June and Leon Bernicoff, a progressive Liverpool couple married for over 60 years, were never your typical reality TV stars.

Stefania Marghitu

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June and Leon Bernicoff (image credit: Channel 4)
:::

June and Leon Bernicoff, a progressive Liverpool couple married for over
60 years, were never your typical reality TV stars. But since the
premiere of of *Gogglebox* (2013-present, Channel 4), the two retired
teachers became early favorites since the series 2013 premiere,
essentially due to their empathy and openness towards difference,
marital banter suffused with unrelenting affection, as well as their
liberal-minded commentary on British politics and global events. It was
also their genuine charm and warmth, alongside Leon's special brand of
unabashed honesty (for example, once calling Nigel Farage a "dickhead")
that his recent December 23rd passing shook devoted fans and admirers.
Twitter tributes came flooding from regular *Gogglebox* viewers and
public figures, the [series creator Tania Alexander to Oasis' Liam
Gallagher](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2017/12/23/gogglebox-star-leon-bernicoff-has-died-aged-83-short-illness/){target="_blank"}
to *Strictly Come Dancing* winner Ore Oduba. Likewise, nearly every
major UK publication [provided a form of
obituary](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/dec/23/leon-bernicoff-gogglebox-favourite-dies-aged-83){target="_blank"}
or commemoration of Leon, often joined with iconic photos of June and
Leon in their side-by-side armchairs, where *Gogglebox* viewers found
them every week for the past four years.

As I previously stated in a 2014 piece on the now defunct *[Antenna
TV](http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2014/06/02/gogglebox-a-crash-course-on-personal-politics-in-the-uk/){target="_blank"}*,
*Gogglebox*, the popular BAFTA-winning series documenting a variety of
Brits watching numerous television programming, from classic films to
controversial news, gave me rare insight into the personal politics
fueling both sides of the nationalist debates that led to the rise of
UKIP and the 2016 Brexit. Brexit and the Trump era left me, like many,
feeling utterly disheartened. Leon and June's acceptance of migrants
often alleviated this, and gave me faith, on a weekly basis.

When many native Britons, including some of those on *Gogglebox*,
expressed nationalistic views in favour of Brexit, Leon and June
remained a beacon of hope and progressive attitudes. One often
associates these views with a certain type of Londoner, typically
between the ages of 18-45, who supports the rights of immigrants, the
LGBTQIA community, disabled people and ethnic and racial minorities.
That a quintessentially Scouse elderly couple embodied the same
attitudes from a pure position of openness provided many viewers with a
feeling of optimism. Leon and June ardently defied the majority opinion
of the Brexit "Leave" voting results. And *Gogglebox*'s critical and
commercial success proved to influence the nation in tumultuous times.
As the series creator Tania Alexander stated in my 2015 three-part
interview with her on *CST*, she pushed the Friday night program beyond
pure entertainment and used the platform to challenge the status quo and
create a [national forum of varying
opinions](https://cstonline.net/the-woman-behind-gogglebox-an-interview-with-tania-alexander-3-by-stefania-marghitu/){target="_blank"}:

*"The regular inclusion of news and current affairs are vitally
important to me. Not only for the topicality but also because it
provides a little sample of how every day people view things. A sample
slice of what the man on the street really thinks, especially when it's
politics.  I've heard a few politicians watch it. David Cameron has
admitted to being a Gogglebox fan, apparently he and his wife love it. I
find it hilarious, as we've been very rude about him. He said recently
to a journalist during his campaign trail that he considers it a 'very
clever programme'. I think it certainly is a good way to see what the
average person thinks and maybe give the politicians a blink of that.  
I feel it's really important because there's no other platform out there
at the moment, I mean we've got Question Time. But there's no other
platform like this, where else on TV can you say David Cameron's got a
woman's mouth? Where else can you say Nick Clegg has a face that looks
like he's got bad breath? Where else can you say this besides on
Twitter? Everyone expects to be entertained on Gogglebox, but I think
it's just as important to wedge the line; to show the September
11^th^ Twin Towers documentary, which I think was a really powerful
package. When that package aired, some comments on Twitter said
'Gogglebox used to be funny, I didn't expect this.' I think some got it
and some just want to watch it for the laughs."*

Horace Newcomb, a founding father of television studies, often stated
that the medium is the most popular art form that can function as a
cultural forum, or contemporary "hearth." As a result, seeing everyday
citizens further react to this hearth provides even more insight into
cultural and national identity, personal political views, various family
living situations. The intertextuality and what some call "meta"
identity are ripe elements to analyzing the series and its reception and
status as a cultural product. Alexander also states that she very
carefully selects the *Gogglebox* participants to present a microcosm of
England's residents. Leon and June's weekly scenes depicting a loving
married couple heightened the audience's connection to the two.  They
faced their own challenges when they first met and fell in love in
postwar Britain, as June's very Catholic family disapproved of Leon's
Jewish identities. These early battles with difference and identity
likely further impacted the couple to be accepting and open of
non-traditional English nationality or identities, and they were never
afraid to challenge the ruling parties, and support the underdogs of
British society.

With a few original members of *Gogglebox*, from Sandra and Sandy to
Steph and Dom, recently left their roles, the series continues to
develop with new and varied participants. Leon and June will be
remembered as the grandparents of *Gogglebox* who were, what many of its
viewers who felt like they knew the couple do to the intimacy they
created both onscreen and in their social media presence, were some of
the most sympathetic and aspirational TV personalities in recent memory.
Thanks to the a platform like *CST*, I've been given the opportunity to
express my own fandom of the series. After I heard of Leon's passing, I
turned to my saved screenshots on my mobile to find @LeonandJune Twitter
response to my 2015 inquiry of the secret to a happy marriage, "You just
have to work at it like everything else worthwhile in life- trust
honesty sharing and above all love."

> You just have to work at it like everything else worthwhile in life-
> trust honesty sharing and above all love. <https://t.co/rBLsdsr2q8>
>
> --- LeonAndJune (@LeonAndJune) [November 7,
> 2015](https://twitter.com/LeonAndJune/status/663143032544468992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

It is a moment of fan interaction I will forever cherish.

This week's *Googlebox* Christmas Eve episode and series finale was
dedicated to Leon, and included a tribute directly before its airing.
His final scenes were perfectly and quintessentially June and Leon.
Wearing a snowman Christmas jumper while sitting on his armchair, he
gift wraps a Quality Street tin after taking a cheeky piece for himself
and throwing the wrapper back in to hide the evidence from his beloved
wife, always minding him about his eating and health:

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image credit: Channel 4
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*June (offscreen)*: Have you packed them yet?'

*Leon*: I'm trying. I can't undo the Sellotape.

*June (ofscreen)*: It's all done ready for you. You're not eating any
sweets are you, Leon?

After the episode, June later tweeted, "Thank you Folks for all your
wonderful messages. 'Leon would have loved reading them & hearing how
much he was loved. Goodnight & God Bless!" While it is now unclear
whether June will continue to return to the series without her husband,
this *Gogglebox* fan thanks her for agreeing to participate on the show,
after Leon's excitement and her trepidation, and for some of the best
moments in British TV history.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Stefania Marghitu** is a PhD candidate with the University of Southern
California's School of Cinematic Arts Division of Cinema and Media
Studies. Her primary interests deal with critical and cultural studies
of television, the showrunner and modes of authorship, production
cultures, and feminist media studies. Her dissertation project is
titled *The Showrunner: Authorship, Agency and Identity in US
Television*. She will be releasing her first book, co-authored with
Ellen Seiter, entitled *Teen Television* with Routledge in 2018. You can
also find her work in *Communication, Culture and Critique*
(forthcoming), *The Spectator*, *Gender Forum* and the edited
collection *ReFocus on Amy Heckerling *(Edinburgh University Press).
She has presented talks at conferences such as the Society for Cinema
and Media Studies, Console-ing Passions, and Making Television in the
21st Century in the US, UK and Denmark.


June and Leon Bernicoff (image credit: Channel 4)  June and Leon Bernicoff, a progressive Liverpool couple married for over 60 years, were never your typical reality TV stars.

Postagens de Rogue Scholar

REMEMBERING GOGGLEBOX’S LEON BERNICOFF: A BEACON OF HOPE AND PROGRESSIVE ATTITUDES IN THE ERA OF IMPENDING BREXIT