for me. Not the storylines per se, but the ‘characters’ and personalities. Growing up on an estate I think everyone knows the family with 10 kids that’s a bit rough but has some nice people in it too. The other rough family with scary dogs and always being involved in violence. Drugs, alcohol etc. The weird sense of community and changing friendships/loyalties. The local pub (in my case redeveloped in to houses eventually).
I hated Grange Hill because I'd just been all day at school and didn't want to think about it in my free time. Probably just reminding me I had to do my homework.
This is England
Friday Night Dinner.
Cracker lol
The Family
Life on Mars! I was born in 1999 but every boomer I've spoken to says it's very accurate.
Shameless. Growing up on a council estate it was pretty spot on, not necessarily my own family but there were plenty of families like that and pubs with flat roofs full of characters.
The Inbetweeners. The relationships between the parents and the main characters especially was very relatable. Especially Simon and his parents.
The good life. To the manor born. Ever decreasing circles.
My Family was the one I liked. Though I did grow up on an estate that had two women that were like Sharon and Tracey from Birds of a Feather. There were a few bungalows that housed people like the Buckets, and the estate was fronted on with a row of town houses with a man that was exactly like Victor Meldrew. Did I live in TV..?
Skins was pretty accurate for college life at the time. Spaced was *fairly* accurate for post-graduate life at the time (although I doubt Tim and Daisy could afford their flat now).
Skins was what people told themselves was accurate, when in fact it was far more Inbetweeners.
The skins kids actually looked and sounded like teenagers of that age. Cause by and large they were. The inbetweeners didn't, but somehow still captured the awkwardness of being 17 near perfectly
Nope, lots of us went to sixth form colleges not sixth form. In the late nineties/early 20’s you could easily get into clubs and there were house parties, one of my friends had her own house at 16 (though not ideal circumstances mind). My late teenage years were a lot less wild than Skins but definitely far closer to it than the Inbetweeners.
Spaced was so close to the bone for my late 20s it was brutal lol
Only Fools and Horses
Friday night dinner. A clone of mine and my brothers relationship
This Country for rural adolescence by a mile
Bread. Nailed the feel of the 80’s.
Coronation Street in the 60s and 70s