Private joke about working men recalled - could be us (8,7)
I believe the answer is:
personal pronoun
'private joke about working men recalled' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'be us' is the wordplay.
'be' becomes 'personal' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'us' becomes 'pronoun' ('us' is a pronoun).
'personal'+'pronoun'='PERSONAL PRONOUN'
'could' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for personal pronoun that I've seen before include "us, perhaps" , "Maybe we" , "We, say" .)