By Al McCall
Sometimes I wonder why I bother to visit the lounge room. Each week when I sit down with my local TV guide, there's less and less that takes my fancy. Days may go by without a program item worth circling in biro or the remote activated.
I started the year well, highlighting sheer delights such as One Foot in the Grave on repeat, and The Larry Sanders Show, which I'd watch religiously. Addicts such as I will voluntarily forgo any aspect of an active lifestyle if we think the TV set warrants the attention. We're proudly selective and will treat our discernment with the loyalty it deserves.
During an august career glued to the tube, there have been few programs that have excited and enthralled me as Common as Muck has. Now well into its first six-part series (the second is scheduled to follow), Muck is written by Bill Ivory, who honed his craft scripting Minder.
You would be hard pressed to find better writing and tighter scene construction than the fare Ivory has mustered for us. While the dialogue may seem to hark from the kitchen sink school of British drama, the characters he has created don't wear their origins on the sleeves of their overalls. These aren't sentimental stereotypes or riffraff sent to humour us as curiosities.
Nonetheless, Muck is unashamedly blue collar. We're talking class here, the thing that's not supposed to matter any more. But to the team of dustmen who work for Hepworth Council, somewhere in the north of England, such labour is the only thing they know.
It's been years since someone actually worked for a living on television. Stories are set in the living rooms of dysfunctional and eccentric families, whose breadwinners make it into the office only if it's a cop shop, legal firm or hospital surgery. Doctors, lawyers and cops are the only bona fide employees allowed on TV. The rest of us are just too boring to emulate.
Muck turns this trend on its head. While we may not all pursue a career shifting household refuge, socialised labour is an everyday phenomenon. Working with others is the way things get done, and Common as Muck is basically about work and the bond of mateship.
Such an outlook is unique on television at present. It is even more extraordinary because this series is held together by a key plank of Thatcherism — the privatisation of public services, to whit: DOG ( Direct Operations Group), the incorporated council department which the dustmen work for. With the Hilmer reforms currently rampaging through the shires, boroughs and councils of Australia, DOG's story runs very close to home.
If you haven't been watching Common as Muck, it's a bit late to fill you in on all the details of character, trauma and farce. Switching in now may require patience as you catch up with the story. But bear with it. The very common men and women portrayed in this program are special company worth inviting into your lounge room.
Common as Muck screens on ABC at 9.30pm, Fridays.