Representation of Regional Identity

Representation of Regional Identity

 

Regional Identity refers to the part of the United Kingdom someone is from. It could refer to a general area such a “north” or “south”, a country such as “English” or “Scottish” or specific towns such as “London” or “Manchester.”

There are several regional stereotypes widely seen on television:

•Scottish – often shown as being money obsessed, won’t pay for anything, drinks a lot of alcohol, loves the outdoors, wears kilts, eats haggis, quite aggressive and violent

•Welsh –Often shown as living in the middle of the countryside, less intelligent, good at singing (Male voice choirs),with people making jokes about them “shagging sheep” - 

Stella she has a quite easy job that does not require much labour as she may be seen as less intelligent. The programme is also set in a small Village in Wales called Pontyberry.

• Irish – often shown as living in the countryside, working in rural areas such as farms, being very religious, being good at dancing and singing (love a good craic), very friendly but less intelligent

• English – often shown as being racist (think St George cross on houses or cars), obsessed with beer and football living in London. Sometimes the stereotype goes in the opposite direction of showing English people as very rich, posh, happy, living in castles and being very “royal.”

•London – There are two main stereotypes of Londoners. One is that they are often shown as being rich, posh, snobby, upper class, Hugh Grant types from central or west london. The other is that they often shown as being from north, east or south London, poor, common, lower class, criminalistic, violent “Kidulthood” style
Luther is set in West London  which a upper class part of London and we see this from the way that Luther dresses and the setting and background of some of the shoot. When he visits a house we see it is large and gated which shows the owner must be well off.

•Manchester / Newcastle / Liverpool – Often shown as being “chavs”, wearing fake designer labels, or tracksuits, drinking a lot, being aggressive, uneducated, criminals

• Essex – often shown as being glamorous but cheap, footballer’s wives, lots of partying, being quite stupid

•Yorkshire – Often shown as living in rural countryside, with rolling hills and cobbled streets, being quite old fashioned (despite Yorkshire being the biggest county and containing large cities such as: Leeds, York and Sheffield)
Happy Valley is set in West Yorkshire and it is set in a old fashioned style as we see there is elderly police which shows that it does not keep up with modern times that much.

•Cornwall / Somerset – Often shown as being “backwards”, living in rural areas, working on farms
Doc Martin- We see that he is a elderly man and he is working in a rural village, this represents that a common stereotype in Cornwall.

•South England – often shown as being the centre of culture, modern, classy, clever, sunny, richer, doing middle class jobs where one dresses smartly
The Interceptor- This is set in the south of England and we see that some of the costumes used show that they are well off and the characters are police which shows that they are middle class.

•North England – often shown as being poorer, bad weather, lower class, aggressive, less culture, less clever, doing working class jobs such as builders etcv