How Two Pints of Lager broke comedy’s class ceiling: ‘There was no one like us in the BBC canteen’
Noughties hit Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps broke new ground and set its cast of working-class Northern kids up for huge success
26 February 2021 • 4:00pm Like university, except with money - Will Mellor, Natalie Casey, Sheridan Smith, Ralf Little and Kathryn Drysdale starred in the BBC comedy
It was a broad, warm and gag-packed Noughties sitcom about working-class characters who lived refreshingly far from the metropolitan bubble. It was a niche commission that unexpectedly became a mainstream hit. Its cast would go on to star in many of our best-loved dramas.
Last modified on Mon 15 Feb 2021 03.02 EST
I’ve thought about it a lot in the intervening 40 years: why Adam and the Ants? I was a prime candidate for obsessive pop fandom – nine years old, glued to Top of the Pops on a weekly basis, an early adopter of Smash Hits, already spending whatever money I had on records – but why them specifically? After all, I was spoilt for choice. It was 1980, as miraculous a year for singles as Britain has ever seen. I could have alighted on the two-tone movement, or Gary Numan, or thrown in my lot with the Jam and the burgeoning mod revival. But I didn’t: it was Adam and the Ants, the night in October they opened TOTP with Dog Eat Dog.