Re: The S&A Films


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Posted by PeterH on September 02, 2006 at 13:35:18 from 86.137.75.52 user Peter_H.

In Reply to: Re: The S&A Films posted by Jock on September 02, 2006 at 10:48:14:

you have to admit that the family was at least upper-middle-class

I personally do not admit it. I think the jury is still out on this question. On another thread, someone has mentioned the scene with Slater Bob, when Dorothea observes that Nancy and Slater Bob had not said 'thank you' in the normal accepted way when given something. An upper middle class person would always say a formal 'thank you' - not to do so would be an unthinkable breach of the social code. For me, Dorothea is a far more likely candidate to be UMC.

In a letter in 1943, AR responded to an accusation that he wrote about 'children whose parents can afford to buy dinghies, rent a farm for the summer holidays, and give 8/6d books as birthday presents.'

AR replied: ' . .I should like to point out that . . it is cheaper to take lodgings in a farmhouse than to take lodgings at Blackpool, that boats are much cheaper than, eg, motor cycles, that books cost less than legs of mutton and last longer, and that the children in my books are the children of naval officers, boatbuilders' workmen, doctors, farmers, teachers etc' (Signalling from Mars, ed. Hugh Brogan, p. 303).

That seems to me to indicate that AR placed his children in an arc from middle class, ie middle middle class, to rural working class. I am not saying this is absolutely conclusive, but it is strong evidence. There are other indications.

BTW, the BBC, in a radio version of S&A some years ago, had Nancy and Peggy speaking in what purported to be local, ie Lakeland, accents. I don't think it really worked, but it was an interesting experiment. To my mind, Nancy and Peggy are 'local' girls who have been sent away to school and have thereby acquired some UMC speech-habits and behaviour, but these are superficial.


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