Jane Turner addresses problematic aspects of Kath & Kim

Several mid-2000s comedy shows, including Little Britain, Come Fly with Me and Bo’ Selecta, have been criticised lately due to their problematic themes.

And while popular Australian sitcom Kath & Kim hasn’t faced the same level of scrutiny, its portrayal of suburban life hasn’t been without criticism.

Jane Turner, who played matriarch Kath Day-Knight and co-wrote the series with Gina Riley, addressed claims this week the show was classist and ‘mocked Westies’.

‘A newspaper critic had criticised us for mocking Westies, which I don’t think we did,’ the 59-year old actress and comedian said.

‘We [the characters] were more middle-class than that. We weren’t bogans who wore moccasins and were scungy.’

In Australian and New Zealand slang, ‘Westies’ refers to the less affluent residents of the western suburbs of Sydney, Melbourne or Auckland.

Jane told TV Week that many ‘Westies’ were in fact huge fans of the show. 

‘A lot of people wrote to the paper saying, “Well, we’re from the western suburbs and we love it.”‘

Kath & Kim followed the misadventures of Kath and her daughter Kim (Gina Riley) in the fictional Melbourne outer suburb of Fountain Lake. 

The iconic series, which also aired in Britain on BBC2, spawned several famous catchphrases, including ‘look at moi’ and ‘noice’.  

Running from 2002 to 2007, it was the highest-rating comedy series of its time and produced two spin-off movies, Da Kath & Kim Code and Kath & Kimderella. 

In addition to Jane and Gina, the primary cast included Magda Szubanski, Glenn Robbins and Peter Rowsthorn.