Starting in the 18th century, transformations in commerce led to the emergence of the early factory system and the birth of the British working class. Displaced from the countryside, these new workers flooded into textile mills that would fuel the growth of British capitalism. Combining archival footage, interviews with historians and testimonies from modern factory workers, A HISTORY OF THE EUROPEAN WORKING CLASS outlines the development of new forms of discipline and time management that would transform the lives of workers and their nascent political consciousness. The Luddite movement, Peterloo Massacre, and demands for universal suffrage are discussed as early high watermarks in the development of working class politics, foreshadowing the uprisings of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Explore the lives of ordinary people who played extraordinary roles in the creation and growth of Canada's westernmost province. From the early gold rush years to the brutal Vancouver island coal mines to Operation Solidarity. These are the true stories of the men and women whose blood, sweat, and indomitable spirit built the province of British Columbia.
You Take the Kids is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from December 1990 to January 1991. The series stars Nell Carter, who also performed the theme song "Nobody's Got It Easy". You Take the Kids, which was perceived as being the black answer to Roseanne due to its portrayal of a working-class African-American family, featured Carter as a crass, no-nonsense mother and wife.
Harris and Company is an American television drama series that aired on NBC from March 15 to April 5, 1979, on Thursday night.
White was a series of documentaries shown in March 2008 on BBC 2 dealing with issues of race and the changing nature of the white working class in Britain. The series alleged that some white working class Britons felt marginalised and poses the controversial question, "Is white working class Britain becoming invisible?"
Skag is a short-lived American drama series that aired on NBC and starred Karl Malden. Skag originated as a three-hour television movie that aired on January 6, 1980. Over a week later, it then premiered as a weekly series, Thursdays at 10/9c, which ran from January 17, 1980 until its cancellation on February 21, 1980.
Skag focused on the life of a foreman at a Pittsburgh steel mill. Malden described his character, Pete Skagska, as a simple man trying to keep his family together. The series was created by Abby Mann, and executive produced by Mann and Lee Rich.
Lenny is an American sitcom which aired on CBS from September 10, 1990 until March 9, 1991. The series, a starring vehicle conceived for comedian Lenny Clarke, was created by Don Reo and produced by Reo's Impact Zone Productions, Witt/Thomas Productions and Buena Vista Television.
Two English brothers with different, clashing personalities become live-in home renovators for a notoriously finicky couple with strong opinions.
Working Stiffs is a short-lived 1979 American television series which starred James Belushi and Michael Keaton as brothers Ernie and Mike O'Rourke. The pair were janitors who aspired to work their way up in the field of business. The brothers worked in an office building owned by their Uncle Harry. Ernie and Mike also were roommates in an apartment over a cafe where they befriended the owner Mitch and waitress Nikki. Each episode featured slapstick and physical comedy. Penny Marshall directed the pilot. Includes an early appearance of Paul Reubens as Heimlich the delivery boy at the cafe.
The series aired on CBS. It competed against the highly-rated shows NBC's CHiPs and ABC's The Ropers in its timeslot. Nine episodes were produced but after four episodes aired, the series was canceled. After Belushi and Keaton became major film stars in the 1980s, six episodes of the show were released on home video. Reruns have also aired on A&E Network, Comedy Central and TV Land. The syndication package included the previously unaired episodes.
Brass is a British comedy-drama series made by Granada Television for ITV and eventually Channel 4.
Set mostly in Utterley, a fictional Lancashire mining town in the 1930s, Brass was a comedy satirising the working-class period dramas of the 1970s and the American supersoaps such as Dallas and Dynasty. Unusually for ITV comedies of the time, there was no laughter track and the humour deliberately kept extremely dry, using convoluted wordplay and subtle commentary on popular culture. Brass is northern English slang for "money" as well as for "effrontery". The series also gleefully parodied the 1977 Granada TV dramatisation of Dickens' Hard Times, which also starred Timothy West.
The series, created by John Stevenson and Julian Roach, was set around two feuding families—the wealthy Hardacres and the poor, working-class Fairchilds, who lived in a small terraced house rented from the Hardacre empire. The Hardacre family was headed by the ruthless self-made businessman Bradley, who espoused Thatcherite rhetoric while coming up with various harebrained schemes to make his businesses more efficient so he could sack workers, and his alcoholic aristocratic wife Lady Patience. The head of the Fairchilds was the stern "Red" Agnes, who spread militant socialist rhetoric around the Hardacre mine, mill and munitions factory, and her doltish, forelock-tugging husband George, who is dominated by his wife and his boss. In a twist, Agnes was also Bradley Hardacre's mistress.
Palmerstown, U.S.A. is a drama series. It centers on the lives of two 9-year-old best friends, one black and one white, growing up in a small Southern town during the 1930s.
The Rag Trade is a British television sitcom broadcast by the BBC between 1961 and 1963 and by LWT between 1977 and 1978.
The scripts were by Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney, who later wrote Wild, Wild Women, Meet the Wife and On the Buses. Wild, Wild Women was a period variation of The Rag Trade.
The action centred on a small clothing workshop, Fenner Fashions in London. Although run by Harold Fenner and Reg the foreman, the female workers are led by militant shop steward Paddy Fleming, ever ready to strike, with the catchphrase "Everybody out!" Other cast members included Sheila Hancock, Esma Reese Cannon, Wanda Ventham and Barbara Windsor.
The Rag Trade was revived by ITV company LWT in 1977, with Jones and Karlin reprising their roles. The 1977 version ran for two series, most of the scripts being based on the BBC episodes from the 1960s, and featured Anna Karen and future EastEnders star Gillian Taylforth as factory workers.
The theme tune for the LWT series was written and performed by Lynsey De Paul.
Dream Stuffing is a British television sitcom which aired on Channel 4 in early 1984.
The series followed the exploits of two working class young women, Mo and Jude, who share a flat in a council tower block in London's East End, along with their three-legged cat, Tripod. Mo has a menial job in a glass eye factory, whilst Jude is on the dole.
Part way through the series, Mo loses her job and the two girls become a thorn in the side for employment review officer Mrs Tudge. Other characters include their gay neighbour Richard, Mo's interfering mother May, who runs the local launderette, Brenda, who works with Mo at the glass eye factory, Bill and Mr Sharples.
The series' theme tune, "London Girls", was written and performed by Kirsty MacColl.
The series was repeated once by Channel 4 in Summer 1985. It has so far not been released on video or DVD.
A Bit of a Do is a British comedy drama series based on the books by David Nobbs. The show starred David Jason and was aired on ITV in 1989. It was made for the ITV network by Yorkshire Television.
The show was set in a fictional Yorkshire town. Each episode took place at a different social function and followed the changing lives of two families, the working-class Simcocks and the middle-class Rodenhursts, together with their respective friends, Rodney and Betty Sillitoe, and Neville Badger. The series begins with the wedding of Ted and Rita Simcock's son Paul to Laurence and Liz Rodenhurst's daughter Jenny; an event at which Ted and Liz begin an affair. The subsequent fallout from this affair forms the basis for most of the first series.
Days of Hope is a BBC television drama serial produced in 1975. The series dealt with the lives of a working-class family from the turmoils of the First World War in 1916 to the General Strike in 1926. It was written by Jim Allen, produced by Tony Garnett and directed by Ken Loach.
On the Up is a British sitcom written by Bob Larbey about a self-made millionaire and his staff of domestic helpers who he treats like family, much to the annoyance of his upper class wife. The show ran for three series, from 1990 to 1992.
The incredible misadventures of two handymen on the road and the extraordinary people they meet along the way.
British sitcom adapted from the Israeli sitcom Little Mom. It follows the ups and downs of life, friendship and family for three women living in Hull - self-described actress Toni, her sister Paula and best friend Rana.