The first season of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (1983), first released 35 years ago, is often explained as being a response to the unemployment and social unrest brought about by Thatcherism. It may tell us more about Britain’s relationship with “Europe” today.
Through the worldwide reach of MTV, Geordie Shore, a reality television show set in Newcastle, has become a global phenomenon. But much has been lost in translation along the way.
It would be easy to suggest that the major theme of Peter Flannery’s historical epic Our Friends in the North (1996) is corruption, as politicians, the police and seedy London gangsters are all seen to engage in dishonest activities, protecting themselves, bribing those in positions of power and selling out their friends in order to make a… Continue reading Toon on Television: Our Friends in the North
‘So tell me about Newcastle.’ Detective Spender: ‘You read the paper’s don’t you? Full of winos, pushers, junkies, dole-wallers…England’s armpit.’ With Spender (1991-1993), Jimmy Nail teams up with writer Ian La Frenais in what first appears as a thinly disguised attempt to rescue Nail from typecast obscurity following his part in the seminal Geordie favourite… Continue reading Toon on Television: Spender
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