BBC woman on the street interview, 1977

This is beyond fabulous. Thanks for sharing.

I love her.

When working people had dignity, maturity, self-respect and wisdom gained from life.

Classy Bird

I don't know what happened to these sorts of people.

My grandmother was like this--poor as dirt, from the midwest, dropped out of high school to join the WACS. (She lied about her age.)

She was uneducated (formally), but she read newspapers and magazines (thrown away/borrowed from the library), watched PBS and listened to NPR like her life depended on it.

What an incredible find. Thanks for sharing.

What a delightful woman. She was probably a child during the blitz . Think of what she surely must have witnessed. Theres no shame in being less well off than others,unfortunately its seen as a social stigma these days. My grandmother always talked about a lady she knew in Cuba who was as poor as a church mouse . Her husband was a farm hand who supported her and 4 kids . Their house was literally a shack ,but my grandma (solidly middle class ) said that was the cleanest house in Cuba. And their clothes,though not new,were always immaculate. If you knew my grandmother that was very high praise indeed. She thought everyone was filthy !

R5, I was thinking of my parents and their friends as I was watching this. I thought, though, that she might be a bit too young. None of them had more than a high school education but smart as hell, very wise about life, had a class and dignity to their everyday life and new what was really important.

R3

Thank god for the subtitles. I couldn’t understand a word that creature was saying. Also, I was so distracted by those typical British teeth.

I'm happily surprised to see so many positive comments. One never knows at the DL, but I thought she was fabulous too.

Waste of 5 fukin minutes.

Here is the show the lady was referring to when she mentioned her children's first words were "Bill" and "Ben".

Bill and Ben, the Flower Pot Men. With their little friend Weeeeeeeeeed!

Eileen Fowler....

Asking as an American: Do accents like hers still exist in London? I like them.

Women like this made a living wage from being a waitress.

No more. Such jobs are now considered to be for unskilled losers to take until they move onto the next thing.

R9 Then you have hearing problems. I didn't need the subtitles at all and found them distracting.

[quote] Dot Cotton

Immediately who I thought of when I saw this!

(In case you guys are interested, this video came from the Twitter account of the BBC Archive.)

R18 That's already rather clear with the OP image, which says BBC Archive on Twitter

[quote]Asking as an American: Do accents like hers still exist in London? I like them.

Yes, they do.

Funny, I live in Hammersmith, West London and the local accent is much quieter, more subdued. Whereas North London, they speak much more loudly, more spirited.

People like her, from the East End of London at that time, have mostly moved away from the East End to Essex. (Essex is a bit like London's New Jersey).

But the Essex accent has taken on a life of its own.

I've lived in England. She's right. The working class is very proud of its ignorance and crass. If you try and serve them something 'fancy' or above their usual standards, they will reject it and attack you.

This lady is probably “upper lower-class”. She’s a Londoner after all, living in the cosmopolitan capital of the country (a European capital). Poor people in London are still generally a bit more rich and open-minded than poor people in the rest of the country (e.g. Newcastle).

London also has plenty of world-class cultural events. So even if London’s East Enders have never been to e.g. the Royal Ballet, etc, they still know more about it than an average poor person in, say, Blackpool. Simply because it’s all located in their city, London.

R9, what R16 said. This from an American who has spent a lot of time in London on business, lived with an English lover for about a year but still often needs to turn on subtitles while watching British TV or movies.

My elderly mother sometimes can't follow American movies "What did they just say?" - Americans have a tendency to swallow their words, especially if it's a word they say very often. New York becomes NYUK etc or NurK even.

Upper: denture

Loser: original toofies.

[quote]but still often needs to turn on subtitles while watching British TV or movies.

British actors don't seem to learn diction anymore. When I trained as an actor it was the first thing you learnt. It was a constant and it was a good thing. Also so many British films and TV shows now focus on the poor, regional working classes. I don't bother watching them anymore. Gurl, NO!

R22, you should give your thoughts time to fully gestate before typing and/or speaking.

That's absolutely Kenneth Williams in drag.

R27, you should define and formulate your criticism before touching your keyboard. No one understands what your criticism is even about.

Great lady.

R30 = her son.

Those of you struggling with her accent wouldn’t have a hope parsing more rural British dialects.

You’d be scratching your head more furiously than Wiltshire chap trying to read Varest Spake (Forest of Dean dialect).

Post-WW2 England was grim. The class system was still in place.

[quote] My elderly mother sometimes can't follow American movies "What did they just say?" - Americans have a tendency to swallow their words, especially if it's a word they say very often. New York becomes NYUK etc or NurK even.

The Rural Juror

When I lived in NYC in the 80s, us Brits were JUST still a novelty with our accents and people would often make admiring comments. But you couldn't fall on it - there would also be people who were IRRITATED by my accent... "Wha'?!!"

After a while I began to Americanize my speech. Comments became a bore either way.

If I ever go back I'll know how to talk, having been a DLer for so long...I'll say "Gurl, puhlease!"..."that whore is trash!" and "Omigad he's SUPER-HOT!" and I'll fit right in.

I don't find that lady's accent hard to understand at all. In fact, to my native New York ears, she sounds pretty clear.

I wonder if she would have found the “homosex” a bit shocking???

She’s a nice lady, but it does remind one that those were days when we weren’t invited to the party!

[quote]I don't find that lady's accent hard to understand at all. In fact, to my native New York ears, she sounds pretty clear.

Some NYers find it very easy to follow and never say "Wha'?"

If you can't understand her, you have very lazy ears.

[quote]I wonder if she would have found the “homosex” a bit shocking???

Depends on her experience. Probably not. She seems quite bright and open minded. Interested in life.

Amazing! Thanks for posting this OP. Sometimes I think that we are decelerating as a species in many ways. Yes we have more technology but it seems like we have lost our zest and humanness. As much as I find modern technology useful I do often miss the days when I was without so much of it. Thanks for reminding me of simpler times.

Oddly, she sounds a great deal like Katherine Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby -- seriously.

Here's an interesting man on the street interview about metrification. Very expressive!

This is an incredible street interview. A reporter is interviewing random people about a classic Liverpool (football) game and the elderly man turns out to be the Liverpool goalkeeper in that game. He 's the nicest most humble man, which makes it all the more awesome.

The ladies make me understand Monty Python better.

Here's a longer piece about it or those interested. -R43

Party tricks

Lovely old broad. Bit of a prude in hindsight, but this was when Mr Humphries in Are You Being Served was never outright gay - it was merely suggested. Different times.

Even though she’s just casually chatting, I’m struck by her self-awareness and, above all, her eloquence. Nowadays people can barely string three words together without tripping over their own tongue.

Everything is either “great” or “bad” these days, and my generation (yes, millennial) has bought into the infantilisation of society, like being basic is a virtue.

I’m southeastern American and think her enunciation is clear as a bell. I love her thoughtfulness and the organized way she expresses herself. I don’t know many people that can deliver such a well-rounded description of anything on the spot like that. It’s so old fashioned and indicative of a better educated populace from all tiers of society. No “like” every other word or vocal fry—imagine such a world!

[quote] I wonder if she would have found the “homosex” a bit shocking???

[quote] Depends on her experience. Probably not. She seems quite bright and open minded. Interested in life.

Of course she would find it “shocking”. She scrunched up her nose even when mentioning heterosexual sex scenes and said she found straight sex scenes gratuitous and better left to the imagination! If she was that bemused even by vanilla straight sex scenes - imagine her shock at BAREBACK homosex scenes in “Bareback Mountain”, lol.

I wonder what she would have thought about fisting and rimming?

I didn't mean how she'd respond to scenes of full on BAREBACK homosex in a movie, R49. Gurl, puhlease!

Funny though. I just joined Amazon Prime UK and she's talking about TV plays etc. and I've watched a couple of 1970s TV plays on there these past few days. One I even remembered, from 1976, about a lesbian relationship (see pic.) which is pretty full-on and a gay male one with the guys in bed together, from 1979.

I remember those days as a kid sitting there watching this stuff with my parents...feeling quite embarrassed, but interested in these adult themes. We used to have several original dramas on TV every week. With top writers and actors. We've gone backwards since then.

Our TV and the TV she watched was pretty adult and mature in those days.

And this way the gay male one - Nigel Havers was one of the guys! He played it a bit swish.

R26 I have no problem with shows focusing on the regional lower classes. I don’t have a problem understanding most regional British accents. My problem is that for some reason many middle class actors have come to the conclusion that to appear lower class they must mumble every line. It is becoming popular in US productions as well, and it needs to stop. For one thing, have they ever been around the lower classes? They are loud, they don’t mumble. Secondly, mumbling doesn’t work for acting, the audience needs to hear what you are saying. If I was the writer of one of these shows, I would be very upset at the actors mumbling my words.

Remarkably well-spoken. There's a time for slangy chat, but she comes across better than no small no. of people on the BBC.

She mentions Johnny Spreight at the end and was saying she preferred traditional humor to his style. For context and comparison for US readers, Johnny created the UK forerunner to All In The Family.

Interesting to hear her say that. She seemed very rooted in the moment in some ways, traditional in others, but interesting to hear her thoughts.

Another fascinating bit.

Oh, she's a delight. Thank you, r56.

R56 Aunt Laura wanted to be a chorus girl. She’s one of us!

Softbutch twins Muriel & Marie chucking drunks out of the cinema is the most glorious hilarious image. The toff host hedging his way through saying “Bingo and..SEX exploitation” has me going as well.

That cinema @ R56 still exists.

[quote]Asking as an American: Do accents like hers still exist in London? I like them.

Accents like hers didn't really exist even then. She's an east ender trying to sound a bit more like the RP announcers on the BBC back then. It sounds contrived, like when the BBC had its usual retinue of posh actors in kitchen sink plays try do to working class and not quite managing it. The later clip with the vox pops talking about decimalisation has more natural sounding contributors.

She’s fine. What I find most interesting about this is hearing her focus on television, and how the way she describes it is so similar to how someone just a little older than I am might describe the Internet or how I might describe smartphones. Even though I am aware it happened that way, it’s hard to imagine TV being revolutionary enough to change lifestyles and to be seen as both a marvel and a disruption to a better way of interacting with human beings.

Great thread! People have changed in 40+ years, haven't they!

OP’s woman speaks like Martine McCutcheon’s Tiff did in EASTENDERS.

Sorry r59, but the theater no longer exists...

[quote] In January 1979 a heavy downfall of snow caused the roof to collapse which meant the end for the cinema. It was then demolished and the site replaced with industrial units and recreation land. Films are still screened in the town, under the title Marsden’s Electric Theatre Cinema, at the Marsden Musical Institute in Marsden Lane and the Marsden Mechanics in Peel Street.

I wish this world had more people like that lady. She was charming, literate, and well spoken. She held herself with such grace. She was very interesting and was a remarkable conversationalist.

It's Lynn Redgrave's mum!

There was a woman who would probably interest you guys called Margaret Powell. I can't remember how she was discovered but she wrote a book in the '60s about having been a servant. Good book and she became a bit of a celeb. Always on the TV. Even made a commercial (see below).

She even cut a single (see link).

Shows how making celebs about of ordinary people isn't a new thing.

And, just like now, they sent her to America of course.

Also interesting is her noting that tv brought people together. When there was one small tv in the house, the family would gather around and share the experience. Now, we are each isolated in our own world, watching multiple screens.

^ Was everyone just fapping alone in their rooms, like always?

Somehow this thread got focused on her accent, which is unfortunate. What was most interesting and informative was what she said and her whole demeanor. She really had a lot to say, was perceptive and engaged with life, very articulate and exuded this kindness and wisdom. Thanks OP.

My grandfather never finished high school, worked in mines his whole life, and died way too young.

But he read books, played music, and made every effort to be as informed and educated as possible. And he was kind to others.

We now have people who willfully stay ignorant. Her curiosity and smart observations seem so much more powerful in that context.

More Eileen Fowler....

There's a satirical 1953 Ealing movie called "Meet Mr. Lucifer", which is about the negative impact of television in various British households. Her comments are interesting and more positive.

R73, no one in my parents' generation went beyond high school. Now that I think of it, I'm not sure even of my mother ever finished high school, I think not. They all read the paper everyday, my mother read novels, she watched Jeopardy and was really good at it, all of them were responsible adults who made really good decisions about a lot of things. My mother loved "good movies" and we would all watch the classics from the 30s and 40s, which were really well written and well acted.

All of this became deplorable in the late 60s.

[quote]I love her thoughtfulness and the organized way she expresses herself. I don’t know many people that can deliver such a well-rounded description of anything on the spot like that.

I had the same thoughts while watching the clip.

The woman never searched for words, never stumbled, it's as if she were doing a theatre piece.

[quote]I don’t know many people that can deliver such a well-rounded description of anything on the spot like that.

I doubt that I could.

R77, et al, she never second guesses herself, "This is how it is as I see it." Most of what she says is based on factual experience and it is what she relates, the rest is commentary. She trusts her insights.

Maggie can....

[quote] I love her thoughtfulness and the organized way she expresses herself. I don’t know many people that can deliver such a well-rounded description of anything on the spot like that.

This is the advantage of living in a community--either a small town or large city, but not the suburbs--where people take public transport, have a favorite bar, go to church/synagogue, live with lots of family members, and are always talking.

Interesting thread. Love the lady in the OP.

I wonder what she makes of Dawson’s Weekend Dramas? 🎭

Telly on fire!

I think she's tremendous!

R15, And we just lost our Peggy, too!

I can't help but think that the usual American bias toward British accents comes into play here. If I posted a video of a US flyover frau yammering on about her teevee it would be panned, I'm sure.

Just try finding anyone in the US today who could be that thoughtful and articulate off the cuff in their thoughts even among TV pundits. It is very very rare.

Hundreds of millions of adult Americans, all of them completely retarded. While the events of the last four years are a good argument in your favor, I just can't believe that every single working class American is inferior to that Londoner. The American love affair with British accents needs to stop. May and Boris were pretty effective in squashing my own Anglophilia. They are just as dumb as us, sorry folks.

I wish they had asked her about double penetration😳