It's No Longer So Grim Up North - Official

[Barman]

Hovis tastes better oop North.. apparently

It does that ~ Which is why they filmed all those tedious advertisements for it at Gold Hill, Shaftesbury, Dorset.

My mother always used to shout at the screen ‘we never had butter after the war – rationing went on for years after…’

Every time, bless her…

[Snoopy]

And I can assure you she was right.



(Unless you lived on a farm like some of us <snigger>)

[grumpyoldsoldier]

Hovis tastes better oop North.. apparently

Better than what? 

Marmite?

[grumpyoldsoldier]

Hovis tastes better oop North.. apparently

It does that ~ Which is why they filmed all those tedious advertisements for it at Gold Hill, Shaftesbury, Dorset.

Another dream shattered, damn you Red baron!

[Barman]

Hovis tastes better oop North.. apparently

Better than what? 

Marmite?

Hovis tastes better than Marmite then...   

[Snoopy]

Hovis tastes better oop North.. apparently

It does that ~ Which is why they filmed all those tedious advertisements for it at Gold Hill, Shaftesbury, Dorset.

Another dream shattered, damn you Red baron!

'Twere a long way t'top o' hill.

[grumpyoldsoldier]

Hovis tastes better oop North.. apparently

Better than what? 

Marmite?

Hovis tastes better than Marmite then...   

Unless it has marmite spread on it.

[Snoopy]

Why would anyone spread Nick's cat on Hovis?

[Barman]

Hovis tastes better oop North.. apparently

Better than what? 

Marmite?

Hovis tastes better than Marmite then...   

Unless it has marmite spread on it.

Of course, of course...  

[grumpyoldsoldier]

Hovis tastes better oop North.. apparently

Better than what? 

Marmite?

Hovis tastes better than Marmite then...   

Unless it has marmite spread on it.

Of course, of course...  

I have not been well you know, too many hills, Hovis and Marmite .......

[Barman]

Hovis tastes better oop North.. apparently

Better than what? 

Marmite?

Hovis tastes better than Marmite then...   

Unless it has marmite spread on it.

Of course, of course...  

I have not been well you know, too many hills, Hovis and Marmite .......

I know Old Timer... I know... 

[chuntering again]

Sounds like you have a specific axe to grind Snoopy.

I have lived in the north and down south, and am a northerner married to a southerner and my considered opinion is that the standard of living up here is better, but employment opportunities far less. Matters have improved a lot since the Tory "social experiment" of the 1980s, but if you're a career person you're still better off down south.

As to my opinion of southerners, I don't have anything against them per-se, just the one or two twats who look down their sneck at the north.

Was the "grim up north" reference no originally a reference to industrial, not economic conditions?

[Snoopy]

Sounds like you have a specific axe to grind Snoopy.

I have lived in the north and down south, and am a northerner married to a southerner and my considered opinion is that the standard of living up here is better, but employment opportunities far less. Matters have improved a lot since the Tory "social experiment" of the 1980s, but if you're a career person you're still better off down south.

As to my opinion of southerners, I don't have anything against them per-se, just the one or two twats who look down their sneck at the north.

Was the "grim up north" reference no originally a reference to industrial, not economic conditions?

Very specific axe to grind ~ namely 40 years of being told, by those from the North, how "easy" my life was because I happened to be born in the South.
BTW Nobody has a career anymore ~ just a succession of jobs, forever chasing the dream of being "better off" when they retire. Fat Chance.

[Snoopy]

I cannot find any reference to the phrase "It's Grim Up North" in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Memory tells me it was originally a sketch in either the Goodies or Monty Python but may well have predated them in Beyond the Fringe. Wikipedia gives this reference from 1991 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It's_Grim_Up_North.

To me it has long been a piss take along the lines of "Poor? Tha' doesn't know what poor is lad ~ why we 'ad 24 of us, living in a paper bag in't middle of motorway" etc etc.

If anyone can nail this quote I'd be grateful. Might even hump your left leg next time you're in the bar. 

[Pastis]

Can't find a reference to "Grim up North" but I've always had the notion, possibly misguided, that it stems from novels like North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. Much like "Trouble at t'mill".

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_and_South_%281854_novel%29