Kitchen Sink Realism

Kitchen sink realism was an English cultural movement which developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in theatre, art, novels, film and television plays. It used a style of social realism which often depicted the domestic situations of working class Britons living in council flats and spending their off-hours in grimy pubs to explore social issues and political controversies.

The films, plays, and novels using this style are often set in poorer industrial areas in the North of England, and use the rough-hewn speaking accents and expressions used in those regions. The 1947 film It Always Rains on Sunday and the John Osborne play Look Back in Anger are examples of the genre. Look Back in Anger, for example, is set in a cramped one-room flat in the Midlands. The conventions of the genre have continued into the 2000s, with TV shows such as Coronation Street and Shameless.