'Washington is not one estate!' - 9 thoughts someone from Washington had watching Channel 5's new series

The TV series focuses on the lives of six families who live or work in the town and was filmed over the space of a few months last year.

As a Washington lass I was worried how my hometown would be depicted in the show, especially with a name like ‘The Estate: Life up North’.

These are some of the thoughts I had when watching the first episode:

1 - Off to a bad start….

“Welcome to Washington, Tyne and Wear” the voiceover booms. Tyne and Wear?! Technically Tyne and Wear hasn’t existed since the council was abolished in the 1980s.

On the plus side at least referring to Washington as being part of Tyne and Wear avoids the age old, ‘Is Washington in Sunderland or shall we pretend it’s 1972 and we’re still part of County Durham?’ debate.

2 - Washington New Town

We aren’t even 10 seconds into the show and I’m thrown off again.

Washington is ‘a vast network of interconnected private and council housing estates’ according to the narrator.

So a town then? Surely all towns are, to some extent, a series of connected housing estates?

And, even though Washington has more estates than most thanks to its New Town design, it is still a town. Not quite sure the name ‘The Estate’ is apt, given, you know, there’s more than one of them.

3 - Voiceover

Speaking of the voiceover is that Jill Halfpenny narrating?

Jill Halfpenny, famously from Gateshead, not Washington? Close enough I suppose, and we’re all one Tyne and Wear, apparently.

4 - The Club!

How many people had their first pint in The North Biddick Club?

It’s so nice to see somewhere so familiar to people from Washington on the TV, and seeing it busy in pre-covid times really brought back memories of good times with good people.

5 - Where are we? Again

Back to the estate/series of estates/ town confusion again.

We’re told the skinnypigs fitness is class held ‘in an industrial unit in the north of the Estate’. Which estate? Or are they referring to the entire town of Washington as a single housing estate? Come on Jill, Gateshead isn’t that far away surely you know there’s more than one estate in Washington.

6 - ‘I’ve failed my driving test five times’

Poor Becky. The single mum’s struggles to learn to drive are featured on the show, and as anyone from Washington knows, learning to drive around here is not easy!

“With miles and miles of dual carriageways and roundabouts and sliproads connecting its estates, Washington is a driving instructor’s dream,” Jill tells viewers.

That maybe so but it’s a nightmare for learner drivers, and the complicated road system is probably one of the reasons Washington doesn’t have it’s own test centre. Thankfully.

7 - Bless Cockney Les

The poor fella has had to put up with us lot calling him Cockney Les for 50 years. How original.

It makes a nice change to see someone from outside the area flying the flag for the region, though with 50 years in Washington he’s been here longer than most!

We caught up with about being part of the show, click here to read what he thought of it all.

8 - Where are the landmarks ?

The show’s producers seem to be going for a gritty urban look, with dozens of panning shots over various housing estates and not much else. Where’s the viaduct? Or Washington Old Hall?

The final scene gives a glimpse of what is to come in the rest of the series and we get glimpse of the F-pit and Penshaw Monument - I know, I know, Penshaw Monument is not technically Washington, but still we’ll claim it - so let’s hope that Washington will be shown to be more than just housing estates as the series goes on.

9 - Aren’t we canny?

Unlike other ‘docu-series’ based in the North East, The Estate shows all those who feature on it in a positive light.

Almost everyone on the show comes across as hard-working, kind-hearted and just generally canny.

Truth be told it doesn’t matter if the TV show can’t work out that Washington is a town in its own right, or which county it is in, as long as it shows us to be the nice lot we all know we are, that’s all that matters.

Washington still isn’t an estate though…

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