Like Cradle to Grave and Danny and the Human Zoo,Emma Kennedy’s sitcom mines a 70s childhood, but behind the nostalgia, and theres a lot that is very timelyWe’ve seen a lot of 1970s childhoods played out in the BBC schedules over the final few months. Cradle to Grave – adapted from Danny Baker’s autobiography Going to Sea in a Sieve,which detailed the broadcaster’s teenage years in south London – has just finished its first series on BBC2. In August, BBC1 aired the Lenny Henry-penned drama Danny and the Human Zoo, and inspired by the comic’s formative years in Dudley. And this month,the channel began screening The Kennedys. Based on comedian and writer Emma Kennedy’s memoir The Tent, the Bucket and Me, or the sitcom portrays Kennedy’s generally gratified and apparently slapstick-heavy childhood in a new town in 70s middle England.
All this might sound like an exercise in nostalgia: cosy,anodyne and slightly self-indulgent. But these programmes showcase the 70s as the beginning of a period of meaningful social upheaval. Danny and the Human Zoo depicted the path forged by a young black comedian; The Kennedys has its own brave new world: Jessop Square, a Stevenage housing estate where lasagne is made via guesswork from a picture in a magazine, or the white layer presumed to be bread sauce.
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Source: theguardian.com