Those that can't analysis

Those That Can’t analysis

Those that can’t, is an upbeat, easy to understand comedy set in a school in the south of wales. The title is taken from a self-explanatory figure of speech: Those that can, do and those that can’t, teach.” Another notable point is the name of the school: Tom Jones Comprehensive, this is a reference to the well-known singer who is Welsh.

The drama opens with a woman’s voice introducing the school as Tom Jones Comprehensive.  The voice appears to have a weak Welsh accent with elements of an English accent suggesting that the woman has spent time in England perhaps in university. The woman is putting forward the idea of a student council. The rest of the meeting consists of stronger male Welsh accents who obviously disagree and respond with harsh sarcasm and statements like: “Maybe we should issue the students with guns.” This upholds the stereotype that the Welsh are simple and old-fashioned as it shows that the men are against the idea of change especially when the idea is brought forward by a woman who is younger and therefore should be less experienced than the rest of the male staff. This point is etherised by the fact that the men appear to be middle class and middle aged and probably have very traditional sociological views.

After the scene changes we are in what appears to be the playground where two students are chatting about political elections and who their parents voted for. Again the voices are Welsh setting in stone the fact that the school is in Wales.  The voices are loud and while this may be because the playground is a loud place full of people but in my opinion this aspect of the scene has more to denote than that. The fact that these two children are so loud could be another push at Welsh stereotypes, this one being that the welsh, while they are (stereotypically) happy people this scene also says that they welsh are also loud and childish which links back to the staff room scene by saying that the men were acting childish. Back to the conversation; the first of the children says that his dad voted for labour because they look after the working man to which the other says “but your dad hasn’t got a job,” the other defends his point by mentioning that they would if he had one. The other child then says that his dad voted for conservative because “he don’t pay taxes for the riff raff on the Pous Estate.” The point is then risen that he lives on that estate which he again defends with: “but we’ve got and extension.” This suggest that the adults are no more politically aware than the children, another stereotype on Welsh intelligence.

The accents, while they are all sound welsh in some way only one or two of them are actually convincing. This I think is meant to add to the comedy alongside the overuse of stereotypes. The music is another signifier to the fact that we are listening to some sort of comedy.

The non-diegetic music has an upbeat pop punk vibe similar to that of You Me At Six, All Time Low and A Day To Remember. We then get the same short blast when introducing the playground scene. This music seems to have nothing to say about the stereotypes of the Welsh and is simply there to allow younger audiences to connect with and enjoy the program. The song that introduces the final scene in the extract however is a diegetic old Welsh hymn which upholds once again the stereotype of the traditional Welshman.

The ambiance on the voices and the way they are placed in the scene is the dead giveaway that they are in a classroom in the first scene, this is aided by the muffled sounds of the playground that suggest that the room has at least one window onto outside and is on the ground floor.

The next scene is in the playground as we can hear the ball bouncing that we could hear in the first scene  only it is placed in the middle of the scene this time, the two characters seem to shout over the noise of the playground.

The final scene comes in and set in the school hall we can hear the echo on peoples voices particularly as they sing. While the first two scenes don’t seem to have any meaning but the second seems to suggest that the Welsh are empty headed.

The editing is slowly paced with a transition introduced by the pop song and a cross fade into the hymn for the last scene. This slow editing could be another stab at the comedy of stereotypes by saying that the Welsh are slow in the head but the way it is paced (three scenes with two short up beat intervals) is strikingly similar to the average school day.

In conclusion there seems to be no overly serious statement, the stereotyping of the Welsh is simply used for comic effect and is not meant to offend. In relation to the reading of the text’s I believe that the intended reading is that in a changing world there is nothing wrong with change and in some cases change is for the better. The oppositional reading of the text would be that all Welsh people are simple minded and slow with the older generation still living in the 60s and 70s.