The Syndicate - A Typically Narrow Minded View of t' North

After the first series of the four part BBC drama 'The Syndicate' I was glad to see it back with a new cast of characters because I think it is always interesting to see the concept of money making a change. I just had one niggle, it was set 'up my way' again in t'north and it bothered me for some reason. I understand that that format worked the first time but it is perpetuating some kind of stereotype. I enjoy it as a program but the Northern wife beating husband just got to me a tiny little bit, I thought we were past this BBC, domestic violence happens in the South too and not just London south (hello Eastenders) the 'posh' parts too.

Domestic violence isn't a crime exclusive to northerners, members of the lower classes or men if we are really going to dissect this. I love that the BBC is showing a bit more of Britain than London or middle class rural communities (often in the south) in this drama and maybe as the stories develop and we get to know the characters and their respective back-stories it will all make sense and there will be some explanations. But it doesn't fail to bother me just a tiny little bit that the Yorkshire Bastard getting pissed on the sofa and beating up his wife is once again being thrown out into the world of televisual drama, we Yorkshirites might be able to laugh at this because of course in every group of Yorkshire women one will be beaten by their arse-hole husbands (this is not true just to clarify) but I don't want southerners to be sat there smugly looking down their noses at us, BECAUSE TELEVISION ISN'T REAL LIFE. I see how that could make me appear slightly hypocritical after getting on my high horse about something that happened on a drama program, but I do think it does show a tiny little lack of originality. Can I just add that they tend to only feature Yorkshire accent on slightly slow or rude people? I promise, having a Yorkshire accent does not mean you are less intelligent.

It is no longer something that gives a character an edge because as a viewer we have seen it all before, it was such a predictable format I pretty much acknowledged it as fact from the way he was standing. I think they really should have gone the whole hog, not just the bottles of beer but a pie in one hand, fag hanging out of his mouth, a tractor in the back garden and dropping t's and h's like nobody's business. All in all it doesn't make for the greatest tourism campaign.This is Bronte Country and where Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights were set. We have some gorgeous hills guys...

I think in general there is this massive misconception of 'up in t'North'. Whenever the region is portrayed on T.V they paint it so much more grey than anywhere in the country, and with endless council estates (People Like Us). And they don't even distinguish from Lancashire and Yorkshire! It's also quite sad that we're getting all excited over the fact that something is actually based 'up North' because normally the BBC (and other companies) seem to think that London, and maybe  few small towns are the only parts of the civilized world. Maybe it is a subtle cry for help from all the Beebs people who have been forced to move to the mean streets of Salford. Because Manchester is so uncivilised and there most definitely isn't everything you can get in London in Manchester?