Skint is something that I never really thought that I would watch but after hearing a lot from social media and having watched the two previous episodes on 4OD basically back-to-back the other day and found it so fascinating that I was keen to catch last nights episode and was parked in front of the TV eagerly waiting for it to start. I was hooked on the show from the moment that the narrator uttered "Scunthorpe... Aside from having a dirty word in its name..." (I'll let you go back and read it again)
From the Tweets and Facebook statuses that I've seen I was expecting Skint to deliver a damming verdict of the working class that would show us the kind of behaviour that we have been accustomed to seeing on shows such as The Jeremy Kyle Show, Shameless and to a lesser extent things such as Cops on Camera. This so called "Chav-o-Vision" that some commentators on the left say is turning us against each other and helping dismantle the welfare state rather than focusing all of our energies on attacking the 1% they so desperately believe are the only problem in this world at the moment (See Phil Thornton on Independent voices for a rather damming verdict of working class portrayal). Now don't get me wrong there was plenty of drinking, smoking, foul language, large broods and drug taking but everything was framed so specifically, dealt with so evenly that I went through a very mixed bag of emotions that I wasn't quite sure how I felt about the Westcliffe Estate.
The show started as it does every week at "The wall" the central gathering point on the estate and a thriving black market for the residents where anything can be obtained for a price. As the camera mingles amongst those at the wall one of them gives a rather damming description of what it means to be on benefits that would have been as equally at home in a comment thread on the Daily Mail website. It's the usual stuff that we see about the working class simply condescending voyeurism, is it simply that it is lazy documentary filmmaking? Is it the actuality that cannot be avoided? Or are channel trying to show us that "the poor" are a social problem that need addressing? (how they're not sure - but that's your job mr politician)
We return to Dean, something of a personality that could (and should) have his own show in the future. His family are heading on a holiday to a caravan park and does his best audition for a role as a presenter on Location, Location, Location with hilarious consequences. You can tell that the two parents love their children and although their discipline is often harsh and some exchanges between Dean and his step son in a middle class environment might raise some eyebrows they are doing the best they can in what must be a difficult situation. What I would love for Channel 4 to do is return to the family in six months time when the coalitions welfare reforms can really be felt and see how they are coping with only £53 a week. I can imagine that belts would have been tightened further but Dean and his family will still be a united front and be going about a similar routine.
The hardest watch of the night had to be Kieron, a drug addicted shop lifter whose insistence that he is clean is rather different from a reality where his eyes swivel in his sockets and his speech is so slurred you're often trying to unpick his words from the last sentence as he starts the next. At the moment in the hostel when he explains why he first started taking drugs you understand why he is in the situation that he's found himself in and can really identify with his predicament. The most tragic part of the night is when he is thrown out of his sheltered accommodation and the crew return to see him put up a tent, that never feels like he legitimately acquired, already out of his box on a fistful of valium that he's taken it's a struggle but he manages. As the crew leave him alone in the park that he calls his bed for the night he begins lighting up a cigarette, not a great idea in something made of mostly flammable materials. The camera pulled out to show him alone in the park and the commentary said something about him getting back on his feet. What I was expecting to happen was the tent to burst into flames and the camera crew rushing in to try and save him but ultimately then realising that he was probably better off dead.
One of the story arcs that I found most fascinating last night was that of Dean's step-son leaving school. We found out that he has flunked out of school with one lone D at GCSE. He seems content and just plays on the playstation as he confesses to camera about his grades. One of his options was the army, he was in the cadets and seemed keen on the forces as a future career. The documentary made reference to the fact that there is an army recruitment office in most poor working class areas making a possible slight at the forces only taking young men and women from deprived backgrounds as they have no other choice. If I were Dean's step son the army would be a very alluring prospect, it would take me away from the dangers of the estate, get me a good education and broaden my horizons. However, in another narrative he could return from a combat zone a broken man with PTSD and simply slide back to life at the wall.
Finally the evening ended on a high with a cage fighting father looking for success in the ring to help bring his family everything that he wanted such as trips to the zoo and the amazing birthday's they deserve. In the ring it wasn't to be as he lost the fight but everything felt very much like the end of Act II of his story where he was going to overcome the odds in Act III and give the audience the resolution that we wanted for him. Finally it came in him getting a job working in a warehouse and he gushed to camera about how this Christmas was going to be the best ever and you genuinely felt for him. Could it be that this shows the compelling power of sport or was it simply a way to have us happy at the end that something has worked out for someone in a situation where there is far more bleakness than hope?
At the end of the show I felt almost exhausted by what I had gone through. Ultimately I like the residents on the estate, they had all be humanised but they had their problems that I'm sure will anger those on the right and those on the left equally. Trawling through the tweets on the #skint the episode was widely received as yet another chance to demonise the working class and a few took their shots at the welfare system as expected, others aimed high obviously like me seeing the human side to the residents, and the trolls aimed low as they always do. However, the discussion about Skint goes further with Humberside Police issuing a statement about the programme and a local school trying to bring the Producers to account at a meeting after many of the students being distressed about what they have seen on TV.
Ultimately Skint is just the next in a line of programmes that will come out over the next few years that could be considered "Poverty Porn". I don't take the leftist line in believing that this is "State propaganda" and nor do I believe those on the right who think that this is a call to arms to dismantle the welfare state to stop the commoners "breading and smoking their drugs". It's just another piece of sensationalist documentary that Channel 4, by remit, is required to produce (See Dogging Tales, Big Fat Gypsy [insert anything here], The Undatables... The list goes on) plus showing a working class family just getting on with life on the corner of the estate wouldn't make compelling TV - they'd just be like the rest of us, and who the hell wants to watch sane, rational, normal people on TV anymore?
Finally, at the end did Channel 4 go all post modern? As the woman walking past the park blurted out: "What are you looking at yearh f***ing perv?" I suddenly realised that for an hour I had been watching an intrusion into someone else's life for no other reason than I kinda wanted to know how "the other half lived" it was a strange experience but I enjoyed it and am looking forward to next week already!
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| Dean and a very small section of his huge family. |
The show started as it does every week at "The wall" the central gathering point on the estate and a thriving black market for the residents where anything can be obtained for a price. As the camera mingles amongst those at the wall one of them gives a rather damming description of what it means to be on benefits that would have been as equally at home in a comment thread on the Daily Mail website. It's the usual stuff that we see about the working class simply condescending voyeurism, is it simply that it is lazy documentary filmmaking? Is it the actuality that cannot be avoided? Or are channel trying to show us that "the poor" are a social problem that need addressing? (how they're not sure - but that's your job mr politician)
We return to Dean, something of a personality that could (and should) have his own show in the future. His family are heading on a holiday to a caravan park and does his best audition for a role as a presenter on Location, Location, Location with hilarious consequences. You can tell that the two parents love their children and although their discipline is often harsh and some exchanges between Dean and his step son in a middle class environment might raise some eyebrows they are doing the best they can in what must be a difficult situation. What I would love for Channel 4 to do is return to the family in six months time when the coalitions welfare reforms can really be felt and see how they are coping with only £53 a week. I can imagine that belts would have been tightened further but Dean and his family will still be a united front and be going about a similar routine.
The hardest watch of the night had to be Kieron, a drug addicted shop lifter whose insistence that he is clean is rather different from a reality where his eyes swivel in his sockets and his speech is so slurred you're often trying to unpick his words from the last sentence as he starts the next. At the moment in the hostel when he explains why he first started taking drugs you understand why he is in the situation that he's found himself in and can really identify with his predicament. The most tragic part of the night is when he is thrown out of his sheltered accommodation and the crew return to see him put up a tent, that never feels like he legitimately acquired, already out of his box on a fistful of valium that he's taken it's a struggle but he manages. As the crew leave him alone in the park that he calls his bed for the night he begins lighting up a cigarette, not a great idea in something made of mostly flammable materials. The camera pulled out to show him alone in the park and the commentary said something about him getting back on his feet. What I was expecting to happen was the tent to burst into flames and the camera crew rushing in to try and save him but ultimately then realising that he was probably better off dead.
One of the story arcs that I found most fascinating last night was that of Dean's step-son leaving school. We found out that he has flunked out of school with one lone D at GCSE. He seems content and just plays on the playstation as he confesses to camera about his grades. One of his options was the army, he was in the cadets and seemed keen on the forces as a future career. The documentary made reference to the fact that there is an army recruitment office in most poor working class areas making a possible slight at the forces only taking young men and women from deprived backgrounds as they have no other choice. If I were Dean's step son the army would be a very alluring prospect, it would take me away from the dangers of the estate, get me a good education and broaden my horizons. However, in another narrative he could return from a combat zone a broken man with PTSD and simply slide back to life at the wall.
Finally the evening ended on a high with a cage fighting father looking for success in the ring to help bring his family everything that he wanted such as trips to the zoo and the amazing birthday's they deserve. In the ring it wasn't to be as he lost the fight but everything felt very much like the end of Act II of his story where he was going to overcome the odds in Act III and give the audience the resolution that we wanted for him. Finally it came in him getting a job working in a warehouse and he gushed to camera about how this Christmas was going to be the best ever and you genuinely felt for him. Could it be that this shows the compelling power of sport or was it simply a way to have us happy at the end that something has worked out for someone in a situation where there is far more bleakness than hope?
At the end of the show I felt almost exhausted by what I had gone through. Ultimately I like the residents on the estate, they had all be humanised but they had their problems that I'm sure will anger those on the right and those on the left equally. Trawling through the tweets on the #skint the episode was widely received as yet another chance to demonise the working class and a few took their shots at the welfare system as expected, others aimed high obviously like me seeing the human side to the residents, and the trolls aimed low as they always do. However, the discussion about Skint goes further with Humberside Police issuing a statement about the programme and a local school trying to bring the Producers to account at a meeting after many of the students being distressed about what they have seen on TV.
Ultimately Skint is just the next in a line of programmes that will come out over the next few years that could be considered "Poverty Porn". I don't take the leftist line in believing that this is "State propaganda" and nor do I believe those on the right who think that this is a call to arms to dismantle the welfare state to stop the commoners "breading and smoking their drugs". It's just another piece of sensationalist documentary that Channel 4, by remit, is required to produce (See Dogging Tales, Big Fat Gypsy [insert anything here], The Undatables... The list goes on) plus showing a working class family just getting on with life on the corner of the estate wouldn't make compelling TV - they'd just be like the rest of us, and who the hell wants to watch sane, rational, normal people on TV anymore?
Finally, at the end did Channel 4 go all post modern? As the woman walking past the park blurted out: "What are you looking at yearh f***ing perv?" I suddenly realised that for an hour I had been watching an intrusion into someone else's life for no other reason than I kinda wanted to know how "the other half lived" it was a strange experience but I enjoyed it and am looking forward to next week already!
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