Darren McGarvey’s Class Wars

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Documentary examining the impact of social class in Scotland today.

Series 1

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Darren McGarvey

Harry Bell

Emma Fentiman

Darren McGarvey’s Class Wars: Series 1: Identity Crisis

Identity Crisis

BBC Scotland - Darren McGarvey’s Class Wars, Series 1, Identity Crisis

Darren discovers how our identities and destinies are shaped by social class.

As Darren examines how social class shapes our identities and destinies, he meets people moving between the classes only for some uncomfortable home truths to emerge.

Far from his birthplace of Glasgow’s Pollok, Darren finds himself in the stately home of Lauriston Castle in Edinburgh. Beginning with a linguist examining Darren’s accent, this journey quickly spirals out into an authored examination of the impact of social class today and Darren’s own identity crisis.

Along the way, Darren tries his hand at Scotland’s ‘secret’ sport, cricket, meeting two diverse teams in Inverness who are doing what they can to remove the image of cucumber sandwiches He nearly comes to blows with a butler who tells him to get his hands out his pockets, and over a game of croquet, Darren begins to realise he has much in common with the upper classes.

Later he sits with a voice coach as she helps clients 'posh up' or even change their accents, before meeting some people from a 1950s cohort study in Aberdeen that is now being used to examine how people move between social classes.

Ending his tour with a researcher who has been examining marriage between the classes over the last 50 years, Darren begins to wonder if his own marriage might just have had unintended consequences.

Darren McGarvey’s Class Wars: Series 1

A BBC TV channel for Scotland which will broadcast every evening and will show drama, factual, comedy and news programmes made in Scotland


Darren McGarvey confronts the existence and impact of social class in Scotland today.

Activist and prizewinning author Darren McGarvey confronts the existence and impact of social class in Scotland today.

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Darren McGarvey’s Class Wars

Series 1

Identity Crisis

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