![]() Satellite City was a sitcom that ran on BBC Wales between 19. To this day, nothing has captured that spirit quite like Satellite City. Placed in an eternal quandary of "if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry", the Valleys has consistently opted to laugh. When my late grandpa – Elvis rest his soul – got so drunk that the landlady confiscated his car keys and, rather than sleeping it off, he simply stole a horse from a nearby field, rode it home and tied it up in the garden for my nan to deal with in the morning, it was not considered "sad". There is a warmth and surrealism to daily life that doesn’t square with the Ken Loach-ification of working-class narratives. On the other hand, it’s probably the funniest place on earth. ![]() People’s sense of possibility is shot, child poverty is through the roof and local infrastructure is so bad you still can’t get from Merthyr Tydfil to Cardiff (two major commercial hubs) without answering Transport for Wales’ riddles three. Besides the benefits of a much greener landscape as nature reclaims the sites of former collieries, not much has changed since the 80s. On the one hand, the area has been gutted by a ruthless motorcade of Thatcherism, neoliberalism and austerity, leaving a gulf of opportunity filled mostly by military propaganda and alcoholism. The duality of the South Wales Valleys is particularly hard to define.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |