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Original poster

Can you name a tv programme/movie about middle class folk in the north of England?

100 replies

diygreatness · 12/02/2023 22:45

There are plenty of middle-class folk in the north, but tv dramas and movies always seem to focus on working class stereotypes. Can you think of any that don't? I mean focus the storyline around mainly middle class characters, not just have one token middle class person. (Happy to be wrong if you guys can come up with a list).

OP posts:
Mushroo · 12/02/2023 23:16

Also the show ‘feel good’ is middle class and set in Manchester. The characters are a comedian and a posh teacher with private school friends who live in Cheshire.

JocelynBurnell · 12/02/2023 23:20

Bernadinetta · 12/02/2023 22:49

Our Friends in the North

I wouldn't consider Our Friends in the North middle class.

They were very much working class. Mary and Tosker started married life in a high-rise council flat. Geordie ended up homeless.

OneGoodThing · 12/02/2023 23:20

Bernadinetta You're right - I have totally misremembered the whole thing. Apparently it was set in Coventry and filmed there and in Northampton. And it's Daisy, not Primrose... Confused

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

TV
Bernadinetta · 12/02/2023 23:23

Dalziel and Pascoe

RedToothBrush · 12/02/2023 23:24

Middle class people from the North don't exist.

UsingChangeofName · 12/02/2023 23:26

If we are allowed to include old ones, then The Liver Birds was very much about 2 flat sharing girls of different classes - with Nerys Hughes and Molly Sugden being the epitome of middle class family

Bernadinetta · 12/02/2023 23:27

Kay Mellor stuff like Fat Friends and In The Club have a wide range of social backgrounds amongst the characters

Mammyloveswine · 12/02/2023 23:28

Definitely cold feet!

Mind looking back on brookside it was supposed to be working class but the close was LOVELY and def not your typical working class Liverpool!

pigsinoodies · 12/02/2023 23:28

Was it called 'There's Trouble at T'Costa', set in Cheadle Hulme?

kitcat15 · 12/02/2023 23:29

UsingChangeofName · 12/02/2023 22:58

Last Tango in Halifax is what I was going to say too.
But Cold Feet is a great shout too

Can't remember what it was called but I watched a really good one a couple of years ago starring Hermoine Norris - it was about the murder of a teenage girl and the slow realisation that it was her son that had done the murder

’A mothers son’

ClearMoth · 12/02/2023 23:29

I came here to say Cold Feet and Queer as Folk.

Wasn't there one about hairdressers too?

Oh and Hollyoaks.

RichardsGear · 12/02/2023 23:31

Cutting It? The hairdresser one, that is. They were fairly working class made good, I would say.

RichardsGear · 12/02/2023 23:33

Never watched it, but surely Vera must have some MC people in the storylines.

Melroses · 12/02/2023 23:37

A Private Function.

Bernadinetta · 12/02/2023 23:38

RichardsGear · 12/02/2023 23:33

Never watched it, but surely Vera must have some MC people in the storylines.

There are plenty of middle class people in Vera, also Vera herself although a working class background is now a Detective Chief Inspector, and the other officers such as her Sergeants Aiden and Joe are university educated.

UsingChangeofName · 12/02/2023 23:38

RichardsGear · 12/02/2023 23:33

Never watched it, but surely Vera must have some MC people in the storylines.

Yes it does, both some of the regulars / staff and many of the characters that are only in one episode.

Thanks @kitcat15 - that's the one

ClearMoth · 12/02/2023 23:52

RichardsGear · 12/02/2023 23:31

Cutting It? The hairdresser one, that is. They were fairly working class made good, I would say.

Yes, that's the one. They certainly had a lot of money.

louderthan · 13/02/2023 01:11

UsingChangeofName · 12/02/2023 22:58

Last Tango in Halifax is what I was going to say too.
But Cold Feet is a great shout too

Can't remember what it was called but I watched a really good one a couple of years ago starring Hermoine Norris - it was about the murder of a teenage girl and the slow realisation that it was her son that had done the murder

Ooh the second one sounds good!

I recommend Queer as Folk

ninetieseyebrows · 13/02/2023 01:18

Years and Years

CuteCillian · 13/02/2023 01:23

Peter Rabbit 1 and 2.

Partyandbullshit · 13/02/2023 02:08

Shakespeare & Hathaway

A fee of the Suranne Jones dramas are set in the north, I think?

And, are you counting Scotland? Pretty sure there’s been some Scottish telly with MC folk. Um, Shetland maybe (I don’t live in the UK, only have Britbox these days!)

9Feb · 13/02/2023 02:19

Partyandbullshit · 13/02/2023 02:08

Shakespeare & Hathaway

A fee of the Suranne Jones dramas are set in the north, I think?

And, are you counting Scotland? Pretty sure there’s been some Scottish telly with MC folk. Um, Shetland maybe (I don’t live in the UK, only have Britbox these days!)

Shakespeare and Hathaway is set in Stratford upon Avon. That’s north of London, but not the North of England.

Partyandbullshit · 13/02/2023 02:23

Ooops 😬. Sorry!

Itstarts · 13/02/2023 02:33

diygreatness · 12/02/2023 22:45

There are plenty of middle-class folk in the north, but tv dramas and movies always seem to focus on working class stereotypes. Can you think of any that don't? I mean focus the storyline around mainly middle class characters, not just have one token middle class person. (Happy to be wrong if you guys can come up with a list).

Not my list, but here's a pre-googled list of Northern shows. I haven't seen them all but there's definitely a mix of class amongst the ones I'm familiar with.

Belladonna208 · 13/02/2023 03:04

I also wouldn't say Our Friends in the North was middle class, though Tosker likes to think he is, and Mary ends up an MP...

Definitely some characters in Vera, also some in the Inspector George Gently series, Years and Years too, and Last Tango in Halifax.

Interesting thing about Cutting It is that they might have money but the way they behave and talk to each other isn't necessarily traditionally middle class...

Intriguing how many of these are now verging on historical drama despite the BBC moving to Salford - doesn't seem like middle class northern dramas are a thing right now!

There was a BBC one off, Life I think it was called, which centred around mainly middle class characters in a house in Didsbury, if I recall? And also Dr Foster, set in the same "universe" as it were.

I'm fairly sure that when Brookside started I remember it being marketed as a middle class northern drama, the accents notwithstanding...