Mon, Oct 14, 1991
Sue Townsend , author of the bestselling Adrian Mole diaries, examines Anglo-Saxon attitudes to bodies - dead or alive. Repressed and buttoned-up? She presents evidence that though they seem less at home in their bodies than other nationalities, the respectable English actually revel in the grotesque. With stories about her own and other English bodies, Sue Townsend offers an intriguing glimpse of our private parts.
Mon, Oct 21, 1991
The countryside is the true heart of England, according to Tory philosopher Roger Scruton. By horse and motorbike, he explores rural England from church fetes and brass bands to the hunt and the country estate. His claim is that the longing for country life is an immovable part of our national character.
Mon, Oct 28, 1991
Howard Jacobson goes in search of the authentic English voice. Both the National Theatre dialect coach and Yorkshireman Fred Truman confirm his fears of an infatuation with regional accents. A plea to Balliol College students to return to "good English" falls on deaf ears.
Mon, Nov 4, 1991
The suburb is the citadel of the English family, a private world where peculiar fantasies can flourish. Journalist Ann Leslie believes that for too long "suburban" has been a term of abuse. She talks to Peggy Spencer , the doyenne of ballroom dancing, playwright Alan Ayckbourn , and the everyday residents of suburbia themselves.
Mon, Nov 11, 1991
Black film-maker John Akomfrah believes that, for too long, being English has meant being white. He shows Englishness from the point of view of mixed race English people. Following in the footsteps of J B Priestley, author of English Journey, he visits Liverpool, one of the oldest multicultural communities in England.
Mon, Nov 18, 1991
The English reveal themselves most when they go abroad. Writer David Stafford dons his white linen suit and sun hat to discover some of the fictions the English have woven around this mythical place called "abroad". Following in the footsteps of Gerald Durrell and Edward Lear , he heads to Corfu, the only Greek island where they sell ginger beer and play cricket. He meets the British Consul who was spiritually reborn there, Lady Holmes with her English garden, and the tourists looking for some really serious ruins.