picture from The British Comedy Guide

One of my projects currently in the first draft writing stage is a one-off comedy drama set in the 1970s with a deliberate reference to how the workplace was a different kettle of fish back then with regards race relations and sexual equality, with an obligatory nod to the fact that you could smoke indoors, usually while working. The script I am working on is an attempt to neither justify nor condemn the ways of the era, the past is the past and we quite rightly look with disbelief and horror at some of the language and behaviour of the time.

When Life on Mars gained popularity, I heard someone comment that they should have just made a 1970s cop show in the style of The Sweeny and the like. Such an idea wouldn’t have worked, nor should it, because you can’t remake such a thing and water it down. The reason Life on Mars worked is because we witnessed the behaviour through the eyes of Sam Tyler, a modern day detective coping with the policing methods of another age; references to poufs and pakis were casually tossed around to Tyler’s horror. It worked as a piece of television drama because it was a postmodern look at how terrible things used to be.

On Sunday I watched the film spinoff of On the Buses and once again laughed and winced in equal measure at the ‘crumpet’ chasing antics of Stan and Jack. Such a show couldn’t be made now, not only because of the offensive nature but also because working in a bus depot is an entirely different job these days so it wouldn’t make sense. This week I caught the second episode (I missed the first) of It Was Alright in the Seventies, a lighthearted look at how offensive the 1970s were. The programme itself was a typical Channel Four attempt to do a hatchet job of a time gone by while a series of talking heads pontificated in a sequence of box ticking, so a black commentator watched the like of Love Thy Neighbour, gay commentator watched the limpwristed “hello sailor” portrayal of homosexuality, and female commentators were shown clips of women having their breasts vocally enjoyed. Of course it all looked horrific, that is why these programmes aren’t shown any more because standards have changed. Channel 4 probably wanted this show to be presented as a social comment but as usual with these endeavours they failed and ended up with a show that didn’t really know where it was going. Having said that, I’m sure that the intention was honourable enough as we were meant to be disgusted rather than entertained – this wasn’t TV Cream, this was sour.

Why should we stop at criticising the 1970s? Why doesn’t Channel 4 follow this with It Was Alright in the Fifties, in which men work all day before going home to a cooked meal followed by a quick wash and change and a session in the pub with a backhand slap for the wife if she complains? I think (or rather hope) we all agree that this is an awful scenario, and obviously it didn’t apply to every household but domestic violence was something that went on behind closed doors and the police didn’t get involved. These days a violent husband or boyfriend will be arrested, ergo the standards of the present are better than the standards of the past. It Was Alright In Victorian Times sees minor celebrities watching and commenting on the slum conditions and lack of rights for workers, Esther Rantzen comments on children being forced to sweep chimneys, and the fact that unmarried mothers get packed off to a convent and the babies put into care. We can also have a retrospective and lighthearted look at how visiting a lunatic asylum to observe the ‘freaks’ was a family day out, and the risk of disemboweling by Jack the Ripper if you were a prostitute. I’m waiting until 2055 to catch It Was Alright in The 2010s when people will basically be commenting on clips of people commenting on clips.

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