The Family was a British 'documentary' series inspired by a prior American production, An American Family. Whereas the successful American version depicted a middle class suburban family, this show's producer Paul Watson, exploits the cultural splendour of Reading's Whitley Wood for his effort. Now I've lived in Whitley Wood, during which time a man was crushed against the wall of a local pub with a car and the sight of drivers knocking cyclists of their bikes for fun was, while not an every day occurrence, a reasonably common sight. It's the only location I've seen a mixed race individual sporting an NF tattoo on their neck, it's into this fairy-tale land that the BBC delved to showcase a typically British Family's everyday trials and tribulations.
The British press had a fit when this series first aired because it's--well a teensy bit contrived and the behaviour and manner of Whitley's finest doesn't quite fulfil the middle class expectations of your average journalist's view of working class life. Although in fact the drama and conceit of this series, is actually rather tame compared to reality but I suppose it's just as well because the culture shock would've been too much for 1974.
This series has been called a precedent within the Reality TV genre and I supposed that considered in the light of the standards of realism and probity of that genre, that this accolade is deserved.
