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'Englishness' having become an unmistakably HOT TOPIC in recent times, I thought a totally absurd, borderline-bigoted summary of my personal Manichean take on things might be a good idea.
So, in an imaginary play in which English good fights English evil, and in which any faults or redeeming nuances are clumsily ironed-out of characterisation, the cast sheet would probably read something like this ...
ENGLISH GOODIES
The Beatles
Kevin Keegan
William Shakespeare
William Blake
William Morris
Shelley
Robin Hood
Lauren Laverne
John Peel
Tony Wilson
Basil Bunting
Johnny Marr
Delia Derbyshire
The Futureheads
The Stone Roses
Tony Benn
Gina McKee
Oasis
Charles Dickens
Milton
Anne-Marie Duff
The BBC
Michael Eavis
The Venerable Bede
ENGLISH BADDIES
John Betjeman
Margaret Thatcher
The entire aristocracy since William the Conqueror
Jo Whiley
Jane Austen
Evelyn Waugh
Virginia Woolf
Peter Stringfellow
Johnny Borrell
Geri Halliwell
The Duke of Wellington
Dennis Wise
Jeremy Clarkson
Lord Kitchener
Alan Sugar
Simon Cowell
Archbishop Laud
Sharon Osbourne
Richard Curtis
Robert Baden-Powell
Lily Allen
Cecil Rhodes
Kingsley Amis
1 comment:
Dear Al,
Very good lists.
We might need to have talks about talks about Anne-Marie Duff, Johnny Marr, and Oasis.
Love E x
(a.k.a. Concerned from Cork)
ps You might want to add Peaches Geldof to the 'Baddies' (and yes the same rules apply as above - I know I can't have it both ways).
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