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I was watching To the Manor Born - v old BBC sitcom from the 1970s or early 80s about Englishness and class with Penelope Keith. I never saw it the first time round but I was transfixed when I happened on it by accident. One character is old English family who has had to "give up" her family estate because she doesn't have the money. A new-money man has bought it... and thus the hilarity ensues...
The aspect that had me transfixed was that the new-money man is a refugee from World War 2, who arrived in England in 1939 from Bratislava. My family profile - one half of it anyway - fits that profile almost exactly. It is the first time on tv that I have seen a person who is meant to be me. V wierd feeling and I felt sick with dread at what the issues might be between the old money character and him.
This episode had him invited to some Lord Mayor banquet - or something that was meant to be terribly posh and exclusive. Meanwhile, he was being filmed in his large Stately Home advertising some product representative of old english families. He and his mother were very excited about this because they thought it meant they had "made it". I was shouting at the tv - why do you care?! I was so angry at this portrayal of a presumably Jewish man from Bratislava, obsessed with "making it". I was angry at the stereotype and then remembered my dad. The actual equivalent of this character and I realised it was true. That generation was/are obsessed with The Establishment....
and though I was defensive and scared about this kind of relationship being described on tv, I realised it was also true...