Drug dealers as folk heroes? Drugs and television situation comedy

Abstract

Ideal (Baby Cow Manchester for BBC 3 2005) was one of the first productions from BBC Comedy North, a unit set up in 2003 to ‘develop and nurture the next generation of comedy talent in the North of England’ (BBC Press Office 2005). It was commissioned for BBC 3. This digital station had originally been delayed in its approval by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport because it had failed to demonstrate that it would be suitably distinctive. BBC 3 finally launched in February 2003, promising to be ‘a mixed genre channel primarily aimed at serving the needs of 25 –34 year-old viewers with a high level of original production. It had the explicit aim of trying to reconnect this group with the BBC’s output in particular and public service broadcasting in general’ (Hewlett 2004: 4). The programme hit a zeitgeist of normalisation of cannabis use following the Labour government’s downgrading of cannabis from a Class B drug to a Class C in January 2004 which, despite claims that it did not equate to a decriminalisation, may well have changed the image of the drug in popular culture and public understanding. Programmes such as The Mighty Boosh (Baby Cow for BBC 3 2004) and Shameless (Company Pictures for Channel 4 2004) had already begun to show on television the use of cannabis as a normal part of many people’s lives.