Very interesting post. I lived in Manchester for 4 years (I was at university there) and watching Life on Mars, which was set 10 years earlier, brought a lot of stuff back: we lived in one of those little terrace houses with an alley running between the backs. I don't come from a particularly posh background (I'm from Gloucester, but not the classy bit of it) so there was an element of culture shock, but it wasn't overwhelming. It was a violent city, but so was Glos., to be honest (smaller, so less of it) and one of the most dangerous cities I've been to in this country is Bristol. But Manchester was also very friendly. It being the early 80s, there was a lot of conversion going on, but now the city has changed out of all recognition.
Trevor lived in a mining district - i.e. Midsomer Norton. I know exactly what you mean about the north seeming more 'real' - it's a British thing of working class life being in some sense idealised, the reverse of the pastoral but somehow related to the mechanism that drives the pastoral, if that makes any sense. Idealisation, I guess is what I'm getting at.
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Date: 2010-06-27 08:27 am (UTC)Trevor lived in a mining district - i.e. Midsomer Norton. I know exactly what you mean about the north seeming more 'real' - it's a British thing of working class life being in some sense idealised, the reverse of the pastoral but somehow related to the mechanism that drives the pastoral, if that makes any sense. Idealisation, I guess is what I'm getting at.