The number of Polish people relocating to Britain must have increased the visibility of Poles in the media. It did. However each time I see a Polish character on Britsh tv it leaves me confused, or wondering wtf? Poles may be used as comic relief, for their awkwardness (see The Peep Show series 4). Or to introduce some awkward theme: tn ‘Skins’ (series 1) there’s an unlikely character of ‘Danuta’, member of the unsympathetic private school posh crowd – a big girl with intense sexual appetite for rough men (“chłopy”). And that’s pretty much all about her: she’s got a strange name and behaves in a strange way. She’s posh and un-posh (vulgar) at the same time.
What occurred to me, is that Poles in these productions are never ‘us’. They are ‘them’. They’re not in the cool gang, they’re not befriended by the protagonists. They are somewhere outside, in the background, you see them but don’t actually get to know them or want to get to know them. Their mindframes are unknown and probably uninteresting.
This is similar to how gay people are depicted (or not) in Polish pop-culture. Either comic relief, or plain strange. Does it mean British people have yet to digest the ‘Polish wave’ of recent years?
Do you know other examples of Polish characters appearing currently in British pop-culture?
I have two:
In the 2007 Harry Enfield Paul Whitehouse BBC sketch show Ruddy Hell! It’s Harry and Paul a series of sketches were set in a cafe staffed by two Polish women. Harry Enfield’s character visits the cafe everyday to buy a coffee because he’s in love with the younger Polish girl, but can never bring himself to say anything to her directly. Both women are played by British actresses and speak what sounds like genuine Polish (I wouldn’t know) badly pronounced. They are polite and helpful to Harry’s character but make fun of his awkwardness when he leave the shop. I guess the idea of the joke is that Polish girls are sexy and exotic for English men, who don’t know how to approach them, but tend to laugh at the British behind their backs. Neither are things that have ever struck me as particularly true, but it wasn’t a very good series anyway.
In the Jack Dee sitcom Lead Balloon there is a Polish ‘maid’ called Magda. She is also played by a British actress and, although she puts on an ‘eastern European’ accent, it doesn’t sound anything like genuine Polish-accented English. In fact, trivia fans, the actress who plays Magda, Anna Crilly, went to school with my sister who says that she’s been doing that particular ‘comedy’ accent since she was eleven. The Magda character is gloomy and generally unconcerned about everything, more of an old-fashioned Nordic stereotype than a Polish one. In fact, I’m not even convinced that she is ever identified as Polish, but most people probably assume that she is.
I’m sure there are others, but I’m a bit out of touch with British TV these days. Did anyone see Michael Palin’s New Europe episode on Poland?
To answer your other question, yes we are still in the process of digesting the Polish wave. The bulk of Polish immigrants live in London or other big cities where the locals are used to having foreigners around, so it’s not a big deal. Out in suburbia there is little contact and little understanding, not unsurprisingly. I suspect there is also little understanding among the 40-something generation who write and produce these shows too.
Does Joanna Kanska qualify anywhere here? Her Polish accent was used to serve as Sirkka Nieminen’s Scandinavian (?) accent.
I also remember enjoying Kaz [Kazinsky] in the so-titled American series that you’re all too young to know. Why do I mention Kaz? Well, there’s another Kazinsky, a flesh-and-blood one, in soap-and-blood East Enders.
Newer stuff, there’s Sto Lat by Pterry.
Darth: The city of Sto Lat was named after “Sto Lat”! I suspect foul play. Are you in any way related/identical to prohibitonions the dude who added this to the Wiki page? Knowing your predilection for multiple personalities it wouldn’t surprise me.
Could be true.
Island, I’ve collated twenty plus Discworld novels English vs Polish version for sheer fun and some dictionary-making purposes, so am quite positive I saw “Sto Lat” in the original Pterryverse. I’ve never made any Wiki though.
Plus you can see the name mentioned here, too.
Darth: I wasn’t questioning the existence of Sto Lat as city in the discworld universe (of which I am a massive, if lapsed, fan), I was questioning the idea that it’s name was based on the Polish song. Is there any record of the almighty Pratchett saying that it was?
Darth: I remember A Very Peculiar Practice well. Although I don’t remember a Polish character, it wouldn’t have meant anything in particular to me at the time. Contrary to what the Wikipedia entry says I have it on good authority that Dr Jock Macannon was actually based on a certain Dr Gunn (get it) who was the head of the medical facility at the University of Reading and a certifiable lunatic (an institution I attended for one term before deciding it was crap and getting myself transferred to London). I had no idea there was such a thing as A Very Polish Practice! Have you seen it?
Island, I get it now. “Sto Lat” in any English prose is just too much for a coincidence, wouldn’t you reckon? Whether Pterry knew the song well enough to have it in bivouac singalongs is not known to me. Quite similarly, Harry Harrison had a character – Pas Ratunkowy (Polish for “safety belt”) in some of his Steel Rat’s novels. These things happen.
A Very Peculiar Practise, when googled, introduces itself as BBC Cult Classic. Let me apologize: I’m too old for classics. (And I don’t have a TV set, well, too much of it. No cables, no sat dishes. And I don’t have a video or a dvd-player, an mp3-player (if I were to get the audio at least), and no rent-a-film facility in anywhere you would call the vicinity.) I know the above mentioned Joanna Kanska was in A Very Polish Practice, but that’s it.
Island, a PS: if Terry Pratchett here is the Terry Pratchett, you can get some clue[s] there.
Why, back to the subject: Anyone could tell me what the guy here writes about, pretty please? [I had wanted to know since comment 2 on my Churchill film post, but the link went unnoticed.]
Darth: Hmmm, tricky one to explain.
The advert, which I eventually managed to track down, uses a ska version of the theme tune to a 1970s British comedy series called Dad’s Army. The series was about an incredibly inept and elderly groups of men who were charged with defending the south coast of England early in WWII when Hitler was expected to invade at any moment. It’s a much-loved classic from which you can learn a lot about British culture and preoccupations (the radio version of the series was playing on BB7 until recently, don’t know if it’s still available).
Anyway, the title sequence of Dad’s Army is a kind of spoof of a military map with a brave British arrow advancing boldly into Europe only to be beaten back by a much larger number of evil German arrows that force it to hop back across the channel (sounds bizarre I know but it’s a brilliant piece of simple graphic design). In the Asda advert a series of green arrows (Asda’s colour) advance on a pound sign and cause it to shrink in fear. It’s a direct reference to the Dad’s Army titles, although most people probably don’t notice it, especially since the theme tune is not the original version. The blogger you mention, as well as others, have been suggesting that these ads may be equating Tesco (Asda’s main rival) with the evil German arrows of the Dad’s Army titles. All very obscure and I’m not sure it makes sense since the arrows in the ad are clearly ‘Asda’ arrows.
I told you it was complicated!
Island, I get the picture. (Either you’re a a talented explainer or I’m a gifted explainee.) But I don’t get the ad. D’you happen to have the url of what you “eventually tracked down”?
Darth: Your wish is my command:
An Asda ad (it’s pretty boring): http://www.visit4info.com/advert/Asda-Easter-Eggs-Asda-Stores/55679
The title sequence from Dad’s Army:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fcmZmL9LKyM
The complete Dad’s Army movie!! poor quality but watchable:
http://www.guba.com/watch/3000033801
Darth: Ooops, looks like my response has gone in the spam bin. PaWEEEELLL!!!
“Does it mean British people have yet to digest the ‘Polish wave’ of recent years?”
Oh my goodness, YES! British people have not even accepted that the Polish wave is in their mouth yet, let alone started to digest it. My guess – 5 to 10 years.
Damn, can’t edit.
I meant to go on……….. Indian/Pakistani people have been in the UK for how long….30 years or more? I would say that it is only in the last 5 years (max) that I have noticed them being represented in UK media as “normal people” i.e. same as a white Brit, not in there just to be PC or add a bit of an exotic flavour.
(yes, flavoUr – screw you, spill chucker!)
That reminds me of a great poem by Tony Harrison “Them & [uz]“: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/johntusainterview/harrison_transcript.shtml
—> island1,
Thanks! I’d actually really like to hear the sketch (I’ll look for it at the bbc website), and I’ll check up that Magda character;)
—> darth
Your Kanska example is so out of date! Shame on you;) You don’t have a telly, but you still have you tube!;)
Wonder why they never do reruns of the Peculiar Practice… Could be interesting to watch.
—> scatts
You think? I thought Britain moved on on the whole as a society, and changed approach to all minorities…
One thing’s for sure: Poles aren’t exotic. Unless they eat duck blood soup. (yummy)
—> Raf Uzar
The poem is mentioned in that interview, but it’s not there in whole. Do you have a link to the whole poem?
Pawel: But what happened to my beautifully-carved and long-researched response to Darth? Is it in your Akismet spam bin?
Jamie, forgot to mention that.. I checked my spam bin twice, and it’s not there (unless you wanted to sell hi viagra) are you sure you posed it and not saved somewhere?
I’m checking again now, just to make sure.
I’m such a twat! I found it! I had checked spam bin OF THE WRONG BLOG previously. How clever is that?:D
Re links
Thanks, Island! (It must be important — see how the memes manipulated Paweł to thrash it?) I’m going on for subliminal messages now.
I find this post interesting, since I have recently heard that Poles are moving to Britain the same way they immigrated to America pre-2000. You’ve mentioned the same thought I instantly had – comic relief. It sounds like the shows you’re watching are exploiting a stereotype the same way American shows do. My high school philosophy teacher brought this point up. It seems like writers take the “outcasts” of society and create a comical image of them to help the white man adjust to the idea of having to interact with them as equals. Plenty of blockbuster movies have the stereotypical crazy black man who says outlandish statements for the comedic punch. The same has carried over for the depiction of gays in the likes of shows such as Will & Grace. I find it very interesting that Poles are now this “second-rate” group portrayed in the same light.
An American finds Poles worthy of having spaceships named after them. His “Conrad Schwartz” itself is not too faraway from Conrad’s Kurtz. Joseph Conrad, in turn, declined British knighthood. Second-rate?
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