This is England was a 2006 critically-acclaimed film that examined the skinhead subculture and the adoption of black reggae and ska music by white nationalists in the 1980s and the division it caused in the skinhead movement. Similarly, This Is Britain examines the splits in British culture that is caused by the recent 2011 census; placing ethnicity, religion and nationality under the microscope. Granted, there are differences in the examination processes of each broadcast, the latter has less fat-headed, talented white child actors and no examples of someone being kicked to death in a small living room.
The show, hosted by everyone’s favourite journalist (not the biggest compliment in the world that one) Andrew Marr, seeks to explore the social, economic and political situation in Britain today, through asking questions about how the people of Britain see themselves.
It starts out a bit like celebrity, genealogy road-trip hour, also known as Who Do You Think You Are?, where Marr goes to the National Census Database (something like that, I’m tired and wasn’t paying attention, bugger off) and looks at his ancestors on the first ever census in 1801. With Andrew Marr striding around looking thoughtful, the show almost descends into your atypical documentary.
Thankfully, it steers clear of this when Marr is placed in his glass warehouse base where he does some pieces to camera whilst awesome CGI graphics going on around him (think like a primary colour version of The Matrix and you are on the right lines). From here on in, Census experts are sent out to roam around Britain, looking thoughtful in bars and football stadiums and Glasgow.
If you are a stats junkie/ nerd like me, this is a glorious programme because there is lots statistic porn such as facts like: that 90% of divorces are initiated by women, the average age of first time home-buyers is 40, the highest rate of gun crime is in the countryside and there is a 40 year gap in average life expectancy Glasgow between parts of the Glasgow, a phenomenon found nowhere else in the Western world.
The show also addresses interesting sociological quirks brought up by the last census which are examined and pondered over before we are given a frankly all too sensible answer. These questions include “why are there significantly less young men in Britain than young women?” and “Why do the largest number of remarriages occur in the South West?” and more.
Even if stats and sociology isn’t your thing, you can always laugh at the treasure trove of marvellously un-PC archaic phrases and words found on old censuses (censusi?) such as the 1901 census having a column asking about disabilities asking if a member of one’s family is “deaf/dumb/imbecile or feeble-minded”. Or, failing that, you can laugh at a terminally obese Glaswegian man in a chip shop. But don’t watch it for that, watch it for the interesting subject matter which is examined in a thought provoking manner.
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