Can you Adam and Eve it? The BBC have actually gone and made a programme about double glazing. I kid you not.
I once joked about how you could make a drama about our industry and how sleezy it would probably turn out. Looks like I’m about to be proved right. BBC 2 are about to air a six episode comedy about life in a double glazing showroom in Essex in the early 1980’s. Before I get started on my own opinions on what is sure to demonstrate how grimey our industry was just before I was born, here is the trailer:
600% mark up? Just imagine, that really would have been white gold!
This trailer sets out a vision of our industry that I am sure many of us will recognise and won’t be proud of. The start of the PVCu era of double glazing which would later become king of the industry in terms of material choice with home owners.
You may also recognise two of the cast from the Inbetweeners. They were great in that, and the movies, and the other things they have done since that too. This looks like it might be something a little different, so I will be interested to see how they portray a southern glazing sales rep.
I will watch this, probably only because I work in the industry and I want to see how we’re going to be presented to people at home. I’ve no idea how factual it is going to be. I wasn’t around when this comedy is set. I am sure there will be plenty of cringe moments, and our industry isn’t going to come off as one that is professional and ethical.
I hope though that it is well written. The three guys in the trailer are all good actors and deserve for the script to be accurate and funny. I know that we might not appreciate the light we’ll be painted in, but it’s comedy at the end of the day, and we should watch this and admire how far some of our industry has come since the early 80’s.
Bad press or just a good laugh?
Any press is good press, as the saying goes. And I think we all know how we’re going to be portrayed to the watching public. But, and this is a big but, could a comedy, one that is well written and semi-accurate, be a good way for people to relate to our industry a bit more?
Hear me out on this one. To the current generation, this is probably going to mean very little. The idea of having a sales rep round, or going to a showroom to buy anything will appear alien to some. But to those who owned a home in the 80’s, and went to some of the early double glazing PVCu showrooms, there will be some level of connection. That “oh god yeah, remember when” moments that those in their late 40’s and early 50’s may well be familiar with.
Or, as my good lady said when I showed her the trailer, might people think “who is going to want to watch this?” She might be right. It could be a six episode stab in the dark that is about as successful as many of the failed double glazing start-ups that sprung up when PVCu started to take hold.
The writing is going to have to be very good to make this work. The actors are really going to have to accurately portray how sales reps in the 80’s in double glazing were, as well as being funny with it. Not something I would say is all that easy to do. There is also going to have to be a very solid plot. If it’s just six episodes of hi-jinx and people ripping off little old ladies then it’s going to fail and we won’t much like it.
This however is the description provided by the BBC when it was announced back in August of last year:
White Gold is the story of a double-glazing showroom in Essex in 1983, led by charismatic salesman Vincent (Ed Westwick). Smart, handsome and cocksure, Vincent will happily break the rules if it guarantees a sale. It’s a story of dodgy shenanigans, scams and petty rivalries – alongside free-flowing drugs, cash and sex.
But in fairness, I do hope it is funny and we can laugh to ourselves about it too. Remind us of the bad old days and how many of us are much more than sales reps these days.
There will be six 30 minute episodes and is “coming soon” according the BBC 2. A lot of original content on less mainstream subjects have taken off in recent years on all sorts of platforms. Perhaps this one will too.
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its simply going to reinforce what people think of DG salesman (No women I note except probably for the secretary simply there for eye candy). Even though set 30 yrs ago general public will still see it as how the industry is now thanks to BOGOF and their ilk
I’m sure every profession that has programs made about them feel the same, but we still love them. Just think for a moment about all the police and hospital dramas, I bet there are plenty of policemen and women, nurses and doctors that cringe when they come on, they still get rave reviews, still made and still not really taken that seriously me thinks…