Class And Status Work - Working Class

Working Class:

The working class are often represented in TV dramas, whether it be as a main character or as a minor part. They are generally stereotyped as being less wealthy and intelligent than the upper classes.

• UK: This is England ’86 conforms to this to a degree with the representation of Woody, who works in a factory.



• UK: Call the Midwife is a period drama set in 1950s london, focusing on a  group of midwives. The location, however, makes the programme based mostly on the working class people in the region. They can be seen as shows as the majority, and generally as slightly uncouth yet able to be related to.

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  UK: Silk is a British television drama with a plot that centres around a defence barrister named Martha Costello. Martha is from a working class background, emphasised by her strong Northern accent. Her occupation goes against the 'less intelligent' stereotype as she is a very good contender against another character Clive Reader. Clive is upper class.
  

• US: Jimmy Darmody from Boardwalk Empire lives in the house of his ‘fiancée’, Angela Lanotti, whom he got pregnant when they barely knew each other and just before he left, and with their 4-year old son Tommy, who grew up without him. This conforms to the stereotype of fathers leaving in a working class family. He is also not in a power like Nucky Thompson, who practically raised him as a son, but is disappointed when he discovers that Nucky only plans to make him assistant and keeps him working class until he later ascends the social ladder.

• US: The Riot of King's Landing was an event during the War of the Five Kings. After seeing of Princess Myrcella Baratheon at the docks on a ship bound for Dorne, the royal procession including King Joffrey is subjected to the jeers of the starving crowds of the capital city, culminating in Joffrey foolishly ordering his outnumbered personal guard to execute the entire crowd, sparking off a city-wide riot. This goes against the stereotype of the working class not being powerful enough to fight the upper class.