Discussion on British culture - our favourite British stuff!

[Amicale]

Crow had a great idea in the 'are you British enough' thread in the social causes forum, and I wanted to run with it -- I said I was a huge British culture fan, everything from food to music to literature to TV to comedy, etc etc. So this thread is wide open. I know I'm not the only one! What British stuff do you absolutely love? Let's talk!

[Ali]

As I mentioned in the other thread, the Young Ones is one of my all time favorite shows.  I also love Red Dwarf and the British Office.

[statichaos]

Doctor Who, of course.  I used to like Monty Python a bit more, but had that ruined by spending too much time in geek subculture.  And, yes, The Young Ones was just brilliant.

[The Magic Pudding]

The Pythons, Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, The IT Crowd, Red Dwarf, Black Books, Men Behaving Badly, Ab Fab, QI, Simon Pegg, Bowie, The Stones, Beatles, Pink Floyd, Beth Orton, Nick Drake, Orwell, Alistair Reynolds, Patrick Obrien, Roald Dahl, Darwin, J. K. Rowling, Tolkien, David Attenborouh.  The Bridget Jones type genre of rom-coms.  Lawrence Durrell and Aldous Huxley were important in my formative years, I haven't revisited them, I've heard people who've reread Durrell being underwhelmed.

I'm a bit dubious about the food, crumpets are nice with honey, messy though.
Beer should be cold.
Cars are best left to the eccentric who don't mind not getting where they're going.
Government/Legal system, the BBC, liberal society.
Nigella, Amy Pond and Lara Croft.

I suppose some of the Irish are British.  If I was a Brit I'd claim Oscar Wilde.

There are historical figures like James Cook and Elizabeth I and on and on.

[Sweetdeath]

I just spent all week watching Dr. Who and Merlin. I don't know where I would be without BBC!
I also love union jack and music from the 70's. Grew up with The Clash, Bowie, Sex pistols.

Also gotta love Vivienne westwood's jewelry *___* ..  <3

[Tom62]

Black Adder, Red Dwarf, Life of Brian, Bottom, Pink Floyd, the BBC, Douglas Adams, Arthur C. Clarke, Iain M. Banks, Roald Dahl, Dad's Army, Fawlty Towers and much more...

[Sweetdeath]

Ronald Dahl is british? That is awesome!

[Amicale]

OK, my list in no particular order (and it's likely to be revised as more comes to mind):

Dr. Who, Black Adder, Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, Red Dwarf, just about anything from Monty Python, Douglas Adams, Waiting For God (sitcom set in a nursing home), Mulberry starring Karl Howman (BBC production), Brush Strokes starring Karl Howman (also BBC), On the Buses starring Reg Varney, anything with Simon Pegg in it, Death at a Funeral (British version obviously), Rowan Atkinson, Fawly Towers, George Orwell, Roald Dahl, also the Bridget Jones' Diary/Imagine Me & You type of British rom-com's, Aldous Huxley, Sweeney Todd (play, etc), The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Herman's Hermits, David Bowie, Coldplay, Adele, the old radio programme ITMA (it's that man again), Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Goons (Peter Sellers etc), Whose Line Is It Anyway (love this show!), Are You Being Served (haha, Mrs Slocum and her 'pussy', and crazy hair), The Thin Blue Line (police comedy with Atkinson), Little Britain (comedy sketch show)... so, so much awesome stuff.

And I haven't even gotten to the British poets, famous literature authors, etc -- that'll be another post later maybe, but the list would certainly include a ton of folks including Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens (huge Dickens fan), the Bronte sisters, H.G. Wells, Tennyson, Shakespeare, the Brownings (poets), and so on and so forth.  

[Tank]

Benny Hill-German Professor

[Recusant]

I'm a bit dubious about the food, crumpets are nice with honey, messy though.
Beer should be cold.

The best fish and chips I've ever had, I've had in the UK. Also: steak and ale/steak and kidney pie, superior Cornish pasties, and cream tea. The full English (or Scottish) breakfast is simply amazing. Eating one probably takes a day off your life, but it could be argued that it's worth it.    On the negative side: For some reason, the beef in the UK (when it's served as a roast or steak) is generally rather tough, even very nice cuts.

Beer is served cold in lots of pubs these days, though I admit it's not ice cold the way many people elsewhere like it.

[Too Few Lions]

the four things I like best about the UK as a Brit are beer (we make the best beer in the world), cheese (particularly vintage cheddar), curry houses (we also have the best curries I've ever tasted, although I've yet to go to India!) and secularism.

on the culture side we have produced lots of good stuff, though I think we produced better stuff in the past than we do now. I love our folk music, particularly stuff like Pentangle, the Avengers (John Steed is the archetypal British gent), Gerry Anderson's creations of the 60s and 70s, Rising Damp (Rigsby's a legend), the Bonzos, the League of Gentlemen, Hammer and Amicus horror films, the Wicker Man (I'd love to live on Summer Isle), Aldous Huxley and Lewis Carroll.

[Sweetdeath]

British curry is just indian curry. I would still love to try some though *__* sounds yummy.

[Stevil]

Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest

[Tank]

British curry is just indian curry. I would still love to try some though *__* sounds yummy.

Oh no it isn't! British curry is very very different from Indian curry. Indian curry AFAIK is much milder than some of the curries you can get in the UK. My father in law first had curry in India and really liked it. When he came home to England he went to a curry house and it nearly blew his head off!

[statichaos]

I forgot Pratchett.  He's easily my favorite modern writer.