Working Class Hero

Working Class Hero’s biggest flaw is that it isn’t about anything. It involves issues but mentions very little about their impact, and even if it did, our main characters are just insufficiently developed or interesting to make me care. It had interesting moments, and some good heartfelt pieces, but not enough to make me genuinely believe I enjoyed it.

An insufficient level of tension to be dramatic and not enough of everything else to be interesting.

Working Class Hero is about a boy who’s just gone off to Uni, and his dad, a proper salt-of-the-earth bloke from London. They talk about John Lennon and rap, and how crap Arsenal is this season, but they really just want a connection. And they have one. What’s odd about this is that it seems as if the script wanted us to believe that these two weren’t close, and that their developing relationship is key. But they genuinely have a pleasant and likeable relationship. Which would be nice, and novel, if there were any other real source of tension. Instead, the two characters we see genuinely adore each other, and may not get a chance to spend a load of time together but because of circumstance, not because of any real problem.

Beyond this, there just kind of wasn’t much there. Other characters were introduced, but went away without much fanfare. The show wasn’t funny, apart from a few groaningly bad puns. While the acting was competent, both main actors fell into the same trap of delivering their lines in a way that made you think, “Oh right they’re trying to act,” rather than just playing their characters. To be honest, I can’t really find much else to say. The unfortunate reality about Working Class Hero is that while it has competent elements, it has an insufficient level of tension to be dramatic and not enough of everything else to be interesting.