I've just been to my local HMV looking for some telly viewing, Chris, and have been peeking at the BBC's DVD collection.
Gerald Harper, who is described in the packaging synopsis as something along the lines of an "ever-so-British actor", is on parade in that 1960s saga Adam Adamant Lives, and if we look to the 1980s we find Auntie has supplied the tale of "Britain's wealthy boating set" - Howards Way. Auntie doesn't mention the fact that the tale is set in England or, come to that, that it's from the 1980s. Another no-no.
Gerald Harper always played terribly English gentlemen - it was the same in Hadleigh. Howards Way was as English as could be. So, Auntie Beeb once again ignores us and substitutes "Britain/British" for our country and nationality.
The BBC has joined the government in denying any glimmer of an inclusive civic English identity, but seems to be implying in its Adam Adamant synopsis that to be very British, that apparently wonderfully inclusive nationality, smothering Englishness and blanketing us all, you must actually be a traditional English gentleman.
How inclusive in that? Better if Auntie had written "English" in the first place.
Thanks, Sue.
Auntie is an anti-English prig. Remember how overly-represented the Scots are on its services? Remember racist rambler Kirsty Warks' comments on discovering that her ancestors were not all Scottish?
"At least they weren't English!"
The BBC didn't raise an eyebrow.
Auntie stinks.
I must admit I smiled at your 1980s comment. I sat through the BBC's I Love 1970s series, which apparently portrayed the pop culture of each 70s year, but in reality stole fads from the adjacent decades like nobodies business, shoving in everything from the Space Hopper (a fad from the late 1960s onwards) to the Walkman (invented 1979, released in 1980 in Britain as the "Sony Stowaway") - and there was LOADS of other stuff.
Auntie is just as adept at rewriting history as she is at rubbing England and the English out.
I'm sure if the classic 60s version of Dr Finlay's Casebook is released, then doctors Finlay, Cameron and Snoddie, not to mention dear Janet, the housekeeper, will not be referred to in the synopsis as "British".
I must have a look at Howards' Way again... it was unashamedly wonky... the characters were unashamedly upper class English twits... it was unashamedly 80s... I've had enough of the Prig Brigade.
But what a shame I must line the BBC's pockets - the Beeb, of course, being part of Prig Central Command, for another glimpse of those shoulder pads...
UPDATE
Sandra from Histon
I viewed series one and two of "Howards' Way" and could not believe Tim Teeman of "The Times", who "moderated" commentaries on several episodes. Having established his own credentials as a "Cornish person" (what nonsense!) he then goes on to submerge all the English aspects of the show as "British", including the accent of one its stars - a great "British accent" apparently. Would that be Scottish, Welsh, Pakistani, Italian, Polish or what, Tim?
What a horrible, anti-English bigot - especially with all this business about cancer drugs, etc!
More likely to be a Politically Correct prig, I feel Sandra, and not dependent on the NHS in England or anywhere else. Great to see the show again, though.
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