Begun in August 2016, Tea with Estelle is a webisode series in which she grapples with contemporary world events, a world in crisis.
Estelle is a working-class English woman from Tottenham in northeast London, whose life began in the shadow of WWII. Her development parallels the reconstruction of British society and all it promised in that moment.
America was, and possibly still, is Britain’s closet ally. America’s constitution was forged in the incandescence of the Magna Carta. Their societies share a familial bond.
Estelle shares her conundrums and basic decency with us, in her efforts to understand a world infinitely more complex than her education prepared her for. While she voted Brexit, she is aware, there is much she does not comprehend. Estelle is street smart and soulful. She recognizes fairness and bad behavior.
She makes observations about society at a crossroads, reeling from global forces of seismic change. Her cultural differences set her apart from Americans. Her humorous parsing of current events allows us to cross the borders of our own defense mechanisms, to join her in her confusion. She may be vexing to some, yet like Tony Soprano, we like her. We relate to her humanity.
She has her finger on the pulse, as only an observer, from a different culture, looking in, from the outside, can. The Tea with Estelle series is perfectly timed for an American audience, struggling with its relationship to Covid-19, a Covid-19 depression economy, jobs disappearing, student debt, immigration, medical and housing bankruptcy, deregulation, terror from without and within, political and media manipulation, moral and ethical issues against the incursion of AI – artificial intelligence.