Britainology 80: 'Rising Damp' (1974)
Added 2024-02-28 12:53:56 +0000 UTCFor this month's second Britainology, Nate and Milo watched the pilot episode of the 1974-1978 ITV sitcom RISING DAMP, which represents the cornerstone of British social relations: dealing with a landlord. But it's also a strange snapshot of a bygone era, a surprisingly close-to-the-truth depiction of mid-'70s UK material culture, and an opportunity for Nate and Milo to talk about just about every possible tangentially related point. Would we watch more episodes? Probably not. But we at least had a chance to posit the existence of Serbian Harry Potter.
Comments
An interesting companion piece would be Ever Decreasing Circles. It was actually made a good few years after the Young Ones but it presents this deeply parochial and brown middle class suburbian milieu that's completely at odds with what alternative comedy was presenting at the time. It makes the 80s feel like the 60s. It's also very, very funny with a slight edge that you wouldn't necessarily expect from Richard Briers.
Tovfly
2024-03-07 20:08:08 +0000 UTCcan confirm about the accent bullying. i grew up dirt poor near wolves but bc my dad was raised middle class and his parents grew up dirt poor in west brom and had elocution lessons as they got more middle class, so i ended up relentlessly bullied for sounding even slightly rp (my accent is not unlike milo’s) by people who owned mercedes and owned new builds in the nice bits of the village
Pat Lee Nichols
2024-03-04 23:49:45 +0000 UTCLol listening to this episode the day after I found out my sister grew up to be a landlord. Apparently she's an extra shitty one, which is zero surprise
Jamie Evenstar
2024-03-03 19:38:33 +0000 UTCApparently I'm a blue blooded American, now? Like, being able to track your family line back to the early colonial period just means you're a white northeasterner whose family has been in the US for more than three generations.
Violet
2024-03-01 02:12:37 +0000 UTC£6 a week nowadays is £54 a month 💀💀
kabi
2024-02-29 20:15:29 +0000 UTCAll because an inbred man an with syphilis dick continued to shot Y chromosome blanks and blamed his wives for it
Grumpy Bowlart
2024-02-29 18:13:42 +0000 UTCThat literally is our religion. The king is more powerful than Jesus.
Michael Hopwood
2024-02-29 18:10:13 +0000 UTCI love the TF chaps to bit but heck are they parochial Londoners. Rigsby has a classic middle class, maybe Homr Counties accent. They need to get out more.
Michael Hopwood
2024-02-29 17:27:40 +0000 UTCAnother iconically “Archie Bunker” type character is… Rick Sanchez. And, to be fair, the last couple seasons of Rick & Morty have gone out of their way to make him come across as sufficiently sad and pathetic.
Elsie Hupp
2024-02-29 11:30:57 +0000 UTCSupping on weak lemon drink while becoming visibly aroused.
Jacob Barlow
2024-02-29 09:24:55 +0000 UTCI witnessed the racism overridden by classicism thing first-hand once when I moved out of a shared house and had to find a replacement for myself. The remaining housemate was upset by the prospect of my potential replacement being Indian because "some of them are dirty" (no prizes for guessing why I was moving out). Then when he found out the guy in question was a doctor, he did a complete 180 and was fine with it. Happily, the Indian guy found accomodation elsewhere, although I still feel guilty about the poor kid I *did* throw under the cohabitation bus.
Jacob Barlow
2024-02-29 09:22:51 +0000 UTCThere's some great audio recordings my grandad made where every time him and my nana know they are being recorded they are talking in this very deliberate RP voice and then as soon as it's the kids talking and they are in the background you can hear them immediately both switch back to Cockney
SuzyLee
2024-02-29 09:15:28 +0000 UTCAll the talk of anorak voice led more down a rabbit hole of TV anoraks and it made me think of Statto on Fantasy Football League, which is great shout for Britainology. It’s got everything - the rise of the Premier League, questionable 90s attitudes to race and sex, and also Nate can deploy his David Baddiel voice!
Stuart Harrison
2024-02-29 08:27:33 +0000 UTCIt seems like I've discovered a very specific fetish on your part
Jacob Barlow
2024-02-29 08:25:31 +0000 UTCI honestly thought it was some kind of public domain take off of Country House until I heard the extended version of For Tomorrow on the radio and went “Aaaaah!”
Stuart Harrison
2024-02-29 08:25:15 +0000 UTCI would have also accepted Simon Quinlank https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6B3so5iWyKw
Stuart Harrison
2024-02-29 08:23:54 +0000 UTCFuck yes!
Stuart Harrison
2024-02-29 08:22:14 +0000 UTCAnorak voice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTcgHkuVQ5E
Jacob Barlow
2024-02-29 07:59:57 +0000 UTCAs a (white) Aussie, the talk about the UK’s casual racism was so familiar. Australia is baffling with how it purports to be welcoming and chill but in the cities it’s casual and subtle racism while the rural towns are just horrendous lmao
Cleo
2024-02-29 03:35:57 +0000 UTCYears ago our local pbs broadcaster ran Keeping Up Appearances on the weekend. I’m reminded again of wanting to revisit it sometime
Rachel K
2024-02-29 03:19:32 +0000 UTCDisappointing! Thanks!
Kristaps Porzingis
2024-02-28 23:01:27 +0000 UTCBlur, For Tomorrow (Visit To Primrose Hill Extended Version). Found on some wiki (just to establish I am by no means a Blur head lol).
veni
2024-02-28 22:48:33 +0000 UTCOnly knew about this show because my grandma had it on VHS and I used to borrow videos from her and my mum would always be like, nah you won't like that one so was crazy watching Barry Lyndon with her and being like, wait, is that the dude from those VHS covers?
Toby
2024-02-28 22:37:25 +0000 UTCI would be willing to bet money the gay cops trans rights bumper sticker car is driven by a gay person.
brodie
2024-02-28 20:33:20 +0000 UTCThe Britainology theme is in the latter half of the song For Tomorrow - Visit to Primrose Hill by Blur. It makes a great soundtrack for walking up steep hills and/or clocking and knocking out nonces.
Michael McGroarty
2024-02-28 19:23:09 +0000 UTCI'm sure this has been answered before but I'm new- I really like the opening theme for britainology. What is it from and if it's bespoke what is the music that it's based on? Is there like a particularly slow and heavy ska derivative I'm not aware of?
Kristaps Porzingis
2024-02-28 18:04:52 +0000 UTCIt's still kills me that the British aren't religious but operate on the premise that certain people are born with magic blood that makes them socially better than you.
Grumpy Bowlart
2024-02-28 17:40:00 +0000 UTCMy mom's aunt was literally one of those people who had a completely different accent to her normal accent. She was from Coventry, but she insisted on talking with this faux RP accent
Angel-of-Deadlifts
2024-02-28 13:42:32 +0000 UTCFirst.
Katherine
2024-02-28 13:27:42 +0000 UTC
