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b. Designating a genre of British drama, film, and narrative fiction popular in the late 1950s and early 1960s characterized by gritty and often abrasive depictions of working-class life and the problems faced by working-class people; (also) designating a play, film, novel, etc., in this ɡenre. Originally somewhat depreciative. Cf. angry young man n. at angry adj. Compounds 2. Frequently in kitchen sink drama.Originating as a reaction against the ‘drawing-room’ plays of dramatists like Noël Coward and Terence Rattigan, works in this genre are often set in industrial towns in the north of England, and are characterized by disillusioned young protagonists, regional accents, and controversial social themes such as homelessness, adultery, and abortion. Examples include John Osborne's Look Back in Anger (1956), Shelagh Delaney's A Taste of Honey (1959), John Braine's Room at the Top (1957), and Alan Sillitoe's Saturday Night & Sunday Morning (1958).

The designation ‘kitchen sink’ was originally used of the genre by critics with depreciative or condescending intent, but was rapidly adopted in a neutral or positive sense, without regard to, or in implicit denial of, its negative connotations.