Aussie rules

The Australians do suburbia well. We seem to be interested in the working classes and the poor (EastEnders, Coronation Street, searing one-off dramas about sink estates), Americans like the rich (Dallas, Dynasty) and well-to-do urban folk (Frasier, Friends). But in Oz they are fascinated by the people who live in medium-size houses in leafy streets — think of Neighbours and the sublime comedy Kath and Kim, which was set in the Melbourne ’burbs. In Britain, a dramatic moment comes when someone rapes their ex-wife. In America, it’s when you manage to steal $10 million of oil shares from your brother-in-law. In Australia, it’s hitting a brat, who’s not your son, at a barbecue.

I guess it is the halfway status of the suburbs which fascinates. Australia is a tremendously egalitarian country; people who regard themselves as ‘better’ than anyone else are generally ridiculed and despised (I once heard a woman who acted grand dismissed with the remark, ‘You know what she can do with the rough end of a pineapple’).