BBC's portrayal of working class is 'miserable' claims Melvyn Bragg
The BBC’s portrayal of the working class is ‘miserable’ claims broadcaster Melvyn Bragg
- Bragg says ‘‘These people are [portrayed] as miserable, broke or in despair’
Broadcaster Melvyn Bragg has claimed the BBC is to blame for the portrayal of working class people as ‘miserable’ and ‘in despair’.
Lord Bragg, 83, the son of a publican who grew up in Carlisle, said: ‘I did a book called Back In The Day, which was about my background – white working class.
‘I wanted them to be represented. They’ve always been underestimated.
‘The BBC is probably to blame for this because they only want working class people if they are miserable on their book readings and things, but 70 to 80 per cent of the population comes from much the same background as I do.
‘They’re massively underrepresented. I want to say, “Look, people like this, they worked so hard. And yet they came up from the mines. They came in from factories. And what did they do? They created a huge culture”. That was completely unrecognised.
‘These people are [portrayed] as either miserable, broke or in despair. It wasn’t like that – and it needn’t be like that.’
Broadcaster Melvyn Bragg has claimed the BBC is to blame for the portrayal of working class people as ‘miserable’ and ‘in despair’
He said: ‘I’m not a fan of the working class being mocked, including by some of our famous writers, even by those who came from it’
The Labour peer, who was speaking to Radio Times, started out at the BBC in the early 1960s.
He later worked for ITV on the channel’s flagship arts programme The South Bank Show until it was axed in 2010, transferring to Sky Arts in 2012. Lord Bragg, who has hosted BBC Radio 4 documentary series In Our Time since 1998, first highlighted the poor treatment of ordinary people in 2014.
He said: ‘I’m not a fan of the working class being mocked, including by some of our famous writers, even by those who came from it.
‘All this “it’s grim oop north” sort of stuff. Well, it was a joke once but we’ve got to the stage where the working class has been turned into a cliche – and it deserves a lot better.’
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