Bosh Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 Flicking through the channels looking for something to watch tonight and found an old episode of Only fools and horses showing on Gold. Still makes me laugh and a true gem of British comedy. This was the episode where the lifts broke down in Nelson Mandella towers and Del and Grandad try and pull a scam with the council to get a move to a new build 3 bed bungalow with garage and garden. Keep in mind this was 1983 and the episode was called homesick. Del made a speech to the effect of. People like us have no chance of getting a cushty place like that because we don't speak with a foreign accent and have nine kids. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7woyw_only-fools-and-horses-homesick-part_fun about 4.30 in..... Even though a comedy this was watched by over 9 million people and just goes to show the perception of council house allocation has changed little in almost 30 years. Doubt if the Beeb would allow such material today Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
200p Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 (edited) Flicking through the channels looking for something to watch tonight and found an old episode of Only fools and horses showing on Gold. Still makes me laugh and a true gem of British comedy. This was the episode where the lifts broke down in Nelson Mandella towers and Del and Grandad try and pull a scam with the council to get a move to a new build 3 bed bungalow with garage and garden. Keep in mind this was 1983 and the episode was called homesick. Del made a speech to the effect of. People like us have no chance of getting a cushty place like that because we don't speak with a foreign accent and have nine kids. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7woyw_only-fools-and-horses-homesick-part_fun about 4.30 in..... Even though a comedy this was watched by over 9 million people and just goes to show the perception of council house allocation has changed little in almost 30 years. Doubt if the Beeb would allow such material today People like Del, today wouldn't even get a council house. They'd be in rental bedsits or still be living with their parents. I believe Del was in his 30s in the first series. We have moved on from the 80s. Edited June 22, 2011 by Money Spinner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SleepyHead Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 Good find. Thanks This episode sticks in my memory. Shows Del Boy deciding to take advantage of the "right to buy", so he can capitalize on "booming" house prices. Rodney points out that the poorer classes will have nowhere to live if they sell all the council houses to "hooray Henry's". (3mins 50sec in) The BBC that created this is long gone now. Property porn corruption has destroyed it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IccvOZH-Jk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
200p Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 (edited) "Moved on" as in not at all (tongue in cheek). Edited June 22, 2011 by Money Spinner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aussieboy Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 People like Del, today wouldn't even get a council house. They'd be in rental bedsits or still be living with their parents. I believe Del was in his 30s in the first series. We have moved on from the 80s. Why should he have a council house, btw? I would have thought that two fit and well young men poncing off the state wouldn't have gone down well here... Or would people's attitude be different if he were a single mum? Some messed up and conflicted people around here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dorkins Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 Why should he have a council house, btw? I would have thought that two fit and well young men poncing off the state wouldn't have gone down well here... Or would people's attitude be different if he were a single mum? Some messed up and conflicted people around here. The attitude to council housing was very different when there was much more of it available. Renting off the state was socially acceptable, and indeed preferable to renting off some Rachman-esque landlord. For a 2011 equivalent, you are not generally seen as a sponger if you use the NHS or send your kids to a state school as these are services we all pay for and all have access to. It's a shame that the UK has regressed to the point where access to land (which nobody created) is such a big problem for ordinary people again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bosh Posted June 22, 2011 Author Share Posted June 22, 2011 Why should he have a council house, btw? I would have thought that two fit and well young men poncing off the state wouldn't have gone down well here... Or would people's attitude be different if he were a single mum? Some messed up and conflicted people around here. The story goes something like this. Del lived in that flat with his mum and dad and younger brother Rodney and Grandad. Mum dies and Dad either dies or fecks off and he actually becomes guardian to Rodney and is effectively a single parent. Grandad is still there and in my book they have every right to council housing. He is always being portrayed as desperate to succeed in life and attempts for years and finally manages to hit the big time and gives up the flat and buys property. Never portrayed as a waster sitting on his ar5e claiming benefits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
200p Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 Never portrayed as a waster sitting on his ar5e claiming benefits. Exactly. But when the wasters today get everything free, why bother trying. It was a great show to inspire people to get up and try to earn a few quid in hard times. Filling out forms and trying to get every single benefit whilst interspersed with mornings watching Jeremy Kyle would not make a good sitcom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noodle doodle Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 The story goes something like this. Del lived in that flat with his mum and dad and younger brother Rodney and Grandad. Mum dies and Dad either dies or fecks off and he actually becomes guardian to Rodney and is effectively a single parent. Grandad is still there and in my book they have every right to council housing. He is always being portrayed as desperate to succeed in life and attempts for years and finally manages to hit the big time and gives up the flat and buys property. Never portrayed as a waster sitting on his ar5e claiming benefits. On the other hand, if you spend 3 years at the University of Media Studies, you'll note that the theme tune includes the line "no money back, no guarantee, no income tax, no vat" so it could be said he was happy to take advantages of services he didn't contribute towards, even though he could have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beccles Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 (edited) Exactly. But when the wasters today get everything free, why bother trying. It was a great show to inspire people to get up and try to earn a few quid in hard times. Filling out forms and trying to get every single benefit whilst interspersed with mornings watching Jeremy Kyle would not make a good sitcom. I dont know, just realising you can claim carers allowance for your depressed wife and ADHD kid would make some people laugh, Edited June 22, 2011 by beccles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bosh Posted June 23, 2011 Author Share Posted June 23, 2011 On the other hand, if you spend 3 years at the University of Media Studies, you'll note that the theme tune includes the line "no money back, no guarantee, no income tax, no vat" so it could be said he was happy to take advantages of services he didn't contribute towards, even though he could have. I think the title is the giveaway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@contradevian Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 People like Del, today wouldn't even get a council house. They'd be in rental bedsits or still be living with their parents. I believe Del was in his 30s in the first series. We have moved on from the 80s. He would because he "inherited" it from his mother, which they are trying to stop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@contradevian Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 it was called Bread Oh please no, another Karla Lane horror steeped in Liverpudlian self pity Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottbeard Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 The BBC that created this is long gone now. Property porn corruption has destroyed it. I don't watch enough TV back then or now to know whether "the BBC that created this is long gone now" - does anyone here watch things like EastEnders: do they mention house price difficulties for young people on it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unexpected Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 He would because he "inherited" it from his mother, which they are trying to stop. Why try to stop it? Why not just fecking well stop it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aussieboy Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 The story goes something like this. Del lived in that flat with his mum and dad and younger brother Rodney and Grandad. Mum dies and Dad either dies or fecks off and he actually becomes guardian to Rodney and is effectively a single parent. Grandad is still there and in my book they have every right to council housing. He is always being portrayed as desperate to succeed in life and attempts for years and finally manages to hit the big time and gives up the flat and buys property. Never portrayed as a waster sitting on his ar5e claiming benefits. Hilarious the way you're trying to justify giving a fence a council flat. it was called Bread 10/10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erranta Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 it was called Bread These are not sob stories or self pity - they are real life experiences away from the Sarf East. A reminder of the context setting that "Bread" was being written in. Extended Boswell family of Liverpool, in the district of Dingle, led through a number of ups and downs as they tried to make their way through life in Thatcher's Britain with no visible means of support. The street shown at the start of each programme is Elswick Street. It was the decade of Thatcher, yuppies, chunky mobile phones and BMX bikes. But among the hundreds of written memories you e-mailed to us, it was clear that the economic impact of Thatcherism was a key ingredient to your recollections of the 1980s. Her monetarist policies may have caused the Big Bang in London's Square Mile, and kick-started an ailing economy, but they also sent unemployment soaring to over three million. Here is a selection of your comments about finding work in the 1980s. I was brought up on Merseyside, and the 1980s will always be summed up for me by a man stopping me (and all of us) on the railway bridge one morning as we walked to school. "Does your dad run his own business?" he asked. "Does he need anyone?" He was desperate, like over two million others. Our town had 25% unemployment, but that one man is the one I always remember. In an earlier age, he would have been building ocean liners, but not in the 1980s! For being brought up in the heartlands of the industrial North West, it wasn't all milk and honey as this article might suggest. For everyone I knew, the 80s were more about three million unemployed and miners begging for food at the front door. They sucked. Thanks to Thatcher I was thrown on the scrapheap at 20. The total decimation of British industry by the conservatives after they relaxed exchange controls has put us in the position this country finds itself today. They exported millions of jobs and used the revenues from North Sea oil to pay for the mass unemployment caused. Hard-fought-for workers rights, over a hundred years, were ignored or made illegal, a sorry attempt by the government to ensure that a Tory government could never be brought down by the workers. The miners' strike and the decision to switch to gas and nuclear power while we still had 4-500 years of coal reserves cheap imports of Polish coal. Police chatting to picketing miners then the Met weighed into them once the TV crews arrived to show how violent the pickets were. I witnessed it all. "A bleak and depressing decade on a par with the 1930s, particularly for the north in the early 80s, factory closures, spending cuts , under investment, mass unemployment. A brief boom fuelled by greed then another slump this time across the whole country and even a poll tax. Thought that some parts of the country would never recover, they probably have but the trauma remains for many people." Growing-up in a small village in north Nottinghamshire, I remember the fallout from Thatcherism vividly. While the modern economy boomed in London, much of my local area dependent on manufacturing industry and the coalfields declined at an alarming rate. Local economies that were once vibrant fell away into decay and poverty. Unemployment was at an all-time high, and prospects for many people of my generation were bleak. The early to mid-1980s was a desperate time to grow-up in, and I despise Thatcher for the way she dispatched many people to the scrapheap without any remorse or feeling. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6748657.stm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrivateerMk2 Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 (edited) it was called Bread And it was, as the other poster rightly surmised, not a good sitcom. It was, in fact, shite. Edited June 23, 2011 by PrivateerMk2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crashmonitor Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 (edited) Bloody hell I thought this was another Frank Dobson bashing thread, after all he is oft compared to one of the grandads who acted in only Fools and Horses. I guess grandad in that didn't have a penthouse council flat worth seven figures on a subsidised rent of £160 a week.. Edited June 23, 2011 by crashmonitor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Austin Allegro Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 The attitude to council housing was very different when there was much more of it available. Renting off the state was socially acceptable, and indeed preferable to renting off some Rachman-esque landlord. There's an episode of Rising Damp where one of the tenants dies in his room. Alan asks what happened to him and Rigsby says 'he's gone to a better place'. Alan replies 'what, you mean he got a council flat?' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
council dweller Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 Well, I 'inherited' this council bungalow from my mother. If the council had managed to throw me out I'd now be living in private rented and getting HB to cover the rent. As it is I receive no benefits. Really it's just a game of musical chairs, one mans gain is another man's loss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Bear Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 I don't watch enough TV back then or now to know whether "the BBC that created this is long gone now" - does anyone here watch things like EastEnders: do they mention house price difficulties for young people on it? Naw, Albert Square has it's own economic rules. You can be skint and homeless one week and a few weeks later have a a roof over your head and no shortage of cash. You can manage this having spent your time in the Queen Vic, the caf or a bed your not supposed to be in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bosh Posted June 23, 2011 Author Share Posted June 23, 2011 Hilarious the way you're trying to justify giving a fence a council flat. 10/10 It was a long running comedy. I have tried as best as I can to explain the story behind why the characters were still in council accomodation. In my book the reasons behind his entitlement were understandable. For the record, I don`t think Council housing should be automatically handed down to family members. As for him being a fence .. It was why this was such a hit over the years. He was a lovable rogue. He was not violent and just wanted to better his life and that of his family. Maybe this thread is turing North v South on comedy sitcoms In reality and IMO. I would rather see council housing given to a brother who from a young age has been responsible as a parent to his younger brother and elderly Grandad and later Uncle who as it happens both fought for this country `During the War`... than a family of Somalians who do not speak any English, do not work and do not contribute to society. I think council housing should be provided on a contract and reviewed on a regular basis. Get back on your feet and get back in the rat race. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allfiredup Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 Well, I 'inherited' this council bungalow from my mother. If the council had managed to throw me out I'd now be living in private rented and getting HB to cover the rent. As it is I receive no benefits. Really it's just a game of musical chairs, one mans gain is another man's loss. You pay full market rate? As for the council housing going to the immigrants, that has been happening for decades. But for a long time, if you mentioned it, your were VERY racist. That's changing now because of all the white immigrants we have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trampa501 Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 There's an episode of Rising Damp where one of the tenants dies in his room. Alan asks what happened to him and Rigsby says 'he's gone to a better place'. Alan replies 'what, you mean he got a council flat?' The essence of great comedy - allude to the truth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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