Monday, October 19, 2009

Armstrong & Miller: no longer too posh

The BBC comedy duo Armstrong & Miller were told sometime in the late 90s that they would never get their own tv show because they were "too posh". Now their latest series, on primetime BBC1, has been both eagerly anticipated and received. Hurrah for the boys.

Their most popular running sketch is two RAF men with the look and diction of the Second World War but the language of modern teenagers ("So iz you saying you iz going to shoot us all up with guns and this and that and everything else?"). The point they make is clear: the respect we had for the brave young men of the war is aeons apart from our feelings towards modern teenagers. And yet, perhaps all that is different between them is language (all that is different between *anyone* is language). Those young men in 1940 were just as insouciant, foolhardy and determined to resist authority as they are now.

...Or were they? Are the questions more about leadership, upbringing, education, a sense of belonging, purpose and direction? Have we once again placed upon the issue of class the greater social ills of our country? Iz it, you know, because I is posh?

PS I can't make a link work but if you go to www.youtube.com, type in 'armstrong & miller RAF' and watch the one about the broken leg...

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