Grandma’s House and the Charms of the Petit Bourgeoisie

Abstract

This chapter asks whether the lower-middle-class setting of Simon Amstell’s BBC series Grandma’s House (2010/12) has a more central significance for its plot and aesthetics than is usually acknowledged. Such a formation, defined by Marx as ‘hovering’ between the proletariat and the middle class, is represented ambivalently throughout. The self-reflexive nature of a drama whose star plays a version of himself is inextricable from its class dimension, since it reveals the indispensability of the playwright protagonist Simon’s family to his acquisition of a more elevated social standing. Yet such a status is undercut by the drama’s choice not to portray in negative terms the customary features of lower-middle-class life, such as propriety, aspiration and shame. Rather, Simon’s family, and the mise en scène in terms of which its members are represented, surpasses the bland compromises of the middle-class characters.