Analysis of TV comedy-dramas shows "social mobility is a joke鈥�
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A new article, co-written by Professor Jo Littler in the School of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies, explores TV programmes by and about working-class women and how they express the absurdity of middle-class ideals of social mobility and meritocracy.
Sophie Willan as Alma in Alma's Not Normal, which is available on BBC iPlayer (Photo: BBC/Expectation TV/Ben Blackall)
The programmes examined included the BBC/HBO series 鈥楻ain Dogs鈥� starring Daisy-May Cooper and executive produced by Cash Carraway, British sitcom 鈥楥hewing Gum鈥� written by and starring Michaela Coel, and BBC comedy series 鈥楢lma鈥檚 Not Normal鈥� which is written by and stars Sophie Willan.
These series tell us stories about community and collective survival in the face of hostile social structures.
Professor Jo Littler
The titled 鈥淪ocial Mobility is a Joke: Working-class women and British TV comedy on 鈥榯he social floor鈥欌�� - published in European Journal of Cultural Studies -鈥痺as co-written by Professor Littler and sociologist Professor Bev Skeggs.鈥�
The paper looks at three examples of British comedy TV series through the lens of 鈥榓utosociobiography鈥�, a term more traditionally applied to literary texts. Autosociobiography 鈥� coined by Nobel-Prize-winning writer Annie Ernaux 鈥� refers to texts which blend personal memoir with sociological analysis.鈥�
Professor Jo Littler said, "A new generation of female, British, working-class writers are rejecting narratives that they just need to 鈥榡ust work harder鈥� in order to make it. They are turning attention towards the complexities of working-class life as it is lived, and the complexities of the communities they live in. It鈥檚 a rejoinder to the disparaging and narratives about working-class life of the 鈥�90s, like 'Little Britain'."
Rejecting 鈥榬espectability鈥�, aspirational narratives about social mobility and breaking the 鈥榗lass ceiling鈥�, these series rather acknowledge lived experiences of seeking a 鈥榮ocial floor鈥� - craving security and not living in precarity with constant worries about losing everything 鈥� in an often-hostile environment.鈥��
The article argues that these autobiographical TV programmes show that the 1990s meritocratic dream that 鈥榓nyone can make it鈥� is now widely understood to be a joke. It places these programmes in a tradition of working-class solidarity and survival that turns tragedy into comedy, highlighting their sharp eye for social exploitation.