Class and Status in TV Drama

Class and Status in TV Drama

Lower Class Stereotypes:

One stereotype of lower class citizens is that they are associated with being unemployed, unintelligent, live in poor conditions and where poor clothing. These aspects are commonly used to represent lower class characters in TV Drama.

An example of a character that is represented in a lower class society is Frank Gallagher from Shameless. Frank is an unemployed alcoholic who lives in poor conditions with his six children. Frank was apparently convicted and sentenced to imprisonment several times in his youth. This is another stereotype that refers to lower class citizens as they can associated with law breaking activities and getting into trouble regularly.

The countertype to this is Bianca Butcher from EastEnders. This is because she lives with her large, and poor family in which money and payment issues occur many time in narratives. Although, the character does wear fairly mainstream clothing and although the living space is small and compact, it is appropriate for bringing up her children in.

Another stereotype of lower class citizens is that are associated with violence and crime. This includes use of drugs, physical violence upon others through bullying and domestic violence. This is often brought upon by nothing with no cause, but is a common element to represent a character of being in lower class.

A character example of this is Nick Cotton from EastEnders. This character’s storylines include having seen him twice commit murder, succumb to a heroin addiction, and attempt to poison his own mother and fake his own death.

The countertype to this is Alfie Moon, again from EastEnders. This character has a working class occupation of a market trader, living in a fairly small house with his family. The character dresses in fairly mainstream clothing and has no narrative included with the character being involved in drug usage, physical violence or any criminal activity.

Middle Class Stereotypes:

The first stereotype is that the families within a middle class society are financially stable. This impacts on the character’s lifestyle as they can live without the possibility of debt and money issues.

An example of this is the Harper family from the program My Family. The family consists of a father with a dentistry job, a stereotypical middle class occupation, his wife Susan, with no current occupation and three children. The income from the father’s job creates a financial stability for the family. This allows the family to live in a fairly large house with no money issues.

A countertype to this is the Brockman family from the program Outnumbered. This family is not financially stable as the home in which the characters are living in a home with a ‘For Sale’ sign outside their house throughout the series. This shows that there is little income being brought in by the parents, thus creating financial instability.

A second stereotype of middle class people have well paid, white collar jobs. These type of jobs include doctors, dentists, office workers etc. This allows people to generate a reasonably high income to ensure a house is purchased and is financially stable.

An example of a character that follows this stereotype is Gavin Shipman from Gavin and Stacey. This character's occupation is office work. This job is well paid, which allows the character to dress appropriately and live in a financially stale house with his parents. This is until the character moves to a job in Barry, Wales, doing similar work but to be closer to his wife.

The countertype of this is Jim Gordon from Gotham. This character's occupation is not well paid due to becoming a rookie detective in a corrupt city, but the flat that the character is living in appears to be wealthy due to it being positioned overlooking the city as well as the details with in the home.

Upper Class

One stereotype of upper class people is that they are associated with wealth which is expressed through the clothing that the characters wear. Vintage suits and dresses that character's wear emphasise that they are upper class citizens.

An example that shows this are the character's with in the program Downton Abbey. This is because the main characters consist of wealthy people who wear old, but formal clothing as well as the way in which they appear to be superior to other dominions due to their speech and behaviour.

A countertype to this is Sherlock Holmes from the drama Sherlock. This character appears to be very punctual which indicates intelligence which can be associated with wealth and being upper class, but the character does not appear to dress like an upper class person. This character dresses in fairly mainstream to prevent him from becoming an outcast from the surroundings.

A second stereotype is that upper class people speak punctually and is very sophisticated. Well-spoken vocabulary is an expression intelligence to suggest that the characters are well educated and therefore punctual and sophisticated in their speech.

An example of punctual and sophisticated characters is members of the Lannister family in Game of Thrones. This family is the wealthiest and oldest of the families which show that the characters are considered to be upper class due to their wealth and punctuality.

Unfortunately I can not think of another TV Drama that consists of upper class characters that do not speak very punctual or sophisticated as this stereotype is used so emphasise that all upper class characters speak punctually and are sophisticated.

How Disability is Represented Through the 4 Areas of Textual Analysis



The clip opens with the main character waling down some stars. The setting clearly shows that the characters in the clip are living in a lower class society because of the clothing positioned on the stair case which suggest that the environment is dirty and cluttered, the paint on the stair case is faded away at parts which suggests that the building in which the characters are living in is old in which age can be associated with lower class as well as the clothes in which the main character is wearing, unclean and baggy clothing that allows the character to be presented in a poor state. Blue wall paint suggest cold temperatures which is also associated with a lack of wealth and lower class society. As the character enters the scene, he appears to be disorientated and confused due to the slow pace of his movements and the way in which he speaks. ‘Oooohhh’ suggests a slurred speech that is associated with disorientation. The mid shot allows the audience to witness the poor state of the environment of the characters and the main character. The additional soundtrack in the background creates a slow and disorientated atmosphere that further supports the idea that the characters in the household are lower class citizens.

At six seconds of the clip, the audience are presented with the other characters of the family. The male children of the family appear to be wearing fairly mainstream clothing that allow them to stand out from the lower class society and attempt to enter a middle class society. Although, one character is not wearing any trousers which suggests idleness and the lack of money needed to purchase more clothing. The female character is presented in a dressing gown which further supports the idea that the family are having money issues and therefore impacting the clothing choices of the children. Additionally, she is holding and feeding a baby that could possibly be her son or daughter. This again refers to the lower class society as some teenage pregnancies occur due to a parent living in a lower class society. Teenage mothers are associated with being poor, unemployed and stressed. The setting of the living area of where the characters are sitting in appears to be similar to a garage due the painted wall on the left, and the grey brick work on the right. The curtains are drawn which emphasises that the characters prefer to live in a darkened environment. And similarly to before, the room is cluttered with empty glass bottles and other discarded items.

As the father character is speaking, his arm gesture suggests that he is talking directly to his family, the wide distance between his arms suggest that his family is large. The slow speech continues here which suggests that the character is still disorientated. A handheld camera is used throughout the scene, this emphasises that there may be a possible tension in the family. As the father character speaks, the words that he is saying are slurred or repeated. This shows that the character is unintelligent and he is trying to use longer vocabulary to allow him to sound more intelligent and appear more like a father figure rather than alcoholic. An over the shoulder shot allows one of the sons to talk back to the father by contradicting his father’s speech. The hand held camera emphasises the tension between the father character and his son. The camera shakes more violently as the sibling faces up to his father and the conversation escalates. The father pauses to emphasise that he is clueless of thinking of a comeback to the point risen by his son and responds with an immature and sarcastic ‘I don’t know smartarse you’re the one with the answers’. This shows that the character is not portrayed as a father figure, but more of an older child. Another over the shoulder shot is included to allow the other siblings to join in with the conversation. To further support the idea that the father is appeared to be immature, it becomes evident that the character has edited details about a house to impress his family. In response to this, the father responds angrily by expressing through hand and arm gestures and facial expressions. Editing is used here, such as jump cuts to continue to idea that the character may be ‘crazy’ and tilting of the camera to create a sensation that expresses the insanity of the character.

Despite the argument, the female character raises the point that the family want to stay together by living in the same house. Following this response from the female character, a calm, tranquil soundtrack is introduced to create the realism that the family want to stay together.  The camera zooms in the characters to capture the expressions of the characters so that they can express their own thoughts and opinions. This creates a large pause to allow the father to come to terms with the situation. This generates that a ‘lesson’ is learnt here and strangely it targets the children rather than the father. This contradicts the idea of the conversation as the character that is needing to learn from a lesson is the father as he is meant to be responsible for his children and put them first instead of himself. The character appears distressed as he explains how being a father and telling lies to his children is a ‘job’.

The concluding scene opens with an up beating soundtrack that is included to raise the spirits of the children as a new home is introduced. The darkened lighting emphasises how the family have sunk to a new low by essentially downgrading themselves from a house to a caravan. A panning movement is used to quickly change from a scene of the caravan to a scene of the family. This allows the audience to witness their reaction to this. The father character continues to try and sound intelligent by using large vocabulary which again become slurred and not understandable on occasions. As a close up of the female character is displayed, it becomes clear that she is disappointed with his father as he already knew that it was not a house and therefore parts her mouth and shakes her head in disappointment. As the father continues to talk, the close up of a turtle moving closer to the road is displayed. This is used to eliminate the other characters from this part of the scene and focus on the turtle. This eventually shows that the family is unaware that an awkward event will soon occur. Quick cuts are used to change from when the turtle is being run over to the father continuing his conversation. It is not until a crushing sound effect of the turtle’s shell that a member of the family realise that the turtle is a priority and has now met its doom. They immediately assume that the animal was attempting to find its way home and eliminate the fact that none of the family were watching it to prevent an event like this from happening. Following this, an estate agent appears and explains that a buyer has been found. He then presents the father with the money which leads to a negative response. A close up shows the negative response from the father by focusing on his face. His mouth is parted and a blank expression is left on his face. The estate agent continues to talk whilst the camera focuses on the father. Unaware of the children laughing at the father from behind his back the father begins to join in, thus bringing together the family. The clip concludes with an aerial shot of the scene thus emphasising how low the characters are in modern society.

How Class and Status is Represented with the Other 6 Areas or Representation

Age - Class and status of characters are impacted by their age. For example, young people and children are unable to be higher class because it depends on the amount of money that the parents have. The larger the amount, the higher social class they are in. Upper class children are represented as spoilt and obnoxious. Lower class and middle class children are represented as being thankful and grateful. Older people are represented as aragont and more successful than other people from other social classes. 

Ethnicity - Ethnicity has no impact on the social class of characters. This is due to people being treated as equals to prevent any racism in TV Drama. There is no link of class and status to ethnicity.

Sexuality - The sexuality of a character does not determine their social class. However, there are some occasions when both genders may be identified as being in upper class due to them being aristocrats and inheriting money. The link between class and status and sexuality is not obvious. 

Gender - In TV Drama, men are associated with being more successful than women as they are considered to make more money than women. This stereotype is active in all three social classes. Due to men being more successful and earning more, they and their families can move up the social hierarchy, therefore positioning themselves in a different social class. 

Physical Ability / Disability - The physical ability or disability of a character is not so much affected by their social class. However, a disabled person can be considered to be lower in social class due to their disadvantage to an able bodied person. But if a disabled character was to be brought into a rich, upper class family, then the character would not be affected and so they would stay in the upper class.

Regional Identity - Regional Identity does play a part in the positioning of characters in their social class. TV Dramas show that a small minority of 'Londoners' are considered to be upper class due to their current location and wealth. Whereas the majority are represented as being in lower and middle class due to poor surroundings in London, crime and lack of wealth. This is impacted in other areas of the UK as well, but mainly London.