This is difficult to phrase, but I’ll try.
Obviously Coronation Street is fictionalised and doesn’t accurately represent working-class English people or English people in general.
But, when you think of the characters such as Rita, Ken, Tracy, Gail, Sarah Platt, Becky McDonald, Kylie Platt, Gary Windass etc, can you find exact equivalents of them in any European country, or are they uniquely British in the way their characters are presented in terms of their jokes and insults/behaviour/fashion/attitudes etc?
Ignoring the English language or the geographical setting, when foreigners see Rita Tanner or Ken Barlow, do they instantly come across as English/British or would a German soap opera containing elderly characters behave exactly like them just in the German language?
When you think of Gail Platt, David Platt, or Tracy Barlow, are they uniquely British in the way they act such that you’d be able to notice it if you didn’t know they were British and, again, didn’t hear their language/accent/see the city they lived in; or could French, Dutch, Bulgarian, Swedish characters in their own countries behave exactly the same?
The reason I ask this is because I was born and raised in the UK, I obviously find it difficult to consider England and English people through a foreign lens and think of what I would think of as noticeably English since everything seems so normal to me. The way English people do sarcasm or dress or behave, it’s just so normal, whereas I could notice cultural differences among other countries.
Like literally, Ken Barlow, seems like the most “normal” elderly person ever. I really struggle to understand what a foreigner watching Coronation Street would think about him that makes them think he isn’t “normal” to them besides his language?
By contrast, some elderly people in cultures like Italy, Greece etc are stereotyped for being really into cooking and really indulgent so that’s a stereotype that would mark them as different to me. But, British people aren’t presented like that in these soaps and that just seems so normal to me.
Even think of the younger kids from the 2000s and now. When I think of Sarah Platt in the 2000s as a teenager (minus the pregnancy storyline), was she basically acting like every European kid did but just speaking English. Ie did Dutch, Danish, Hungarian kids act just like her or was she uniquely British?
Think about Blanche Hunt as a gossipy, sour-tongued old lady with her sarcastic quips and prying eye. Do Germany, Poland, Portugal jave exact equivalents of her, or is she uniquely British?
Or, ambitious, pushy mother Sally or Carla? I can sort of imagine a German Carla!
How about a German Tracy Barlow picking fights with everyone or a violent Becky McDonald?
I know Germany had an equivalent of Corrie called “Lindenstraße”, but I haven’t watched it enough and can’t understand German!