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British Culture - An Introduction, Third Edition
British Culture - An Introduction, Third Edition
British Culture - An Introduction, Third Edition
This third edition of British Culture is the complete introduction to culture and
the arts in Britain today. Extensively illustrated and offering a wider range of
topics than ever before, David P. Christopher identifies and analyses key areas in
language, literature, film, TV, social media, popular music, sport and other fields,
setting each one in a clear, historical context.
British Culture enables students of British society to understand and enjoy a
fascinating range of contemporary arts through an examination of current trends,
such as the influence of business and commerce, the effects of globalisation and
the spread of digital communications. This new edition features:
• fully revised and updated chapters analysing a range of key areas within British
culture;
• new chapters on cyberculture, cultural heritage and festivals;
• extracts from novels and plays.
This student-friendly edition also strengthens reading and study skills through
follow-up activities, weblinks and suggestions for further research, available on
its companion website.
David P. Christopher’s book is an engaging analysis of contemporary life and arts
and, together with its companion website (www.routledge.com/cw/christopher), is
essential reading for every student of modern Britain.
Third Edition
David P. Christopher
Third edition published 2015
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2015 David Christopher
The right of David Christopher to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
First edition published by Routledge 1999
Second edition published by Routledge 2006
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Christopher, David, 1958–
British culture : an introduction / David P. Christopher. – Third edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Great Britain—Civilization—20th century. 2. Great Britain—
Civilization—21st century. 3. Popular culture—Great Britain—
History—20th century. 4. Popular culture—Great Britain—
History—21st century. I. Title.
DA566.4.C46 2015
941.082—dc23
2014042160
ISBN: 978-0-415-81082-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-81085-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-73724-9 (ebk)
Typeset in Goudy
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For Alex
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
2 Language in culture 31
3 Cyberculture 48
5 Literature 85
6 Theatre 115
7 Cinema 138
11 Sport 264
Glossary 309
Index 315
Illustrations
Figures
1.1 A souvenir from English football’s greatest day, the 1966 World
Cup Final. A final united ‘hurrah’ before the strife of the 1970s
and 1980s. 8
1.2 A view of the Docklands financial district; temples of Mammon
and symbols of the 1980s, seen across the River Thames from
the ship Cutty Sark in Greenwich. 15
1.3 ‘Tent City’, which was set up outside St Paul’s Cathedral to
protest against economic inequality and the lack of affordable
housing in the UK in 2011–12. 22
1.4 The Sun newspaper, possibly Mrs Thatcher’s greatest ally during
her time as Prime Minister, says goodbye in April 2012. 25
2.1 A cartoon in the satirical magazine Punch of 1932 illustrates
sociolinguistic change in rural areas following the advent of radio.
Some villagers have begun copying the ‘BBC accent’, believing it
superior. The elderly man in the chair is depicted as comfortably
un-aspirational! Text under the cartoon reads: ‘Tourist. “I suppose
that’s your oldest inhabitant?” Village Schoolmaster. “Yes, Sir.
Quaint survival; quite a period-piece, in fact. The village’s sole
remaining exponent of a pre-B.B.C. accent.”’ 35
2.2 Eats, Shoots & Leaves: the last word in punctuation – and an
unexpected bestseller in 2003. 42
2.3 Language can be an emotive subject. In 2014 members of the
Welsh Language Society protested in Aberystwyth, Wales,
demanding better promotion of Welsh. 44
3.1 Anxiety about the effects of mass media, particularly on women
and children, is not new. This cartoon appeared in the satirical
magazine Punch in 1906, soon after the development of radio
communications. Text under the cartoon reads: ‘IV.–Development
of Wireless Telegraphy. Scene in Hyde Park. (These two figures are
not communicating with one another. The lady is receiving an
amatory message, and the gentleman some racing results.)’ 55
Illustrations ix
3.2 The lurid colours and content of the GTA cover designs
recall fairground and pinball art of the 1960s. 61
3.3 Lara Croft ready for action. 64
4.1 Many people still buy their press at a newsagent’s or have it
delivered to the home, despite the availability of most papers
online. 69
4.2 Men’s magazines – a new phenomenon in British publishing
which for some commentators indicates masculinity in crisis. 82
5.1 Martin Amis taking part in an interview. 101
5.2 Creating a distinctive book cover has become a fine art. 105
5.3 Poet, playwright and author Benjamin Zephaniah receives an
honorary doctorate. 110
5.4 A child attempts ‘Potteresque’ magic on the legendary Platform
9¾, a popular tourist spot at King’s Cross Station in London. 113
6.1 The Gate Theatre, in Notting Hill, the smallest ‘off West End’
theatre in London. 116
6.2 A scene from Romans in Britain. 121
6.3 The Palace Theatre in London’s West End, built in 1891 as
an opera house. 124
6.4 The Edinburgh Festival on a chilly August day in the Scottish
capital. 135
7.1 The latest incarnation of James Bond, Daniel Craig, with the
traditional Aston Martin DB5. 145
7.2 In praise of pop: the Preacher (Eric Clapton) parades pop culture
icon Marilyn Monroe before the disabled congregation. A scene
from the Ken Russell film Tommy. 148
7.3 The Screen on the Green, a place to see independent films
in Islington, London. 153
7.4 The Coronet, an independent cinema in Notting Hill, London. 157
8.1 TV has become a less communal and more individual activity.
But unlike in the picture, young people are today more likely to
be alone in their rooms while simultaneously viewing two or
three screens. 166
8.2 A TV licence. This unremarkable document is said to ensure
political and commercial independence, high-quality programmes
and the cultural centrality of television in Britain. 168
8.3 Broadcasting House, old (on the left) and new – the BBC
headquarters in Portland Place, London. 171
8.4 The Rovers’ Return in Coronation Street – probably the best
known pub in Britain. 174
8.5 A Dalek, enemy of Doctor Who and the stuff of nightmares for
a generation of young Britons. 178
9.1 A Bigger Splash – one of David Hockney’s best-known works,
completed in 1967. 200
9.2 Sky Mirror, Nottingham, by Anish Kapoor. 202
x Illustrations
9.3 Urban art in Whitecross St., London, depicting Samuel Baylis,
a founder of the Radical Club, the forerunner of the Liberal Party. 209
9.4 Art enhances public spaces – a boy attempts to decorate a figure
amid the office blocks in the City of London. 211
9.5 Buildings in the City of London. The older, neo-classical Royal
Exchange building is in the foreground, while (left–right)
Tower 42, the ‘Gherkin’ and the ‘Cheesegrater’ jostle for
attention at the back. 215
9.6 A residential area of the Barbican complex, in the City of London.
A Brutalist design for living, with its own cinemas, art gallery,
library and conservatory. 217
9.7 The ‘iron cage’ offices of 1 Finsbury Avenue, London, by Arup
Associates. Completed in 1984, they recall George Orwell’s
dystopian novel set in the same year. 220
9.8 The London Eye, with the Royal Festival Hall to the right. 227
9.9 The headquarters of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6)
at 85 Albert Embankment, London. Architect – Terry Farrell. 228
10.1 A poster for the Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival of 1967. By the
mid-1960s, rock bands were displacing jazz combos and beginning
to dominate the festival scene, as the line-up indicates. 237
10.2 Over 50 years after their first gig in London, the Rolling Stones
continue to break records for their performances and record sales. 239
10.3 Fashionable footwear for the man-about-town, c. 1973. Boots for
the stage went several inches higher. 245
10.4 A commemorative plaque in Heddon St., London marks the
location of the cover photo for the iconic Ziggy Stardust album. 248
10.5 A Sex Pistols tour poster from 1976 – many gigs were cancelled
by the local authorities. 250
10.6 Record sleeves – the working man’s art collection. Records are
popular with collectors, and some artists still release their work
in vinyl as well as in digital formats. 257
10.7 Concert tickets were once dull and stubby, but by the 1990s had
colour, holograms and more detailed designs, to help prevent
forgeries of increasingly expensive items. 262
11.1 Football clubs seemed to grow organically out of the small,
terraced communities they represented. 269
11.2 Tossing the caber – a traditional sport at the Highland Games. 273
12.1 The Lloyd’s Building in London – a machine for working in – was
given a Grade I listing in 2011. 290
12.2 A blue plaque in the City of London, close to the Church of
St Bartholomew. 291
12.3 Heritage of the imagination. The address is 221b Baker St., London,
residence of Sherlock Holmes, the man who never lived and never
died. Yet, his fictional home is now a major attraction for overseas
visitors. Note there is even a blue plaque on the wall. 293
Illustrations xi
12.4 A battle scene is re-enacted at the Honourable Artillery Ground,
surrounded by the bastions of modern business in the heart
of London. 294
12.5 Chinese New Year in Soho, London. 297
12.6 A scene more usually associated with medieval barbarism, yet
this could be a garden in suburban Britain on Bonfire Night. 300
12.7 Glastonbury Festival – the largest event of its kind in the world. 304
12.8 Morris men and women in action. 306
Table
4.1 British daily newspapers, their circulations and owners. 68
Acknowledgements
This book describes some of the most significant features of cultural and artistic
life in modern Britain. Such a work is indebted to a wide variety of descriptive
and analytic texts, and some of those used in its compilation can be found in the
sections on further reading on the companion website.
A large number of people have made this third edition possible in different
ways, and I am also extremely grateful to all at Routledge for their commitment to
the book, to Amy Welmers for her persistence, and especially to Dr Eve Setch for
her assistance, patience and enthusiasm beyond the call of duty. Finally, I would
like to express my special gratitude to Nargis, who helped all along the way.
Introduction
For the student of British Studies, British Culture and Civilisation, English Phi-
lology, English, Media and Communications, or merely the interested reader,
there are many textbooks, journals and articles which analyse and comment on
different aspects of cultural life; for example, the feminist novel, ethnicity in
television soap opera, or the status of BritArt. However, it is often difficult to
acquire the basic knowledge on which the debates are founded without carrying
out extensive research in texts that assume background knowledge and that are
mostly written for British-based specialists.
This book aims to meet that need by introducing the reader to the latest
debates and developments in society and the arts, and linking them to selected
texts and authors from the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Thus,
developments in language, journalism, literature, theatre, music, film, television,
sport, art and architecture, cyberculture and heritage are presented, in order to
show how they have often mirrored social trends, and sometimes have contrasted
with them in surprising and unexpected ways. In this respect the book presents
a contextual history, which illustrates how different texts and practices from the
UK connect to the broader patterns of social and cultural life.
To overseas students, the question of differences between ‘English’ and ‘British’
and the UK may be confusing. England, Scotland and Wales together constitute
the island of Great Britain. The United Kingdom refers to Great Britain and
Northern Ireland. ‘British’ is the nationality of people from the United Kingdom,
and ‘English’ is the language predominantly spoken there.
A related matter is the question of what is meant by ‘English’, when referring
to a particular subject area, for example literature. Although textbooks on the
topic refer primarily to the literature of England, they frequently extend their
coverage to literature written in English from other home countries, for example
Scotland. They may also include literature written in English from Common-
wealth countries, such as South Africa. The term ‘English’ is therefore used flex-
ibly, but for the purposes of this book, the main focus is on texts and practices
created by people in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
A similar question may arise over what constitutes a ‘British’ film. In order
to receive government or lottery funding, there has to be ‘substantial British
involvement’ in the sense of using British actors, crew and locations. But many
xiv Introduction
other films considered to be quintessentially British are financed jointly between
US and UK companies; for example, the James Bond films are financed by
MGM, Warner pays for Harry Potter, while the production company Working
Title (which made Love Actually, Bridget Jones and Billy Elliot) is financed by Uni-
versal. As with the literature chapter, the main focus of the chapter on cinema
is on films created in and about people in the UK, even though some or all the
finance may be from elsewhere.
A separate issue is that any text about ‘British culture’ must immediately recog-
nise the problematic nature of a concept containing numerous differences as well
as similarities. Since the 1950s the expression and experience of cultural life in
Britain has become fragmented and reshaped by the influences of youth, gender,
ethnicity and region, and in more recent times has been made more diverse and
plural by the advent of digital communications. Production and distribution have
become quicker and easier and cultural material of all kinds has proliferated. But,
at the same time, many kinds have become less profitable. Thus, for example,
the industries of print, film, music and broadcasting are currently undergoing sea
changes, faced with falling profits due to alternative digital formats, free access
and increased competition from other sources. Apart from these constrictions,
there has been a major international recession which has hit demand for British
cultural products at home and abroad. Consequently, major producers are much
more cautious about what gets made, played and shown.
The term ‘culture’ also deserves some discussion. Precise definitions of the term
have always been elusive and frequently elitist. However, at the present time
in British society trends point towards a more inclusive notion that embraces
a broad range of texts and practices. This is reflected in public administration,
with the government’s own Department of Culture, Media and Sport, headed by
its own Culture Secretary, as well as in arts criticism, with comment and reviews
within the British media frequently appearing under the heading of ‘culture’.
Thus, it may be said that culture is about ways of living, and the arts are expres-
sions of it, which take the form of texts, such as books, films etc., and practices
such as sport, drama, music and so on.
Furthermore, selection of material for this book does not make a clear distinc-
tion between ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture, reflecting a trend in western society to see
the arts as existing on a continuum or scale from traditional, staid, more ‘difficult’
or conservative forms, for example opera, ballet and classical music, through to
popular forms that connect more closely with the times in which we live.
Moreover, ‘good’ and ‘bad’ examples exist within all categories of arts, and
while some examples, such as a Beatles song, may be more easily accessible than
others, this does not imply their inferiority. Indeed, such a dichotomy of cul-
ture is further problematised given that the status accorded to different authors
and works evolves over time, as indeed do boundaries between high and low
forms. Thus, for example, in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries
Shakespeare’s plays were regarded as part of folk or popular culture, especially
overseas, and were performed in ways and places that would be highly unlikely
today.
Introduction xv
A similar tendency can be observed across the arts in music, theatre and other
fields, where art forms evolve and survive through variation, competition and
selection. At the same time, the status accorded to them changes, in a process not
of great leaps, but of gradual modification. For example, more recently in archi-
tecture, some examples of municipal modernism of the 1960s, which were once
derided as actively ugly and brutal, have been similarly subjected to a process of
aesthetic re-evaluation. This has resulted in the status of some buildings, from
shopping centres to car parks, being completely transformed from stains on the
urban landscape to listed historic landmarks – architectural visions of the future
to be respected and admired as part of Britain’s architectural heritage.
The selection of material in this book is obviously bound by a degree of subjec-
tivity. Although there are important works and writers who have not been given
the attention they might deserve, the choice here is not significantly out of step
with the main trends of the period. Similarly, trends do not change simultane-
ously, and any particular ‘scene’ is always plural and varied, with many earlier
styles co-existing with more recent ones. But it is hoped that the reader will be
aware of these inevitabilities and will consider the cited works, and read some of
the suggested material in the chapter booklists. In this way they can form their
own opinions about different types of material, and their relevance to particular
areas of critical and cultural interest.
Sources of information
For those beginning to explore a particular topic related to the study of Britain,
the internet is an essential tool which students and teachers can use to consult
a variety of topics and terms. Major encyclopaedias and dictionaries – online or
otherwise – contain many relevant entries, although reliable online sources will
usually be more up-to-date. Similarly, reference texts and online material provide
useful sources, along with short lists of books and articles to guide further reading.
Students may wish to prepare a longer piece of work such as a dissertation, and
for such research the sites mentioned above offer a wealth of information. Stu-
dents are always advised to read widely, as different sources may report the same
stories in different ways.
With regard to other sources, such as books, films, plays and music, most if not
all are easily obtainable from university or public libraries in Britain, or from larger
bookshops, or may be found online. Films, television series and sound recordings
are also available in video and compact disc format from many stockists, or on
xviii Introduction
loan from the British Library (which incorporates the National Sound Archive),
the British Film Institute, the BBC or the British Council. The scripts from many
plays are also available from good bookshops and can be ordered or downloaded
online.
Students should also become familiar with the main journals relevant to their
field of interest. They usually appear three or four times a year, and the informa-
tion and debates contained in them are usually more up to date than those in
books, which take longer to write and publish. Although journal articles can
be technical and difficult to understand for someone new to the field, many of
the leading journals publish articles of general interest that are accessible to the
reader with only a limited knowledge of the subject.
Finally, for selected statistical information on many aspects of cultural and
social life in Britain, Social Trends, the Annual Abstract of Statistics and the
General Lifestyle Survey are good starting points. They appear every year, are
easily found on government websites, and can be downloaded with commentary.
Timeline
Introduction
Since the 1950s, Britain has experienced a period of accelerated social and cul-
tural change. This has coincided with the disintegration of the British Empire,
the expansion of the Commonwealth, and the immigration of people of numer-
ous nationalities, languages and cultures, producing an ethnically diverse coun-
try with a plurality of identities and heritages. It has also been transformed by
the women’s movement. The entry of women into the labour market and their
increasing independence has brought about fundamental changes to their posi-
tion in society, and their relations with men. Similarly, the emergence of youth
as an identifiable group with attitudes, values and beliefs different to those of the
previous generation has helped shape the characteristics of the country since the
mid-twentieth century.
The impact of ethnicity, feminism and youth in Britain has been felt across
the arts. From 1948 and the founding of the Arts Council, their expression was
actively encouraged with funds for experimental and even counter-cultural styles,
as artists, writers and others sought inspiration from these transformational social
movements. The sense of progress, change and renewal continued until the mid-
1970s when, economically and socially, the country began to stagnate amid high
inflation, strikes and rising unemployment, and there was enthusiasm for change.
The Conservative Party led by Margaret Thatcher was elected in 1979. This
marked a key turning point. For the next 18 years, Thatcherism brought about
the greatest political, economic and cultural shift in Britain of the twentieth
century, as free-market economics, a ‘culture’ of individualism, private enterprise
and the values of the market place came to replace the socialist ideals of nation-
alisation and attempts to redistribute wealth through high rates of taxation. In the
arts, as in almost every area of society, state subsidies and benefits were reduced or
disappeared. Plays, films and exhibitions were seen as products for consumption by
consumers in a competitive market place, while it was left to a culture of impro-
visation and home-brew to create challenging new works outside the mainstream.
The consensus politics of the post-war era disappeared under Thatcherism,
and for 18 years the country became politically polarised between the Tory Party
and its laissez-faire philosophy of free markets, and the socialist ideals of the
political left. Paradoxically, this resulted in some key works and movements in
2 The social and cultural context
literature, art and music, film and other fields, as the inequalities, violence and
greed of the Thatcher years served as potent sources of inspiration.
But, by the mid-1990s the Conservative government was suffering from weak
leadership, corruption and profound internal divisions among its leading mem-
bers, particularly over Britain’s relationship with Europe. There was enthusiasm
for change, and the victory of the Labour Party in 1997 provided the country
and its cultural life with a sense of renewal and self-confidence, and in the years
that followed there was a period of relative prosperity and stability, characterised
by record levels of low unemployment, low inflation, rising living standards and
investment in public services.
The Labour Party had changed, and redefined itself for modern times. Under
its new leader Tony Blair, it was no longer the party of nationalisation or high
taxation, and its agenda was supportive of businesses large and small. But unlike
the previous Conservative administration, it sought to work with all sections of
society, seeking mutual agreement for public benefit. However, in the arts, there
was no return to the levels of patronage, investment and encouragement of previ-
ous Labour administrations, and the spread of business values in their production
and management became the norm, as practices once found only in the private
sector continued to be expressed in most areas of the economy.
There were many turbulent episodes during Labour’s time in office, for example
the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But throughout, the economy remained stable
with low unemployment and low inflation. The cultural field was reinvigorated
with a series of measures to support equal opportunities for minorities of all kinds,
and official support for the British arts, which enjoyed their highest profile since
the 1960s.
In 2007 Tony Blair resigned and his Chancellor Gordon Brown became Prime
Minister. But, despite the promise of renewal, an international economic crisis
began to take hold. In 2010 an election was held, but no party emerged with an
overall majority and a coalition government between the Conservatives and Lib-
eral Democrats was formed, with Tory leader David Cameron as Prime Minister.
Faced with the greatest and longest economic crisis for many decades, a crisis of
public trust in major institutions and widespread uncertainty about the future, a
programme of cuts in public spending was announced, with the cultural indus-
tries among those worst affected.
New Jerusalem
Figure 1.1 A souvenir from English football’s greatest day, the 1966 World Cup Final. A
final united ‘hurrah’ before the strife of the 1970s and 1980s.
© David Christopher
The social and cultural context 9
togetherness and patriotism in a shared national history, the like of which would
perhaps never be seen again.
In spite of material improvements in the standard of living, dissent flourished.
Numerous groups began to demand new freedoms – political, economic and
personal – as rights. The government responded with a retreat from strict social
controls and punishments, many of which had been introduced in the Victorian
era. Capital punishment was suspended in 1965 and never returned, and criminal
law was reformed in areas affecting private morality such as obscenity, homosexu-
ality, abortion and gambling. In 1960 gambling was legalised, and many betting
shops, bingo halls and clubs appeared on British high streets. Homosexuality was
legalised in 1967, and in 1969 18-year-olds were given the right to vote, nine
years after the abolition of compulsory military service.
However, not everyone approved of the changes that the 1960s brought. The
Church of England, other Protestant churches and the Roman Catholic churches
remained firmly traditional, but their influence gradually declined. Similarly,
the political right opposed liberal reform, and when economic growth began to
slow down around 1966 the Tory politician Enoch Powell began stirring up anti-
immigrant sentiments. With almost half a million West Indians in Britain, in a
speech to the Conservative Party Conference in October 1968 Powell warned
that integration was impossible. In another speech in Birmingham the same
year, his inflammatory rhetoric used lines from an epic poem by Virgil, ‘Like the
Roman, I see the River Tiber foaming with much blood’, a stance which was to
be exploited by racist organisations such as the British National Front. Although
he was sacked from the shadow cabinet by the party leader Edward Heath, it was
a sharp warning of the increased polarisation of society that would characterise
Britain in the 1970s.
But significant advances were achieved in the position of women. To fight for
equality of opportunity and against discrimination, the British women’s move-
ment modelled itself on the women’s movement in America, with the holding
of marches, sit-ins and strikes to achieve their aims. Soon, a mixture of effective
campaigns and public support resulted in new laws that gave women the rights
they had demanded. In 1967 the Abortion Act permitted legal terminations
for social and health reasons. The same year, the Family Planning Act enabled
women to obtain contraceptives on the NHS, and in the 1974 the oral contra-
ceptive known as ‘the Pill’, was prescribed free of charge to single women. The
Divorce Reform Act of 1969 also made divorce easier to obtain, by allowing mar-
ried women to break away from violent and abusive relationships.
Before the advances of the 1960s many women’s lives were conditioned by
their reproductive abilities. But on taking control of their fertility, they could
begin to control their lives. They could decide if they wanted to become wives
and mothers, or if they wanted to plan or postpone family life to fit in with their
work. These measures helped to ensure that women could take control of their
lives and their futures in a way never seen before.
As well as demands for more personal independence, the 1960s also witnessed
demands for greater regional autonomy, as Scottish, Welsh and Irish national-
ists all began to demand political freedom. In 1968 there were riots in Northern
10 The social and cultural context
Ireland where the Civil Rights Association demanded equal treatment for Cath-
olics and Protestants. In 1969 the British government sent troops to suppress the
rebels, where they remained into the twenty-first century.
While public opinion over Northern Ireland remained divided, the major
reforms that took place were largely regarded as positive. Moreover, although
some commentators said the fun and freedom of the 1960s were only charac-
teristic of ‘swinging London’ and rarely happened ‘north of Watford’, many
social reforms of the period were both national and liberating for millions of
people. Before the 1960s it was rarely possible to challenge the decisions taken
by the police and magistrates. There was capital punishment. Theatre censor-
ship was implemented by ex-military gentlemen with an office in St James’s
Palace. Gay men were often blackmailed, as homosexuality was a punishable
offence. In schools there was beating and caning, and secret files were kept
on students. The position of women was particularly unjust and often precari-
ous as there were no equal rights in law and discrimination was widespread.
Divorce was difficult to obtain, and required witnesses to sexual misbehaviour.
Contraception was not easily available, and illegal abortions were dangerous
and often went wrong. Single mothers and the children of the very poor were
routinely separated from their parents, as were the blind and disabled. How-
ever, by the early 1970s all that had changed.
Figure 1.2 A view of the Docklands financial district; temples of Mammon and symbols of
the 1980s, seen across the River Thames from the ship Cutty Sark in Greenwich.
© David Christopher
phase of recovery, house prices continued to rise dramatically, as did inflation. But
government spending was further reduced, resulting in greater poverty and inse-
curity for the unemployed and sick. Homeless beggars appeared on the streets, the
use of illegal drugs increased, the numbers of sufferers from HIV and AIDS grew
alarmingly, and warnings about sexual behaviour were broadcast on television.
16 The social and cultural context
The spread of AIDS prompted more open, public discussion of gay lifestyles,
but this was opposed by the Tory government, who in 1987 introduced the Local
Government Act with its infamous Clause 28, which prohibited state schools
from ‘promoting homosexuality’, in other words from teaching students that
it is acceptable or normal. To counter this, groups promoting gay rights began
campaigning for a better understanding of homosexuality with more widespread
publicity, a high-profile annual Gay Pride march, and membership of pressure
groups increased such as Stonewall, Act Up and Outrage. Gay men and women
in public life were still reluctant to openly declare their homosexuality, fearing it
would lead to criticism and censure, and some tactics involved public exposure
(‘outing’) of those in politics and the media, which guaranteed high levels of
public interest.
By 1990 it was becoming increasingly difficult for Thatcher to keep her party
united, particularly over the issue of closer political and economic integration
with Europe, an issue that she had always opposed, and that would go on to
divide the party into the next century. The same year, violent rioting broke out
in London when the Tory government introduced the ‘poll tax’. Eventually, a
combination of recession, antipathy to Europe and the universally unpopular poll
tax dislodged Thatcher after 11 years in Downing Street, and one of the most
controversial periods in British politics. To replace her, John Major was elected
as the new leader of an increasingly divided party and a fractious nation. He man-
aged briefly to reverse the Conservatives’ fortunes with an unexpected victory in
the 1992 election, bringing a record fourth consecutive Tory victory.
For the first half of the 1990s there was an overwhelming sense of public disil-
lusionment. Studies repeatedly showed that public confidence in all the major
institutions had fallen, especially in Parliament, the legal system and the press.
And throughout the decade, the monarchy looked increasingly fragile and irrel-
evant, amid the devolution of power to Scotland, the plans of the Labour govern-
ment to abolish the House of Lords and the increasing popularity of the pressure
group Charter88 with its demands for the introduction of a British republic.
By the middle of the 1990s there were more internal divisions in the Major gov-
ernment over weak leadership, an uncaring attitude towards more vulnerable sec-
tions of the community and doubts over closer European integration. In response,
Major attempted a nostalgic appeal to traditional values under the banner of
‘Back to Basics’. But the press saw this as an opportunity to expose Tory hypocrisy
with frequent allegations of ‘sleaze’ – financial and moral impropriety – within
the party. As a result, several high-profile politicians such as Jeffrey Archer and
David Mellor were arrested or forced to resign, amid high levels of public interest,
incredulity and amusement. There seemed to be no end to the hypocrisy when
it later emerged that Major himself had departed from his own ‘family values’ in
having an affair with married Tory MP Edwina Currie, who subsequently served
as a junior minister in his government.
The decline in popularity of the Conservatives continued, and gave the Labour
Party an opportunity to reorganise. Tony Blair was elected the new leader follow-
ing the death of John Smith. Young and charismatic, he set about transforming
The social and cultural context 17
the party, leaving behind the traditional socialist beliefs about stronger unions,
nationalisation of the major industries and redistribution of wealth. Many of
Labour’s traditional supporters worried that the party was becoming too much
like the Conservatives, but Blair repeated his message about party principles
being futile without power.
Figure 1.4 The Sun newspaper, possibly Mrs Thatcher’s greatest ally during her time as
Prime Minister, says goodbye in April 2012.
© Kathy deWitt/Alamy
Gender issues
In spite of the progress made by the women’s movement since the 1960s, Britain’s
institutions remain largely male dominated. Within Parliament there are still
relatively few female MPs, with 24 in 1945, 41 in 1987, and of the 650 represen-
tatives in the 2010 election, there were only 143 women, with 81 in the Labour
Party and 49 in the Conservative Party. The former has recognised the need to
recruit more women candidates and has used all-women shortlists as means to
achieve this. Although it was initially in breach of the Sex Discrimination Act
(1975), the law was changed and the Equality Act (2010) allows an exemption
until 2030. In contrast, the Church has been less responsive to social change.
Within the Church of England, women were first ordained in 1994, but were
excluded from becoming bishops. However, this was due to change in 2015, fol-
lowing pressure to promote females into the rolecapa.
Despite the resistance in some traditional quarters of politics and the Church,
compared with only 20 years ago many women have been able to make con-
siderable advances in their chosen careers, although, mostly, those who do so
are white, middle-class, university graduates. However, in 2013 women earned
approximately 20 per cent less than men in business, industry and government,
even when doing similar types of work. In 2012 almost 20 per cent of company
directors of the UK’s 100 largest listed companies, 20 per cent of university pro-
fessors and 20 per cent of judges were women. Despite progress being made during
the past ten years, there were still concerns that not enough progress was being
made, leading to allegations of a ‘glass ceiling’ for women – the illusion of the
possibility of progress.
Within the domestic sphere, divorce rates have continued to rise, and in 2004
some 45 per cent of marriages in Britain ended in divorce. The figure increased
from one in three in 1994 to almost one in two in 2013, leaving many women
in single-parent households. Divorce, separation, delayed parenthood, work and
job insecurity mean women tend to marry later and have children much later.
Yet growing equality and liberation do not seem to equal happiness, and in 2012
it was estimated that around one in four women require treatment for depression
at some time. One conclusion is that an incompatibility exists between home
and working lives; that for many women, ‘having it all’ means doing it all, and
frequently doing it alone.
The progress of the last decade in gender equality extended to lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues. Only 35 years previously these had
28 The social and cultural context
been largely ignored or marginalised, but in the mid-2000s they had become
increasingly accepted and mainstream, and a series of laws were introduced to
promote equality in relationships and the workplace. The age of consent was
reduced from 18 to 16 in the year 2000, the same as for heterosexual relation-
ships. With greater public tolerance, and employment law that makes discrimina-
tion illegal, more individuals publicly declared their sexuality, even in traditional
fields, such as Parliament, the armed forces, the police and the Church. In 2004,
MPs voted to give same-sex couples the same property, taxation and pension
rights as married couples, and gay civil partnerships and marriages were officially
recognised in the Civil Partnership Act (2004) and the Marriage (Same Sex
Couples) Act (2013), which gave gay and lesbian couples the same rights and
responsibilities as married, heterosexual couples in the UK. Around 8000 cer-
emonies per year are conducted, around half with male couples.
The Equality Act (2007) also made it illegal to discriminate in the provision
of goods and services to same-sex couples, from rooms in hotels to fertilisation
treatment. Although most people welcomed the legislation, and were much more
understanding of gay and lesbian sexuality, it has been more problematic for the
Church of England, which has been divided over the issue. Some ministers are
in favour of holding same-sex marriages in church, while others are against it,
claiming it contradicts biblical teachings and canon law.
Introduction
The past 400 years have seen an exponential growth in the number of English
speakers worldwide. As fields such as education, entertainment, business, sci-
ence, technology and the internet have become globalised, knowledge of English
has become essential, and today around two billion people, or almost one third of
the world’s population, have some knowledge of the language. It is the official or
semi-official language of government in 60 countries, and has a significant role
in 28 more.
However, use of English is not uniform. Within Britain diversity is widespread,
particularly in speech. Many dialects co-exist, and differences are apparent even
after travelling just a few miles. Regional accents can also be heard on radio and
television, but standard English grammar and vocabulary is retained for most
kinds of broadcasting.
The British Isles are also home to Welsh, Irish, Scottish-Gaelic and Scots,
which are separate languages with long histories and considerable literatures.
Linguistic diversity has also increased due to immigration, particularly over the
past 70 years. In 2011 the national census revealed that Polish had become the
most commonly spoken foreign language in the UK, with 546,000 speakers, fol-
lowed by Tamil with 420,000 speakers. London remains the most international
and multicultural of UK cities, with 53 main languages and 107 varieties spo-
ken there. But perhaps the most surprising fact is that 62 per cent of the British
population have absolutely no knowledge of any language other than English,
even though some 76 per cent said they thought having another language was
useful.
Despite its diversity and perhaps because of it, there has never been an official,
regulatory body to standardise the language, and make official pronouncements
about it, either nationally or internationally. Dictionaries such as the Oxford
English Dictionary (OED) tend to reflect how words are actually used, rather than
how they should be used, and grammar books tend to also reflect current usage
and habits. This is known as a descriptive approach to linguistics, rather than a
prescriptive one, and contrasts markedly with the approach of many other coun-
tries to matters of correctness and authority in language.
32 Language in culture
A brief history of English
Like many of the world’s languages, English is a hybrid, a linguistic ‘stew’ which
has absorbed varied elements of speech brought by ancient conquering tribes and
nationalities. Latin is one of the most influential, which was introduced by the
Romans around 2,000 years ago. From approximately 500–1200 AD, it was the
official language of the Church, government, education and the law, co-existing
with dialects spoken by other settlers and conquerors from northern Europe. In
the area of Anglia, English was commonly spoken by the Anglo-Saxons, which
was based on the Germanic dialects of Angle, Saxon and Jute invaders who had
crossed the North Sea from lands which now form part of Holland, Germany and
Denmark.
As the population grew and spread, English gradually mixed with other dialects
to become Old English. Few documents survive from the period, but Beowulf,
an epic poem written around the year 1000 in what today seems like an exotic
foreign language, is widely recognised as the earliest surviving literary work in
English. Its theme is a man’s heroic battle against a monster, which attacks his
mead hall, or pub, in a tale of high excitement and violence that would not be
out of place in a modern video game.
Around the twelfth century population movements increased, and dialects from
around the country mixed with Norman French, which was spoken in England
following the Norman conquest of 1066 from northern France. This language was
known as Middle English. Over the next three centuries thousands of new words
were created, adopted and absorbed by government, Church, the law and the mili-
tary, as well as in education, the arts and at all levels of society, to form the basis
of the modern English language. At the same time, political and religious power
became more centralised in London, and there was a trend towards standardisa-
tion of the written language, particularly for legal and religious texts, and by 1500
written English was beginning to resemble the language of today.
The next three centuries brought the international spread of English. On voy-
ages of trade, discovery and invasion, the language was exported to the con-
tinents of North America, Africa, Asia and Australasia, where it became the
language of the ruling class, the voice of authority. But due to both its relative
isolation and contact with local languages, neither speech nor writing remained
standardised, and different varieties emerged, such as ‘Singlish’ in Singapore. In
the Caribbean islands of the West Indies, English mixed with African dialects
brought by slaves to form exotic hybrids known as ‘pidgins’. These subsequently
evolved into linguistically standardised ‘creole’ forms of language which would
eventually return to Britain with post-war immigration, and influence English
literature, theatre, popular music and other fields.
In Britain meanwhile, the influence of Latin declined, although until the
mid-twentieth century it was still widely taught in grammar schools. These were
so-called because they provided instruction in Latin grammar which until the
1960s was important for university entrance, particularly for the study of religion,
medicine, law, science, music and foreign languages. In this way, Latin became a
Language in culture 33
symbol of culture, education and professional aspiration, and many universities,
schools and colleges retained Latin mottos such as ‘Alta Pete’ (‘Aim High’), to
express their ideals and convey a sense of classical tradition.
Today, Latin is not usually required for higher education, and is rarely taught
in schools, even though it is still used for some ceremonial purposes at the Uni-
versities of Oxford and Cambridge. However, the launch year of many artistic
works such as films, books, television programmes, and the year of completion of
public buildings and monuments, still tends to be written using Latin, or Roman
numerals. Latin abbreviations can also be seen on some British coins, and the
use of Norman French for some formalities still persists in Parliament, in a tradi-
tion which began soon after the conquest of 1066, when it became the official
language of government.
Received pronunciation
Clearly, accent and dialect give the listener clues not just about a speaker’s geo-
graphical background, but also their social hinterland. Non-standard features are
commonly present in the speech of people who have had less formal education,
and who have spent most or all their lives in the same locality. They are also
more common in male speech. Since the eighteenth century this characteristic
has often been exploited by novelists and dramatists who used dialect to create
characters, express their identities and make social comment. For example, in
his novels of London low-life, the Victorian storyteller Charles Dickens made
frequent attempts to re-create Cockney, as did American novelists Herman Mel-
ville and Jack London during their time in Britain. The classic works of Thomas
Hardy (Dorset), William Wordsworth (Cumberland) and later D.H. Lawrence
(Nottinghamshire) are all well known for their use of plain, everyday speech of
the regions in which they lived and worked, and link language to the manners,
morals and class of their characters.
The trend in Victorian literature to represent accents of the locality contrasted
with growing public interest in establishing common standards of English. An
increasing demand for education, as well as the need to administer an expanding
British Empire required clear standards of language which would be intelligible to
all foreign subjects. A number of acts were introduced around the mid-nineteenth
century, making education compulsory between the ages of 5 and 13. Class sizes
grew, and the number of public schools expanded, where children of the aristoc-
racy, gentry and of wealthy merchants from around Britain were brought together
and taught a standard form of written English, based on a variety used in govern-
ment documents around the mid-fifteenth century.
But the most significant development was that educators also desired a stan-
dard not only of written English, but of pronunciation, to eliminate what they
considered to be a cacophony of regional accents. Grammarians recommended
the speech of London and the Court as the most correct and desirable. This car-
ried many regional features found in the speech of the south-eastern counties of
England, as far north as Cambridge and as far west as Oxford. But it was selected
because it was the variety spoken by the ruling class – by the aristocracy and
Court – and therefore carried authority. It was sometimes called ‘Queen’s English’
and later became known as ‘received pronunciation’ (often abbreviated to RP),
which everyone could be expected to ‘receive’, that is, understand.
The British Empire and its army, Church, government and administration,
and later the BBC, all recruited the products of the British public schools, many
of whom went on to occupy positions of power and influence. In this way, RP
became the voice of the ruling class, and for many it was and still is synonymous
with power, privilege and authority. Consequently, RP can now be described not
as a regional accent, but a social one.
Language in culture 35
Figure 2.1 A cartoon in the satirical magazine Punch of 1932 illustrates sociolinguistic
change in rural areas following the advent of radio. Some villagers have begun
copying the ‘BBC accent’, believing it superior. The elderly man in the chair is
depicted as comfortably un-aspirational!
© World History Archive/Alamy
Authority in English
Given the amount of variety in English at a local, national and international
level, it may appear strange that there has never been an academy or legisla-
tive body to exercise control over the language. During the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, proposals for an academy regularly came from leading
poets and authors such as Pope, Swift, Dryden and Defoe. However, they were
gradually abandoned when substantial, authoritative dictionaries began to
appear, such as Dr Samuel Johnson’s. Unlike earlier works Johnson’s dictionary
included many everyday words and used literary quotations to illustrate cur-
rent usage and word meaning. This technique is still used in the compilation
of dictionaries today; for example, the OED records how language is actually
used, and the meanings words hold for people. This is known as a descriptive
approach to recording pronunciation and word meaning, and contrasts with a
prescriptive approach, which gives ultimate, fixed meanings to words, describ-
ing how they should be used, rather than how they really are used when people
communicate.
The foundations of the English language include around 1500 words that a
foreign learner needs to communicate at an intermediate level, compared with
estimates of approximately 20,000 active words and 40,000 passive ones for an
educated native speaker, even though Fabio Capello, the Italian ex-manager of
the England football team, famously claimed that he could manage on just 100.
However, the full version of today’s OED consists of around 750,000 words, cov-
ering the period from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day.
Once a word has entered the dictionary, it stays there as part of the history of
the language. Until the mid-1970s mainly English and American-English words
were recorded, but today many different forms are recognised, such as Australian,
Indian, South African, and even slang words and internet English. For example,
in 2004 the OED recorded a number of Hindi words entering general use, includ-
ing many new ones related to food, such as ‘balti’ and ‘masala’, as well as more
vulgar forms such as ‘chuddies’ (underpants), which is claimed to have entered
usage from the TV comedy series The Kumars at No. 42 and Goodness Gracious
Me. However, this process of adoption and assimilation is not new, and illustrates
how Asian speech is currently influencing British English, just as the speech of
the Vikings, Normans and Irish did in the past.
To celebrate the creativity of English speakers when confronted by social,
political or technological change, the OED announces a ‘word of the year’.
Words need to have become prominent or notable in the year in question, and
are selected from around 150 million on the web each month, with software
Language in culture 41
which can also track changes in geography, register and frequency of use. Recent
winners include ‘chav’ (2004), ‘credit crunch’ (2008) and ‘selfie’ (2013).
The OED also includes words commonly used in professional fields such as
sport, advertising and marketing. Since the 1980s Britain has become increasingly
business-oriented and many organisations in the public and private sector have
introduced American-style management practices. This includes a special kind of
vocabulary used in fields such as advertising, marketing and management in order to
ape their supposed professionalism. ‘Management-speak’ is one such example, and
typically involves unusual elaborations of what is being said in the form of ‘buzz-
words’ or neologisms, sometimes to conceal the real meaning. Thus, expressions
such as ‘awaydays’, ‘dotted-line management’ and the ‘deliverance’ of ‘performance
management training’ are now common. Problems become ‘challenges’, patients
and passengers become ‘customers’, and ‘360 degree thinking’ becomes normal
‘going forward’. In the UK, studies show that many employees would prefer needless
jargon to be removed, and even that it could be damaging for business, indicating
that some management practices characteristic of American organisational culture
may not be appropriate for many British working environments. Such jargon has
also proved an entertaining source of television satire, in series such as The Office
(on daily office routines at a paper manufacturers), Twenty-Twelve (on the organisa-
tion of the Olympic Games) and W1A (on managerial culture at the BBC).
Although spellings and word meanings are covered by the OED, it is not
always clear or obvious what constitutes good and bad grammar. Arguments in
the media about split infinitives and grammatical structures are common, while
the use of the grocer’s apostrophe – so-called for its frequent appearance in fruit
and vegetable shops advertising ‘apple’s’, ‘pear’s’, ‘green’s’, and so on – along with
the issue of whether or not it is correct to end a sentence with a preposition, has
exercised the public’s imagination since poet John Dryden first mentioned it in
the seventeenth century. Despite its superficial aridity there is clearly a fondness
for punctuation among the British public, which was demonstrated by the unex-
pected success of Lynn Truss’s bestselling Eats, Shoots & Leaves, an entertaining
account of the ‘zero tolerance approach to punctuation’ in 2003.
Just as the RP accent generally produces a positive attitude in listeners, the
same appears to be true of those writing with formally correct English. One study
into online dating examined 500,000 first contacts, and concluded that ‘net-
speak’, consisting of bad grammar and non-standard spelling such as ‘ur’, ‘r’, ‘u’,
‘ya’, ‘cant’, ‘luv’ and ‘wat’ are all damaging when used in communications with
potential online partners. On the other hand, correct use of apostrophes and
grammar made the author more appealing. It appears that one way of ‘filtering’
applicants is observing how they use language, and formally correct use of gram-
mar is attractive. The study concluded that the use of formally correct grammar
indicates that knowledge has been acquired and care taken, which makes them
potentially more desirable to a partner.
Nevertheless, rules of English grammar can sometimes be unclear and ambigu-
ous, and while some argue for the clarity and elegance of formal, standard English,
others argue that it is often dictated by a series of archaic rules, which have little
42 Language in culture
Figure 2.2 Eats, Shoots & Leaves: the last word in punctuation – and an unexpected bestseller
in 2003.
© David Christopher
connection with how people really communicate when they use clear, idiom-
atic ways. Formality also ignores Americanisms, and the widespread use of social
media, which requires more memorable, pithy writing. Instead, they argue that
the key to both speaking and writing successfully is to use forms that are suitable
for their purpose, whether an academic essay, a legal text, an advert or a poem.
Language in culture 43
Linguistic diversity: the Celtic connection
It is often imagined that Britain is a linguistically homogeneous country, but
there are several other indigenous languages that have been present in Britain
for over 2,000 years. Most are varieties of Gaelic, the language of the Gaels,
a Celtic tribe who came from the continent of Europe. Gaelic is a separate
language from English, which it predates by several hundred years. Most
accounts begin around the fourth century BC, when the Gaels settled in
Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and later in southern England and parts
of Wales.
Some 800 years later, around the fifth century AD, invading Anglo-Saxon
tribes from northern Europe forced British Celts to flee west and north to the
safety of the hills and mountains of Cornwall, Devon, Wales, Scotland, and to
the Brittany region of France. The geographic isolation of groups of Gaelic speak-
ers led to linguistic and cultural differences, as Welsh, Irish and Scottish-Gaelic
all developed independently. Others varieties existed too: Cornish was spoken
in the counties of Cornwall and Devon, and Manx in the Isle of Man. Cornish
largely disappeared in the early nineteenth century and Manx during the late
1940s, but in recent years there has been a revival of interest in minority lan-
guages, and today there are educational opportunities to learn them, as well as
cultural events which aim to practise, promote and celebrate their heritage in the
areas where they were once spoken.
Welsh
For almost 1,000 years until the Act of Union with England in 1536, Welsh was
the only language spoken in Wales. But from then until the mid-twentieth cen-
tury, it became marginalised as English became the language of government, edu-
cation and trade. Welsh was only spoken at home and in church and the number
of speakers slowly declined. But not everyone was willing to adopt English ways,
and in 1865 a party of 165 men and women emigrated to Patagonia in Argentina,
where Patagonian Welsh is still spoken by their descendants.
In the twentieth century use of Welsh continued to decline until the 1960s,
when a growing sense of political nationalism and Welsh identity led to demands
to revive the language. The British government assisted with the establishing
of BBC Wales in 1964, the first regional service in Britain. Local newspapers in
Welsh appeared in the 1970s, and official support for the Welsh language was
firmly established with the Welsh Language Act (1993), which stipulated that
Welsh and English should be considered as equal languages in public affairs and
the administration of justice. Welsh is now studied in all Welsh schools, and
several offer a Welsh-medium education.
Efforts to revive the language have been successful, and in 2011, of a popula-
tion of around 2.9 million, almost 600,000 were Welsh speakers. The language
is widely used for official purposes, for example in most place names, road signs,
job advertisements and public-information documents. Its literature is among
44 Language in culture
the oldest in Europe, and is celebrated each year during a national festival of
music, literature and drama known as the Royal National Eisteddfod, an event
which originated in the twelfth century. It is held each year during the first
week of August, and alternates between North and South Wales. A separate
international festival of music and folk dancing known as the International
Music Eisteddfod attracts people from all over the world to recite poetry, sing
and dance in the Welsh town of Llangollen. Numerous radio stations and the
television channel S4C (Sianel Pedwar Cymru – Channel 4 Wales) broadcast in
Welsh, and today the country is comparatively well served by a Welsh-language
mass media.
Irish
Irish is a Celtic language, and is also known as Irish Gaelic, or Erse. It was widely
spoken in a united, independent Ireland until the country became part of the
United Kingdom with the Act of Union of 1801. Then, its use in urban areas
began a rapid decline as English came to dominate Irish affairs. Following
the death and emigration of millions of Irish speakers from rural areas during the
catastrophic famine of 1845–8, there were even fewer speakers. But towards the
end of the nineteenth century a Republican movement for independence from
Britain emerged, whose supporters adopted Irish as a distinctive symbol of their
culture and identity. In 1921 the south of Ireland gained partial independence,
Figure 2.3 Language can be an emotive subject. In 2014 members of the Welsh Language
Society protested in Aberystwyth, Wales, demanding better promotion of Welsh.
© Keith Morris News/Alamy
Language in culture 45
and its new government began to organise a revival of Irish. Today, Irish is the
first official language of the Irish Republic, and of some 3.5 million inhabitants,
over one million speak both Irish and English. It is now taught in schools as a
second language, and there is a small Irish media.
While Irish has become mainstream and readily accepted in the Republic, in
Northern Ireland use of the language remains strongly politicised and closely
linked with nationalist politics. Until 1972 the British government excluded
it from radio and television broadcasts, but since then there have been official
efforts to encourage its use. In 1981 an Irish daily newspaper La (meaning ‘Day’)
was founded, and in 2004 the British government set up a fund to support Irish-
language film and television production in Northern Ireland. In 2006 the British
government gave an undertaking to encourage the language in education, place
names, media and cultural activities, and today there are bilingual schools in
Belfast, while the BBC and independent stations broadcast television and radio
programmes in Irish.
However, as Irish still has no official status, it is difficult to obtain reliable data
on the number of speakers. But the 2011 Census found that over 10 per cent
of the Northern Irish population (184,898) had some knowledge of Irish, with
large numbers around Slaghtneill in southern Londonderry, and in the Gaeltacht
Quarter (An Cheathru Ghaeltachta) of Belfast. There are also Irish-speaking
primary schools, secondary schools and crèches, as well as Belfast’s Raido Failte,
Northern Ireland’s only full-time Irish-language station.
Non-indigenous languages
Although Britain is a predominantly Anglo-Saxon country, ethnic diversity is
a major characteristic of many large towns and cities. Britain’s global expan-
sion over the past 500 years has resulted in a steady flow of immigration, which
increased substantially in the twentieth century. Since the 1930s Jews, Russians
and Italians have settled in Britain following persecution, war and poverty in
Europe. Later, during the 1940s and 1950s the government invited Common-
wealth citizens to fill job vacancies in the major towns and cities, and several
periods of immigration followed. The new immigrants arrived mainly from West
Africa, the Caribbean, India, Pakistan and Hong Kong, settling in areas where
work was plentiful and housing cheap, for example in the central parts of London,
Leicester, Slough, Birmingham and Bradford, as well as in the major ports of Bris-
tol, Cardiff and Liverpool.
With people of Asian descent being the most numerous minorities of British
cities, the most widely spoken foreign languages are those of the Asian subconti-
nent, such as Urdu from Pakistan, and Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi and Gujarati from
India. They are well protected by an educational policy which provides tuition
Language in culture 47
in the native language, and an established mass media of newspapers, radio and
television programmes.
However, many Asians have a complex relationship with English, where abil-
ity often varies according to age: for example, in 2011 the inner London borough
of Tower Hamlets was 37 per cent Bangladeshi, but less than two-thirds of these
spoke English. The most proficient speakers of English are children, the majority
of whom grow up speaking both English and the community language. In con-
trast, the community elders often have a poor command of the English language.
In recent times many workers from European countries have also migrated to
the UK in search of work and a better standard of living. After the 2004 enlarge-
ment of the European Union, many Poles settled and found work in the UK, and
in 2011 there were over half a million, making them the third largest foreign-
born community in Britain after Irish and Indian-born people. Polish has become
the second most spoken language in the UK, with approximately the same num-
ber of speakers as Welsh. Unlike many migrants from the sub-continent and
Caribbean, Poles often settled in quiet rural areas and provincial towns of East
Anglia and the East Midlands, working in light industry and agriculture. Despite
their numbers, the cultural impact has been small, with the possible exception of
Polish delicatessens which have become an increasingly common sight on many
British high streets.
3 Cyberculture
Introduction
Britain has become one of the most digitally connected societies in the world,
and for many people of all ages smartphones, mobile devices and computers
with internet access have become essential accessories of everyday life. Today,
almost 90 per cent of the population have access to the internet, and the aver-
age user spends an average of 43 hours per month online, or 1 in 12 waking
minutes. The amount of time spent online and the use of computers not just for
communication, but for education, business and entertainment, has facilitated
the development of a culture, often referred to as cyberculture. The conse-
quences have been profound – in less than a decade it has come to influence
how we think, read, write, live, work, play, shop, consume, socialise, gamble
and much more.
In the arts, spectacular changes have taken place, as digital media has facili-
tated a shift in production away from the specialists and towards the amateurs
and casual enthusiasts. Consequently, the cultural industries have been remade,
and almost anyone can be a photographer, broadcaster, film-maker, publisher,
singer, citizen journalist or critic. On the one hand, production costs have fallen,
and the variety of available material increased. But on the other, there is an
increasing amount of competition, and this, together with the downloading –
often for free – of music, films, books and other media, has led to falling prof-
its. Major investors in traditional media such as television, film and music have
become less willing to invest, and there is now more caution about what gets
made, played and shown.
Online retailing has become a significant area of growth. The British are now
the biggest online shoppers in the world, with six out of every ten adults regularly
buying products such as books, music, films, food and flights on their gadgets. The
trend towards home shopping is mirrored by the growth in home entertainment,
and attendances at cinemas, theatres and concerts have declined. In contrast,
demand for video games has significantly increased and some of the best-known
and most successful in the world are made in Britain, such as Grand Theft Auto
and Tomb Raider. Games are now on a par with film, television and animation in
terms of sales, revenue, popularity and cultural influence. Most newspapers carry
Cyberculture 49
reviews of new releases and versions, and there is an established awards ceremony
each year, hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television (BAFTA).
As online domestic services and entertainments have grown, socialising in pubs
and clubs has fallen, and the number of dating websites has increased. Currently,
there are over 1400 sites and online dating is the most common way to meet a new
partner. At the same time, Facebook has become the most popular social medium
in Britain, providing an easy accessible way to find old friends, keep in touch and
form new relationships. The popularity of social media has also led to the creation
of a number of communications awards, such as best use of Twitter, YouTube and
Facebook, Best Business Blog, Best Low Budget Campaign, and so on.
But, as the internet has expanded, creativity flourished and individual oppor-
tunities grown, the powers of the Orwellian Big Brother have also increased. The
British government and private, commercial organisations can readily gather and
monitor personal communications; consequently there is growing concern about
the loss of privacy and civil liberties. Citizens are increasingly anxious about the
ways different organisations can watch, photograph, monitor and obtain private
information and ‘metadata’ about them, effectively tracking their lives from the
cradle to the grave.
Social media
The presence of social media and the low cost and extensive availability of the
internet has led to significant changes in how the British communicate. In 2012,
Cyberculture 51
of a total population of 63.7 million, around 33 million adults accessed the inter-
net every day, with almost half (48 per cent) using social networking sites such as
Facebook and Twitter. This makes the UK the second most prolific users of social
media in Europe after the Netherlands.
Of all British adult internet users in 2014, some 50 per cent have a Facebook
account, 26 per cent have a Twitter account, 19 per cent are on GooglePlus,
18 per cent on LinkedIn, 13 per cent on Instagram, followed by 8 per cent on
Flickr and 6 per cent on Pinterest. Use of social media is most common among
the 18–24-year-olds, with 91 per cent of internet users in this group owning a
Facebook account. The least engaged are the over-65-year-olds, with 18 per cent
of users owning a social media account. Approximately equal numbers of men
and women contacting social media sites, although more men have accounts
with LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter, and more women hold Facebook and Pin-
terest accounts.
Today, almost all organisations, individuals and companies understand the
need to represent themselves on social media. Many communicate directly with
the public by blogs, and use multiple sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest
and YouTube. In politics, the parties regularly ‘listen’ to conversations on media
such as Twitter, and the government attempts to respond quickly to media news
and action occurring in real time. British businesses also understand key social
media themes of self-promotion, competition, brand equity, sustainability and
social responsibility, and, from small pubs and restaurants to large transnational
corporations, almost all have a presence on Facebook.
Facebook has become the most important and popular social medium in the
UK. It is particularly important for making contact with younger consumers. In
2013 there were some 2.5 million 13–17-year-old users, with almost 26 per cent
of UK Facebook users in this age bracket, the largest concentration of users of
any social media platform. The opportunity to publicly demonstrate style, status,
taste and consumption influences many to sign up, and research has found that
most organisations and individuals try to present themselves online in the way
they think society expects, so profiles tend to be expressed in a conformist way,
emphasising personal happiness, material success, leisure and physical attraction.
Its ‘like’ function also offers an insight into British popular preferences, which
also tend to be conservatively expressed. In February 2014, two of the top three
most ‘liked’ British products are Cadbury brands of chocolate, EastEnders is the
most popular television soap opera page with three million likes and Mr Bean has
the fastest growing Facebook page. Rihanna is the platform’s most liked celebrity,
and Manchester United the UK’s most liked sports page.
Although statistics about Facebook ‘likes’ and preferences can appear useful
for business marketing, the opposite may be true. Just under half the UK online
population who use social media state that they do not like seeing adverts that
are based on their profile and their ‘likes’ and so on, on sites such as Facebook.
Additionally, just under half (44 per cent) of the British online population say
they would not be more positive about a product simply because their friends
have followed it and/or liked it, and 43 per cent said they would be unlikely to
52 Cyberculture
talk about a brand on a social media site even if they heard something positive
about it.
After Facebook, the second most popular social media site is Twitter, with
around 15 million UK users, the fourth largest number of Twitter users in the
world after the USA, Brazil and Japan. However, not all users are active, and
around 40 per cent prefer to absorb content, that is follow rather than tweet. One
of its main functions is that it enables people and organisations to have direct
contact with the public, effectively ‘broadcasting’ to them and keeping them up
to date with their thoughts on current issues, new product launches and so on. As
with other social media, Twitter can also offer insights into consumption patterns
of young Britons. The singer Adele currently has the most followed account in
the UK with almost 20 million followers worldwide, while the footballer Wayne
Rooney is the most followed sportsman with 7.5 million followers. The most
popular brand is Rockstar Games who make the video game Grand Theft Auto,
with around 2.2 million followers. In contrast, the British monarchy has around
650,000 followers and the British prime minister has around half a million.
The most popular site for networking is LinkedIn, which had over 10 million
UK users in 2013. It was once seen as a place for aspirational young professionals
to deposit their CVs in the hope of getting a lucrative job offer, but today more
people are using it for business knowledge and keeping in touch, since it now
offers an alumni search and has a lower minimum age limit of 13.
Mumsnet
Of the most popular Twitter sites, the ‘Twitter 100’, over 75 per cent are
created and run by men. It is sometimes argued that the male sites encour-
age competitive behaviour, aggression and showing off, which discourages
women from participation. But in response to the perceived need for a site
dedicated to mothers and parents, Mumsnet was started in 2000 by Justine
Roberts, a former sports journalist. It aims to provide advice and information
on parenting and products, and has since become one of the most influen-
tial sites in the UK with a membership of around 4.5 million. Most members
are aged 25–45 and many are expatriates seeking information from British
sources, and around 75 per cent are educated to degree level or equivalent.
Its membership is highly active, and the site gets some 60 million hits per
month, with around 30,000 posts a day to forums within the site. Mumsnet
also has a Bloggers’ Network with 3,500 registered bloggers and a network
of 200 local sites run in partnership with local editors.
There is a strong sense of solidarity among Mumsnet members, which
has helped the organisation to campaign successfully in many fields. One
notable campaign involved an advert that used the slogan ‘Career women
make bad mothers’. But after Mumsnet members complained and lobbied
the advertising agency and their clients, the slogan was changed to ‘Sexist
ads are bad for business’. Later in 2010, the campaign ‘Let Girls Be Girls’
demanded that newsagents removed or covered ‘lads’ mags’ – magazines
with images of topless young women on the cover – which could easily
Cyberculture 53
be seen by children. In turn, many major retailers responded by ensuring
the magazines were not on public view. Other campaigns have included the
advocacy of better care for women who miscarry during pregnancy, and a
Respite Care campaign that calls on local authorities to provide adequate
short breaks for families with disabled children. In 2013 the site also launched
a campaign to prevent sales representatives gaining access to women in
hospital maternity wards.
Their organisation and activity has also attracted the attention of politi-
cians seeking to influence women and gain their support at election time.
The 2010 election was nicknamed the ‘Mumsnet election’ as many politicians
believed they could influence a significant number of women by communi-
cating through Mumsnet online forums. In consequence, the site became
a target for political advertising and live webchats with party leaders, in an
attempt to influence a significant percentage of the electorate.
Despite their positive image and campaigning, Mumsnet has sometimes
attracted criticism. In March 2012 the pressure group Fathers 4 Justice
launched a campaign against the kind of comments and language used in
some forums, alleging that it was anti-male, and that if used in this way
against other races and sexualities, it would be considered unacceptable or
illegal. This included a naked protest at Marks & Spencer (which advertises
on Mumsnet), in which protesters took off their clothes to draw attention to
their cause. But in spite of occasional criticism, the site remains one of the
most active, informative and popular in the UK, capable of generating news,
comment and political action.
Figure 3.1 Anxiety about the effects of mass media, particularly on women and children,
is not new. This cartoon appeared in the satirical magazine Punch in 1906,
soon after the development of radio communications. Text under the cartoon
reads: ‘IV.–Development of Wireless Telegraphy. Scene in Hyde Park. (These
two figures are not communicating with one another. The lady is receiving an
amatory message, and the gentleman some racing results.)’
© The Art Archive/Alamy
Perhaps unsurprisingly, with people spending less time outside the home,
the UK online dating market is an area of rapid expansion. In Britain there is
a long history of meeting partners through the media. One of the first adver-
tisements appeared in 1695, and was placed in the publication A Collection of
Letters for Improvement of Husbandry and Trade by a ‘gentleman of about 30 years
of age’ seeking a ‘good young gentlewoman with at least £3000’. It is unknown
whether the request was successful, but today, of an estimated 5,000 dating
services in Europe, almost 1,500 are UK based. In 2012 the online dating
market grew by approximately 6 per cent, and is now worth £170 million, and
today approximately one in four relationships begin online. Over nine million
people have used online dating sites, and a full spectrum of services is avail-
able, from exclusive membership sites with personal agents to assist clients
seeking company, friendship and marriage in Britain or around the world, to
smartphone apps such as Grindr, which connect gay men looking for casual
encounters in the local area.
56 Cyberculture
Adult entertainment
The British adult entertainment industry continues to experience phenomenal
growth. Pornographic ‘tube’ sites (where viewers can upload content and watch
films free) have multiplied, as have ‘live’ streaming services. In 2012 the Adult
Industry Trade Association (AITA) estimated there were at least 5000 individu-
als working on adult webcams in the UK, who charge for performances, chat
and other professional services. Escorts can also legally advertise their services
online. This is said to make sex workers safer, since street prostitution is illegal
and dangerous in Britain, and running a brothel is prohibited. The shift online of
adult entertainment and services has also led to falling sales of adult DVDs and
men’s magazines as a direct line is created between producer and consumer, and
the ‘middleman’ is effectively eliminated.
The abundance and availability of online pornography and its possible effects
on young adults has been frequently debated. Although some argue that the
internet is important in providing education, choice and free speech, others argue
that it is having a negative impact on the relationships of young people. A 2012
study suggested that many children get information about sex not primarily from
school teachers or biology books, but the internet. It also points out that boys pri-
marily use material for arousal, while girls use it more for education. Research in
the UK has also shown that more than a third of 16–24-year-olds admitted por-
nography had caused problems in their relationships, primarily because exposure
to depersonalised and sometimes violent sexual encounters can distort what ‘nor-
mal’ sexual behaviour should involve, and what should be expected. However,
others argue that such studies are flawed, and that such personal problems among
young adults are not unusual, particularly in cases where there has been little or
no communication between parents and children about appropriate behaviour in
relationships.
The law requires websites to keep pornographic images out of reach of under-
18s, while the regulator of online pornography in the UK (the Authority for TV
on Demand – ATVOD) has the power to close UK-based sites if they do not
put up barriers to hard-core content. Currently, most sites comply and very few
are banned, but it is powerless to regulate those based overseas. However, the
Internet Watch Foundation has introduced a content-blocking system known as
Cleanfeed with some success, to prevent access to child pornography sites. But
technology advances quickly, and the current availability of ‘darknets’ (which
require special software to access them) and deep websites (which are password
protected and not accessed by search engines) remain problematic areas, both to
regulate and to block.
Video games
In recent years the popularity of video games has grown substantially, and more
are now sold in the UK than anywhere else in Europe. Production of games is also
notable, and the UK has 48 of the world’s top development studios which employ
a total of some 40,000 people working in areas such as design, development,
publishing, VFX (visual effects), online and mobile content. Many major games
Cyberculture 59
and their film, book and comic franchises are developed in the Britain, including
Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider and Burnout. The work is highly profitable, and
in 2012 generated revenue of £3.1 billion, approximately equal to the amount
earned by UK film.
Gaming has now become a mainstream activity, with an estimated 33.6m play-
ers (over 80 per cent of the population). In contrast to the media stereotype of a
teenage male alone in his bedroom, research shows games are played by people of
all ages and social backgrounds, at home, online and on mobile phones. The more
affluent and less affluent play equally, as do men and women, with the average
British gamer playing for around 12 hours per week on games that take around a
month to complete. Almost half of all UK households contain at least one games
console such as a Wii, Playstation or Xbox, and games cover a range of styles and
genres, including violent hard-core games, casual games, social games and mas-
sively multiplayer online games (MMOG).
Figure 3.2 The lurid colours and content of the GTA cover designs recall fairground
and pinball art of the 1960s.
© Gavin Rodgers/Alamy
Settings are finely observed and detailed, and each one contains a wide
range of options for the player. But, although it is possible to fly, drive, race,
crash, play sports, have sex and even kill, the game does not require this, as
formats are non-linear, that is they are created by the gamers themselves.
So, participants can choose more leisurely options, such as calmly swim-
ming, shopping or driving slowly to enjoy the scenery.
A distinctive characteristic of GTA is its satire of American popular culture,
which gives the game a distinctly British feel. In GTA: San Andreas there is a
Facebook spoof called ‘Lifeinvader’ and parodies of TV talent shows. Along
the highways are billboards for plastic surgery, enemas and gun stores. On
62 Cyberculture
the car radio, the far-right network ‘Weazel News’ with the slogan ‘Confirm-
ing Your Prejudices’ broadcasts its biliousness to corrupt police, slimy politi-
cians, washed-up celebrities, career criminals, liars, cheats and sociopaths.
In a clear challenge to the American dream, the unspoken message is that
free, unrestricted capitalism is the handmaiden of violent crime.
GTA has received much praise for its humour, creativity and attention to
detail as well as the way in which it questions raw aspiration and the pur-
suit of the American dream. In 2006 it was voted one of Britain’s top ten
designs along with Concorde, the London Underground map, red telephone
boxes, cats-eyes, the Mini car, the Routemaster bus, the Spitfire plane, the
video-game cover Tomb Raider and the World Wide Web. However, in many
countries the series has attracted controversy, in particular for its violence,
its lack of values and its shallow, bitter, money-obsessed characters. It has
also been attacked for its marginalising and stereotyping of women, who are
cast in minor, superficial roles, such as prostitutes, strippers, neurotic wives
or eccentric feminists. Public concern about games’ adult nature, violent
themes and the lack of positive role models has also led to a ban on certain
editions of the game in some countries. But despite criticism, the latest ver-
sion of the game known as GTA-V became the best-selling video game ever
in the first 24 hours of sale, earning £495.5 million for its makers Rockstar.
Newspapers
Introduction
There is a wide choice of daily press in Britain, with approximately 130 daily
and 1,800 weekly newspapers. Despite their variety, they can be basically
divided into two categories: the quality press and the popular press. The for-
mer have a reputation for greater focus on economic, political and cultural
coverage, and include the Guardian, the Independent, the Daily Telegraph, The
Times and the Financial Times. The Daily Telegraph is the highest-selling qual-
ity newspaper, with a daily circulation of around 420,000 in 2014. However,
the total sales of quality press only account for around 15 per cent of all news-
papers sold.
In contrast, the popular press has a reputation for sensational, lighter news
stories, with more pictures and comment about well-known people from show-
business and sports. These include the mid-market papers of the Daily Mail and
Daily Express, and the popular daily press of the Sun, Daily Mirror and the Daily
Star. The Sun is the biggest-selling newspaper in Britain, and in 2014 it had a
circulation of over two million, approximately a quarter of the tabloid market.
A number of papers also print a Sunday edition, which is distinct in character
to the weekday editions, and often carries a colour supplement with items of
consumer and leisure interest. There are also around 900 free daily and weekly
newspapers, which are financed by advertising. The largest is Metro, which began
on the London Underground transport system in 1999. It now has 13 editions
nationwide, and is said to have a combined readership of 1.7 million.
One of the most distinctive characteristics of the press is its language. The
quality press generally includes longer articles, written with complex sentences
and more formal vocabulary, while the popular press present the news in shorter
articles, with more colloquial vocabulary and more inventive wordplay. The
language used is often witty and imaginative, with alliterations, puns, amusing
misspellings, and references to literature and history. This serves to capture the
reader’s eye, raise a smile and stimulate the imagination, but for foreign readers it
can sometimes render simple, popular stories unintelligible.
Newspapers, magazines and journalism 67
Humour and political satire has a long history in Britain and almost all news-
papers carry cartoons that make fun of the issues of the day, from the images
drawn by Hogarth and Gillray in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, to
those of Steve Bell, Heath and many others of the present time.
Until the 1980s most of the national newspapers were based in London’s
Fleet Street in the heart of the city, but now many are based in modern prem-
ises in the outskirts. The London base means they are often accused of hav-
ing a strong bias towards London politics, economics and culture. In 2014 the
London Evening Standard had the highest circulation among local and regional
papers with a circulation of around 600,000 per edition (although the paper is
now free).
There are approximately 1,300 local or regional newspapers serving other parts
of Britain. In Scotland, the Daily Record has the highest circulation of the Scot-
tish newspapers, but the Herald is the leading quality daily newspaper. In Wales,
the Western Mail has the highest circulation. Welsh-language papers and bilin-
gual press are also available. In Northern Ireland, papers from the British main-
land as well as the Irish Republic are widely sold.
Almost all daily newspapers also have a website with a different, online version
of the paper. Most are free, although an increasing number have a paywall, which
means readers must pay a fee to have full access to articles and links on the site.
However, breakfast over a newspaper is a ritual in millions of kitchens, and many
people have them delivered to the house, rather than buy them in newsagents or
browse them online. In the past, this intimacy has helped to create a special bond
between the British and their press, but it is an increasingly fragile relationship,
as in recent years sales have fallen dramatically.
The press owners target their newspapers not so much at a particular age group,
region or ethnic majority, but at a particular social class and political affiliation,
and for this reason they say as much about the people who read them as the world
they report. Thus, the political leanings of different newspapers have ensured
that, for many readers, their newspaper has become a badge of social and political
identity.
By tradition, the British press is free of political control. No newspaper is
owned by the government, and the press is able to openly criticise any political
party and its policies. However, the press has never been impartial. There is no
legal requirement for impartiality, unlike with the television news and BBC radio
news which are more strictly regulated. Consequently, newspaper editorials and
opinion columns often feature lively, combative and outspoken political views.
These are most clearly stated at election time, and reflect the interests of their
owners.
Britain is one of the few countries that allows foreign ownership of major
media enterprises, and since 1945 there has been substantial involvement by
non-British owners. Robert Maxwell, who owned the Daily Mirror between 1984
and 1991, was born Jan Ludwig Hoch, a Czech. Until 2004 the Canadian busi-
nessman Conrad Black held various media interests in the USA, as well as the
Daily Telegraph, the mouthpiece of the Tory Party. Rupert Murdoch (originally an
68 Newspapers, magazines and journalism
Table 4.1 British daily newspapers, their circulations and owners.
Pioneers
Until the eighteenth century news was commonly spread by a ‘town crier’ who
would walk through towns and villages making public announcements. Most peo-
ple could not read, but his familiar cry of ‘Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!’ (from old French,
meaning ‘Listen!’) drew attention to major news of wars, crimes, tax increases
and so on. Production costs, transport difficulties and general illiteracy prevented
large-scale publication, distribution and sale of newspapers, but gradually they
began to appear for a small, educated, wealthy readership.
The first English newspaper – the Daily Courant – was published in
1702, although newspapers of today were established much later. The Times
(1785), the Observer (1791) and the Sunday Times (1822) are among the old-
est that are still in print. Later, literacy standards improved and there was
Newspapers, magazines and journalism 69
a new, expanding lower middle class of literate clerical workers. They had lit-
tle interest in the papers written for an educated, wealthy elite, but there was
demand for simple, interesting stories in print. In response, a popular national
press began to grow, with papers such as the News of the World (1843) and the
People (1881).
Figure 4.1 Many people still buy their press at a newsagent’s or have it delivered to the
home, despite the availability of most papers online.
© David Christopher
70 Newspapers, magazines and journalism
Throughout the twentieth century, an expanding industry attracted a new
class of business people or ‘press barons’ who saw the possibilities for profits and
self-advancement, as well as the chance to influence the political and economic
affairs of the time. The Irishman Alfred Harmsworth (who later became Lord
Northcliffe) was the first British press entrepreneur. He wanted to produce a
newspaper like those being published in the USA, and in 1896 founded the Daily
Mail, and later bought the Observer, The Times and the Sunday Times.
But in the early decades of the twentieth century the public had few opportu-
nities to gain and exchange information about what was happening in the world.
There was still no radio or television, standards of education were generally poor,
and the majority of students left school with little more than a basic ability to
read and write. Consequently, those with control of information could easily
influence people and politics, and a reputation was established among the most
popular British press for supporting Conservative, right-wing interests, and for
hostility towards the redistribution of wealth, social reform and equal rights for
women.
However, one of the few papers that has traditionally supported the Labour
Party is the Daily Mirror. When it was founded by Harmsworth in 1903 it was
initially aimed at a new readership of literate women, but sales fell until the paper
became a picture paper that was sympathetic to the Labour Party, and soon it
became one of the most popular publications in Britain. It remained so until the
mid-1980s, when a change of politics under its new owner, Robert Maxwell, led
to falling sales, high levels of debt, theft from Mirror employees, and finally the
mysterious and dramatic death of its owner, who drowned at night off his yacht
in the Canary Islands.
Britain’s growing multicultural communities are also well served by the press.
Publishing in English, some of the best known include the Chinese newspaper
Sing Tao, the Arabic paper Al-Arab and the Jewish Chronicle, a long-established
paper founded in 1841. The Asian Times is an English-language weekly for the
Asian community, while Afro-Caribbean publications include The Voice and the
Caribbean Times. Several other papers are published in Britain and appear in lan-
guages of the communities they serve, including Bangla, Korean, Latvian, Polish,
Portuguese, Urdu and Russian.
Some papers emerged in response to what was seen as unfair representation of
their communities in the British press. For example, during the early 1980s much
attention was given in the papers to an association between race and crime, and
racist reports in the mainstream popular papers, which alleged that black people
caused trouble, and took white people’s homes and jobs. In response, black com-
munities wanted a newspaper that would represent their interests more fairly,
and in 1982 The Voice was launched, a weekly paper that aims to project positive
images about and for the black community to a younger readership aged mainly
between 15 and 34. It has also gained a strong reputation as a populist newspaper
which campaigns to correct miscarriages of justice involving black people. In the
mid to late 1990s the paper had a circulation of around 55,000 but in recent years
sales figures have fallen, and some papers like New Nation have had to close. This
Newspapers, magazines and journalism 71
may be because African and Caribbean Britons are becoming more assimilated
and mainstream. But others argue that these ethnic communities like to listen to
different music, watch different theatre, eat different food and even suffer from
different medical complaints, and for those reasons there will always be demand
for a separate press.
Press influence
Political views held by newspaper owners on current topics can usually be found
in press editorials, as well as in the selection and coverage of news stories, and it is
often discussed to what extent these influence readers. One allegation is that the
press sometimes sensationalise and exaggerate certain types of behaviour, giving
the impression that it is new, dangerous and more common than it really is, in
order to attract attention and sell newspapers. For example, in recent years these
have included video ‘nasties’, asylum seekers and binge drinking. In such cases,
dramatic headlines, stories and pictures are published, together with accounts of
behaviour that enrage or frighten readers. But these are often based on stereo-
types, and an unthinking prejudice against the alleged behaviour, rather than
facts. Nevertheless, debates about the topic follow in the mass media and some-
times in Parliament. Members of the public become worried and begin to prepare
for a confrontation, and demand tough action from the police and politicians to
avert the threat. However, in many cases a close examination often shows reports
to be exaggerated or untrue, and photos to be staged or posed, in episodes known
as ‘moral panics’.
During the past 50 years there have been panics over various youth subcultures
such as Teds, mods, rockers and ‘New Age’ travellers, as well as inner-city black
youths, video games and new drugs. Lurid stories appeared in the press, and those
with no direct experience of them became angry and worried. They demanded
political action, and created a situation that the political right could exploit, by
promising tough measures, ‘a crackdown’ and ‘zero tolerance’ against what was
essentially a minor or trivial threat, compared with more serious issues such as the
consequences of unemployment, the erosion of welfare benefits or the unavail-
ability of affordable housing.
In terms of newspapers’ influence on voting, the political preferences of the
press can be seen most clearly at election time, when readers are urged to support
one or other of the major parties. Most papers are hostile to the Labour Party,
and more sympathetic to the Tory Party. But at the three elections of 1997, 2001
and 2005 most press supported Labour — despite the critical stance of the own-
ers of the newspapers. This is because the press barons are shrewd and pragmatic
individuals who, in troubled times of falling sales, fully understand the need to
‘back the probable winner’ and be popular, in order to sell papers and remain
solvent. In 2010, most supported the Tory Party, although the result was a ‘hung’
Parliament and a coalition government between the Conservatives and Liberal
Democrats. This suggests that in elections since 1997, people vote according to
the advice given in their newspapers. But an alternative view – often held by
72 Newspapers, magazines and journalism
those who work in the media – is that the main reason people buy a newspaper is
simply because they like its tone, its pictures and the sports coverage.
However, with the growth and spread of digital communications, citizens have
become increasingly active in collecting, reporting and disseminating news. This
has led to an increasing number of news sources, and a decline in the influence of
newspapers. For example, if there is a major story in the news about a public dem-
onstration, readers can find online reports written by campaigning organisations
on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogs and so on where news is reported more
quickly and directly than in a newspaper – whether hard copy or online – as, for
example, with the ‘Occupy London’ movement in Britain in 2011/12, when news
spread much faster over social media than through traditional channels.
The government and their departments understand the power of the new media
well, in addition to more traditional kinds such as newspapers. They have created
a large number of press officers to effectively ‘spin’ or present news in a favourable
manner and, where appropriate, counter what is being said in social media or by the
press. Many other public and private organisations do the same, in order to protect
their public image and quickly counter any negative news with releases of informa-
tion on new and traditional media from their own public relations departments.
Nevertheless, the newspapers still retain a power to influence the news agen-
das of other media. What the papers say is still of some significance to other news
media, because people pay to read it. It indicates people’s concerns and interests.
Consequently, press headlines are routinely mentioned in television news bul-
letins, and these in turn affect television news agendas.
This suggests that British newspapers, their editors, reporters and columnists,
still have some influence over public debate, particularly over what is debated
and in what way. However, the papers appear to have less influence over people’s
political opinions, which can be shaped through a variety of different media and
information sources.
The Sun
The Sun is the UK’s best-selling newspaper, with an average Monday–
Saturday circulation of more than two million a day and a claimed total
readership of around 5.5 million. Other daily editions of the paper appear
in Ireland and Scotland, which are similar in content and character to the
English version, but with more emphasis on home nations’ news and sport.
It has become famous for its funny, sharp headlines, its wordplay, for cap-
turing the mood of its readers, influencing their views and often forcing the
government to listen. Its supporters say it is the common voice of the coun-
try, but its critics argue that it has nasty politics and an aggressive populism,
which in the past has often been mischievous and malevolent.
The paper began in 1964, when the left-wing Daily Herald was re-launched
as the Sun. In 1969 it was bought by Australian-American billionaire Rupert
Murdoch, who still owns the paper. Murdoch wanted to expand the appeal
of the Sun to a wider audience, and began to attract readers by focusing
on sex and sport. A picture of a topless model was published every day on
page 3, and the paper began to include coverage of all major sports events.
Its new formula proved popular, and by 1978 its circulation had increased to
four million copies per day.
Until 1979 the Sun had supported the trade unions and the Labour Party,
but it switched its political allegiance to the Conservatives led by Margaret
Thatcher before the election of that year. The Tories won, and brought the
start of 18 years of Tory rule. The Sun became Thatcherite propaganda. Sto-
ries were carefully chosen, oversimplified and presented as ‘black and white’
in a way that avoided complexity or careful analysis, while a popular diet of
celebrity and sport amused its readers. Meanwhile, the newspaper dam-
aged the Labour Party with humour and often inaccurate reporting.
In 1982, during Britain’s war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands
(Malvinas), the paper enthusiastically ran competitions for the best anti-
Argentinian jokes. It also sponsored a missile, encouraged a boycott of
Argentinian corned beef and published crass, insensitive headlines such as
‘Gotcha’ when 1,200 Argentines were killed as the warship Belgrano was
sunk. But despite criticism for becoming aggressive, prejudiced and jingois-
tic, it became the most popular newspaper of its time.
After the defeat of Argentina the Sun began to attack those Thatcher called
‘the enemy within’. Gay rights, women’s rights and Labour Party attempts
to promote a fairer, more equal and tolerant society were all criticised and
76 Newspapers, magazines and journalism
ridiculed as the politics of the ‘loony left’. But despite sometimes violent
police action in industrial disputes with print workers, miners and others, the
authorities were rarely criticised.
In 1989 the new satellite television service Sky Television began broad-
casting, launched by Rupert Murdoch’s company News International, and
the Sun contained frequent ‘plugs’ for its news and sports programmes, as
well as adverts for the dish needed to receive them. Meanwhile, Tory minister
Norman Tebbit praised the paper’s topless ‘page 3’ girl, telling readers she
was really the working man’s Venus de Milo, to much public amusement.
During the time of its highest circulation (1981–94) the editor was Kelvin
MacKenzie, who introduced a mixture of gossip, celebrity, television, sport
and reality TV. But its popularity has not always been constant, for example
in its reporting of how 96 Liverpool fans had died at a football match at Hill-
sborough in Sheffield in 1989. The paper implied the fans were to blame, in
reports that offended the people of Liverpool, who had not liked its Thatch-
erite politics and anti-trade unionism. In protest on Merseyside, copies were
publicly burnt and newsagents refused to sell it. The newspaper was sub-
sequently shown to be wrong by the Hillsborough Independent Panel, an
independent inquiry in 2012, which led to a public apology from MacKenzie
and others involved at the time.
In the 1990s sales of the Sun fell, as the Tory government became more
and more unpopular. Eventually, in 1997, the paper realised that it could not
tell people to vote for the party likely to lose the election, and so advised its
readers to vote for Labour. It was a pragmatic gesture, which showed the
paper’s need for sales and popularity. However, in 1998 a headline ques-
tioned ‘Are We Being Run by a Gay Mafia?’, following revelations about gay
members of the New Labour cabinet.
Since then, in response to changes in social attitudes and a less politically
polarised society, the Sun has gradually become much less aggressive than
in the 1980s. There has been a gradual shift towards attacking government
policies rather than personalities. However, it still claims to defend values
that are said to be ‘British’ but are often those of the newspaper and its
owner.
Immigration and the issue of relations with Europe have always been dif-
ficult for the newspaper. A campaign against asylum seekers in 2003 was
carried out under sensational, populist headlines such as ‘Our Heritage is
Crumbling’, ‘Migrant Horde in Hospital Rampage’, ‘Richest Town in Britain
Swamped by Illegals’ and ‘Swan Bake’, which falsely suggested asylum seek-
ers were slaughtering and eating swans. In a similar vein, a flavour of the
Sun’s attitude towards Europe could be seen in its ‘Guide to the EU Constitu-
tion’ published on 22 April 2004 (p. 13), which states ‘Our army will have to fol-
low EU orders’, ‘We will be ordered what to say at the UN: the new EU foreign
minister will speak for Britain at the Security Council’. It continues to be xeno-
phobic towards EU leaders, sometimes calling them Krauts, Frogs and Hun.
Its regular feature of a topless model on page 3 continues to cause contro-
versy. It has endured since 1970, despite periodic criticism that it is degrad-
ing to women. Even in the more permissive society of 2012, the ‘No More
Page 3’ campaign argued the pictures ‘condition readers to view women as
sex objects’, and that it ‘normalises horrible sexist banter’. The campaign
Newspapers, magazines and journalism 77
to ban the topless model is supported by a number of charities and trade
unions, including Unison and the National Union of Teachers. In 2013 the
Irish edition of the Sun n stopped publishing topless photos, because of what
the editor called ‘cultural differences’ between Britain and Ireland.
Its politics are pragmatic, and not ideological. Despite consistently criticis-
ing the government, it supported them in the elections of 2001 and again in
2005, in order to ‘back the winner’. But, in 2009 the paper switched its sup-
port to the Tories, who went on to form a coalition government.
The phone-hacking allegations of 2011 marked a watershed for the
paper. The same year the Sun n’s sister paper the News of the World d was
closed by its owner, News International, and in 2012 the Sun on Sunday
took its place. But the Sun n has been badly damaged by revelations of phone
hacking and illegal payments for information, and many personnel formerly
connected with the paper have been arrested, are awaiting trial or have
been imprisoned.
Today, as with many other popular newspapers, ‘showbiz’ stories, drama,
sex, money and sports stories still take up most of the paper, which mir-
ror the content, style and tone of Sky TV. But in spite of its crude, brash
populism, its circulation (like that of many newspapers) continues to decline.
Nevertheless, politicians of all the main parties still see it as a potentially
important ally in a general election. Meanwhile, critics observe that although
the newspaper has produced some witty tabloid journalism, good light
entertainment and wide sports coverage, it has also produced stories that
are unreliable, exaggerated and untrue, as numerous court cases and the
Leveson Inquiry have demonstrated.
Magazines
Introduction
There is an enormous market in Britain for light reading. Magazines for leisure
and entertainment fill this gap, and a glance at the shelves of any newsagent
reveals a huge variety of magazines directed at people’s interests, wants, needs
and fantasies. But, the business of magazine publishing is very much subject to
fashion and change. New titles are constantly appearing, particularly in the field
of magazines for women where there are about 80 different journals.
Many women’s magazines, such as Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire, are produced
to offer advice on contemporary issues such as money, sex and contraception, as
well as more general subjects such as fashion, travel and the law. Others, such
as Hello! and OK! feature photographs and gossip about the ‘new aristocracy’ of
television, pop and sports stars, shown for example going to a party, getting mar-
ried or cooking Sunday lunch.
However, the top-selling magazines are general publications carrying details
of forthcoming television and radio programmes on terrestrial and satellite sta-
tions. TV Choice and the imaginatively named What’s On TV regularly sell over
78 Newspapers, magazines and journalism
a million copies each, and reflect the importance, popularity and centrality of
television in everyday life. The long-established Radio Times (1923–) is in third
place. The fourth best-selling is Take a Break, a puzzle magazine with ‘true life
stories’, and weekly UK sales of around 730,000 in 2014.
For many years women’s magazines, men’s hobby magazines and children’s
titles were the principal market categories, but a more recent arrival is men’s
‘lifestyle’ or general interest magazines, such as FHM, Loaded, Maxim and Zoo.
Popularly known as ‘lad mags’, the number of titles has expanded greatly since
the 1990s, and they carry a mixture of general interest features, humour and
numerous pictures of bikini-clad girls for a male readership aged mainly under 35.
The sales figures of magazines are important to advertisers, and are published
every six months by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Advertisers also want to
know what kind of readers buy a particular magazine, and the National Read-
ership Survey analyses readers’ social class, age, sex, as well as the magazine’s
similarity to other titles. Marketing agencies then use the information to decide
where to advertise their products.
Women’s magazines
Women’s magazines are the second most popular category in terms of sales. They
have a long history, and reflect social change and the position of women in soci-
ety. As with newspapers, the early magazines were directed towards the wealthy
and educated, as this was the only class that could afford them and read well. Since
then, many have come and gone, leaving Tatler (1709) and The Lady (1885) as
two of Britain’s oldest.
During the mid-nineteenth century demand grew for printed matter of all
kinds, and there was an expansion in the number of women’s titles. Despite calls
in Parliament for more equality for women, most press ignored feminist politics
and demands for universal suffrage, believing it would put readers off. Queen
Victoria agreed with the view, and gave permission for her title to be used for
the magazine Queen in 1861, a publication aimed at satisfying the genteel con-
cerns of upper-class young women, which lasted until 1970 when it merged with
Harper’s Bazaar and became Harpers & Queen.
In the early twentieth century new types of popular press appeared when more
women began to work outside the home. Literacy rates had also improved, and
magazines began to appear for younger readers, such as Peg’s Paper (1919). In
contrast, the more established, traditional magazines of The Lady, Queen and
Vogue continued to feature stories and articles by the best-known literary authors
of the day, such as Aldous Huxley, Evelyn Waugh, Wyndham Lewis and Somerset
Maugham. These were mixed in with news about the movements of aristocrats
and illustrations of international fashion, written for women who had no need to
go to work or be involved in politics.
During the years of the Second World War magazines aimed to boost the morale
of women, who were suffering on the ‘home front’. They encouraged women to
be determined, with features on how to survive a bombing, the splitting up of
Newspapers, magazines and journalism 79
families, the evacuation of children and life after bereavement. In 1941 Ideal
Home magazine even ran a feature on rebuilding a bombed home. But the auster-
ity of the war and post-war years gradually gave way to a feeling of optimism, most
notably reflected in new magazines such as Vanity Fair. Launched in 1949 and
describing itself as ‘for the younger, smarter woman’, it contained cheaper youth-
ful fashion ideas, which could even be copied. This was a new development, as
fashion had previously followed the ‘canon’ of ‘haute couture’ as dictated by the
major fashion houses, and the idea of creating a fashionable new look at home
indicated a trend away from elitism towards a greater populism in fashion.
The 1950s witnessed a number of social and cultural developments affecting
the style and content of women’s magazines. Better public health and informa-
tion campaigns conducted through the National Health Service were beginning
to make women more health conscious. Obesity rather than malnutrition was
identified as a problem, prompting features on slimming, weight-watching and
health in general. Women were also becoming more politicised, gaining more
freedom and equality, and the first female peers were taking their seats in the
House of Lords. Moreover, the economy was booming, and rationing was a dis-
tant memory. More women were now going to university and earning a living,
and commercial television, which had begun in 1955, was popular with view-
ers and advertisers, helping to create a new generation of aspirational female
consumers. In 1955 She was launched, with less emphasis on fashion and more on
entertainment, with a variety of topics of interest to the 1950s’ woman, namely,
films, photography, camping and caravanning, reflecting the increasing freedom
that women had to pursue their own interests at home and elsewhere.
Magazines were changing to reflect social changes. The Sunday Times Magazine
was launched to accompany the newspaper in 1964. Innovative and stylish, it
carried strong photo-journalism and features on varied aspects of contemporary
life, as well as aspirational adverts for high-quality consumer products, jewel-
lery, drinks and cars, a combination intended for suburban, educated middle-
class women. Nova (1965) had a similar style, with pictures of contemporary
stars by leading photographers such as Terry Donovan and Helmut Newton. It
also became more daring; one famous cover advertised ‘how to undress in front of
your husband’, and a feature inside explained how ‘inside every woman is a strip-
per longing to get out’. In contrast, ‘elite’ magazines such as Queen still retained
more traditional elements, such as debutantes’ balls, and pictures of royal guests
at horse events. The difference between the two was said to be that ‘Queen read-
ers drive out of town at weekends, while Nova readers drive in’, in an attempt to
illustrate a growing cultural divide between the traditional and modern young
woman.
By the mid-1960s not only women in their 20s and 30s were looking for a new
style of magazine, but adolescents too. Teenagers had more freedom and money
to spend, and a new popular culture was beginning to appeal to their tastes and
preferences, reflected in weeklies such as Honey (1960–86), Jackie (1963–93) and
Fab (1964–80). Jackie was named after the wife of the American president John F.
Kennedy, who was seen as a fashionable role model by many young girls. Aimed
80 Newspapers, magazines and journalism
at 10–15-year-olds, it was typical of many magazines of the era. On the cover of
the first edition was the pop star Cliff Richard and free inside was a ‘twin heart’
ring. Content included colour pictures of the Beatles, picture love stories and a
page of readers’ problems answered by an ‘agony aunt’. The formula was highly
successful attracting over one million young readers by 1970. It changed little in
30 years, and its influence on the attitudes and behaviour of young girls has been
the subject of much analysis by cultural historians and other academics keen to
analyse the attitudes and values reflected and encouraged in its pages.
Women’s liberation was a predominant theme of the 1970s and many magazines
for women aged 18 and over were launched to promote its agenda. The first one
to do so in a mainstream, commercial way was Cosmopolitan, first imported from
the USA in 1972. The magazine was not new, having begun almost a century ear-
lier in 1886. But during the late 1960s under the progressive young editor Helen
Gurley Brown it promoted independence, self-improvement and self-confidence
in a bright, colourful, glossy magazine which showed how young women could get
the best for themselves, their careers and their sex lives. The magazine enjoyed
enormous commercial success, and set the standard for others to follow.
In contrast, new non-commercial ‘underground’ magazines such as Shrew and
Spare Rib (1972–93) gave coverage and support to a different kind of women’s
liberation. Unlike most other magazines for women, Spare Rib was not glossy,
not commercial, but radically feminist. There were no adverts or features on fra-
grances, fashion or cosmetics, only small adverts for folk festivals, political ral-
lies, lesbian events and shoes made by collectives. Its contributors sometimes
argued that the mainstream advertisers in Cosmopolitan and other magazines
made women feel insecure about themselves in order to make profits, which was
socially unacceptable and morally wrong.
Cosmopolitan’s radical style was influential, and more specialised publications
with different agendas appeared, which were aimed at women in Britain’s various
ethnic communities. Sheba (1979–80) appeared briefly for Arab women domi-
ciled in the UK. Black Beauty and Hair (1987–) continues to report on exactly
what its name suggests. But there have been few successful specialist magazines
for ethnic groups, and circulations remain small, which in turn makes it difficult
to attract advertising. This is because some women feel they want to integrate
into mainstream society by reading mainstream magazines. Moreover, the women
of some immigrant groups have only limited possibilities for learning the English
language, and are thus unable to access publications in English.
Although half the female population never reads a magazine, women remain
significant consumers of general leisure material. Some of the popular titles of the
1960s and 1970s were produced in response to feminism, but today many titles
reflect independence, potential to consume and potential to aspire. Women now
buy houses, cars, investments and travel packages, and this is reflected in the
content of many women’s magazines. There has also been a general trend towards
greater coverage of these topics in newspapers, and many now provide glossy
colour supplements with a range of adverts, features and content unconnected
with the news of the day, which are written with female consumers in mind.
Newspapers, magazines and journalism 81
Aspirational living seemed to overtake consumerism in the 1980s, and while
many new consumer magazines took off in that decade, the biggest new publishing
phenomenon was the arrival of glossy magazines dedicated to celebrities and their
lifestyles. Until then, the ‘elite’ women’s titles, such as Tatler and Harper’s had
traditionally carried news of the social lives of British royals, but in 1988 Hello!
arrived from Spain, a brash new arriviste, filled with gossipy photo-journalism of
the ‘new aristocracy’ of television, film and pop stars, footballers and models. It
was published by a Spanish family company which saw the potential of a ver-
sion of ¡Hola! for British consumers. The result was one of the most successful
magazines of the past half-century, with many similar publications appearing soon
afterwards in what has become the most profitable sector of the British market.
In 1994 Hello! was the only celebrity magazine available in Britain, but ten
years later there were six others. More recent arrivals, such as Heat (1999–) and
Closer (2005–), have specialised in less flattering photographs of their subjects,
for example revealing fake tans, body hair and signs of cosmetic surgery. They
have created a new, realistic, less admiring and less deferential relationship
between readers and the rich and famous, setting a trend which has spread to
other magazines.
The progressive women’s weeklies such as Cosmopolitan (1972–) and Marie
Claire (1988–) still retain a mixture of features and tips on fashion, beauty, travel
and consumer features, as well as an emphasis on relationships and sexual matters.
However, recent years have seen a change in the style of the ‘problem pages’ of
many modern publications. Until the late 1990s readers would write and ask a res-
ident ‘agony aunt’ to solve their problems. But now, other readers often contribute
their own, differing solutions, which are published alongside the original problem,
and allow the reader to select which course of action would be most appropriate. It
also indicates a change in the role of the magazine, from one of an ‘authority’ who
holds the high moral ground and talks down to the readers, to one which facili-
tates democratic debate among them, and a range of solutions to be put forward.
Despite a long cultural history, women’s magazines are subject to similar pres-
sures to those of newspapers. Sales of most magazines are falling around 5 per
cent year on year. The economic recession has undoubtedly had an impact, but
other reasons may include readers becoming less interested in articles about diets,
shoes and traditional English weddings, which are still common features of many
publications. Society has become more diverse and multicultural, and so have
women’s interests. Consequently, the internet is increasingly used to find a more
personalised range of topics and features regarding, for example, relationships,
work and the body, as well as communities with whom women cannot just read
about, but communicate with on Twitter, Mumsnet and other channels, all of
which can make the role of magazines feel increasingly dated and redundant.
Men’s magazines
For many years ‘adult’ or ‘men’s’ magazines were synonymous with pornography.
The less sexually explicit ‘soft-core’ type were sold in newsagents, and could
82 Newspapers, magazines and journalism
usually be found on the ‘top shelf’ (hence their nickname), while more explicit
‘hard-core’ magazines were sold in specially licensed shops. Other magazines
bought mainly by men dealt with specific interests, such as sport, cars, music or
computers. They were mostly aspirational, consumer magazines with relatively
low sales. But in the mid-1990s a new type of magazine for men aged 18–35
began, with publications such as Loaded, Maxim, FHM and GQ.
The magazine Loaded started the trend in 1994 with a mixture of glossy colour
features on all the topics traditionally popular with young men, such as beer, clothes,
cars, pictures of provocative, bikini-clad girls and casual sexism. There were regular
articles on gadgets, sport, aggression and war, discussions of old footballers and box-
ers, and features on, for example, touring with the band Oasis, or a day at work with
Grimsby trawlermen. Previously, men’s magazines had talked down to their readers,
but Loaded spoke to men using the same informal language as the readers themselves,
and carried the tagline ‘for men who should know better’. Articles were witty, ironic
and apolitical, written with spirit, authenticity and attitude. The magazine even had
a men’s problem page, a piece of satire complete with an ‘agony uncle’. A typical
piece ran as follows: a man writes to the magazine complaining that his girlfriend
annoys him by wearing short skirts. The agony uncle replies: ‘Tell her she looks fat.’
The success of ‘lads’ mags’ perplexed cultural commentators. Some said the new
magazines had a sense of escapism and fun, freedom and independence, which
celebrated being young and male in the mid-1990s, when the country was begin-
ning to regain cultural confidence after years of recession and Tory government.
Figure 4.2 Men’s magazines – a new phenomenon in British publishing which for some
commentators indicates masculinity in crisis.
© Ian Francis/Alamy
Newspapers, magazines and journalism 83
Others said that young men felt insecure after years of political correctness, the
deadening seriousness of the 1980s debates on gender, and that the weakening
role of fathers and other male authority figures also contributed to men’s inse-
curity. In other words, some men felt anxious about threats to their identity as
feminism entered the mainstream, but they found a refuge and reassurance in the
content and style of lads’ mags, which offered an entertaining template of ‘how
to be a man’.
In contrast to the cheeky escapism of lads’ mags, Men’s Health is a more con-
ventional male fitness publication and is currently the most popular men’s maga-
zine in Britain, with monthly sales of over 200,000. It was launched in 1994,
and features articles on muscularity, fitness, health, relationships, weight loss and
fashion. A bare-chested muscular male model adorns the cover, imitating the
original American version, which has sometimes attracted criticism for promot-
ing the pursuit of unattainable physiques. It has sometimes been mistaken as light
entertainment for gay men, though this is something it strongly refutes.
Despite some stories of current success, the sales of most men’s magazines are
falling, on average 5–6 per cent year on year. Apart from the impact of the eco-
nomic recession of 2008–14, there are a number of reasons which account for
their diminishing appeal. The internet has clearly had an effect; soft pornography
can now be readily accessed online at no charge, and this clearly affects people’s
willingness to pay for it in magazines of any kind. Additionally, an expanding
number of satellite and cable TV and radio stations means that many channels
offering content such as sport, war and crime, which typically appeal to men, can
now be watched at home or online. On the radio, channels such as Talksport
and Radio Five Live also present sports programmes that are created primarily
for male audiences. Thus, the kind of features that men would have previously
paid to read in magazines can now be readily accessed at home, in shows that are
bright, engaging, mainly male-oriented and more convenient.
Alternative publications
Changing attitudes towards gender roles and sexuality have led to the creation
of other kinds of magazines for LGBT readers. The Gay Times (1984–) is a gen-
eral interest publication for gay men, with celebrity interviews, news, features,
music, film, style and travel, as well as features on a wide range of topics, from
anti-gay laws in countries overseas, to interviews with gay politicians. It has a
circulation of approximately 68,000 per issue. The company that produces Gay
Times – Millivres Prowler Group – also produces Diva, a magazine for lesbians
which started in 1994. It includes many articles dedicated to lesbian and bisexual
matters, and interviews with prominent gay men and women, and has a circula-
tion of approximately 35,000.
The changes that Britain has experienced since the 1950s regarding more open
attitudes towards sexuality and female liberation began at a time when attitudes
to authorities of all kinds were changing. One of the most visible signs of this was
a boom in political satire, in which a journalistic high point was the creation of
84 Newspapers, magazines and journalism
Private Eye, a humorous and irreverent magazine dedicated to the mockery and
caricature of people and events in politics, business and the media. However, it
also features serious, investigative reports into the same areas, exposing events
which the mainstream press are often reluctant to report. The magazine is read-
ily identified by its covers, which traditionally show a picture of someone in the
news with a comic speech ‘bubble’ attached. It is currently Britain’s best-selling
current affairs magazine, with a circulation of around 222,880 in August 2013.
Private Eye is printed on cheap, dull, recycled-looking paper, and with a variety
of fonts, which make it look like a home-made magazine. However, DIY publica-
tions did not become common in Britain until the 1970s, when young enthu-
siasts and members of a growing counter-culture began home-producing their
own journals and ‘fanzines’. These were printed or written by hand in sheds and
bedrooms, and then photocopied before being shared and distributed by hand.
Fanzines first appeared in response to the mainstream’s sensational, exagger-
ated reporting of the punk phenomenon. Fans felt it was being misrepresented,
and that commercial motives prevented accurate reporting by the press. Instead,
they aimed to cover topics and write about the music in a way that was more
authentic. New publications were created, which were written in the language
of fans. Sniffin’ Glue was among the first, produced by Mark Perry, and ran for
12 issues. It was rarely sold in newsagents, but could be bought directly from the
people who wrote it and was then passed on among enthusiasts, which created
the sense of a closed, secretive community.
Later in the 1980s and 1990s football ’zines appeared in response to what fans
saw as the game’s domination by money and celebrity. They carried lively, humor-
ous articles written by and for supporters, who were passionate and involved with
the game, rather than passive consumers of it. Some of the most notable have
evolved to become more mainstream publications such as the informative, irrev-
erent When Saturday Comes (WSC). Today, a wide range of fanzines cover music,
sport and sometimes cinema, and are found mainly online. Most are witty, apolit-
ical and written with an infectious enthusiasm as an antidote to the increasingly
commercial nature of commentary, journalism and public relations surrounding
many aspects of popular culture.
As with many magazines, the appearance of British fanzines marked a par-
ticular cultural moment, in this case when fans used direct action to take back
from the hands of the corporations what they felt was rightfully theirs. They
were a kind of enthusiasts’ website in analogue times, where those of a like mind
could communicate and share the passion, attitudes and language of those deeply
involved at the roots of the scene to preserve its spirit, values and community.
5 Literature
Introduction
Since 1945 British society has changed greatly. Social and cultural barriers have
been steadily eroded due to globalisation, migration, gender and racial equal-
ity, rights for minorities and higher levels of education. An important conse-
quence of this social ferment has been that identity, sexuality, morality, attitudes,
values and behaviour have gradually become more individual, personal and
self-constructed, while the influence of more traditional forces such as parents,
family, society, government, nation and the Church has greatly diminished or
disappeared altogether.
In literature, the new freedom of the self to express who one is, rather than
who one should be, has led to a vigorous expansion of themes. Gender, ethnic
and sexual identities have found expression in feminist, migrant and lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender (LGBT) writing, often developed from an outsider’s
point of view. Techniques of storytelling have also become more diverse, as some
writers looked to the past and took inspiration from earlier traditions, while oth-
ers combined different narrative styles such as fact, fiction, the past and present
in the same story, in a magic realist style.
Children’s literature has also attracted growing public and critical interest. The
phenomenal popularity of the Harry Potter series has illustrated how, despite the
distractions of online entertainments, children can become involved with books
they love. At the same time there has been an increasing number of adaptations
for stage and screen, and amid a fast-changing world of media and society, greater
debate and concern about what children should read and watch.
There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and
Dim, Dim being really dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar trying to make
up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening. A flip dark chill winter bas-
tard though dry. The Korova milkbar was a milk-plus, milk plus mesto, and
you may, O my brothers, have forgotten what these mestos were like, things
changing so skorry these days, and everybody very quick to forget, newspa-
pers not being read much neither.
(Burgess, 1962: 1)
Burgess’s prolific ouput also included his four ‘Enderby’ comic novels (1963–
84), which describe the humorous adventures of a middle-aged university lec-
turer and poet. Higher education expanded greatly in the 1960s and 1970s, and
its liberal, permissive atmosphere and lecturers’ own petty problems, rivalries and
jealousies inspired the writing of satirical ‘campus’ novels. This theme served
to establish the careers of several modern authors, among them Malcolm Brad-
bury and David Lodge. In contrast to Iris Murdoch’s frequent setting within the
ancient walls of Oxford University, their stories take place in the new, ‘plate-
glass’ universities of the 1960s, which were built to accommodate growing num-
ber of students in many cities around Britain.
Bradbury was a distinguished academic, and is remembered for founding
Britain’s first course in creative writing at the University of East Anglia, where
between 1970 and 1995 he was Professor of American Studies. His best-known
works include Stepping Westward (1965), a humorous comparison between Amer-
ican and British university life, and The History Man (1975).
Lodge is a former professor of English literature who is also well known for his
extensive output of literary criticism. One of his most successful campus novels is
Changing Places (1975), a comical story about an academic exchange between the
universities of ‘Euphoria State’ in America and ‘Rummidge’ based on Lodge’s own
seat of learning at Birmingham University in the English Midlands. It marked
the first of a trilogy on campus life, and was followed by Small Worlds (1984),
a humorous tale of intrigue at an academic conference, and Nice Work (1988),
another comical tale of a collision between town and gown, industry and aca-
demia. Lodge’s stories are also imaginative, playful and offer strong satirical com-
ment; for example, his earlier How Far Can You Go? (1980) examines the impact
of a secular, permissive society on the personal relationships of British Catholics.
Literature 89
Like Lodge, Iris Murdoch was also a university lecturer, and her novels fre-
quently combine philosophical questions with detailed observations of academic
intrigue and middle-class life in Oxford. Her novels are often concerned with
human freedom, and question how goodness can triumph over evil. The first of
her many works was the comedy Under the Net (1954), while one of her finest –
The Bell (1958) – looks at a declining religious community. The humour and
surprises in stories such as A Fairly Honourable Defeat (1970) and An Accidental
Man (1971) were also popular with critics and the public. All her novels are
noted for their intense descriptions of her characters, who are often possessed by
erotic fantasies. These are mixed with unexpected and bizarre incidents which
sometimes involve cats, dogs, mice and spiders to create comic effect. During a
prolific career she won numerous awards, including the prestigious Booker Prize
for The Sea, the Sea (1978).
The work of John Fowles has enabled him to become one of the few British
authors who has written serious, experimental fiction while remaining on the
bestseller list. Heroines feature prominently in his works, who often combine fem-
ininity with mental strength to conquer their circumstances. He made his debut
with an exciting psychological thriller The Collector (1963), about a butterfly col-
lector who kidnaps an attractive young art student. Although the male character
is physically stronger, Fowles shows that the girl is the more powerful of the two.
Later, The Magus (1966, revised 1977) involves a young teacher of English in what
seems the ideal post on a remote Greek island, whose sense of perception becomes
distorted following an unusual sexual encounter. His best-known work The French
Lieutenant’s Woman (1969) is told in a highly original way, with the author show-
ing a self-awareness of how he uses language and imagination to shape the reader’s
reality. The book was made into a successful film in 1981.
The permissive youth culture of the early 1970s could be found not only on
the university campus, but in the tough, mean streets of Britain’s industrial con-
urbations. These are the setting for Richard Allen’s Boot-Boy (1970), Suedehead
(1971), Glam (1973) and others, sensationalised, mass-produced stories based on
the imagined lifestyles of teenage gangs. Set in bleak, decaying, rubbish-strewn
urban towns of the 1970s, they depict closed, mean, brutal worlds of youth with
no future, and include many detailed descriptions of vandalism, violence and sex.
Critics complained that they encouraged imitative, ‘copycat’ behaviour. Nev-
ertheless, the simply written fantasies remain raw, energetic, adrenaline-fuelled
adventures, which were absorbed by many teenagers of the period, and have been
rediscovered in recent years as popular artefacts of 1970s youth culture.
The work of the Mersey Poets from Liverpool was also popular with a younger,
non-literary audience. The success of the Beatles and other Liverpool groups
helped to generate interest in the local popular culture, and during the mid-
1960s poets such as Roger McGough, Adrian Henri and Brian Patten pioneered a
new style of light, satirical verse. Unlike many poets, they were funny, irreverent
and streetwise. They wore fashionable clothes, mixed with pop stars and wrote
pop poetry: poetry with a performance, pop without the music. A flavour of their
work is captured in the anthology The Mersey Sound (1967).
90 Literature
Feminism and fiction: new perspectives
By the mid-1960s the impact of feminism was being widely felt in politics, law,
social and family life. Traditional attitudes towards women’s sexuality, marriage,
work and many other aspects of their lives began to change, and there was a
new recognition of women’s role in society. Germaine Greer’s The Female Eunuch
(1970) gave popular literary expression to feminist theory. Its provocative and
outspoken text offered a clear, un-theoretical manifesto that was accessible to
everyone. Its impact was enormous, and soon afterwards a significant new body
of women’s literature emerged. This contained powerful descriptions of women’s
experience, and feminist writing quickly became an influential new genre.
Literature had been a male-dominated field, but new feminist publishing houses
opened to energetically encourage women’s writing. Virago, the Women’s Press
and Pandora contracted new feminist authors and began promoting others, such
as Stevie Smith, Storm Jameson, Rebecca West, Rose Macaulay, Barbara Pym
and Jean Rhys, whose work had passed largely unnoticed earlier in the twentieth
century. There were also important changes in the universities. Departments of
Women’s Studies were established and departments of literature began to study
themes and imagery in women’s writing.
The position of women in society, social injustice and the search for equality
with men were some of the dominant themes in the early novels of many new
authors. Earlier in the 1960s many female writers still did not openly identify
with the new intellectual and political currents of feminism, although some were
sympathetic to its messages in their work. One such author is Muriel Spark, who
was born into a Scottish family of Jewish descent, and later converted to Catholi-
cism. Her short, stylish funny stories emphasise the roles of the female characters,
her best-known work being The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961), a story set in
her native Edinburgh of the 1930s. It features a charismatic teacher who is proud,
cultured and romantic, inspiring and transforming a group of young girls who
begin to follow her example.
In contrast, social injustice and the need for equality with men came to domi-
nate the novels of many later authors. Fay Weldon’s robustly feminist novels
deal with female resentment, anger and revenge in a way that is detached and
often ironic. Down Among the Women (1971) draws attention to the repetitive
nature of most women’s lives, spent cooking, cleaning and looking after children.
Told in a colloquial present tense, the narrative produces a realistic, documentary
effect, as if the action is actually taking place.
More conventional themes of inequality and oppression are found in the
highly praised novels of Margaret Drabble. These often have female protago-
nists whose education, careers and family relationships are described in detail,
and often reflect those of the author. In The Millstone (1965) the heroine has
to fight against various distractions to gain her independence. Then she has an
unplanned baby daughter which both helps and limits her development. The tril-
ogy The Radiant Way (1987), A Natural Curiosity (1989) and The Gates of Ivory
(1991), in which three women look back on their younger selves, also provides a
Literature 91
clear account of a difficult, confrontational and politically polarised country. The
Ice Age (1977) is considered by many critics to be her finest work. It deals not
only with women’s liberation, but also social inequality, house prices, terrorism
and the faltering welfare state in mid-1970s (concerns which, 40 years later, have
not gone away). In the following extract Mike Morgan, a comedian with a ‘rat-
clown face’, comments on the way 1970s Britain seemed to be wilfully destroying
itself:
The English are guilty, they are self-denigrating, they are masochists, they
love to be kicked, he said, because of their deeply ingrained, inalienable, dis-
gusting certainty of superiority. They are island xenophobes, and they love
to be kicked because they know it does not hurt. They are rich bitches who
like to be degraded.
(Drabble, 1977: 214)
While many early feminist writers focused on themes of social strife and
inequality, others were more concerned with women’s domestic lives and their
relationships with men. The fiction of Edna O’Brien portrays women as having
a frustrating choice between either loneliness or slavery to men and the family.
This is apparent in her early trilogy The Country Girls (1960–3), in which sexual
desires conflict with the heroine’s Catholic upbringing. This uncertainty again
finds expression in Casualties of Peace (1966), a story told with wit and pace. The
eroticism of her stories brought to the novel a frank exposure of women’s sexual
needs and amplified the spectrum of women’s writing.
Several highly regarded authors such as Penelope Lively and Anita Brookner
write about women’s issues in a simple, direct way. Before she became a respected
author of feminist novels, Penelope Lively wrote children’s fiction, for example
A House Inside Out (1987). Her adult novels began with The Road to Lichfield
(1977) and in 1987 she won the Booker Prize for Moon Tiger. Anita Brookner’s
style of writing is elegant and sometimes funny. She began her career as an art his-
torian, but later wrote stories that often feature a lonely, intellectual woman who
lives unhappily, such as A Friend from England (1987) and Fraud (1992). Instead
of rebelling against society, her characters accept their situation and cannot be
described as feminists. But in Hotel du Lac (1984) the heroine makes the brave
decision not to get married on her wedding day. It won the Booker Prize in 1984
and was also made into a successful television series.
Doris Lessing
Doris Lessing (1919–2013) is among the most highly respected of contem-
porary British writers, the author of prolific and varied works. As well as
many novels she has also written short stories, poetry and travel writing.
At the beginning of her career, her left-wing politics and sense of realism
identified her with the social realists of the 1950s. But she later adopted a
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more imaginative style, characterised by fantasy, interior monologues and
multiple realities.
Lessing grew up in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and moved to England in
1937. The country of her childhood is the setting for her early stories and
novels, which include the five-volume Children of Violence e (1952–69). The
story begins in Rhodesia, where the first volume, Martha Questt, tells the
story of women’s ‘absence’ from history. The setting later moves to England
and forward to the year 2000. The novels aim to present the arguments of
feminists who witnessed the bigotry and apartheid of South African politics
of the 1960s. But the author also expresses her cynicism about communism,
doubting it could provide a more just or equal society.
The Golden Notebookk (1962) is a work of politics and psychology. The
heroine, Anna Freeman Wulf, suffers a crisis in her personal life and eventu-
ally has a nervous breakdown. But after recovering she takes an American
lover and becomes involved in socialist politics. Her feelings as a liberated
woman, private individual and author are explored in different sections of the
novel, which is seen by many critics as one of the most significant contribu-
tions to the literature of women’s emancipation in the twentieth century.
Lessing’s interest in experimental storytelling extends into her work as a
writer of science fiction. Canopus in Argos: Archivess (1979–83) is an alle-
gorical story which tells how fantastic beasts on distant planets affect life on
earth. It is both subtle and feminist, but its argument is not that women are
superior to men. Instead, hers is the more contemporary view that traditional
feminine qualities such as caring, sharing, gentleness and compassion are
suppressed or ignored by society, and that many current problems could be
solved if these qualities were given greater expression. In the mid-1980s
Lessing returned to realistic narrative, publishing several more novels,
poetry, travel writing and the first volume of her autobiography Under My
Skinn (1994).
‘Explore me,’ you said and I collected my ropes, flasks and maps,
expecting to be back home soon. I dropped into the mass of you and
I cannot find the way out. Sometimes I think I’m free, coughed up like
Jonah from the whale, but then I turn a corner and recognise myself
again. Myself in your skin, myself lodged in your bones, myself floating
in the cavities that decorate every surgeon’s wall. That is how I know
you. You are what I know.
(Winterson, 1992: 120)
Salman Rushdie
Highly praised novels, a knighthood and a fatwa that forced him to become
a recluse in fear of his life have made Rushdie one of the most celebrated
and controversial authors of contemporary English literature. He was born
into a Muslim family in Bombay, India in 1947, and migrated to Britain in the
1960s. His homeland provides the setting for Midnight’s Children (1981),
the title of which refers to a new generation of Indians born at midnight on
15 August 1947, when India became an independent republic. The story is
a mixture of fantasy and magic, and narrates the key events in the story of
modern India through the life of Saleem Sinai, who works in a pickle factory.
The story is widely acclaimed as original, clever and observant, winning the
Booker Prize in 1981, and in 1993 being named the best novel during the
first 25 years of Booker awards. However, its real significance lies in the way
it shone a critical light on the new, divided post-imperial identities that inde-
pendence from Britain created, and the sense of dislocation and rediscovery
that it produced: a new perspective that became influential and widespread
in migrant writing.
Later works include Shame (1983), a story set in Pakistan, and The Jag-
uar Smile (1987), a travel book about life in Nicaragua under the Sandini-
stas. But it was The Satanic Verses (1988) for which the author became
renowned. The verses of the title are verses from the Koran, the Muslim
holy book. Set in Arabia, India and Britain, the verses are central to a com-
plex, imaginative story about the act of storytelling. Central to the text is a
discussion of the ways in which migrants can and should change in order
to adapt to their new environment. For those with strong religious convic-
tions, this raises important questions, as Rushdie describes in the following
passage:
A man who sets out to make himself up is taking on the Creator’s role,
according to one way of seeing things; he’s unnatural, a blasphemer,
an abomination of abominations. From another angle, you could
see pathos in him, heroism in his struggle, in his willingness to take
risks: not all mutants survive. Or, consider him sociopolitically: most
Literature 97
migrants learn, and can become disguises. Our own false descriptions
to counter the falsehoods invented about us, concealing for reasons of
security our secret selves.
(Rushdie, 1988: 49)
The book was widely praised, but some Muslims found in it a blasphemous
abuse of their religion, and Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran demanded that the
author be killed. An Italian translator of the book was subsequently attacked,
the publisher in Norway was shot and a Japanese translator murdered. In
Britain, Muslims publicly burned the book, and many bookshops withdrew it
from sale. But around the world thousands of authors pledged their support
for Rushdie, who could make only very rare public appearances.
Since the late 1980s he has continued to produce a variety of books which
have included the children’s stories Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1990),
collected essays in Imaginary Homelands (1991) and a volume of short sto-
ries East, West (1994). In September 1998, on the tenth anniversary of the
publication of Satanic Verses, the death threat was finally withdrawn by the
Iranian government.
His most interesting and successful work of recent years has been The
Ground Beneath Her Feet (1999). Set in the world of rock ’n’ roll in the 1970s,
it follows two Indian pop stars from Bombay to London and on to New York.
Rushdie subsequently worked with the rock band U2, touring with them and
working with the singer Bono to write a song named after the novel.
Rushdie was awarded a knighthood in 2007, and in 2012 his autobiogra-
phy Joseph Anton: A Memoir was published. He claims he now identifies with
atheism, even though he was born a Muslim, and his examination of new cul-
tural realities and how they change people’s way of seeing and interpreting
the world are noted as one of his main contributions to literature. This new
perspective helped create post-colonial studies, one of the most important
areas of literary study in Britain today.
Hanif Kureishi
Some of the liveliest and most colourful accounts of growing up in a multi-
cultural society and are found in the work of Hanif Kureishi (b. 1954). These
frequently draw on his own childhood experiences in the suburbs of south
London. He is known for his satires on major themes of race, family, gay sex
and the complexities of integration.
The son of a Pakistani father and English mother, Kureishi grew up in
Bromley, near London, and left for the capital to write at the Royal Court The-
atre when he was in his late teens. His early work was concerned with seri-
ous studies of race relations, but his writing became more provocative and
adventurous with My Beautiful Laundrette, a rebellious comical screenplay
about immigration and interracial gay sex, at a time when homosexuality was
rarely seen in the arts. However, as it was written by Kureishi, it had authority
and could not be called racist.
Later came an even funnier and more shocking work; the highly praised
The Buddha of Suburbia (1990) is part-autobiographical, and tells the
98 Literature
humorous story a young boy born into a Pakistani family and growing up in
Britain, wondering how he can successfully integrate his dual heritage into
his London life. On page 1 of the book he introduces himself, and immedi-
ately makes the reader aware of his bi-cultural identity, and indicates the
importance it has for him.
Shamelessly, he always enjoys the city from inside his car, where the air is fil-
tered and hi-fi music confers pathos on the humblest details. . . . He is head-
ing a couple of blocks south in order to loop eastwards across the Tottenham
Court Road. Cleveland Street used to be known for garment sweatshops and
prostitutes, now it has Greek, Turkish and Italian restaurants – the local sort
that never get mentioned in the guides. . . . There’s a man who repairs old
computers, a cobbler’s, and further down a wig emporium, much visited by
transvestites. This is a fair embodiment of an inner city by-way – diverse, self
confident, obscure. And it’s at this point that he remembers the source of his
vague sense of shame and embarrassment: his readiness to be persuaded that
the world has changed beyond recall, that harmless streets like this and the
tolerant life they embody can be destroyed by the new enemy – well organ-
ised, tentacular, full of hatred and focused zeal.
(McEwan, 2006: 76)
100 Literature
Events in Saturday take a sudden turn for the worse when Perowne has a traf-
fic accident with a car driven by three men who have just emerged from a lap-
dancing club, and the protagonist’s secure world of contentment and plenty
seems vulnerable and threatened.
McEwan’s protagonists are often dislikable, monochrome men of science, such
as Perowne, or Michael Beard in Solar (2010), a novel about climate change.
But his most recent work Sweet Tooth (2012) features a female protagonist, a
struggling mathematics student, and is set amid the social strife and Cold War
tensions of the 1970s. It is often self-referential, containing dramatic reconstruc-
tions of the author’s experiences of the time; Martin Amis makes an appearance,
as do other friends and colleagues from earlier in his career, in a novel that has
cemented his reputation for imaginative and original storytelling.
Martin Amis
Many novels of the 1980s were imaginative and escapist, but often in a dark,
sinister way. Throughout the ‘age of greed’, fantastic, grotesque scenarios
involving themes of corruption of innocence and ‘paradise lost’ were com-
mon. One of the most representative novelists of this trend is Martin Amis
(b. 1949). The son of Kingsley Amis, he is a satirical, witty author, and sharp
social commentary on England and Englishness is a characteristic of all his
work.
Amis became successful at a young age. As a child he occasionally
worked as an actor, most notably in the film A High Wind in Jamaica a (1965,
Alexander Mackendrick), about children and pirates in the Caribbean. He
subsequently studied at Oxford University where he graduated with dis-
tinction, and soon afterwards released his debut novel The Rachel Papers
(1973) a part-autobiographical work, dealing with a bright, but selfish young
man’s adventures in the year before going to university. His depiction of
the decay, deprivation and sexuality in declining 1970s London brought him
the Somerset Maugham Award in 1974, which his father had earlier won in
1955. By the time he was 30 he had written two more novels, Dead Babies
(1975) and Successs (1979), both while holding editorial posts at the The
Times Literary Supplementt and the New Statesman. n
His contemporary social satires Moneyy (1984), London Fieldss (1989) and
The Information n (1995) capture the spirit of the times with heavy irony. They
are sometimes referred to as the ‘London Trilogy’, and portray the ‘state of
the nation’, in this case a sleazy, decaying country. Money y is about the movie
world, in which a corpulent British film producer, John Self, is working with
Lorne Guyland, an ageing Hollywood star, said to be based on the actor Kirk
Douglas. At one point, a well-known author called Martin Amis meets Self in
a west London pub, a postmodern scene created for comic effect.
Amis writes of a class system based on money and privilege, in which the
spirit is starved and disaster is imminent. For him, the prosperity enjoyed by
some during the 1980s appeared to extinguish all moral obligation to others,
as people became more selfish, envious and greedy. His London Fieldss is a
murder story set in west London’s pubs and streets, starring a semi-literate
Literature 101
con-man who is obsessed with darts, sex and television, while The Informa-
tion is based around professional envy and mid-life crises. Einstein’s Mon-
sters (1986) is a collection of short stories about nuclear war, while Time’s
Arrow (1991) narrates the story of the Second World War and describes its
102 Literature
effects on the present. Its imaginative technique tells the story in reverse,
beginning in the present time and regressing.
His latest work, Lionel Asbo: State of England d, again examines the condi-
tion of England, celebrity culture and the effects of new money. It features
a violent, lottery-winning anti-hero, and his girlfriend, the ambitious glamour
model ‘Threnody’ (the inverted commas form part of her name), said to be
based on the model known as Jordan. It is set in Diston, London (based on
Dalston), and in this extract the local area is described – an inner-city shell
that could be anywhere in the UK.
Amis’s life has provided him with as much publicity as his fiction, in particular
his relationships, earnings, his controversial views on Islam, old age and
attitudes towards Britain. Yet, he is regarded as one of the most talented
English writers of his generation, received the James Tait Black Memorial
Prize for his memoir Experience, and has been listed for the Booker Prize
twice to date.
Dark themes, including the effects of abortion and murder during adolescence
on the writer as a grown man, are found in Graham Swift’s Waterland (1983),
which has been critically praised as one of the decade’s finest novels. Set in the
Fenlands of Cambridgeshire, Swift’s theme is that people often live in the shadow
of a suspect past, a corrupted history.
In contrast, Julian Barnes’s light, confident style has often been used to
illuminate aspects of French and English culture. His Metroland (1980), Flau-
bert’s Parrot (1984) and Cross Channel (1996) are concerned with English
encounters with and perspectives on France, while England, England (1998) is
a humorous tale set in the near future, when the nation’s major tourist attrac-
tions of Big Ben, Stonehenge, Buckingham Palace and Hadrian’s Wall are
reconstructed on the Isle of Wight to ease the travel itinerary of American
and Japanese tourists.
The continuing tensions in Northern Ireland between the violent demands
for independence and the maintenance of union with Britain provided the basis
for several novels of the 1980s and 1990s by Bernard MacLaverty, Alan Judd
and others. There is also a strong tradition of verse, maintained by poets such as
Tom Paulin, Paul Durcan, Paul Muldoon and Derek Mahon, whose works have
examined the problems and pressures of life in the Northern Counties in the late
twentieth century.
Literature 103
In Scotland too, the 1990s were characterised by a bleak social realism in
several prominent works, most notably in the novels of James Kelman, which
deal with hard realities on the streets of Glasgow. But unlike many other
Scottish authors, Kelman rejects standard English prose and writes mainly in
the local dialect, which he peppers with numerous expletives to create more
authentic dialogue. His style has made him controversial with critics, and
often difficult to evaluate. But his novel How Late it Was, How Late (1994)
won the Booker Prize. Complex expressions of identity are common charac-
teristics of several novels by Scottish novelists, for example Alasdair Gray’s
distinctive Lanark (1981), which makes humorous comparisons between the
Scottish and the English. It describes the author as a young Glaswegian, but
the story is told in a dual style, indicating the presence of a split personality
or identity.
Like Glasgow, the city of Edinburgh also has high levels of social problems,
drug addiction and AIDS, which are frankly revealed in Irvine Welsh’s Trainspot-
ting (1993) and The Acid House (1994). These are dark tales of violence, and
deprivation, but are lifted by the author’s lively, witty style. Filth (1998), Glue
(2001) and Porno (2002) followed, with explorations of working-class Scottish
identity and how it has found expression since the 1960s. Violent sectarianism,
violent football rivalries, Republicanism, repressed homosexuality, class divisions
and emigration are some of the themes explored in his books, which are revisited
in Skagboys (2012), a prequel to Trainspotting.
Edinburgh is also the setting for many works by Iain Banks. The Bridge (1986)
mixes hallucination, fantasy and reality in a tale set around the Forth Road
Bridge near Edinburgh. His novels and science-fiction stories (the latter written
by his ‘alter ego’ of Iain M. Banks) made him one of the most critically and pub-
licly admired authors of the 1980s and 1990s, from the sexuality and violence
of The Wasp Factory (1984) to the dual narrative and mysticism of Inversions
(1998). His final work The Quarry was posthumously published in 2013, and
is partly autobiographical, featuring an autistic youth whose father is dying of
cancer.
The search for a clear sense of identity and belonging was the theme of Nick
Hornby’s Fever Pitch (1992), one of the most critically praised books of the
early 1990s. Set in the 1970s, this is the autobiographical story of a young man
brought up in suburbia, whose complex emotions are expressed in his passion-
ate, almost religious obsession with Arsenal Football Club. He is in his mid-
30s when he begins to analyse these emotions. The book became a bestseller,
and one of the most talked-about novels of its time. In the following extract,
Hornby recalls his experience of growing up in a dull Home Counties suburb,
and his feelings of dislocation and being ‘out of place’, not unlike those of many
immigrants. And, just as with many immigrants to new countries, he changed
the way he spoke, in this case to show his identification with another com-
munity – that of the Arsenal supporters on the terraces of their north London
stadium.
104 Literature
ISLINGTON1 BOY
The white south of England middle-class Englishman and woman is the most
rootless creature on earth . . . Yorkshiremen, Lancastrians, Scots, the Irish,
blacks, the rich, the poor, even Americans and Australians have something
they can sit in pubs and bars and weep about, songs to sing, things they can
grab for and squeeze hard when they feel like it, but we have nothing, or
at least nothing we want. . . . Hence the phenomenon of mock-belonging,
whereby pasts and backgrounds are manufactured and massaged to provide
some kind of acceptable cultural identity. . . . In the mid-seventies young,
intelligent, and otherwise self-aware white young men and women in Lon-
don began to adopt a Jamaican patois. . . . How we all wished we came from
the Chicago Projects, or the Kingston Ghettos, or the mean streets of north
London or Glasgow! All those aitch-dropping, vowel-mangling punk rockers
with a public school education! All those Hampshire girls with grandparents
in Liverpool or Brum! All those Pogues2 fans from Hertfordshire singing Irish
rebel songs! . . .
Ever since I have been old enough to understand what it means to be
suburban I have wanted to come from somewhere else, preferably north Lon-
don. I have already dropped as many aitches as I can . . . and I use plural verb
forms with singular subjects whenever possible. This was a process which
started shortly after my first visits to Highbury,3 continued throughout my
suburban grammar school career, and escalated alarmingly when I arrived
at university. My sister, on the other hand, who also has problems with her
suburban roots, went the other way when she went to college, and suddenly
started to speak like the Duchess of Devonshire.4
Post-war . . . none of the available cultures seemed to belong to us, and
we had to pinch one quick. And what is suburban post-war middle-class
English culture anyway? Jeffrey Archer and Evita, Flanders and Swann5 and
the Goons, Adrian Mole and Merchant–Ivory . . . and John Cleese’s silly
walk?6 It’s no wonder we all wanted to be Muddy Waters or Charlie George.7
(Hornby, 1993: 47–9)
His subsequent novels High Fidelity (1994) and About a Boy (1997) are also
part-autobiographical, and provide realistic, amusing explorations of suburban
youth culture in the 1970s and 1980s. They also highlight his search for a sense
of belonging, and raise questions as to what extent white British men and women
share the migrant condition, in the sense of feeling adrift and rootless in modern
society in a time of pessimism and uncertainty.
Will Self has become well known for his London-based novels, which are often
satirical and grotesque in equal measure. His works often include references to
drugs and mental illness, and appearances by the psychiatrist Zack Busner are a
regular feature, for example in Umbrella (2012) and Shark (2014). Self’s charac-
teristically intense style with unconventional lexis and adventurous word play
is sometimes described as high modernism, but it is lightened by dry wit and
Literature 105
Figure 5.2 Creating a distinctive book cover has become a fine art.
© David Christopher
playfulness which carry the reader along through carefully constructed plots. His
journalism is broad, but deep and accessible, and his eloquent contributions to
media discussions are typically frank and entertaining. His amusing collection
of restaurant reviews The Unbearable Lightness of Being A Prawn Cracker was less
concerned with fine dining, aspirational eating and perfection on a plate than
with fast food and ready meals eaten everywhere by everyone, and was released
in 2012.
In contrast to the darker themes prevailing throughout the 1990s in many
areas of literature, Hilary Mantel has received consistent critical acclaim for her
novels on a wide range of topics, which are elegantly written and witty. Wolf Hall
(2009), a fictionalised biography of Thomas Cromwell, won the Man Booker
Prize in 2009, and its sequel Bring Up the Bodies did the same in 2012.
Popular genres
As levels of crime increased sharply in the 1980s and 1990s, so did interest in
crime and detective stories. The tradition originated in the nineteenth century,
and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created his famous sleuth Sherlock Holmes in the
1880s. But during the twentieth century the genre has been largely maintained
by women authors, such as Agatha Christie with her detective heroes Hercule
106 Literature
Poirot and Miss Marple. Stories are typically set in a remote country house and
involve an affluent, middle-class group in a type of intellectual puzzle popularly
known as a ‘whodunit’.
The traditional detective story projected a morality that everyone could agree
with and created a psychological tension through suggestion and subtlety. In the
1990s some of the most widely appreciated authors included P.D. James (with her
sleuths Adam Dalgleish and Delia Gray), Ruth Rendell (Inspector Wexford),
Colin Dexter (Inspector Morse), Richard Hill (Dalziel and Pascoe), Caroline
Graham (Inspector Barnaby) and Ian Rankin (Inspector Rebus).
Ruth Rendell has been writing detective fiction since 1965. Some of her sto-
ries are conventional ‘police procedurals’ in which there is a puzzle to be solved,
while others emphasise the shocking and disturbing aspects of violent crime.
Her detective novel Thirteen Steps Down (2005) is one of the latter. Its protago-
nist is a disturbed and lonely young man – Cellini – a semi-educated mechanic
who repairs exercise machines, drinks heavily and stalks celebrities. He becomes
obsessed by the true story of the mass murderer John Christie, who killed six
women at his home in Rillington Place, in London’s North Kensington in the
early 1950s. Some years later, a film was made of the murders and starred Richard
Attenborough in the lead role. In this extract, the author describes how the film
triggered Cellini’s psychotic behaviour:
It was seeing the film that started him off. He was still living at home then and
he watched it on his mother’s old black and white television. Never much for
reading, he had found the book of the film on a stall outside a junk shop. It
came as a surprise when he looked at the photographs and saw that John Regi-
nald Halliday Christie looked not like Attenborough, but far more like himself,
and it was from that time that he began referring to him in his mind as Reggie
rather than Christie. After all, what had he done that was so terrible? Rid the
world of a bunch of useless women, hookers, street hookers most of them.
(Rendell, 2005: 21–2)
Poetry
Ted Hughes is considered by many critics to be the finest poet of the post-war gen-
eration. His work is frequently concerned with the birds, beasts, insects and fish
of his native countryside, which provide the inspiration for many of his poems.
His early collection The Hawk in the Rain (1957) announced the arrival of a major
British poet. After this he wrote volumes of poetry for children, verse plays for
radio and several works of criticism. In 1984 he succeeded Sir John Betjeman as
Poet Laureate, and his collection Rain Charm for the Duchy (1992) contains verse
written during his time in the post, but some of his finest work appeared later in
his career, such as Birthday Letters (1995) in which he described his troubled mar-
riage to the American poet Sylvia Plath, who committed suicide in 1963.
Though the role dates back to the Middle Ages, the title of Poet Laureate was
first created in the seventeenth century, as an ‘official’ poet to the royal household.
The holder of the title was obliged to write verse for important state occasions,
which could then be recited and remembered by the citizenry as a memory of the
occasion. At a time when most people were unable to read or write, rhyming verse
was much easier to remember and could be easily repeated and passed on. The
position was traditionally held for life, although after Andrew Motion stood down
in 2009, a tenure was reduced to ten years. The post is appointed by the monarch,
on the recommendation of the prime minster, and is currently held by Carol Ann
Duffy, the first Scot, woman and openly gay writer to be Poet Laureate.
Seamus Heaney is one of the most outstanding poets of recent years. Born in
Northern Ireland, his work focuses on love, nature and memory of place, but he
also writes about the civil war or ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland which raked his
Literature 109
homeland from the late 1960s to the late 1990s, for example in Whatever You Say,
Say Nothing (1975). His translation of Beowulf (2000) is also considered a work of
genius. Throughout his career his poems have consistently received high acclaim,
and in 1995 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Another highly respected poet is Andrew Motion, who was appointed Poet Lau-
reate in 1999. Rather than focusing on traditional, sentimental themes of love,
nature and longing, he chose to address contemporary issues and current affairs,
such as homelessness, bullying and America’s 9/11. As a practical resource for poetry
lovers and researchers, Motion founded the Poetry Archive, an online resource
which features poems and audio resources of poets reading their own works.
The poetry archive gave an important boost to literacy resources in the UK,
as in recent years poetry has been neglected and there currently exists a general
feeling that traditional forms of verse have little to say about modern themes.
Consequently, poets have found it increasingly difficult to have their work pub-
lished and many publishing houses have been forced to close their poetry sec-
tions, or reluctantly have maintained them simply for reasons of prestige. But
despite the difficulties, poetry has continued to evolve with popular new styles.
Vibrant and youthful, ‘performance poetry’ is verse which is written to be per-
formed aloud, often by elaborately dressed performers who dramatically deliver
their poems about topical urban themes such as sex, drugs and fame, to an appre-
ciative, youthful, non-literary audience.
Poetry as performance was pioneered by the Mersey Poets in the 1960s, such
as Roger McGough and Adrian Henry, and later by Manchester-born ‘punk’
poet John Cooper-Clarke in the 1970s and John Hegley in the 1980s at a time
of stand-up comedy and the love of entertaining an audience with quick, witty
observations and word-play about current issues. During the 1980s performances
became more political, and black musical styles became incorporated, ‘dub’ being
a prime example. Linton Kwesi Johnson has written several volumes of dub
poetry. He was born in Jamaica, but came to Britain in 1963. His poems are set in
urban areas, and are often dark and violent. Inglan is a Bitch (1980) is one of his
best-known collections. He has also made records of his poetry, including Bass
Culture (1980) and Making History (1984).
A leading exponent is the British Rastafarian poet, playwright and author Ben-
jamin Zephaniah, whose ‘rap’ is performed in sharp, urgent volleys of politically
charged verse. When punks and Rastafarians were protesting about high unem-
ployment, homelessness and the National Front in the early 1980s, his poems
could be heard at demonstrations, outside police stations and even on the dance
floor. Collections include Pen Rhythm (1980), The Dread Affair (1985), Inna Liv-
erpool (1988) and Propa Propaganda (1996). In 1998 he was a shortlisted candi-
date for the prestigious post of Poet Laureate, following the death of Ted Hughes,
and in the new century remains one of the few poets widely recognised by young,
black non-specialists, as well as by the literary ‘establishment’. However, Zepha-
niah is a republican and rejected the award of OBE, which he was offered in 2003.
A more recent development is ‘slam’, which is a mixture of poetry and rap
created by Afro-Americans and adopted by young British Afro-Caribbeans and
others. Slam poetry is delivered vigorously, with attitude and energy, by slammers
Figure 5.3 Poet, playwright and author Benjamin Zephaniah receives an honorary doctorate.
© Edward Moss/Alamy
Literature 111
who stand alone or work in pairs or groups to deliver their message on topics as
varied as racial pride, female self-respect, friendship, crime and body image. The
main difference from rap is that it is competitive, with judges being drawn from
the audience. British performance poetry continues to thrive at a grassroots level
in pubs, theatres, and the larger festivals such as Edinburgh and Glastonbury.
But attitudes towards the new verse have varied. While younger readers found it
accessible and enjoyable, many older critics claimed it was shallow, populist and
had little substance. However, the work has inspired many young people to cre-
ativity, and brought about a new appreciation for the written and spoken word.
Children’s literature
Literature for children originated in the fifteenth century in Britain. Many
early works carried a moral or religious message, which it was thought would
educate, instruct and entertain juvenile readers. The expansion of literacy in
the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was accompanied by a growth
in publishing, and the appearance of titles that are today recognised as classics,
such as Thomas Hughes’s Tom Brown’s Schooldays (1857), Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland (1865), Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book (1894) and J.M.
Barrie’s Peter Pan (1911).
These classics still sell well, while Enid Blyton’s children’s stories, which first
appeared in the 1940s, continue to be among the bestselling books today. They
feature groups of friends such as the Famous Five, the Secret Seven, and the fic-
tional gnome Noddy. Despite some criticism that her stories were bland, snobbish
and sometimes racist, Blyton became the highest-selling English-language author
of the twentieth century. In her career she authored nearly 700 books, and in
2005, 35 years after her death, she still sold around seven million books per year,
making a total of over 400 million worldwide.
In the post-war period there was a greater concern with removing social preju-
dice from children’s books. Realistic stories expressed egalitarian values and com-
munity solidarity. But in the 1960s this began to give way to more imaginative and
escapist fiction, for example the magic and legend of Alan Garner’s Owl Service
(1967). In the 1980s and 1990s prolific authors such as Roald Dahl and Philip
Pullman produced many prize-winning stories for children and young adults that
were enthusiastically received by the general public, and were often adapted for
television series. In 1995 Pullman was awarded the Carnegie Medal for the trilogy
His Dark Materials (1995–2000), despite accusations they promoted atheism, an
approach that his readers have found progressive and refreshing. In 2005 he won
the prestigious Astred Lindgren Award for his contribution to children’s literature.
In recent years public concerns over what children should be taught, together
with the phenomenal international success of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter stories,
have made children’s books one of the most high-profile areas of literature. Since
1999 there has also been a Children’s Laureate, appointed by a panel to a writer
or illustrator of children’s books. The post is currently held by Malorie Blackman,
and is renewed every two years.
112 Literature
Today, the range of stories available to children has been influenced by a desire
to encourage positive social attitudes towards people of different backgrounds
and circumstances, for example the social realism of Jacqueline Wilson’s The Bed
and Breakfast Star (1995), which tells the story of a child without a proper home,
and The Story of Tracy Beaker (1991), about a girl who is in foster care, has been
made into a successful and long-running television series.
The ethnic diversity of Britain is also reflected in stories in which black chil-
dren are central, for instance stories by Malorie Blackman, Jamela Gavin and
Benjamin Zephaniah. The broad range of writing for an intelligent and thought-
ful modern audience has increased demand for children’s literature, which is
written to make learning fun, promote social awareness, and reflect a diverse
and multicultural society. The fact that seven children’s writers were in the list
of the ten most borrowed authors from UK libraries in 2011 is testimony to their
enduring popularity.
J.K. Rowling
J.K. Rowling’s (b. 1965) Harry Potter books are known and loved around the
world. They have also become immensely profitable, becoming some of the
best-selling books in history, and the basis of a series of films that have also
become some of the highest grossing films in history. Around half a billion
Potter books have been sold worldwide.
Her story is remarkable. After studying for a degree in French, she worked
as a researcher for Amnesty International, and later as an English teacher in
Porto, Portugal. In 1990 she conceived the idea for Harry Potter. After rejec-
tions from 12 publishers, her first book Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s
Stone e was published by Bloomsbury in 1997. It introduces Harry, a bespec-
tacled schoolboy who has lost his parents and lives in a cupboard under the
stairs of his aunt and uncle’s house. Fear of loss and separation are com-
mon themes in the stories, which feature witches, potions, a mysterious owl
and lessons in magic at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The first book was followed by six sequels, the final one being Harry Potter
and the Deathly Hallows s in 2007.
Today, the books are published in over 200 countries and in 65 languages,
an achievement as fantastic as the adventures of her hero. Since starting out
as an English teacher, she has become the best-selling author in the UK,
with total sales in excess of £238 million and an OBE for her success.
Success has endured; the last four Harry Potter books have set con-
secutive records as the fastest-selling books in history, the final one selling
11 million copies on the first day of its UK release. As a global brand, it is
now worth an estimated £21 billion. The films have been similarly success-
ful, and are shot in Britain with an all-British cast, something which Rowling
had insisted on to Warner Brothers.
Although Rowling is said to be shy and reclusive, in 2012 there was more
publicity as she released her first non-children’s book, The Casual Vacancy.y In
a departure from the magic of Harry Potter, it assumes the twenty-first-century
preoccupations with the dark themes of rape, racism, drugs, pornography,
Literature 113
child abuse and suicide. This was followed by The Cuckoo’s Calling
g (2013), a
crime novel published under the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith, which sub-
sequently became a bestseller. In 2014 another detective story was released,
The Silkworm,
m featuring the hero of her previous work, Cormoran Strike.
Figure 5.4 A child attempts ‘Potteresque’ magic on the legendary Platform 9¾, a popular
tourist spot at King’s Cross Station in London.
© Nargis Christopher
114 Literature
Notes
1 A suburb of north London, close to the Arsenal stadium.
2 A London-Irish band.
3 Then the home of Arsenal Football Club.
4 An aristocrat renowned for her distinctive RP accent.
5 A genteel music-hall comedy duo popular in the mid-1950s.
6 A comedy sketch from the satirical show Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
7 A talented, flamboyant Arsenal footballer of the 1970s.
6 Theatre
Introduction
Traditional productions, novel reinterpretations, brave new works, lively musi-
cals and pantomime are all elements of contemporary British theatre. Perfor-
mances take place in many different locations, from the intimacy of a small room
above a village pub to the formality of London’s Royal National Theatre, whose
company of actors and staff is among the most prestigious in the country. Of simi-
lar standing is the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), based in Stratford-upon-
Avon. Shakespeare’s plays have been staged in the town – his birthplace – since
1746, and today the tradition is maintained at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre
and Swan Theatre, which put on around 20 productions per year (including plays
by Shakespeare’s contemporaries and more modern drama).
There are approximately 1000 theatres in the UK, including many uncon-
ventional ones such as schools, pubs, village halls and churches. Approximately
half are professional, of which many are repertory or ‘rep’ theatres, which have a
resident company of performers and writers. Repertory theatres are found in all
the major cities. Some of the largest are Birmingham Rep, Glasgow Citizens’,
Sheffield Crucible, Bristol Old Vic and the Liverpool Playhouse. They offer a
variety of plays for short periods, and have a reputation for original, varied and
high-quality plays. The most successful often transfer to London, which is impor-
tant for any director seeking a larger audience and national publicity.
London has around 100 theatres, and around 40 are in the West End – the area
around Leicester Square, Shaftesbury Avenue and the Strand, the capital’s focal
point for night-life. There is also the Royal National Theatre complex on the
South Bank, and one or two other large theatres in the district of Victoria. These
are large, commercial theatres, and generally offer a familiar programme of light
entertainment, such as musicals and comedy shows. In contrast, plays with more
individual themes are offered in smaller theatres, such as the Donmar Warehouse
or the Tricycle, which are situated off-West End. Most innovative and experi-
mental work is usually found in the ‘fringe’ theatres in London and around the
country. These are smaller, simple stages, which specialise in small-scale works, to
audiences of around 30 to 300. Their shows often feature unconventional, exper-
imental plays, or works that deal with minority interests or controversial themes.
116 Theatre
Most schools, colleges and universities have drama societies too, where stu-
dents can exercise their dramatic talent. More specialised training can be found
in drama schools; among the best known are the Royal Academy for Dramatic
Art (RADA), the Royal Central School for Speech and Drama, and the London
Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Numerous other colleges, art schools and
universities also offer courses in drama, theatre design and related subjects, as
Figure 6.1 The Gate Theatre, in Notting Hill, the smallest ‘off West End’ theatre in London.
© David Christopher
Theatre 117
well as training for technicians and directors. Afterwards, actors may go to work
in ‘rep’ before working in film and television, where for the lucky few, the fame
and financial rewards can be much greater.
The late 1950s was a fertile period for British drama and several new writers
emerged who would go on to have long and successful careers. Harold Pinter
(1930–2008) was perhaps the most notable, and went on to become one of
the most acclaimed and influential dramatists of recent times. The action in his
plays often takes place in one room, where the characters attempt to express
their feelings, irrational thoughts and ideas. His first major play was The Birth-
day Partyy (1958), in which the two protagonists are forced into a situation that
they cannot control, has humour, sex and menace. One of his finest works,
The Homecoming g (1965), is about a divided family in which the father does
not get on well with his son Teddy, who works at an American university. Teddy
returns home with his new wife Ruth, an educated ‘career woman’, who has
strong views on women’s equality and liberation. But as in many families of
the early 1960s, she is seen only in terms of her sexuality and her domestic
role, and the other men in the family regard her as a mother, a wife or a whore.
Theatre 119
In this scene she is alone with her brother-in-law Lenny, and uses her sexual-
ity to defend herself against Lenny’s attempt to control her.
Lenny:
y You’ve consumed quite enough in my opinion.
Ruth
h: No I haven’t.
Lenny:
y Quite sufficient in my own opinion.
Ruth
h: Not in mine.
Lenny:
y Just give me the glass.
Ruth:
h No.
Lenny:
y I’ll take it then.
Ruth
h: If you take the glass, I’ll take you.
Lenny:
y How about me taking the glass without you taking me?
Ruth
h: Why don’t I just take you?
Lenny:
y You’re joking!
(Pinter, [1965] 1991: 50–2)
Censorship
Until 1968 the content of dramatic works was closely controlled by laws limiting
what could be shown on stage. All public performances required a licence from
the Lord Chamberlain, an official of the royal household. The practice originated
in the sixteenth century to control political content in drama. During the nine-
teenth century there was growing concern over moral censorship, and licences
120 Theatre
were used to prevent obscene and blasphemous plays. Theatres without a licence
could only offer musical shows, and to avoid problems with the law, lively dra-
mas of crime, violence, sadism and seduction were combined with background
music. Owing to their combination of melody and drama, these popular spec-
tacles became known as ‘melodramas’. Censorship remained unchanged until
1968, when, at a time of reform and more permissive attitudes, the Theatres Act
abolished censorship of the stage in the UK. Theatrical performances became
subjected to the same tests as literary works under the Obscene Publications Act
of 1959, and prosecution depended on whether or not the book or play might be
seen by someone who could be depraved or corrupted by it.
Musicals
In contrast to the specialised, ‘niche’ appeal of radical drama were the large-scale,
commercially driven ‘blockbuster’ musicals. Those of the 1960s and 1970s had
enormous appeal to the young, who were bringing about a revolution in British
society. The nudity and androgynous sexuality on display in many performances
reflected the ‘permissive’ society and the increased tolerance shown by the 1968
Theatres Act, which had removed the need for each play to have a licence. As
the theatre became one of the few places where progressive, provocative and dar-
ing new shows could be seen, ecstatic audiences regularly filled the palatial West
End playhouses.
In America, Galt MacDermot, Gerome Ragni and James Rado created Hair,
a successful musical which used elements of rock music, circus and dance. Big,
confident and impudent, it captured the mood of the times, announcing the
imminent arrival of a new age – the ‘age of Aquarius’ – and its associated values
of liberality and freedom. In 1968 Hair opened in London and was an immedi-
ate success. It was also the first time that nudity had been seen in a theatrical
production. But some critics and members of the public claimed the show was
blasphemous and pornographic, which in turn generated even more publicity and
interest. Others remarked that the nudity and swearing were carefully adjusted to
shock nobody, and that the press were over-reacting in order to boost newspaper
sales.
Several other shows with nudity, song and dance appeared, such as Oh! Cal-
cutta! (1969, Kenneth Tynan) and Godspell (1971, Steven Schwarz), and since
then the format of pop songs, dance and spectacular visual effects has been regu-
larly exploited by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice in musicals that have
been popular around the world. Their Jesus Christ Superstar (1971) combined
rock with religion to make a modern version of the story of Jesus, and built on the
success of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1968), another biblical
drama attracting huge audiences of young people. The duo had another big suc-
cess with Evita (1978), which tells in grand style the story of Argentinian ‘first
lady’ Eva Peron.
124 Theatre
Figure 6.3 The Palace Theatre in London’s West End, built in 1891 as an opera house.
© Jon Arnold Images Ltd/Alamy
The new musicals proved highly successful and many of those involved with
them went on to successful careers. In 1981 Lloyd Webber went on to make Cats,
which celebrated poems from T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.
Then came Starlight Express (1984), a train race on roller-skates, and Phantom
of the Opera (1986), which tells the story of a disfigured composer who haunts
Theatre 125
an opera house and falls in love with a beautiful singer. The colourful, high-tech
stage sets and accessible lyrics, lively music and energetic dancing guaranteed
their popularity and made enormous profits, quickly transferring to New York’s
Broadway and other theatres around the world, where they have been successful
for many years.
In the 1990s almost half the total number of productions showing in the West
End were musicals, a record number. Their combination of stories and songs
and the absence of political themes or difficult dialogue have proved popular
with British audiences and overseas visitors. But despite their commercial suc-
cess, many critics remain unenthusiastic. They refuse to take seriously a form of
entertainment that mixes technology and pop songs, in which the actors could
be changed without affecting the show, and similarly have difficulty in taking
seriously a play that is completely uncritical and made simply for commercial
consumption.
What on earth is this stuff all about the truth? Why, when everywhere
you go, people tell lies; in pubs, to each other, to their wives, to the
children, to the dying. Thank God they do. No one tells the truth!
Why single out newspapers? Oh, a ‘special standard’ . . . everyone can
tell lies except newspapers. They’re a universal scapegoat for everyone
else’s evasions and inadequacies!
(Brenton and Hare, 1985: 55)
Caryl Churchill
Since she began her career in 1958, Caryl Churchill has had sustained suc-
cess. Some of her most notable works were performed in the 1980s and
1990s, and include plays for radio, television and the stage. They introduce
themes of importance to women and to women’s consciousness, and com-
bine her feminist interests with socialist politics. She is also respected for her
intelligence, wit and skill in presenting plays. She experiments with drama,
but at the same time writes works that are popular and accessible to the
general public and critics.
Vinegar Tom m (1978) and Light Shining in Buckinghamshire e (1978) are
both feminist works which dealt with bodily abuse through alcohol, eating
disorders and violence. Cloud Nine e (1979) examines in role-plays how race
and gender are socially constructed, and shocked the audience with its
transvestite performers. Top Girls s (1982) is one of her best-known plays.
Marlene, the protagonist, progresses from humble origins to become a suc-
cessful career woman. She has left behind Angie, the child she had at the
age of 17, and towards the end of the play she returns to visit her articulate
but poor, unambitious sister Joyce, who has taken on the role of Angie’s
mother. Its feminist message is that if women simply copy men by adopt-
ing masculine behaviour, then the women’s movement will achieve nothing.
Instead, her message is that women must find another, more original path.
This is a theme common to several of her works in the 1980s and echoes
the arguments of modern feminism.
The dynamic Serious Moneyy (1987) is about greed and money-making
and how it changes people. Set after the ‘Big Bang’ deregulation of the City
in October 1986, her ferocious satire on financial excess and corporate vile-
nesss was revised in 2009 showing how this culture led directly to the crash
the country was experiencing, the loss of liberal values in society, and an
increasing public amorality and selfishness. It looks at the ways in which
London money dealers become morally corrupt following deregulation of
the stock market; it became one of the most successful plays of the 1980s.
Mad Forest: A Play from Romania a (1990) has a quite different focus. It was
written after a trip to Romania soon after the fall of President Ceauşescu,
and considers the new realities of life following the revolution there. The play
received many accolades from drama critics and confirmed Churchill as
Britain’s leading female playwright.
128 Theatre
Comedy
Despite the seriousness of many challenging new dramas of the time, there was
also a rich vein of comedy writing, and during the 1970s and 1980s playwrights
such as Alan Ayckbourn, Tom Stoppard, Peter Nichols, Simon Gray, Michael
Frayn and Alan Bennett wrote some of the wittiest comedies of the British stage.
Alan Bennett began his career with Dudley Moore, Peter Cook and Jonathan
Miller in 1960 at the Edinburgh Festival, and after a lifetime of highly praised
work in theatre and television, he has come to be regarded as a leading dramatist
of his generation. He has become known for his humorous use of language which
often mixes provincial slang with the jargon of media and advertising. Like the
poet Philip Larkin, his writing is often self-effacing, and focuses on dour, north-
ern pretensions of an aspirational lower middle class, their propriety and sexual
repression. Bennett established his reputation with plays such as Habeas Corpus
(1973), a complex comedy about social conventions and manners of the late
1960s. It includes a familiar range of comedy characters, such as a henpecked
husband, a frustrated wife, a licentious vicar and a lowly tea-lady. A keen social
observer, many of his works are inspired by his northern roots, and frequently
portray traditional elderly northern characters and their domestic lives, such as
the critically acclaimed Talking Heads. Written as two television series in 1988
and 1998, and later adapted for the stage, these 12 monologues are revealing
character studies containing both humour and pathos.
Alan Ayckbourn
Alan Ayckbourn has been the most prolific and commercially successful
playwright of the second half of the twentieth century. His sharp, satirical
portrayals of the manners, behaviour and language of the lower middle
classes were easily appreciated at a time when individualism and bourgeois
values were strongly expressed and encouraged in the politics of the Con-
servative government. His humorous plays also suggest a dislike of status-
seekers and people who openly desire wealth, and some of the bleakest
moments in his plays are reserved for these characters. Conflict set in a
familiar domestic environment is another characteristic of his plays, as are
pathetic, unreliable individuals, who are usually male.
One of his best-known works is Absurd Person Singularr (1973), which
shows three married couples in three different kitchens on three different
Christmas Eves. Joking Apartt (1979) is especially inventive, showing four
scenes on four special occasions. These occasions are four years apart, and
the couples are thus shown over 12 years, as the protagonists pass from
their 20s to their 30s. In contrast, It Could Be One of Us
s (1983) is a comedy
thriller with five different endings.
To comment more trenchantly on the politics and ideology of the time,
during the 1980s Ayckbourn wrote several highly praised ‘social’ dra-
mas, which contrasted with his familiar domestic comedies. The most
admired of these was A Small Family Business s (1987), in which a nation
Theatre 129
of shopkeepers becomes a nation of shoplifters in a family furniture firm of
‘Ayres and Graces’, whose members are implicated in drugs, murder and
corruption.
Much of Ayckbourn’s humour derives from the juxtaposition of tragedy
and comedy, illustrated in the following extract from his play Time of My
Life
e (1992). In this scene, a middle-aged married couple, Gerry and Laura,
are celebrating Laura’s birthday in an Italian restaurant. As the wine flows
her tongue loosens, and she confesses to having had an affair. Her hus-
band tries to discover the identity of the man, while the waiter snores in the
background.
Laura
a: Don’t you shout at me!
Gerry
y: I am not shouting at you, I wish to god I could . . . !
Laura
a: Calm down! calm down, will you. You’ll drop dead in a minute.
Gerry
y: Don’t worry I won’t be the one who drops dead . . . have no fear
about that. Whoever he is, he will be the one who drops dead
because I’ll murder the bastard! I’ll kill him and thrash the day lights
out of you!
Laura
a: Oh, shut up, big talk! Just shut up!
Gerry:
y I promise I will!
Laura
a: You can’t murder him anyway.
Gerry
y: Why not?
Laura
a: Because he is already dead, isn’t he . . . he’s been dead since 1974
. . . now, simmer down . . . for God’s sake . . . that’s better.
Gerry:
y I still want to know who he was.
Laura
a: What are you going to do? Go around and beat up his kids?
Gerry
y: His kids? Do you mean he was married as well?
Laura
a: You’re getting warmer.
Gerry:
y Now, who do we know who lost her husband in 1974?
(Ayckbourn, 1992: 124)
Tom Stoppard
Tom Stoppard is one of the most consistently successful and critically
acclaimed playwrights of British theatre. He was born in Czechoslovakia, but
later settled in Britain where he worked as a journalist and drama critic, before
starting to write plays. He is an eclectic writer who does not limit himself to one
subject matter or style, and his plays have little in common with each other.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead d (1967) is his best-known work
and became one of the most critically praised plays of the century. Its pro-
tagonists are two minor characters from Shakespeare’s play Hamlett, whom
Stoppard brings to the centre of the action. The play is like a series of
sketches between two stand-up comedians. It shows how people try to make
sense of a chaotic world, and how difficult this is when realities are always
multiple, and truth always relative. In this well-known scene, Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern play a game of verbal tennis. The players must hit ques-
tions across the net. Repetitions, statements and rhetoric all lose points, and
the game is scored as in tennis.
Guildenstern
n: What’s your name?
Rosencrantzz: What’s yours?
Guildenstern:
n I asked first.
Rosencrantzz: Statement. One-love.
Guildenstern
n: What’s your name when you’re at home?
Rosencrantzz: What’s yours?
Guildenstern:
n When I am at home?
Rosencrantzz: Is it different at home?
Guildenstern:
n What home?
Rosencrantzz: Haven’t you got one?
Guildenstern
n: Why do you ask?
Rosencrantzz: What are you driving at?
Guildenstern
n: What’s your name?!
Rosencrantzz: Repetition. Two-love. Match point to me.
Guildenstern
n (seizing him violentlyy): WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?
Rosencrantz:
z Rhetoric! Game and match. (Pause.) Where’s it going to end?
Guildenstern
n: That’s the question?
Rosencrantzz: It’s alll a question.
(Stoppard, [1967] 2000: 35–6)
132 Theatre
Frivolity mixed with intellectual content is a hallmark of many of Stop-
pard’s works. The Real Inspector Hound d (1968) featured theatre critics who
become part of the play. In The Real Thing g (1982) there is a play within a
play. In Jumperss (1972), Travesties s (1974) and Arcadia a (1993), Stoppard
mixes playful verbal games with profound ideas.
Although he is sometimes criticised for being an apolitical and style-
conscious writer, in the mid-1970s he turned his attention to political and
human rights issues, in particular the situation of dissidents in Eastern
Europe and the Soviet Union, subjects which inspired the production of
some of his most critically acclaimed work. Dirty Linen n (1977) is a critique
of corruption in Parliament, while Night and Dayy (1978) considers the role
of a free press and human rights in a totalitarian society. Every Good Boy
Deserves Favourr (1978) examines the related theme of free speech, in par-
ticular how during the Cold War sane Soviet dissidents were routinely locked
away in mental hospitals. In 1977 his interest in the theme led to him visiting
the Soviet Union with a delegation from Amnesty International, and later
Czechoslovakia where he met Vaclav Havel, the encounter leading to the
stage play Professional Foull (1977) for Amnesty’s Prisoner of Conscience
Year in 1977, and later the TV play Squaring the Circle: Poland, 1980–8 0 1
(1984) a fictional documentary about the history of the ‘Solidarity’ movement
there. His interest in issues of freedom and repression in Czechoslovakia
was highlighted in Rock ’n’ Rolll (2006), which focuses on artistic dissent, in
particular the role played by music, against the background of socialism in
the country between 1968 and 1989.
As well as writing plays, Stoppard has also written extensively for film,
television and radio. His wide-ranging and ingenious works confirm him as
a dramatist of world renown, and this was recognised in 1997 when he was
awarded a knighthood.
Figure 6.4 The Edinburgh Festival on a chilly August day in the Scottish capital.
© Arch White/Alamy
Drama finance
One of the greatest influences on theatre of recent years has not been social or
cultural, but financial. Only around 70 per cent of productions make a profit, so
theatre productions often require additional funding, which is usually in the form
of an Arts Council subsidy. There are separate Arts Councils for each of the four
home nations, whose contributions allow different companies to take risks with
136 Theatre
new productions that might be of interest only to small audiences. The subsidies
also help keep alive national heritage and cultural memory, when to do so in the
market-place might be unprofitable.
Subsidies also help those on low or no incomes to have access to the arts.
They also facilitate education and outreach activities, which do not normally
generate income. In 2007 theatre subsidies were approximately £120 million, or
0.02 per cent of government spending, on productions that generated an esti-
mated £2.7 billion. Although some productions can be immensely profitable it
is often difficult to predict which ones they will be, which makes it necessary to
subsidise a wide range of work.
Theatre in the twenty-first century began brightly. Attendances rose steadily,
and 2009 was a record-breaking year with more than 14 million tickets sold for
52 West End theatres. However, in recent years a programme of public spend-
ing cuts has seen sharp reductions in Arts Council subsidies, corporate sponsor-
ship and private donations, which it is feared may never return. Ticket prices
have had to rise, and theatre attendances have fallen. The public has also been
unwilling to buy expensive tickets without an assurance that it will enjoy the
production. They also expect modern facilities, but in London these are usu-
ally listed buildings, and cannot be readily modernised. The associated costs
of meals, drinks and parking, apart from competition with digitised and other
home entertainments, have all made the public only willing to pay high prices
to see established works and fine acting. Consequently, critical reviews have
become more important, and can affect the success of a show. These have been
affected by new digital technology, as criticism and comment has moved online,
away from newspapers and television. Now, repeated negative criticism from
citizen critics in blogs and fan sites can disadvantage the show more than a criti-
cal review by a professional critic in a major newspaper, reflecting a revolution
in criticism that has seen the cultural aristocracy virtually overthrown by the
citizenry.
The main consequence of these economic and cultural changes is that
drama has increasingly become a commercial enterprise, more concerned with
box-office figures and profit margins than with artistic matters, and, some say,
more ‘dumbed down’. Fewer actors are able to contemplate a career in a rep-
ertory theatre as wages have fallen in real terms, and the power of Equity,
the actors’ union, has diminished. While in the drama schools, students are
prepared for these new realities, there is said to be less interest in, or atten-
tion paid to, finessing drama skills, and more attention paid to getting a job
that pays well. This creates a tendency for writers and actors to seek work in
television and film more than the stage, where the remuneration and coverage
is greater. Despite this, many writers are still keen to write for the theatre, and
in recent years, many major Hollywood names such as Kevin Spacey, Ralph
Fiennes, Nicole Kidman, Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow have worked on
small-scale productions, as appearances on the London enhance their profes-
sional credibility.
Theatre 137
In spite of the theatre’s difficulties, there continues to be generous coverage of
new developments in the form of reviews and comment on new plays. Critical
opinion in the twenty-first century looks back not with anger at the last 60 years,
but with positive feelings about drama’s ability to capture the spirit of the times
in theatre, film and television, and a hope that it can continue to build on the
strengths of its heritage.
7 Cinema
Introduction
For over a century British film-makers have provided entertainment for audi-
ences around the world. Spy films, ‘rom-coms’, fantasy films and works of social
realism have been some of the recent and best-known genres, while adaptations
of classic novels are consistently popular with audiences at home and abroad for
their attention to details of dress, décor, character and setting. The range of per-
spectives portrayed in British film is similarly broad, and issues of class, ethnicity,
sexuality and religion are frequently explored on screen.
British film-making is heavily centralised around the south-east of England. Its
commercial heart is the central London district of Soho, where production com-
panies, publicity agencies and related trades have their offices, but the majority
of studios are based in outer London. Pinewood and Shepperton are among the
most established, and newer ones such as Three Mills, and Warner Bros. Studios
are among the largest.
The major awards organisation for film is the British Academy of Film and
Television Arts (BAFTA), which holds a ceremony each year. Two other impor-
tant events are the London Film Festival in October and the Edinburgh Film Fes-
tival in June. Both show around 250 films, many of which are complemented by
talks and interviews from international specialists. There are also many smaller
annual events around the country, such as the Celtic Media Festival, which takes
place in a different town each year in Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Cornwall and
Brittany. Promotion of films has become a fine art, and today many films, direc-
tors and actors have their own social media accounts where they post their latest
news and views, and where they can be contacted.
Film has a high public profile, and in recent years has become a fashionable
and popular area of employment. In response, the number of courses offered by
colleges and universities has grown. The National Film and Television School
is one of the most respected institutions and is financed by the government,
together with the film, video and television industries. The British Film Institute
(BFI) also encourages the arts of film and television. It runs the BFI Southbank
film theatre and the IMAX cinema in London, and has a network of regional
film theatres around Britain. The organisations Creative Scotland, Film Cymru
Cinema 139
Wales and Northern Ireland Screen support film in the home nations, and all
have access to the BFI National Archive, which holds a collection of film and
television items from the birth of cinema to the present day.
Britain has around 700 cinema sites and around 3700 screens, or 6.8 per
100,000 people. In 2013 around 180 million visits were made, or 2.7 visits per
person per year. The majority of visits are made to cinema chains such as Cine-
world, Vue and Odeon, which are found all over Britain. Films of less commercial
interest are usually shown in ‘art house’ or repertory cinemas, of which the Pic-
turehouse chain is the best known, offering short seasons on particular subjects,
topics of special interest, as well as older films and foreign language films. The
major terrestrial television channels also offer a wide range of films, and sub-
scription channels such as Lovefilm, Netflix or Nickelodeon also offer rental and
streaming of films.
All public cinemas are licensed by the local authorities. These have powers to
prevent the showing of a picture if they believe it would be unsuitable. However,
they generally follow the recommendations of the British Board of Film Classifi-
cation (BBFC). This is a government body that examines and classifies material
for public entertainment, and attempts to reflect public opinion by following
a ‘line’ between the traditional moralists on the political right and progressive
libertarians on the left. Its reports are made available to the public on its website
each year.
The current system classifies cinema films and other products, such as DVD/
Blu-ray and video films as follows: ‘U’ films are open to everyone; those with ‘PG’
suggest parental guidance, as some scenes may be unsuitable for young children;
‘12A’ – nobody under 12 may see a ‘12A’ film in the cinema unless they are with
an adult (the 12A rating does not apply to home entertainment); ‘12’ – nobody
under the age of 12 may rent or buy a ‘12’ rated film; ‘15’ – nobody under the age
of 15 may see a ‘15’ film in the cinema, or rent/buy a ‘15’ rated film; ‘18’ – nobody
under the age of 18 may see an ‘18’ film in a cinema, or rent/buy an ‘18’ rated film.
There is also an ‘R18’ classification for some films, which can only be shown in
licensed cinemas, and the sale of ‘R18’ films to licensed sex shops.
Most films shown in Britain are American or British. Foreign-language films
are relatively rare. To be defined as British, the movie must pass a cultural test
administered by the BFI. The test has 15 criteria, including the language of the
film, to the locations, the nationality of the director, actors and crew, and the film
must score 16 points out of a possible 31 to be considered, which give the film tax
breaks, eligibility for awards and so on.
Documentary film-making
One of the most characteristic types of British film is the documentary. It began
in the 1930s, when Scottish film-maker John Grierson (1898–1972) pioneered
new techniques. Grierson wanted to make authentic records of everyday life and
was the first to use the term ‘documentary’ to describe a style of film.
Grierson strongly believed that film-makers had a duty to reveal and describe
society in order to understand and improve it. To achieve his aim, he worked
with the government, making dignified, creative studies of different industries
and workers in Britain and the British Empire. These included Coal Face (1935)
and Night Mail (1936), frank studies of the mining industry and postal service.
His later work included examinations of unemployment, pollution, education,
health and housing. He also pioneered the use of interviews in film, using
the camera to record the words of those directly involved. Grierson’s work
quickly became influential, establishing objective, impartial techniques and
the documentary as a film genre. This technique became widely used in televi-
sion news when making investigative reports about a particular topic, while in
film, realism evolved into Free Cinema, whose pioneers Lindsay Anderson and
Karel Reisz made natural, authentic films about British society, for instance in
Anderson’s O Dreamland (1953), which featured a day in the seaside town of
Margate, and Reisz’s We Are the Lambeth Boys (1958), about a south London
youth club.
Social realism
Interest in making more honest and open representations of social life was also
present in theatre and literature. Between 1956 and 1959 the works of many
new playwrights and novelists such as John Osborne, John Braine, Alan Sillitoe
and Stan Barstow attracted critical interest. Between 1959 and 1963 several
of their novels and plays were adapted for the cinema in a new wave of films
that brought to cinema audiences fresh, raw portrayals of the British working
class, their language, living conditions, aspirations and follies. In particular, they
reveal the changing nature of society in those years: how increased affluence
was leading to greater individuality, less idealism and a reduced sense of social
responsibility.
The film adaptations are generally faithful to the novels, with films set in
smoky, provincial, grey northern towns. They focus on the lives of ordinary
working people set among small, sparsely furnished terraced houses, oppressive
factories and grim pubs. To fill the roles, actors left behind their drama-school RP
142 Cinema
accents and spoke in the regional vernacular to convey a sense of life, energy and
authenticity, and despite their drab surroundings there is a spirited optimism in
many of the characters, reflecting the freedom, consumerism and permissiveness
that many young people of the time were beginning to experience. Room at the
Top (Jack Clayton, 1958), Look Back in Anger (Tony Richardson, 1959), Satur-
day Night and Sunday Morning (Karel Reisz, 1960) and A Kind of Loving (John
Schlesinger, 1962) were among the first and most highly praised of a body of work
that became known as ‘new cinema’ or ‘new wave’.
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning was adapted from a novel by Alan Sillitoe
and remains one of the most typical of the genre. It is set in a small Nottingham-
shire town, where Arthur Seaton (played by Albert Finney), a hard-drinking,
hard-fighting, virile young man, rebels against the tedium and restrictions of his
marriage and his work. But, unlike many older members of his community, he has
no politics or religion, and is shown as cynical and alienated, detached from his
own people and disinterested in political ideas, wanting little more than Saturday
night in the pub and the dream of retiring to a bungalow in the suburbs. The
realist style was also used to reflect social problems, as anxiety grew over rising
crime rates, and a younger generation that was frequently portrayed by the mass
media as ‘out of control’. In The Blue Lamp (1949) a kind, community policeman
is callously murdered, while Victim (1961) broke new ground with the theme of
blackmail of homosexuals.
Films of the ‘new wave’ were usually shot in black and white, with little bright
lighting. Modern jazz and pop music were frequently used to communicate a
sense of freedom and self-expression, which supported the action. It was also a
style without theory or glamour, and therefore very different from the politicised
film-making of communist countries, and from the mixture of escapism, aspira-
tion and Cold War politics that characterised film-making in the USA during
the 1950s. However, in Britain the new styles were not popular with the older
generation, who often found them worrying and confusing. Many stopped going
to the cinema, especially when a second, new, commercial TV channel started
broadcasting in 1955. With declining audiences, competition from Hollywood
and television, and little financial help from the government, the survival of the
film industry depended on the profits from popular domestic genres, which were
quickly and cheaply made to attract the new teenage market.
Figure 7.1 The latest incarnation of James Bond, Daniel Craig, with the traditional Aston
Martin DB5.
© Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy
an atmosphere with shadows and suspense, but in the 1960s they became more
explicit, with vivid depictions of blood, sexuality and violence, such as Franken-
stein Must Be Destroyed (1969). Plots were typically set on dark nights in elaborate
Gothic castles, in which heavily cleavaged vampire women moved around dimly
lit rooms that were decorated like a Berni steak house, as the struggle between
good and evil was played out for a mesmerised teenage public.
Hammer also produced a range of popular science-fiction films, such as The
Quatermass Xperiment (1955) and The Damned (1963), which shared several
themes in common with the horror genre. These include the threat to individu-
als and communities represented by science gone bad, possession by dark forces
and mind control. At a time of Cold War, the spread of communism, concerns
about rock ’n’ roll music and sexual liberation, Hammer’s populist genres of sci-fi
and horror successfully mirrored public anxieties of the period. But, as with the
Carry On films, their repetitive and heavily commercial nature was often dispar-
aged by critics, although enthusiastic young cinema-goers ensured their survival
until the 1970s.
In spite of some isolated successes, the 1960s were rarely profitable for British
cinema, which was seen as creatively inferior to big-budget American produc-
tions and stylish European art-house films. Low levels of finance from central
government meant a heavy dependence on commercial genres and, by the end of
the decade, many critics considered the industry almost dead, sunk by the popu-
larity of commercial television and the glamour of Hollywood.
146 Cinema
The 1970s: pop style triumphant
At the beginning of the decade the film industry focused its attention on numer-
ous safe, commercial productions. While a younger generation sought fun and
freedom of expression in films that reflected the tolerance and liberal values
being expressed in law and society more generally, others preferred less provoca-
tive, more traditional offerings that nostalgically looked back, rather than for-
wards, in historical costume dramas such as Cromwell (1970), Mary Queen of Scots
(1971) and Young Winston (1972). These were always popular with audiences
overseas, and helped ensure healthy returns for their producers, in a climate of
inflation, falling cinema attendances and increased competition from American
films and commercial television.
Despite the problems, the speed and excitement of social change through-
out the previous decade began to attract many foreign film-makers to Britain,
such as Michelangelo Antonioni, Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut. The
public loved their extravagant, modish films which captured the mood of the
moment, including Antonioni’s Blow Up (1966). Some stayed to make several
films, notably Roman Polanski with Repulsion (1965) and Cul de Sac (1966),
and Richard Lester with the Beatles films plus The Knack . . . and How to Get
It (1965).
The American director Stanley Kubrick also made numerous films in Britain,
and during the 1960s and 1970s his works were among the most varied and styl-
ish of their time. Several have since become classic works of modern cinema, for
example Lolita (1962) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). But his most notorious
work was A Clockwork Orange (1971), in which violent, make-up wearing gangs
enjoy a disturbing life of crime, sex, violence and Beethoven, whom the state
attempts to correct by brainwashing techniques and thought-control. Although
it was adapted from Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novel, which recalled allegedly true
events of 20 years previously, the time of the action remains unclear. In the words
of the protagonist Alex (Malcolm McDowell), it is ‘just as soon as you could
imagine it, but not too far ahead – it’s just not today, that’s all’. But in the turbu-
lent times of the early 1970s, it appeared accurately to document England’s pres-
ent. One of the most disturbing and controversial films ever shown in or about
Britain, Kubrick withdrew it soon afterwards, following alleged ‘copycat’ juvenile
violence, and public demands that scenes be cut.
A growing number of films starred famous singers and rock bands. These
had previously been light and populist, created to market the members and
their music to family audiences. However, as the older generation had largely
stopped going to the cinema, newer productions were created with the aim of
appealing mainly to the band’s followers, for example Slade in Flame (Richard
Loncraine, 1975) about Slade (the Oasis of their time), which succeeded in
capturing not just the band at its height, but also the sordid and declining
atmosphere of inner-city Britain in the early 1970s. But the pop genre con-
tinued to evolve and gradually became more imaginative and substantial: the
Who appeared in Tommy (Ken Russell, 1975) an adaptation of their 1969
Cinema 147
album, and their music drives Quadrophenia (Franc Roddam, 1979), a colour-
ful exploration of the life and times of a frustrated young mod, immersed in
London’s youth culture of 1964. With this film, and That’ll Be the Day (Claude
Whatham, 1973), set in the 1950s, British pop began to explore its own brief
history for the first time.
Some musicians later began to appear in non-musical feature films. The Roll-
ing Stones’ singer Mick Jagger appeared in Performance (Nicolas Roeg and Don-
ald Cammell, 1970), an exploration of sexual, social and narcotic practices in the
London of the late 1960s. David Bowie appeared in The Man Who Fell to Earth
(Nicolas Roeg, 1976), playing an alien who travels to Earth, looking for a way to
save his dying planet. This was a highly praised film that raised questions about
corporate imperialism, as well as the decline of imperial power in the world.
Ken Russell
The 1960s were a time of ground-breaking new films, and Ken Russell
(1927–2011) was a leading exponent of the new wave, who often mixed
film with music in combinations of artful surprise, shock and controversial
excess.
In his early years he served in the merchant navy and air force as well as
becoming a dancer and photographer, before he began making short films,
such as Peepshow w (1957). He later joined the BBC, and worked on docu-
mentaries for the arts series Monitorr (1958–65), where he made his first
feature film French Dressing g (1963), a comedy farce. Dramatised documen-
taries followed, based around the lives of classical music composers, some
40 years before the ‘drama-doc’ would become popular in television. These
included Elgarr (1962) and The Debussy Film m (1965). He then switched style
to direct a Cold War spy thriller Billion Dollar Brain
n (1967) for the James
Bond producer Harry Saltzman, with Michael Caine taking the lead role as
Len Deighton’s Harry Palmer.
In 1969 his feature film adaptation of D.H. Laurence’s Women in Love
was a critical and popular success, and is still considered by critics to be
among the best of Russell’s films. The Music Loverss (1970), about the life
of Tchaikovsky, marked a return to his involvement with classical music, but
amid growing concerns about public permissiveness in Britain, it attracted
complaints that it was as much about Tchaikovsky’s sex life as it was about
his music. More controversy followed, with his television film Dance of the
Seven Veils s (1970) about the classical composer Richard Strauss. It featured
extensive extracts of music by the composer, but his portrayal of Strauss
as a Nazi shocked the Strauss family who withdrew all music rights, and
ensured it could not be effectively shown on television until the expiry of the
Strauss’s copyright in 2019. It also led to questions being raised in Parlia-
ment, who felt the BBC should not have broadcast it.
By 1970 Russell was becoming identified as an original, talented but con-
troversial director, who, it seemed, deliberately made films to shock. He
argued that his aim was to jolt people out of their complacency and into an
148 Cinema
Figure 7.2 In praise of pop: the Preacher (Eric Clapton) parades pop culture icon
Marilyn Monroe before the disabled congregation. A scene from the
Ken Russell film Tommy.
© AF archive/Alamy
awareness. The Devils (1971) was a high point in this respect, with its com-
bustible mixture of sex and religion in a film that was violent and disturbing.
It was banned in many countries, heavily edited for many other markets,
and today in the UK it is still not possible to see the film in the form originally
intended.
Cinema 149
In contrast to The Devils s, Russell’s next film The Boy Friend
d (1971) was
a fun and escapist adaptation of the well-known musical by Sandy Wilson. It
featured Twiggy, the British model and actress in the lead role, and offered
Russell some respite from public complaints. A return to classical music
followed with Mahlerr (1974), before he directed a film adaptation of Tommy,
the 1969 rock opera recorded by the Who. Effectively a feature-length pop
video for the album, Tommyy (1975) starred Oliver Reed, Roger Daltrey and
Jack Nicholson. Many works in music and film of the period were concerned
with breaking down barriers and opening people’s perceptions, but Tommy
was about the loss of perception; after an early childhood trauma, Tommy is
psychosomatically affected and cannot hear, speak or see. As a teenager he
becomes fixated on pinball, at which he excels, and is elevated to stardom
as the Pinball Wizard, where he is exposed to the excess and decadence
that accompany his fame, in a film that marked another critical high point in
Russell’s career.
Russell’s films were characterised by his audacious, theatrical scenes
and operatic performances, detailed, flamboyant, often religious imagery
and the frequent use of classical music. Fast cuts from one camera shot to
another, extreme facial close-ups and other techniques not commonly used
in film at that time further heightened the presentation of his work.
Despite the originality and excitement of Russell’s films, by the early
1970s his work was seen as highly controversial. However, public reaction
should be understood in the context of the times. In Britain of the period,
rapid liberalisation of personal and social freedoms had led to increasing
concern, particularly on the political right, about the dangers of the ‘permis-
sive society’. Attention focused on an increasing amount of sexual and vio-
lent content in film and TV, which according to the popular press encouraged
‘copycat’ behaviour, and Russell’s work clearly fitted the media stereotype.
Perhaps, in consequence, his later work such as Valentino o (1977), featuring
Rudolph Nureyev, and Altered Statess (1980) was generally less distinctive.
The controversy surrounding his films and the new public climate of conser-
vatism and restraint ushered in by the new Thatcher government, as well as
sharp cuts in public funding, made it difficult to obtain financial backing for
future films.
Northern Ireland
Frictions in social life and terrorism in politics were common during the 1980s, but
nowhere were they expressed more violently than in Northern Ireland. In 1979,
the governing Conservative Party and the Labour opposition both expressed
their wish to continue defending the six counties and the rights of the Protes-
tant majority against the Republican movement which demanded independence
and home rule. But relatively few films dealt directly with the ‘Troubles’. Their
delicate nature, the difficulty of treating issues in a fair, balanced way and their
limited appeal to audiences outside Ireland has deterred many film-makers.
Cinema 153
However, in 1982 Irish film-maker Neil Jordan made his directorial debut with
Angel, the first of several highly praised works. It examines how a quiet, passive
civilian becomes involved in murderous terrorist activities following the death
of his friend. In 1992 Jordan returned to exploit a similar theme with The Crying
Game, which examined the formation of political and national feelings in Britain
and Ireland, and Michael Collins (1995), the story of a man whose belief in guer-
rilla violence against the British forces is changed into a desire for peace after
he witnesses the horrors of civil war. Two years later John Boorman made The
General, about the ‘Troubles’. Unlike many films about the province, it does not
take sides. Instead, it illuminates the situation as seen through the eyes of Martin
Cahill, a violent but humorous armed robber who hates not only the IRA, but
also the Protestant Loyalists and all forms of authority.
The role of women within the Republican movement is explored in several
films and short documentaries, such as Maeve (Patricia Murphy, 1981), while Pat
O’Connor’s Cal (1984) considers the life events that lead a peaceful young Catho-
lic man to become involved with the struggle of the Irish Republican movement.
However, some films of the 1980s were much more partisan in their perspec-
tive on the role of the security forces. Boy Soldier (Karl Francis, 1986) argues
against sending soldiers into the streets. And more explicit in its message is Ken
Loach’s Hidden Agenda (1990), which alleges conspiracy, corruption and ‘dirty
tricks’ among the British forces in Ulster, and his later film The Wind that Shakes
The Barley (2006) a film set in the early 1920s that examines the Irish civil war.
Figure 7.3 The Screen on the Green, a place to see independent films in Islington, London.
© David Christopher
154 Cinema
Ken Loach
Realistic films dealing with social problems and issues have become one
of the main strengths of British cinema. One of its leading exponents is Ken
Loach (b. 1936), a critically admired director who has established a reputa-
tion for political awareness in his films. He began his career at the BBC,
directing plays for the weekly drama series The Wednesday Play y and Z Cars
in the mid-1960s. These frequently dealt with some of the most controversial
social problems of the period, such as Cathy Come Home e (homelessness,
drug abuse and domestic violence), and Up the Junction n (teenage pregnan-
cies and abortion). Their frank, realistic portrayals challenged the compla-
cent, literary and historical dramas, which were then common in television
drama.
The struggle of the underprivileged against an uninterested society is a
theme common to many of his works. However, their seriousness is light-
ened by humorous incidents, witty scripts and a message of optimism about
people’s ability to conquer their problems. One of the most highly regarded
of his works is Kess (1969). Set among a coal-mining community in Yorkshire,
it shows the aimless drifting of a semi-literate young boy from a ‘sink’ estate,
the inadequate ‘authorities’ of his family and teachers, and how his pet bird –
a kestrel – helps to bring freedom and meaning to his life.
In the 1980s and 1990s his films engaged more closely with the injustices
of Thatcherism. Looks and Smiles s (1982) considers the desperate choices
open to two young school-leavers at a time when employment opportunities
are few. For greater authenticity the cast members were all amateurs, drawn
from the South Yorkshire community of Sheffield, the setting for the film.
Raining Stoness (1993) is a tragicomic view of the effects of unemployment
on a Catholic family in Manchester, while Ladybird, Ladybird d (1993) looks at
the plight of a single mother. In Riff Rafff (1991) Loach humorously depicts
the different reactions of a gang of labourers from different regions of Britain
when they are ordered to convert a much-needed hospital into a block of
luxury flats.
However, Loach has not restricted his work to films about England. Hid-
den Agenda a (1990) considers the role of the British army in Northern Ireland
and in Land and Freedom m (1995) he focuses his attention on the Spanish
Civil War. Carla’s Song g (1996) also deals with political struggle. It is set in
Nicaragua in the mid-1980s during the overthrow of the Sandinista govern-
ment by the right-wing, US-supported Contras and tells the tragicomic tale
of a Glaswegian bus driver and his Nicaraguan sweetheart.
Towards the end of the 1990s Loach made widely admired films,
which brought him recognition as a major British director. Three were set
in Glasgow: My Name is Joe e (1998), Sweet 16 6 (2002) and Ae Fond Kiss
(2004). The last is named after a love poem by Robert Burns, and tells the
story of a relationship which crosses cultural and religious dividing lines, in
a story of Romeo and Juliet set on the River Clyde. Casim, a Muslim busi-
nessman and disc-jockey, meets Roisin, an Irish Catholic music teacher. The
weight of family expectations is summed up in the following scene, in which
Casim discusses the difficulty of his situation with his best friend Hassin:
Cinema 155
Hassin: There’s so many birds out there and yet you’ve went daft over one
bird.
Casim: I’ve nae went daft over her.
Hassin: Well, yer gonna drop your own family? You’re gonna split your own
family?
Casim: Am I supposed to marry someone I don’t know?
Hassin: You’ve got your family to think about, you’ve got your religion to
think about.
Casim: I’ll lose her!
Hassin: I don’t give a fuck if you lose her. Who would you rather lose? Your
family or this bird?
(transcribed from the film)
In 2006 Loach returned to the theme of Irish history with The Wind that
Shakes the Barley y (2006), which is set during the Irish civil war of 1922–3,
and won the Palme d’Or award at the Cannes Festival. Looking for Eric
(2009) examined the importance of community solidarity, and was notable
for its comedic aspects, and as well as the role played by the ex-footballer
Eric Cantona. Reacting to the ways in which governments on both the left
and right had contributed to the condition of Britain in 2012, The Spirit of
’455 (2013) is an oral history with much original footage, tracing the achieve-
ments of the Attlee Labour government of 1945, a stark reminder of how
Britain has changed. The founding of the NHS, the expansion of the welfare
state and the extensive nationalisation of key industries are all examined,
along with the way this new society has been attacked and dismantled, par-
ticularly by the Thatcher government of the 1980s.
Critics say Loach’s vision is a pessimistic, austere one. But, on the other
hand, he is admired by many for having always been a consistent, lone,
politicised voice, speaking out in defence of the oppressed and disenfran-
chised. These are rare characteristics in modern British film-making and
have made Loach into one of the most respected directors in Britain today.
Independent films
During the 1970s and 1980s the new political issues of racism, women’s rights, the
‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland and a declining economy were considered poten-
tially unprofitable topics for the large production companies, and it was left to
the innovative and daring companies in the independent sector to exploit them
further. The sector received a significant boost in the early 1980s when Chan-
nel 4 and its Film Four division began to commission films for cinema release,
and later for television transmission. In addition, new technology lowered costs,
which helped co-operatives and collectives to be established, and enabled them
to make films about subjects that larger organisations and production companies
ignored. In turn, independent cinemas emerged, known as ‘art house’ cinemas,
which showed films of a less populist, more specialised nature. Themes included
the radical politics of the ‘new left’, which had adopted the new agendas of femi-
nism and anti-racism.
156 Cinema
Derek Jarman was one of the most stylish avant-garde film-makers of the
period. His film Jubilee (1978) used the punk phenomenon to express a night-
marish reality of life in Britain during 1977, the year of Queen Elizabeth’s Silver
Jubilee celebrations (commemorating her reign of 25 years). The characters, film
sets and music together project a horrific collage of shocking metaphors, which
include the murder of a wealthy pop star, an orgy in Westminster Cathedral and
the castration of a police officer. The film ignores the politics of left and right,
of feminism or racial equality, and instead depicts anarchy, nihilism and British
institutions in crisis, in a work that has became one of the most important avant-
garde documents of the period.
Racial tension escalated in many British inner cities during the mid-1970s,
but it still had not been addressed by black directors in full-length features until
Pressure (Horace Ové, 1975). This was an independent production by two Trini-
dadians: Horace Ové and Samuel Selvon. The story showed the reality of being
young and black in London during the 1970s, and chronicles the attempts of
Tony, an intelligent black school-leaver, to find a job, and his subsequent rejec-
tion. It is set against a background of a failing education system, police brutal-
ity and black power. It also explores the growing differences between the West
Indians who came to Britain during the 1950s and 1960s, and their British-born
children.
By 1980 a series of films reflected the racial tension on Britain’s streets, such as
Burning an Illusion (Menelik Shabazz, 1981) and Babylon (Franco Rosso and Mar-
tin Stellman, 1980). The latter features young, British-born Afro-Caribbeans in
London’s East End, and portrays the thoughts and culture of young Rastafarians
through a cloud of cannabis smoke and a thunderous avalanche of reggae music.
Rude Boy (Jack Hazan and David Mingay, 1980) angrily depicts two Englands:
one of prosperity protected by large, corrupt police forces; the other of youth with
no future, who participate in race riots, support neo-fascists and collapse after
cocktails of drink and drugs at punk concerts.
During the 1970s and early 1980s the only films dealing with the experiences
of ethnic minorities were low-budget productions by relatively unknown film-
makers. Because their films did not have great commercial appeal, they could
only be seen in small, independent cinemas, and not in large chains, which offer
more commercial, mainstream productions. But between 1985 and 1991, grants
became available to improve arts facilities following the riots of the 1980s. As a
result, several black film co-operatives appeared, such as Sankofa, Black Audio
and Ceddo, based mainly in London and the Midlands.
One of the founders of Sankofa was Isaac Julien, who made several films express-
ing the anger and frustration felt by many black Britons. These include Territories
(1984), Remembrance (1986) and Looking for Langston (1989), based on the black
American poet Langston Hughes (1902–67). Another notable work dealing with
the experience of black Britons is Handsworth Songs (John Akomfrah, 1986), a
critical examination of racial conflict in modern Britain, which was filmed in
Handsworth, Birmingham, during the riots of 1985.
Cinema 157
The role of the independent sector declined in the 1990s as issues that had
once been marginal became more mainstream. In 2002, there was a change in the
Film Four commissioning policy, following a downturn in TV advertising. After
making many notable films including My Beautiful Laundrette, The Draughtsman’s
Contract and Angel, funding was withdrawn, and the independent sector would
never again enjoy the same levels of financial support.
Peter Greenaway
One of the most stylish but unconventional of British film-makers to emerge
in the 1980s was Peter Greenaway (b. 1942). Thatcherite allegories, roman-
ticism and games feature in his films. His visual scenes are elaborate and
carefully constructed, and often feature large, familiar paintings. These give
his work a characteristic style, which he mixes with wit and charm. However,
he remains one of the few directors better understood and appreciated over-
seas than in Britain.
He began his career in 1976 with highly experimental works, featuring
surreal fantasy and absurdist titles such as Goole by Numberss (1976), but
later in his career he began to make more conventional feature films. Several
took a cynical look at the lives of the professional classes, such as cooks,
architects and draughtsmen, professions which became fashionable in the
1980s, for example The Draughtsman’s Contractt (1982), a humorous cos-
tume drama set in 1694, one of his best-known films.
In The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Loverr (1989) sex, food and love
are mixed together in a critique of the vulgar consumerism of the Thatcher
years. More playful was Drowning by Numberss (1988), which made Green-
away popular with feminists. It is set in a Suffolk seaside village, where three
women murder their unsatisfactory husbands.
In 2004 he completed a trilogy of films in his most ambitious project to
date, The Tulse Luper Suitcases, s which seeks to reconstruct the life of Tulse
Luper, a professional writer. Like Greenaway, he was born in Newport, South
Wales, and his life as a ‘professional prisoner’ (as Greenaway has called
him) is reconstructed from the evidence of 92 suitcases found around the
world.
More recently, Greenaway has experimented with video and multimedia;
in a church at the Venice Biennale in 2009 he presented part three of his
video installation sequence Nine Classical Paintings Revisited. d It involved
projecting images from the Paolo Veronese painting The Wedding at Cana
(which is kept in the church) onto the walls, together with music, and audio
of words that might have been spoken by the guests, servants, onlookers
and gate-crashers depicted in the picture. Greenaway imagines these to be
about fashion, real estate, the cost of the event, a new kind of cutlery called
a ‘fork’ and the miracle worker Jesus, who has arrived with some of his fish-
ermen pals and his mother instead of his wife, prior to performing his first
miracle – turning water into wine.
Cinema 159
Feel-good fantasy versus multicultural realism
The mid-1990s witnessed several new developments and themes in British film-
making. Across all the arts, a sense of change and renewal was in the air. Popular
music was in the forefront, and fields such as film and art were infused with a
sense of optimism, pride and self-confidence. Many new directors, musicians and
artists emerged from the cultural ferment, in a period which came to be known as
‘Cool Britannia’. In politics, Britain cast off 18 years of Tory rule in the election
of 1997, returning a reformed and progressive ‘New Labour’ government with
Tony Blair as its charismatic, young leader.
After the success of Four Weddings and a Funeral (Mike Newell, 1994), a low-
budget comedy about the social calendar of the wealthy (a film that launched Hugh
Grant’s career as charming but shy, stuttering suitor) the formula was repeated with
several ‘feel-good’ movies that reflected the optimism of the times, in particular the
romantic comedies Notting Hill (Roger Mitchell, 1999), Bridget Jones’s Diary (Sha-
ron McGuire, 2001), and Love Actually (Richard Curtis, 2003), successful films that
won many awards and broke several box-office records in the UK. Despite this, crit-
ics said their exaggerated representations of London and its people were like a fairy
tale, and shamelessly exploited stereotypical imagery, because this ‘idea’ of England
sold well with American and other overseas audiences.
The mid-1990s were also characterised by a number of films that combined
uplifting, feel-good stories with more realistic characters and settings. In these
‘new realism’ or ‘soft realism’ films, the protagonists make attempts to escape
from desperate circumstances, instead of allowing themselves to be defined by
their marginality, which some critics identify as a Thatcherite influence. The
films are mainly set in Yorkshire, a county that had been deeply affected by the
loss of the traditional heavy industries of steel and coal, for example The Full
Monty (Peter Cattaneo, 1996), which became one of the most successful British
films of the 1990s. It depicts the impact of unemployment and the decline of the
steel industry on a group of Sheffield steelworkers, who become strippers to earn a
living. Funny and highly metaphorical, this low-budget film was also successful in
America, where it rivalled Titanic for many Academy Awards. Also set in south
Yorkshire was Mark Herman’s tragicomic Brassed Off (1996) with its humorous
but sensitive depiction of Grimley, a declining mining community, and the pas-
sion and pride of the musicians in the colliery band.
A similar tale of personal pride and escape form difficult circumstances was
shown in Billy Elliot (Stephen Daldry, 2000), in which an 11-year-old becomes a
ballet dancer, to the disgust of his father, a widowed miner, in an enjoyable, funny
and uplifting film set in 1984 against a background of the miners’ strike. In con-
trast, Babymother (Julian Henriques, 1998) was a different kind of musical, which
focused on a black single mother who puts together an all-girl reggae group, in
an attempt to move on and escape from her troubled past. Slumdog Millionaire
(Danny Boyle, 2008), was the self-proclaimed feel-good movie of the noughties, a
massively successful film that features a Mumbai call-centre worker who appears
160 Cinema
on the television show Who Wants To Be a Millionaire and wins the big prize, in a
rags to riches story that won eight Oscars.
Realist films about multicultural Britain were also entering the mainstream,
and no longer seen as the preserve of independent film-makers. Movies such
as My Son the Fanatic (Udayan Prasad, 1997), East is East (Damien O’Donnell,
1999) and Ae Fond Kiss (Ken Loach, 2004) were commercial successes, frequently
depicting in a humorous manner the family frictions between the younger gen-
eration born in the UK, and the older generation born abroad. In Gurinder
Chadha’s Bend It Like Beckham (2002) Jesminder (Jess) lives the life of a typical
teenage Sikh girl, except that she wants to be a professional footballer. Together
with her best friend, a local white girl, she rebels against the traditional attitudes
of her parents by running off to Germany with a girls’ football team, in an amus-
ing and characterful film.
Despite the carefree optimism expressed in many popular movies of the time,
others took a more downbeat view, for example the grim, ‘hard’ realism of Nil
by Mouth (Gary Oldman, 1997), which shows a claustrophobic and depressing
world of drugs and violence. Several other films ploughed a similar furrow, but
were lifted from gloom by wit and lively screenplays. Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting
(1995) is the story of anti-hero Mark Renton, who struggles to kick his heroin
habit in a world of drug dealers, AIDS and poverty. Unlike many films and plays
about addiction, Trainspotting is told from the point of view of a drug addict, and
is set in the poverty and squalor of the ‘other’ Edinburgh, a side rarely seen by
visitors to Scotland’s capital, in a mixture of kitchen sink realism and surreal,
music-driven anarchy. Ken Loach’s My Name is Joe (1998) took as its subject
an unemployed, recovering alcoholic on a grim Glaswegian council estate, who
starts a relationship with a social worker. Despite its low-key premise it pres-
ents a dramatic and amusing story, in which several scenes are subtitled to assist
with comprehension of the thick Glaswegian accent. Mike Leigh’s All or Nothing
(2002) managed to tell the bleak tale of a London taxi driver’s domestic prob-
lems, in the kind of ‘slice of life’ film for which he is renown, and Sean Meadows
developed his talent for realistic, skilfully crafted portraits of working-class life
with Somers Town (2008), a study of two aimless young boys’ unlikely friendship,
one a runaway from Nottingham, the other the son of a Polish immigrant.
The problems faced by recent immigrants was another new area of interest for
film-makers. In the mid-1990s the British economy had begun a period of steady
expansion, which attracted many overseas workers. Illegal immigration and asy-
lum seeking became major social problems, but media narratives were predom-
inantly unsympathetic, often featuring sensational stories that were hostile to
immigrants. Some film-makers attempted to tell a different story, revealing the
ways in which many were drawn by force of circumstance into morally compro-
mising or criminal situations. The Last Resort (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2000) tells the
story of a young Russian woman and her son, who are held in a detention centre
while she seeks asylum, and is tempted into the world of online pornography
to earn some cash. Stephen Frears’s Dirty Pretty Things (2002) depicts an illegal
migrant doctor from Nigeria, who is tempted to perform illegal surgeries in return
Cinema 161
for more security. Ken Loach also explores a similar theme in It’s a Free World
(2007) in which an employment agency’s exploitation of immigrants turns sour
when the cheap labour rebels.
The late ‘noughties’ and beyond was not a time noted for progressive, forward-
looking works, and instead there was a tendency to look back through the lens of
historical dramas. After the economic recession began to take hold in 2008, there
was a reliance on the major ‘blockbuster’ films of James Bond and Harry Potter,
which still showed good returns. Other films of note included the Oscar-winning
The King’s Speech (2010), about the struggle of the Queen’s father King George
VI to overcome adversity in the form of a stammer, at a time when the monarchy
seemed to be the only British institution left with any credibility. The Iron Lady
(2011), about the life of Margaret Thatcher, gained much praise, and Twelve
Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2014), a slavery memoir based on the book of the
same name was an unexpected success, particularly as it had a black director. It
won a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama, a BAFTA award
for Best Film and three Academy Awards, including the Award for Best Picture,
which was the first time it had been won by a black producer, a genuine sign of
progress in the British film industry.
Mike Leigh
Realistic portraits and natural performances are predominant characteristics
of the films of Mike Leigh (b. 1943). He began working in London’s fringe the-
atres during the 1960s, where he earned a reputation for sharply observed
social commentary. After making his first major film Bleak Momentss (1971),
he worked extensively in theatre and television, with Abigail’s Party,
y an early
1970s comedy of social manners among the lower middle class, among his
best-known works. In 1988 he made the film High Hopes, s which considers
the tensions between families of different social backgrounds in London dur-
ing the mid-1980s. The film is both serious and funny, and sharply criticises
the growing inequality, greed and selfishness into which society appeared
to be descending.
In 1991 he made Life is Sweett and in 1993 the tragicomic Naked. d These
and others are revealing studies of class and manners, which rely more on
detailed characterisation than on plot and action. They are distinguished by
convincing performances delivered through a natural style of acting, which
Leigh encourages by creating scripts only after extensive improvisations by
the actors. But his films are lightened by humorous incidents and perceptive
remarks, as is well demonstrated in the acclaimed Secrets and Liess (1996).
Topsy-Turvyy (1999) marked a departure from explorations of the every-
day, with a film musical about the duo Gilbert and Sullivan, who wrote popu-
lar comic operas in the nineteenth century. His film charts a 15-month period
prior to the release of The Mikado o in 1885, a work that became internation-
ally successful. Vera Drake e (2004) was another story from British history.
Set in the 1950s, it chronicles the life and times of a woman who performs
illegal abortions, a story which brought humanity and understanding to a
162 Cinema
politically controversial subject. Happy Go Lucky y (2008) and Another Year
(2010) explored happiness and unhappiness through finely crafted studies
of character, which brought him further acclaim. In 2014 he again mined
English history for his subject matter, with the film Mr. Turnerr, a biography of
the final 25 years of the British artist J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851), which was
released to widespread critical praise.
Unlike his contemporary Ken Loach, Leigh does not blame socio-
economic conditions for the predicament of his characters, and his ability to
accurately and sympathetically chronicle people’s manners and lifestyle –
often those of Britain’s lower classes – has encouraged critical comparisons
with Charles Dickens. His work has won several prizes at major European
film festivals, for example the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Fes-
tival in 1993 and its highest award, the Palme d’Or (‘Golden Palm’) in 1996
for Secrets and Lies. s He has been nominated for an Academy Award seven
times, twice each for Secrets and Lies s and Vera Drakee and once for Topsy-
Turvy,y Happy Go Lucky y and Another Year. r
Introduction
What was once an expensive, scientific hobby for a minority of wealthy enthu-
siasts has become a major part of many people’s lives. The television set has
evolved from being a bulky piece of technology kept in a heavy, wooden cabinet
and shut away when not in use to a large, slim screen that is often the focal point
of the room. Many people also watch ‘on the move’, on buses, trains, cars, planes
and so on, using a variety of digital devices such as smartphones, iPads and laptop
computers.
The principal terrestrial channels are BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, Channel 4
and Channel 5, which broadcast a wide variety of material. Large broadcasters
like the BBC also have a portfolio of additional stations such as BBC Three,
BBC Four and BBC World News, which show more specialised programmes. All
broadcasts are now digital, and offer additional facilities that enable viewers to
watch or listen again, catch up online and so on.
Most households receive additional channels via Freeview, a terrestrial televi-
sion and radio service giving free access to around 80 TV stations. Broadcasts can
also be received via satellite, cable and the internet. But, despite the number and
variety of free channels, approximately 50 per cent of households pay an addi-
tional fee to receive more, such as those of Sky. Payment for ‘on demand’ TV is
also growing in popularity, with services such as Netflix allowing subscribers to
create TV to order.
The most watched channels are the terrestrial ones, and the most popular pro-
grammes are soap operas and factual or ‘reality’ series, while religious ones have
the least appeal. Foreign-language films and series are rare, and around 75 per
cent of terrestrial programmes are made in Britain, and the rest in America, Aus-
tralia, New Zealand or Canada. TV production is also a successful export; over
50 per cent of television formats exported around the world originate in the UK.
The availability of programmes 24/7 on a variety of devices has led to a change
in viewing habits. Consumption has increased, and recent research has shown
that the average British adult currently watches for approximately four hours per
day. This means that the average child born in the late 1990s, when 18 years of
age, will have spent more time watching television than any other activity except
166 Television and radio
sleep, and during a lifetime the average Briton will spend more time viewing pro-
grammes than doing paid work.
The wide variety of channels, platforms and places to watch has also led to TV
becoming less of a shared experience, and more of a solitary pursuit, especially
for many children and young adults. Around 40 per cent of those under 18 have
a television in their room, and around 90 per cent have a second or third screen
open, for reading, playing games, commenting on Twitter about the programme
being viewed or listening to digital radio broadcasts. This has led to parental
concerns about a screen-intensive ‘bedroom culture’.
Radio is also a popular source of news and entertainment, and there are
some 600 radio stations in Great Britain, with the average Briton listening for
just under three hours per day. As with TV, the BBC is the most prominent
broadcaster. Internationally, BBC World Service provides news and items
of cultural interest in 28 different languages worldwide. There are also ten
national BBC radio channels, and some 40 regional services. Some of the
latter broadcast in locally spoken languages such as Welsh, Scottish Gaelic
or Guajarati.
Commercial radio is well established; however, there are only three national
commercial services: talkSPORT, Absolute Radio and Classic FM, but hundreds
of others supply the regions of Britain with news, chat, music and a copious
amount of advertisements.
Figure 8.1 TV has become a less communal and more individual activity. But unlike in
the picture, young people are today more likely to be alone in their rooms while
simultaneously viewing two or three screens.
© ONOKY Photononstop/Alamy
Television and radio 167
Broadcasting content is strictly controlled by Ofcom, an independent gov-
ernment organisation that enforces a code of practice on violence, taste and
decency, especially before 9 p.m., when young children may be watching. All
tobacco advertising is prohibited on television and radio. Political advertising is
also banned, but each major party is allowed a number of broadcasts every year.
Journalism, communications and broadcasting are growth areas and popu-
lar career choices. Training for posts in independent television or the BBC has
become increasingly possible thanks to a growing number of courses in many
colleges and universities. The National Film and Television School is one of the
most respected training institutions. It is financed by the government, together
with contributions from the film, video and television industries. Outstanding
work in television is recognised each year in ceremonies held by the British
Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), as well as in the National Tele-
vision Awards.
The BBC
The most prominent broadcaster in the UK is the publicly owned British Broad-
casting Corporation (BBC). It is based in London, but has television and radio
studios in all the major towns and cities. It was created by a Royal Charter in
1927, which still needs periodic renewal for permission to broadcast. It is con-
trolled by a board of governors appointed by the Queen on the advice of the gov-
ernment. An important feature of the Corporation’s work is that direct political
influence is not permitted, and in the past there have sometimes been complaints
from government that the BBC is unfairly critical of government.
The BBC has a ‘portfolio’ of several national terrestrial TV channels. BBC
One shows programmes that have a broad appeal, while those of BBC Two are
often more specialised. BBC Three shows comedy, science, music, arts and educa-
tion programmes, and BBC Four has more in-depth coverage of history, culture,
business, the arts and current affairs. Internationally, BBC World News broad-
casts news, interviews, cultural items and lifestyle programmes in a single feed for
all countries, and only in English. Launched in 1991, it now has more interna-
tional bureau correspondents than any other news channel, and attracts around
74 million viewers per week. Unlike other BBC services, it is a commercial sta-
tion and is financed through advertising and subscription. The BBC has exten-
sive online content, with a searchable news and magazine pages, and viewers can
often watch or listen to programs again on its iPlayer facility.
In the early days of TV, the BBC was the national broadcaster and viewers were
addressed as a collective of British citizens. But today channels and programmes
are organised corresponding to different demographics, that is the interests of
different groups within the general population. Around half of BBC programmes
are made ‘in house’. The rest are made externally by independent production
companies such as Celador, Hat Trick and Endemol, which make programmes
and design formats that are then sold to broadcasters such as the BBC, in Britain
and abroad.
168 Television and radio
The BBC also has several national radio stations, and signals can be received
on a number of different platforms from a smartphone to a computer. The prin-
cipal ones are: Radio 1, which broadcasts current pop music, live concerts and
news; Radio 2, which plays a wider range of popular music and ‘specialist’ pro-
grammes; Radio 3, which broadcasts almost exclusively classical music and occa-
sionally jazz; Radio 4, which offers news and current affairs, together with arts
programmes, religious services and cricket commentary; and Radio 5, which
broadcasts mainly live news, phone-ins and sports programmes. Several other
BBC stations broadcast music and information related to the principal five, such
as Radio 1xtra which specialises in black music.
The BBC’s national radio stations are complemented by 40 regional and
local ones in England and a further eight in the home nations. These are mostly
speech-based and increasingly broadcast in the languages of the local communi-
ties: Radio Cymru broadcasts in Welsh, Radio Nan Gaidheal in Scottish Gaelic
and several others broadcast in locally spoken Asian languages. BBC programmes
are popular with the general public, and in 2014 the BBC took 55 per cent of
the total UK radio audience. Internationally, the BBC World Service broadcasts
mainly news and discussions in 28 different languages with an audience of around
188 million listeners per week worldwide.
Figure 8.2 A TV licence. This unremarkable document is said to ensure political and
commercial independence, high-quality programmes and the cultural centrality
of television in Britain.
© David Christopher
Television and radio 169
A distinctive and important characteristic of the BBC is that it is funded by
an annual licence fee, unlike most other television and radio stations that rely
on income generated by advertising. Consequently, BBC broadcasts do not carry
advertisements, except those for its own programmes. In Britain, a licence is
needed to watch or record TV programmes as they are being shown, not just on
the BBC, but on any channel, and regardless of the device used to watch them.
In 2014 a licence for a colour TV cost £145.50, and for a black and white one,
£49. Penalties for non-payment can be severe. In 2012/13, almost 200,000 people
were prosecuted for not buying a TV licence, and more than 50 were given a cus-
todial sentence. This makes Britain the only country in the world where mem-
bers of the public can be sent to prison for watching television!
The absence of commercial pressures allows the BBC to create programme
content not with a need to attract mass audiences for selling advertising time,
but with a sense of responsibility towards the community. Similarly, the absence
of governmental pressure allows it to make news, documentaries, plays and cur-
rent affairs series that critically engage with politics and society. As the public
have to pay for TV through the licence fee, they expect objective, high-quality
programming, as well as programmes that explore minority issues, and these fac-
tors give television a precedence over other arts forms, such as cinema, as well as
a national importance and cultural centrality which is unique to Britain.
Figure 8.3 Broadcasting House, old (on the left) and new – the BBC headquarters in
Portland Place, London.
© David Christopher
172 Television and radio
such as I Love Lucy, along with advertisements for products many could not afford,
would corrupt Britain’s youth and hasten the decline of civilised society. The BBC
also believed that it was vulgar to be popular, and continued to broadcast its range
of staid, conservative programmes. As a consequence, it lost many viewers.
Television 1955–70
Social realism
By 1955 a series of educational reforms was yielding a better educated population.
This, coupled with the economic security provided by the welfare state and a
growing economy, had combined to create a young generation who were keen to
see change. A prevailing sense of optimism about the future had promoted new
creative currents across all the arts. In particular, there was a self-confidence that
facilitated the making of critical works that featured frank, open portrayals of
society. This was known as ‘social realism’, and in television it was most sharply
expressed in new documentaries and drama series.
In television, new investigative documentary programmes began to focus
on previously marginalised groups such as women, immigrants and the poor of
Britain’s industrial towns and cities, especially those of the north. In 1953 the
BBC created Panorama, a documentary programme dealing with current affairs.
Reporting became more intimate and revealing, when for the first time ordinary
people frankly described their experiences and problems to camera. For the first
time, the public had more freedom to say, see and hear things which it had not
said, seen or heard before. After hearing the criticisms of others on TV, people
became more sceptical about its leaders in ‘the establishment’, and in 1955 the
candid exposures led to parliamentary criticism that the BBC was a political pro-
paganda machine, run by traitors and communists.
The freedom to comment and criticise spread from documentary into drama.
For the first time, sensitive and even taboo subjects such as wife-beating, alco-
holism, sex and drugs were represented in provocative new plays for television.
Many were set in cities in the north of England, such as Liverpool, Manchester
and Newcastle, whose local culture of popular music, drama and poetry were
beginning to attract nationwide interest. Playwrights such as Harold Pinter, Den-
nis Potter and Alan Bennett flourished, as well as film directors such as Ken
Loach and Tony Garnett, who made challenging, memorable dramas for Arm-
chair Theatre (ITV, 1956–) and The Wednesday Play (BBC1, 1964–70). The works
reflected the hedonism and energy of working class youth, but they were also
marked by the strength of their social concern. Jeremy Sandford’s Cathy Come
Home (1966) dealt with homelessness, and Nell Dunn’s Up the Junction (1965)
revealed the horrors of illegal abortion. Their content shocked people, but they
also contributed to greater public understanding of serious social problems, and
stimulated parliamentary action in the areas of abortion and social housing.
The influence of social realism extended to popular genres, such as police
dramas and soap operas. Earlier, during the mid-1950s, the police had been
Television and radio 173
portrayed as almost sacred figures, symbolising the tradition, stability and con-
servative nature of British society. For many years the most popular police series
had been Dixon of Dock Green (BBC, 1955–76), set in the imaginary police sta-
tion of Dock Green in east London. Each episode resembled a moral tale, pater-
nally delivered by the nation’s best-known policeman, PC George Dixon, who
was presented as an average British male of the 1950s: a gardener, a fisherman,
a football fan, a darts player, a married man who preferred tea and beer to coffee
and wine. This was not a realist series, but showed an idealised ‘little England’
in which everyone respected the police, and crime was seen as a temporary diffi-
culty caused by the disruption of war. Stories were written to reassure the public,
in which order was always restored and family life triumphed. But later in the
1960s, currents of social realism led to more realistic television depictions of the
police. Unlike the earlier Dixon, viewers often found Troy Kennedy-Martin’s
police drama Z Cars (BBC, 1962–78) uncomfortable to watch. It was set in
the imaginary location of Newtown, a modern urban ‘jungle’ close to Liver-
pool. It showed policemen who looked, talked and behaved in a realistic way.
They drank heavily, gambled and were sometimes violent. The series began to
show increasing crime as a serious threat; one which needed a firm and decisive
response. It was a critical and popular success, establishing a new style of writing
and directing television drama.
Coronation Street
The influence of social realism in drama led to the creation of Coronation
Streett (ITV, 1960–), the world’s longest running soap opera. It was created
by Tony Warren, when he was only 23, and has become the most watched
programme in UK history, in a genre that dominates television not only in
Britain, but around the world. It deals with the daily lives of ordinary folk in
a short, grey, narrow street in the imaginary northern town of Weatherfield
(based on Warren’s home town of Salford). The slow, distinctive theme
tune was composed by Eric Spear, and remains largely as it was played
in the first episode, drawing viewers to the television in a kind of secular
call to prayer.
Such a programme had never been seen on television before 1960. At
first, the public were shocked by the northerners’ rough speech and man-
ners, their dress, courtship rituals, their entertainments and habits of eating
and drinking, while some critics doubted the series would be successful.
Early episodes resembled the more serious social realism of Look Back in
Anger, r Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, g the television plays of Armchair
Theatre e and The Wednesday Playy, but they have gradually evolved into a
lively series with surprise, tragedy, farce and conflict, and, unlike many other
soap operas, much humour.
The characters have changed relatively little over the years. Ken Barlow
(played by Bill Roache) appeared in the first episode in 1960, and is still
a member of the cast. He is noted in The Guinness Book of Recordss as
174 Television and radio
the longest-serving television actor in a continuous role. In 1981 his televi-
sion marriage to Deirdre (Anne Kirkbride) attracted over 24 million viewers.
However, in the series the dominant personalities are women; the Street is
a neighbourly, matriarchal community in which men are often portrayed as
weak and feckless. A sense of justice runs through the stories, which are
told with much pace and the occasional moral lesson, in a mixture of drama
and (often camp) comedy. But as with many long-running dramas, attempts
to leave the locality, for example through self-improvement at university,
moving to a leafy suburban neighbourhood or marrying a career profes-
sional, are all doomed to failure.
The series is particularly distinctive for its exploration of sensitive social
and personal matters; for example, in recent times storylines have featured
gay and transgender relationships, as well as voluntary euthanasia. The
treatment has been realistic and sombre rather than sensationalist, and has
helped raise public awareness of the issues involved.
The scripts, storylines and the level of acting have resulted in tremendous
popularity. In the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, viewing figures of over 20 mil-
lion were common, or about one in three of the total UK population, and
although audiences for television have declined, it continues to be one of
the most watched programmes, with viewing figures of around nine million
per episode, and ITV’s most successful broadcast, regularly winning BAFTA
awards.
Figure 8.4 The Rovers’ Return in Coronation Street – probably the best known pub in
Britain.
© Tony Collins/Alamy
Television and radio 175
Political satire
Before the mid-1950s television was more deferential and uncritical of the
government and society. However, the new currents of social realism running
through the arts, with ‘kitchen-sink’ dramas in the theatre, the ‘angry young men’
in literature and an increasing number of investigative exposures on TV and
in the press, led to growing public criticism and mockery, particularly after the
mishandling of the Suez crisis of 1956. Society was becoming less deferential and
more sceptical, and in consequence there was a gradual democratisation of cul-
ture, with the concerns of the ‘man on the Clapham omnibus’ becoming central.
On TV this was reflected in growing criticism of government, politics and
the press in a number of new series, in particular What the Papers Say (BBC/ITV
1956–), an irreverent, satirical bulletin which exposed the bias, hypocrisy and
humour shown by a variety of national newspapers on the issues of the week. It is
currently presented each week on BBC Radio 4.
But most notorious among the early shows was That Was the Week That Was
(1962–3), presented by David Frost, with the involvement of Peter Cook, John
Bird, John Fortune, Bernard Levin and Richard Ingrams, who would become sig-
nificant figures in the developing British satire boom. ‘TW3’ marked an impor-
tant moment in political and media history; here was the first series to present a
satirical look at the major issues of the day, and the failings of the British estab-
lishment to deal with them. While discussing, dissecting and deriding those in
the news, the show pricked the pomposity of public figures with humour, mockery
and spoofs. It attracted millions of viewers before its irreverence led to its cancel-
lation before the 1964 general election. But it showed the young people of Britain
the way to criticise power, and created a new genre of satirical entertainment.
TV goes pop
By the mid-1960s, the BBC was beginning to recover the viewers it had lost
to ITV ten years earlier, but radio was losing listeners. At that time there were
only two television channels and two national radio stations, and entertainment
programmes specifically for young people were rare. Longer album tracks were
never heard, as they were not part of the schedules for the mainstream stations,
which relied on the shorter three-minute pop songs. Consequently, many teenag-
ers preferred listening to the ‘snap, crackle and pop’ of the weak signal emitted
by Radio Luxembourg, a commercial European radio station that broadcast pop,
rock and other types of music. Another off-shore station began in 1964, when
Radio Caroline began broadcasting from a ship in the North Sea, followed by
Radio London, from a former fishing boat anchored in the Thames estuary. Nei-
ther held broadcasting licences, but as they were outside the territorial waters of
the United Kingdom, the authorities were powerless.
In its maritime isolation Caroline played a mixture of popular and progressive
music, and to the chagrin of the BBC, broadcast ‘alternative’ news about under-
ground culture, drugs, politics and sexuality. Caroline was an immediate success,
176 Television and radio
and other illegal ‘pirate’ stations soon appeared; after only one year ‘pirate’ sta-
tions had an estimated audience of 15–20 million British listeners. Radio London
featured John Peel’s The Perfumed Garden, a show which challenged the fashion-
led, commercial pop scene. It provided a more reflective, less materialistic mix-
ture of poetry, folk and progressive music, and was inspired by the hippy culture
expanding around America’s west coast.
The pirate party lasted until 1967 when the Labour government introduced
the Marine Broadcasting Act, forcing many stations to close. But the need to
modernise BBC’s radio service was clear, and soon its output was reorganised,
with four national stations and several regional ones. Radio 1 began broadcasting
pop music the same year, and soon afterwards former pirate station DJs Kenny
Everett, John Peel and Tony Blackburn all joined the station, where they enjoyed
long and successful careers.
The massive interest in ‘pirate’ radio had indicated the potential size of the
audience if the right programmes for young people could be found. But the BBC
appeared old-fashioned, out of touch and still in denial about the needs, or even
existence, of teenagers. Programmes were still either for very young children, such
as Andy Pandy and The Flowerpot Men (both originating in 1946), or adults. But
Cool for Cats (ITV, 1956–61) and Six-Five Special (ITV, 1957–8) had already indi-
cated the way forward, as did Ready Steady Go! (ITV, 1963–6), which offered live
music to a studio audience dressed in the latest ‘mod’ fashions, dancing the latest
dances and speaking the latest slang, all within a studio adorned in the pop-art
style. Audience participation was encouraged, and televising the ‘party’ helped to
spread music and other elements of popular culture to audiences around Britain.
In 1964 the BBC launched Top of the Pops to compete with Ready, Steady, Go!
The first show was broadcast from a converted church hall in Manchester, and
gave special emphasis to the Top 20, a list of the bestselling records in the UK.
It was an immediate success, and appearances rapidly became essential for any
groups with a song to promote, until the show finally finished in 2006, faced with
the decline of the ‘single’, and the irrelevance of the top 20 to a more diverse and
fragmented music scene.
Fantasy dramas
By the end of the 1960s 90 per cent of homes had a television set. With only three
channels available, large audiences were effectively captive, so programme mak-
ers could take more risks when commissioning and creating new series, and this
approach led to the creation of some of the most imaginative and original ever made.
TV drama had previously been characterised by social realism, but new kinds
of popular programmes were more influenced by spying, space travel, the Cold
War and consumerism. Fashionable clothes, fast cars, exotic locations and mem-
orable theme music became the characteristic ingredients of several exciting and
original new series.
Spying and detective stories had always been attractive to young audiences,
and the James Bond films had already demonstrated the way forward. Its mixture
Television and radio 177
of style, exotic locations, and ‘cool’ well-dressed characters had proved popu-
lar with a new generation of Britons who had grown up as aspirational con-
sumers of clothes, cars and foreign holidays. Televisual creations followed,
with Department S (ITV, 1969) and the playboy author-adventurer Jason King
(1971–2) bringing style, adventure and espionage into British homes. Other
series added fantastic, imaginative and surreal elements, such as The Avengers
(ITV, 1961–9, 1976–7). The latter featured two private detectives: the lead was
played by Patrick Macnee as John Steed, who was accompanied by a variety of
female assistants during the life of the series. The most popular was Diana Rigg
as Emma Peel. Beautiful, confident, energetic and independent, she symbolised
modern, youthful progressive attitudes and values to which many young women
were now aspiring, and presented a youthful contrast to Steed’s establishment
conservatism.
The most long-lived of the new dramas was the science-fiction series Doctor
Who (BBC, 1963–90, 2005–), which featured the adventures of a Time Lord,
known only as ‘The Doctor’, an eccentric, anti-authoritarian loner. His home
was the ‘Tardis’, which outside resembles a police call-box, but inside is an enor-
mous craft, capable of travelling backwards and forwards through time and space.
Dr. Who was created as a series which would use time travel to explain great
historical moments and modern science with the doctor as a guide. In the first
series the French Revolution and the Crusades both featured, and later, saving
the world from an apocalypse was a theme which, in the time of Cold War, the
public could easily relate to. The Doctor and his crew had numerous enemies; the
most famous were the Daleks; mobile, one-eyed robots who famously ‘extermi-
nated’ the opposition in a mini-nuclear cloud, while a young generation of view-
ers watched at home, often from behind the sofa in terrified amazement.
The series ran until 1989 when it had begun to look dated, and was cancelled.
Fans, now known as ‘Whovians’, were outraged. But in 1996 the BBC made a
successful Doctor Who film for television and the series won an award for the
best television drama of all time, and in 2005 it finally returned to the small
screen, with contemporary special effects and an emphasis on its Britishness,
which helps to make it marketable to foreign audiences.
The theme of saving the world from some external threat was also common to
several children’s series made by Independent Television throughout the 1960s.
Political imagery was to the fore in thinly disguised Cold War scenarios, which
featured Americanised heroes saving the planet from external aggressors, amid an
exotic mixture of eccentric, exotic characters, and distinctive theme tunes. The
puppet series Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and
Joe 90 were first shown consecutively between 1961 and 1969. Created by Gerry
Anderson, they featured different teams of futuristic, international rescuers based
in space, land and sea. With the exception of Joe 90 (a myopic nine-year-old)
the main protagonist was a square-jawed, fair-skinned male with a mid-Atlantic
accent, heroically vanquishing his enemies in adventures that were an object
lesson in how to make massively entertaining political propaganda for British
juveniles.
Figure 8.5 A Dalek, enemy of Doctor Who and the stuff of nightmares for a generation
of young Britons.
© David Christopher
Television and radio 179
Crime series
Crime has always been a popular genre with British audiences, and in the 1980s
there was renewed interest as crime rates increased, and it was frequently argued
that a strong, sometimes violent police force was needed to maintain law and
order. But, it was also becoming clear that with deep cuts in public spending,
high levels of unemployment, drug addiction and racial discrimination, ordinary
men and women sometimes found themselves in marginal situations where the
law was often broken unwillingly, and sometimes through necessity. These com-
plex and often contradictory scenarios were reflected for the first time in several
realist crime series such as The Bill (ITV, 1984–2010), set in the imaginary area
of Sun Hill in London’s East End. It is a realistic, character-driven series, which
takes a less judgemental attitude to criminal behaviour. Although it was initially
criticised for sometimes showing officers of the law as liars, cheats and bullies, it
was also regularly praised for its realistic representation of contemporary crime,
and police procedure. However, depictions of ethnic minorities in other crime
series were less well-received. Despite some original casting of Asian and black
characters as policemen, such as in Wolcott (ITV, 1981) and The Chinese Detective
(BBC1, 1981–2), many critics said they were unrealistic and unrepresentative,
and heavily dependent on stereotypical imagery.
Following the equality gained in law during the 1960s and 1970s, by the 1980s
more and more women were entering traditional, male-dominated occupations,
such as the police force. These changes were reflected in the crime series Juliet
Bravo (BBC, 1980–5) with its casting of Kate Longton as Inspector Jean Dar-
blay, who is in charge of a provincial police station. Central to the series was
her fight not only against crime, but also against the personal and professional
pressures of being a woman in a macho, sexist profession. A similar context was
also explored in The Gentle Touch (ITV, 1980–4) and most notably in Prime
Suspect (ITV, 1991–), the latter featuring Helen Mirren as Jane Tennyson, a
tenacious, intelligent detective who leads murder investigations while also hav-
ing to deal with an arrogant and corrupt police force. The series was written
by Lynda La Plante, who worked closely with London’s Metropolitan Police in
order to understand the pressures on a woman with a high-profile role in a male-
dominated profession. The drama won praise from the public and critics for the
portrayal not of a strong woman who behaves like a man, but of a woman who,
despite being confused and disorganised, still manages to do her job well. It also
shows how, for many working women, the work–life balance and ‘having it all’
are shown to be a farce.
Television and radio 185
The 1990s: competition and commerce
The Conservative government was committed to exposing all areas of the econ-
omy to free-market forces, and British television became fully exposed for the
first time. In 1991 the Broadcasting Act was introduced. For many years BBC and
ITV had made all their programmes ‘in house’ but under the terms of the new
Act, 25 per cent had to be commissioned from separate, independent programme-
makers who sold them to the major broadcasters. To ensure local interests were
met, a committee was appointed to ensure that a broad selection of television and
radio programmes was broadcast in Gaelic in Scotland, while other local stations
were encouraged to serve ethnic minorities, for example by broadcasting in the
language of the community.
Nationally, Britain had its first new channel since Channel 4 in 1982, when
Channel 5 began broadcasting a complete service of news, sport and light enter-
tainment in 1997. The following year, digital television was introduced, provid-
ing access to many more channels.
Broadcasting in Britain was becoming more liberated, but it was also becom-
ing more privatised, with a growing number of satellite TV channels that were
only available through subscription. One effect was the increasing power of the
satellite broadcasters to influence national sport, for example when BSkyB paid
£304 million for the rights to show Premiership football. This meant that live
league games could only be seen by those subscribing to the service, a commer-
cial arrangement that is still in place. It also meant that there was a growing
amount of money flowing to Premiership clubs from BSkyB, which has generated
higher salaries for footballers, and some of the best players in the world playing
in England. However, it has also resulted in massive debts for clubs, and fewer
opportunities for English players which, it is argued, has been to the detriment of
the national game.
Popular genres
Crime series continued to provide some of the most diverse, original and highly
praised shows. Formats evolved, and elements of many earlier series such as vio-
lence and car chases were unfashionable and rarely seen, as audiences looked
more for escapism. The character-driven ‘whodunit’ crime mystery re-emerged,
with a greater exploration of what motivates the police and villains to act as
they do.
Several were located in genteel, rural locations. Sets were lavishly constructed
and often resembled advertisements for stylish country living, as programme-
makers recognised their attraction not only to home audiences, but also to highly
profitable overseas ones, who were fascinated by British country living. The
most successful is Midsomer Murders (1997–), the creation of crime writer Caro-
line Graham, on whose books the early episodes are based. In the series, Chief
Inspector Barnaby and his assistant work in Midsomer, a beautiful area of English
countryside (filmed mainly around the counties around London) that provides a
186 Television and radio
setting of fêtes, cricket, cream teas and ideal country homes. Part of the show’s
appeal is its emphasis on the country institutions, and rituals of country life,
which often present a rose-tinted England of the imagination. However, behind
the orderly façade in which everyone apparently ‘knows their place’, there are
characters found in the traditional ‘whodunit’ story, such as pathological spin-
sters and homosexual vicars, whose greed, jealousy and ancient local rivalry fre-
quently result in decapitations, burning alive, drugs and incest, in a litany of
crimes to rival the worst urban areas. The incongruity of the violence contrasted
with the civilised gentility is another aspect of the series’ appeal, and by the end
of the 13th series in 2011, there had been 251 deaths and 222 murders. Despite
its improbable premise, it is one of the most exported of British TV series, having
been sold to over 200 countries, illustrating the possibility of making series that
were popular not just with the British public, but with overseas ones too.
By the mid-1990s, programmes depicting different cultures and ways of living
were gradually becoming less marginal and more mainstream in society. At the
same time, they also became acceptable material for satire. Goodness Gracious
Me (BBC, 1996–8) was an Asian radio show composed of humorous sketches. It
then transferred to BBC television (1998–2001) where, unlike the earlier Asian
comedy Tandoori Nights, it began to compete with shows intended for a white
audience. Similarly, the progress made during the 1970s and 1980s in the area
of gender issues had also led to an increased public understanding and accep-
tance, which led to greater expression on the small screen. Out (BBC, 1996)
was a weekly information and news programme for gay men and women, and
three years later the first gay drama series Queer as Folk (Channel 4, 1999–2000)
arrived, with its depiction of gay life in urban Manchester of the 1990s.
New formats
Creative new formats characterised other genres of programme-making. In crime
and detective series, Life on Mars (BBC1, 2006–7) and Ashes to Ashes (BBC1,
2008–10) won many prestigious awards with their hallmark of unreality, as both
series involved the improbable combination of a police procedural series and
time travel. Life on Mars featured an officer from the Manchester police who, fol-
lowing a road accident, travels back in time to 1973, where he resumes his career
with the same force, but in a much more brutal and unreformed context. Ashes to
Ashes followed a similar premise, in which policewoman Alex Drake from Lon-
don’s Metropolitan Police is shot in 2008, and inexplicably regains consciousness
in 1981. Both series take their titles from songs by David Bowie, which were hits
in the years when the series are set. Music features prominently, together with
clothes, décor, cars and street scenes along with the political incorrectness of the
period, to effectively capture the atmosphere of Britain of the time.
The series were acclaimed as the most original police series since the 1970s,
winning several BAFTAS and other international awards, and producing four
volumes of spin-off novels in 2012 and 2013. The series was also successful over-
seas, finding audiences in many countries. Spain and Russia even made their own
versions; the former involving time travel from 2009 back to the Madrid of 1977,
soon after the death of General Franco; the latter involving travel from 2009 to
Moscow of 1979 during the Communist era of Leonid Brezhnev.
New formats were especially notable in comedy. In recent years chat shows had
become little more than publicity opportunities for celebrity guests to promote
their latest book or film, until new ones appeared, such as I’m Alan Partridge, Dame
Edna Everidge and Mrs Merton, which broke with the conventions of prepared
questions and deference, and to the delight of audiences piled on the indignity
on their (usually) willing guests, in orgies of self-deprecation. The Kumars at No.
42 (BBC, 2001–4) was particularly notable in this respect. The Kumars are pre-
sented as an average, moderately affluent Indian family living in suburban north
London, except for the studio behind their house where they host their own chat
190 Television and radio
show. The son Sanjeev and other family members interview their celebrity guests
in a mixture of scripted dialogue and improvised humour. The actress and com-
edy writer Meera Syal was instrumental in the creating, writing and performing of
this innovative series, and has helped to make Asian humour more accessible to
a mainstream audience. The Kumars has also been copied abroad; the Australian
version features a Greek family, the German version a Turkish family, the Israeli
version a Moroccan Jewish family and a Dutch version a Surinamese family.
Innovative new formats also spread to children’s programmes, on the award-
winning BBC channels CBeebies (for children aged six and under) and CBBC for
those aged six to 12. Variety or talent shows are a traditional favourite, in which
jugglers, mime artists, magicians and others perform to entertain screaming crowds.
However, this dated format was reinvented with The Slammer (CBBC, 2006–).
The show’s name is slang for ‘prison’, and in this particular slammer, the ‘prison-
ers’ are performers of variety acts, who have been sent to jail for criminally poor
performances. In the show, which is set inside the jail, they perform again to a live
audience of children, who then decide which one should be released. The prison
governor acts as master of ceremonies, while the guards look on and keep order.
Uniquely British in style and substance, its prospects of export appear limited.
Office comedy
The workplace has emerged as a new context for comedy. Since the 1980s manu-
facturing in Britain has been in steady decline, and today many people work
in offices. In recent years these have changed from relatively benign, informal
places to highly organised ones, controlled by a newly emergent managerial class,
keen to impose fashionable new ways of working in the name of greater efficiency.
These usually involve open-plan surroundings, computerised communications,
and rational procedures and practices which cover all manner of office functions.
These are supposedly to motivate employees, and enable them to realise their
ambitions and ‘live the dream’. Yet, so often the reality fails to match the rheto-
ric, and results in frustration, inefficiency and disharmony. Almost all areas of
employment have been affected, from hospitals and universities to the police and
local authorities, as well as numerous private organisations.
Comedy writers realised the comic potential of an office-based sitcom, which
focused on the more extreme aspects of managerialism practised by inept middle-
managers, and produced some memorable series that captured the reality of life in
many British offices. Examples included Twenty-Twelve (BBC Four, 2011) about the
preparations for the Olympic Games, and W1A (BBC2, 2014) about the BBC, fea-
turing the new ‘Head of Values’ whose mission is to ‘clarify, define or redefine the
core purpose of the BBC and position it confidently to face the future’. Even the
Church of England was not immune; in stories set in multicultural inner-city Lon-
don, the hapless protagonist in Rev (BBC2, 2010–14) was regularly embarrassed and
frustrated in stories of self-importance, defeated ambition and performance manage-
ment in a realistic but tragic reminder that the managerial practices prevalent in so
many areas of the workplace had come to affect even the house of God.
Television and radio 191
The Office
The most popular and critically acclaimed comedy of recent years is The
Officee (BBC Two, 2001–3). Written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Ste-
phen Merchant, the series follows the working lives of staff in the offices of
the Wernham-Hogg Paper Company ‘where life is stationery’ in Slough, a
light industrial town renowned for being bland and featureless. Gervais stars
as the main character, David Brent. As the office manager Brent is middle
everything; middle-management, middle-England and middle-aged. He is a
dull, company man, an expert in management-speak and self-delusion. He
makes frequent attempts to curry favour with his employees, usually with
embarrassing results, often due to his unconscious racism and sexism.
The sitcom is fictional and scripted, but takes the form of a ‘mockumen-
tary’, in which the interaction and performances appear spontaneous and
natural. This parodies the traditional format of a documentary to comic effect.
A film crew follows Brent and his colleagues around the office, discuss-
ing their daily business in episodes which are mainly character driven,
and involve Brent, his assistant Gareth Keenan, sales representative Tim
Canterbury and receptionist Dawn Tinsley, each cast as an administrative
‘everyman’.
Only 14 episodes were made, yet in 2004 the series won two Golden
Globes for Best TV Comedy and Best Performance by an Actor in a TV
Series. It has also won numerous BAFTAs and British Comedy Awards, and
has been exported to over 80 countries.
Regarding its appeal, it has been observed that the countries where it
was most popular are those in which capitalism and the Anglo-Saxon work
ethic are taken most seriously, Britain and America. In those countries the
series was successful because it showed through satire that office life and
managerialism as it is practised in Britain and the USA, the hierarchies,
management-speak and performance indicators that accompany it, have
exactly the opposite effect to what they are supposed to achieve; they are
intrinsically demotivating and dehumanising, as are the asinine politics that
frequently accompany it. But in other countries and cultures where the work
ethic is less well established, this is all common knowledge, so to those
people the series said nothing new.
Art
Introduction
Contemporary British art has never enjoyed the same esteem as literature, drama
or music, and public taste has frequently favoured the conventional more than
the innovative and avant-garde. However, art remains a lively topic of discussion,
and many of the most notable works – both traditional and modern – can be
seen in London. The principal collection is held at the National Gallery, which
opened in 1824 and currently holds over 2,000 works of Western painting from
the thirteenth to the nineteenth century. Portraits and photographs of distin-
guished figures from British history can be seen at the National Portrait Gallery,
which opened in 1856.
The Royal Academy was founded in 1768, and shows both traditional and
contemporary works. It is noted for its Summer Exhibition, which has been held
every year since 1769 without exception, and comprises art works submitted by
the general public and professional artists.
In Scotland, the National Gallery of Modern Art, the Scottish National
Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery of Scotland hold the three main
collections, and all are situated in Edinburgh, while the National Museum and
Gallery in Cardiff holds many works by Welsh artists. In Northern Ireland, Bel-
fast’s Metropolitan Arts Centre houses exhibitions by local and international
artists.
London is a major centre for progressive and avant-garde art, and the principal
centres for exhibitions by major artists include Tate Modern, the Hayward Gal-
lery, the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), the Whitechapel Gallery and
Camden Arts Centre among others. Elsewhere in Britain, exhibitions of con-
temporary work are held in galleries of all the major cities, such as the Lowry in
Salford, the Arnolfini in Bristol and the Sage in Gateshead. Tate galleries have
also opened in Liverpool and St Ives.
The latest contemporary work by new and established artists frequently goes
on show in London’s commercial galleries, where it is sometimes offered for sale.
The largest is the Saatchi Gallery, which opened in 1985. Others include the
Art, architecture and design 195
Marlborough, the Lisson, the Chisenhale, Sadie Coles, Victoria Miro, Flowers
East and White Cube. In recent years art collecting has become big business, and
British galleries are regularly visited by wealthy enthusiasts and investors from
around the world.
London is also the home of the most innovative and influential schools. The
Royal College of Art (RCA), the Slade, St Martins College, the Central School
and Goldsmiths College, among others, have helped to develop the work of many
British artists, as well as the University of the Arts, Europe’s largest centre for
education in art and design.
The London location of the principal schools, together with opportunities to
make contacts, show and sell work, promotes the highly centralised nature of
the British art scene and the absence of almost any significant regional move-
ments. However, the independent Arts Councils of England, Scotland, Wales
and Northern Ireland help to fund and develop the visual arts elsewhere in the
UK. They also give financial support to young artists, distributing the income
obtained from Britain’s National Lottery.
Francis Bacon
Abstract painting and social realism were significant and contrasting
tendencies in British art of the 1950s, the former from the USA, the lat-
ter home-grown. But two artists who would make highly significant, origi-
nal contributions to British art were associated with neither. Francis Bacon
(1909–92) was born in Dublin, but spent most of his life working in London.
When his work was first shown in 1945, few imagined that later he would be
acclaimed as one of the greatest artists of the late twentieth century. He was
not formally trained and did not begin painting until his early 30s. His main
influences were the horrors of the war years, such as the Holocaust and
the atomic bomb. His early work Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a
Crucifixionn (1944) depicts a crucifixion, but not a Christian one. It is the first
of many disturbing works that suggest menace, hysteria and a darker side to
human nature. It caused outrage when it was first shown in London in 1945.
Bacon enjoyed socialising in and around London’s Soho, and was openly
gay in times when it was socially unacceptable in Britain. His later work
showed a fascination with the movement of the human body in paintings
featuring friends, lovers and sometimes himself. There are frequent sugges-
tions of inner torment and violence: men in suits sit formally, their blurred
heads looking deformed and mutilated. Naked figures couple chaotically
on beds. Popes are shown isolated and shouting madly. Other pictures use
strong, emphatic brush-work to represent bottles, glasses, toilets and sinks,
in a type of distorted realism, from which figures struggle to escape.
Critical opinion frequently describes his works as disturbing, depraved,
intense, cathartic, realistic, austere and occasionally ridiculous, which led
Margaret Thatcher to describe him as ‘That man who paints those dreadful
pictures’. He had several imitators, but no descendants or pupils. However,
his originality and style have made his works some of the most highly praised
in modern British art. In 2013 his work Three Studies of Lucian Freud d raised
$142,405,000, the highest price ever realised for an art work at auction.
Lucian Freud
Lucian Freud (1922–2011) is widely recognised as one of Britain’s greatest
modern painters. The grandson of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, Lucian
was born in Berlin, and as Jews his family fled to Britain in 1933 as refugees
Art, architecture and design 197
from Nazism. He studied briefly at the Central School of Art in London, then
he served as a merchant seaman. Between 1948 and 1958 he taught at
Slade School of Art, then was visiting assistant at Norwich School of Art in
1964–5.
In 1951 his Interior at Paddington n won a prize at the Festival of Britain,
but he became well known for his portraits and figure paintings, his subjects
often being the people in his life: friends, lovers, children, family and fellow
painters such as Bacon, Hockney, Auerbach, and his assistant David Daw-
son. He is often described as a realist, making sharp, objective accounts of
his subjects, which record every detail of their physical presence.
His paintings are often described as ugly, severe and unforgiving. In a
world of ‘kitchen sink’ gloom, he is said to draw not only what he sees, but
what he feels about his subjects. As he has said, ‘I paint people not because
of what they are like, but how they happen to be.’ Colour is secondary to
the mood of his paintings, which predominates. Key works include Girl with
Rosess (1948), Girl with a White Dog g (1951), Naked Girl Asleep p (1968),
Reflection n (a self-portrait) (1985) and Garden, Notting Hill Gate
e (1997).
In later years Freud’s range of subject matter became wider. In 2004 he
turned his attention to the highly specialised area of horses’ backsides with
Skewbald Mare e. Other new paintings ranged from a postcard-size picture of
some eggs, to a giant canvas of his friend Andrew Parker-Bowles, resplen-
dent in the uniform of the Queen’s Household Cavalry. Two years earlier he
painted a picture of the model Kate Moss pregnant and naked, which was
sold for almost £4 million in 2005.
Although their art was often pessimistic, Freud and Bacon both enjoyed
flamboyant bohemian lifestyles of heavy drinking and gambling, keeping
company with aristocratic women and criminal gangs. Until they disagreed
in the 1970s, the two were great friends and occasionally painted portraits
of each other. Many critics believe Freud and Bacon to be among the great-
est British painters, not only for their unusual abilities, but also because
they have ignored dominant movements and influences. Instead, theirs are
realistic, intense representations of the human figure in which subjects are
shown as ultimately sad, alone and vulnerable.
David Hockney
Pop art was accessible and appealing, and some artists such as David
Hockney (b. 1937) were attracting the attention of a wider, non-specialised
public. Since his early success with a series of etchings, The Rake’s Prog-
resss, completed while a student, he has become one of the most widely
known and appreciated British artists. Hockney entered the Royal College of
Art in 1959, but unlike many of his RCA contemporaries he did not become
closely associated with any particular school or movement. Instead, Dem-
onstrations of Versatilityy (1962), an early piece, aptly describes his life and
work.
During his career he has painted in a variety of styles. His eclectic influ-
ences have found expression in drawing, the design of opera sets, photog-
raphy, book illustration and fine portrait work, such as his detailed study of
the poet W.H. Auden (1968). He is openly gay, and has explored gay themes
in his work such as We Two Boys Together Clinging g (1961), named after a
poem by the American poet Walt Whitman.
Some of the most publicly admired works were completed in the late 1960s
when he moved to California and developed an increasingly naturalistic style
of painting. He depicted beach houses, swimming pools, grass and palm
trees in elegant, spacious scenes of pleasure and leisure, for example A Big-
ger Splash h (1967), and used bright, sunny colours to create an atmosphere
of comfort, well-being and hedonism. But he did not forget his friends and
family in Yorkshire, and has painted them often, especially his mother Laura.
Many of his paintings have been based on photographic images, for
example Mr and Mrs Clarke and Percy y (1970–1). He seemed to paint to
please, which made some critics comment that he was too light in attitude
and subject matter. But his way of working has also been marked by innova-
tion and interest in new technology.
In the 1980s he was inspired to make art using the fax machine, invent-
ing a photographic collage by mounting dozens of photographs to make
compound, cubist-looking images of people and places, and staged a major
exhibition of the works in São Paulo, Brazil. But, Hockney is also passionate
about painting and drawing, and has often spoken about the need to return
to basics in order to see more.
In 1987 he established the 1853 Gallery, a converted textile factory in Sal-
taire, near his home town of Bradford in Yorkshire, which now holds the world’s
largest collection of his work and is open to the public. Later during the early
2000s he began spending more time in his native Yorkshire, living in the sea-
side village of Bridlington, where he has painted country scenes in the open
air, most notably the trees near the village of Warter in Bigger Trees Near
Warterr, his largest ever work, measuring approximately 4.6m x 12.3m, which
was donated to the Tate Gallery. In contrast, his landscape and portrait work
since then has been done using the ‘Brushes’ application for iPhone and iPad.
His mixture of styles, both traditional and innovative, has made him con-
sistently popular with critics, collectors and the general public. In recent
years Hockney has been the subject of several major retrospectives, as well
as exhibitions of new work, and in 2011 a poll of 1000 British painters and
sculptors declared him Britain’s most influential artist of all time.
200 Art, architecture and design
Figure 9.1 A Bigger Splash – one of David Hockney’s best-known works, completed
in 1967.
© David Pearson/Alamy
Sculpture
British painting has been characterised by a number of different movements that
sometimes occurred simultaneously, but sculpture has developed in a relatively
linear way. During the 1930s and 1940s Henry Moore (1898–1986) provided
the main influence with rounded hollows and smooth, tactile surfaces of forms
in stone, bronze or wood. His larger, monumental works were often influenced
by the landscape of his native Yorkshire, while smaller figures often incorporated
influences from around the world, in particular those of pre-Columbian America.
These were often inspired by shapes found in nature and are smooth, rounded
and feminine in style.
Moore’s sensuous style contrasted with ‘geometry of fear’ sculpture, which
appeared after 1945. Its tormented mood was evoked by the horrors of war and
particularly the destructive potential of nuclear weapons. The main exponents
Art, architecture and design 201
were Reg Butler and Lynne Chadwick, whose characteristic thin, angular, con-
torted, expressionist shapes suggest pain, suffering and torment of those affected
by war.
Anthony Caro’s abstract sculptures provided a major progression. Caro had
worked as an assistant to Henry Moore, but in 1963 on returning from America,
he began welding steel shapes together to make flat, abstract forms, imitating
abstract paintings. These were then painted in bright, lively colours, to make the
cold dark metal look animated, graceful and attractive. Brightly coloured works
had not been seen before in sculpture and were referred to as New Generation
work. Gradually, they developed into a style known as Heavy Metal, in which
pieces were cut, twisted and combined into abstract shapes, and then painted.
This was a new development. It emphasised that instead of the traditional mate-
rials such as wood or stone, a sculpture could be made of anything. Caro is known
for using steel girders, tubing and steel sheeting in intriguing abstract works,
and in 2005 he held a major retrospective in London, acknowledged as one of
Britain’s finest sculptors.
In the 1980s there was a movement away from the conceptual art of the 1970s
with neo-expressionism, which involved a return to using traditional materi-
als such as carving in stone and marble. New British sculpture was developed
by Tony Cragg, Antony Gormley, Richard Deacon, Anish Kapoor and others.
Kapoor (b. 1954) has lived and worked in Britain since the early 1970s, creating
elegant, complex, sublime works that often suggest aspects of the human form.
Many of Kapoor’s sculptures are huge pieces of rough stone with smooth, highly
polished cavities and interiors, such as Void Field (1989). In contrast, Sky Mirror
(2001), a large reflective dish-like sculpture, is made from strips of stainless steel.
Ghost (1997) is a huge black, rectangular block of granite. The outside has rough
edges, and one face has been hollowed out and polished. Inside, a column of light
hangs in the air like a flaming torch. Holocaust Memorial (1995) was created for
a London synagogue in St John’s Wood. It is a vast rectangular stone block. A
doorway is carved out on one side; in the polished interior a hazy, inverted image
of the viewer hangs in the air. In 2006 he collaborated with Salman Rushdie to
create a sculpture comprising two bronze boxes joined together with red wax and
inscribed around the outside with the first two paragraphs of Rushdie’s text, Blood
Relations – an Interrogation of Arabian Nights. His show at the Royal Academy in
2009 saw 275,000 visitors, and Kapoor has been described as one of the most
influential sculptors of his generation.
Rachel Whiteread (b. 1963) is another Turner Prize winner whose nostalgic,
sentimental works have received international recognition. Her early pieces were
plaster casts of bodies and personal mementos including childhood blankets. She
once said that ‘Many of life’s key experiences happen in bed – being born, sleeping,
dreaming, making love, giving birth, being ill and dying. These are times when
we open up to others or are most alone or vulnerable.’ In 1989 her first exhibition
included several personal pieces such as Shallow Breath, a cast of the space under
the bed in which she was born, which she made two months after her father died.
She later developed interests in architecture, and combined them with sculpture.
202 Art, architecture and design
Ghost (1991) was a cast of the inside of a living room in a small Victorian house,
while House (1993) was a cast of the interior of a complete terraced house that
stood in east London. It was built by preparing a concrete mould inside the house,
and then stripping away the exterior walls. Later work has frequently involved cast
objects, both large and small, often inverting them to create an effect of inversion,
and has included a Holocaust memorial in Vienna, and Monument for Trafalgar
Square, London, one of Britain’s most representative public spaces.
Trafalgar Square was designed in 1832 by Charles Barry ‘to give scope and
artistic character to sculptural work of a high class’. In the past, national heroes
who distinguished themselves in the field of battle, such as Horatio Nelson at
Trafalgar (whose column dominates the square), were given a statue on one of
three plinths there. A fourth plinth remained empty, but today it is dedicated to
different works of modern sculpture, which are changed every 12–18 months.
Rachel Whiteread’s Monument was one of the first to occupy the fourth plinth,
and is a facsimile of the granite plinth on which it stands. From 2005 to 2007
the plinth was occupied by Marc Quinn’s Alison Lapper Pregnant, a statue of a
pregnant disabled artist. As he observes, ‘in the past, heroes such as Nelson con-
quered the outside world. Now it seems to me that heroes are those (women and
the disabled) who conquer the prejudices of others.’ Since then, the works have
included a model of Nelson’s ship in a bottle, a sculpture of a boy on a rocking
Art, architecture and design 203
horse and a cockerel. But the occasion that attracted most public attention was
in 2009 when Anthony Gormley’s One & Other involved 2400 members of the
public who each occupied the plinth for one hour to do anything they wanted, to
the amusement of the public below. Gormley commented:
In the context of Trafalgar Square with its military, valedictory and male his-
torical statues, this elevation of everyday life to the position formerly occu-
pied by monumental art allows us to reflect on the diversity, vulnerability
and particularity of the individual in contemporary society. It’s about people
coming together to do something extraordinary and unpredictable. It could
be tragic but it could also be funny.
YBAs
In the late 1980s British art entered an exciting new phase. Younger artists were
beginning to show work that used materials and processes never seen before.
The public found many of the works and themes shocking and disturbing, which
206 Art, architecture and design
generated media attention. Artists began exhibiting together in empty ware-
houses, instead of looking for gallery owners who would show their work. The
trend began in 1988 with Damien Hirst’s exhibition Freeze held in a London
Docklands warehouse, with work by students at Goldsmiths Art College. Exhibi-
tors included Gary Hume, Michael Landy, Sarah Lucas and others, who attracted
great media interest and attention. They became known as Young British Artists,
and from 1996 the magazine Art Monthly labelled them ‘YBAs’ and effectively
created a label and a brand. It seemed the spirit of punk had crossed into art,
where eclecticism, shock tactics, independence and entrepreneurialism had fused
together to propel new artists into the public consciousness.
The introduction in 1984 of the Turner Prize helped raise the profile of new
artists. It publicises the work of the four shortlisted candidates who have most
impressed the jury of art patrons, critics and the Tate director during the previ-
ous 12 months. But critics complain that it has focused too much on the work of
contemporary London artists, and that competitors are too concerned with win-
ning the prize money and attracting subsequent sponsorship, commissions and
media exposure, rather than with the traditional concerns of social issues, artistic
problems and solidarity among the artistic community.
Damien Hirst
During the 1980s amid the warehouse shows, the advent of the Turner Prize,
an exciting ‘new wave’ of young artists began to develop. One of the most
successful is Damien Hirst (b. 1965). In 1988 he organised the first ware-
house show, Freeze e, in London’s Docklands, together with 16 other students
from Goldsmiths College. Since then he has produced unusual, memorable
pieces that have attracted as much controversy as publicity.
In a warehouse show he exhibited A Hundred Yearss (1990), which rep-
resents the life cycle. It consists of two large vitrines connected by a tube,
each measuring six feet square. In one is a dead cow’s head, with flies,
maggots and an insectocutor. The other remains empty, except for the flies.
A larger version was subsequently made and renamed A Thousand Years
(1990) and attracted huge publicity. Other works form a series of sculptures
collectively known as Internal Affairss. One of these, The Acquired Inability to
Escape e (1991), again comprises two vitrines: one with a table, chair, ciga-
rettes, a lighter and cigarette stubs, while the other remains empty.
The minimal style and attention to spatial relationships are also charac-
teristic of his well-known Natural History y series. The most dramatic work
here is The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Somebody Living
(1991), which is said to represent fear, death and the unknown. It comprises
a 14-foot shark, suspended in a tank of formaldehyde solution. From the
same series, Mother and Child Divided d (1993) comprises a bisected cow
and its calf. The four halves are displayed in two separate tanks side by side,
allowing the viewer to pass between the divided animals.
Hirst is also well known for his ‘dot’ paintings, which resemble coloured
pills or sweets on the white canvas and have names such as Alphaprodine
Art, architecture and design 207
(1993), and his more recent ‘spin’ paintings, produced by throwing paint onto
a horizontal, revolving canvas. His work made him one of the best-known
artists of his generation, and in 1995 he was awarded the Turner Prize for
Mother and Child Divided (ii)). Later the same year he became involved with
music, directing the video for the song ‘Country House’ by Blur. His collabo-
ration led to the formation of the band Fat Les, who recorded ‘Vindaloo’, the
unofficial England theme song for the 1998 World Cup.
Critics point out that animals have often been featured in British art, and
a great theme of Western art is death. Both elements are central to many
of Hirst’s works, which have featured the process of death in animals and
its postponement in humans, for example his pharmaceutical cabinet Phar-
macyy (1998), which consists of an installation of shelves with packets of
tablets and medicines for the head, stomach and feet on separate shelves.
In 2005 he again expressed similar concerns with four large-scale paintings.
These religious works are named after the evangelists from the four gospels
of the Bible, and are set in large, vertical frames. Traditional baroque imag-
ery of blood, bright colours and heavy sentiment are complemented with the
sinister, surreal presence of pills, pens and razor blades, which Hirst has
embedded in the thick crusts of paint.
In June 2007, Hirst showed new work at the exhibition Beyond Belieff in
London. The centre-piece was a human skull made of platinum, and adorned
with 8,601 diamonds worth approximately £15,000,000. It was modelled on
an eighteenth-century skull, but the only surviving human part of the original
is the teeth. Named For the Love of God d the work was priced at £50,000,000.
Later in 2008 he auctioned a complete show, Beautiful Inside My Head For-
everr, which raised £111 million.
Through media coverage of his highly original and disturbing works
and their black humour, Hirst has become one of the best known of con-
temporary artists, whose work is admired and appreciated – if not always
understood – by collectors, investors, critics and the general public. In 2013
he was said to be the wealthiest artist in the world with estimated assets
of £1 billion.
‘BritArt’
In 1997, the YBAs who had appeared on the scene almost a decade earlier cap-
tured the public imagination in the Royal Academy exhibition Sensation. The
title emphasised that exhibits were more about emotion than intellect and ratio-
nal thought, but in keeping with the spirit of change and renewal that had spread
across Britain in music and other creative fields in the mid-1990s, the traditional
institution began showing popular new works.
The 1,500 exhibits at Sensation were seen by over 300,000 members of the pub-
lic, and prompted great media interest and public comment. The term ‘BritArt’
was introduced, coined by the popular press, even though the artists connected
with the trend were overwhelmingly English. They included Damien Hirst,
Tracey Emin, Gillian Wearing, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Gavin Turk, Gary
208 Art, architecture and design
Hume, Fiona Rae, Mark Wallinger, Helen Chadwick, Eileen Cooper, Amanda
Faulkner, Gwen Hardie, Christine Borland and Sarah Lucas. Their works were
highly varied in content and style, but common themes often connecting them
are the contemplation of life, death and the body. Works are composed in a vari-
ety of ways, using film, video, photography, sculpture, embroidery, machinery,
everyday objects and other media to create collages and installations.
Many members of the public found the exhibits controversial and shocking.
For example, Marcus Harvey’s four metre high portrait of the child murderer
Myra Hindley, created with a child’s handprints, was attacked with ink and eggs
by some protesters, while others angrily lobbied visitors to the event. Critics said
the new work was so unconventional that there were no criteria for its evalua-
tion, and therefore it did not deserve attention. Moreover, that the artists fre-
quently exploited bad taste to gain publicity. In contrast, those who liked the
exhibition said that, historically, most great works originally shocked the public
when they were first shown. They praised the authority, intelligence and beauty
of the exhibits, and argued that it was the purpose of art to provoke and probe
the limits of acceptability.
Recognising the storm of interest and frequent controversy surrounding many
artists, investors and entrepreneurs began to exploit the field, acquiring works
and developing artists with their finance, patronage and promotion. Charles Saa-
tchi and his brother Maurice are two of the best known. They were born in Iraq,
but grew up in Britain where they created Saatchi and Saatchi, an advertising
agency that became famous for creative advertising campaigns for the Thatcher
Conservative Party, and for Silk Cut cigarettes. Since then Charles Saatchi has
done much to raise public awareness of modern British art, providing money, gal-
leries, exhibition spaces and patronage for many young artists. But some critics
say his influence is too great, and that he is able to manipulate the art market in a
major way, buying and then selling or ‘pumping and then dumping’ controversial
work by immature artists, which damages their careers and confuses collectors.
Others say he is guilty of nothing more than bad taste.
During the 2000s the trends set in the previous decade continued to evolve,
with artists and their works continuing to generate publicity and, in some cases,
astronomically high prices at auction. One of the more unusual examples was
in 2003 when Michael Landy’s Break Down, which took place in Oxford Street,
London, involved the public destruction of all 7,227 of his personal possessions
(valued at around £100,000, and including a Chris Ofili print and a Gary Hume
painting). Other works that received widespread publicity include Sam Taylor-
Wood’s 2004 video of the sleeping David Beckham, Marc Quinn’s Self (2003) in
which he froze nine pints of his own blood into a cast of his head, and Jake and
Dinos Chapman’s iconoclastic sculptures and installations. The transvestite pot-
ter Grayson Perry came to prominence and has attracted much public interest
for his elaborate ceramics and tapestries, which often display sexually explicit
imagery, subverting the kind traditionally found in these media. In 2013 he was
appointed CBE for services to contemporary art.
Public sculpture has also continued to attract attention particularly through the
work of Antony Gormley, whose metal sculptures based on the human form such as
Art, architecture and design 209
Figure 9.3 Urban art in Whitecross St., London, depicting Samuel Baylis, a founder of the
Radical Club, the forerunner of the Liberal Party.
© David Christopher
the Angel of the North (1998) near Gateshead and Another Place (2005) on Crosby
Beach near Liverpool, which features 100 cast-iron figures of himself looking out to
sea. These and other works have earned him many awards, including a knighthood.
Other forms of public art have also drawn attention, in particular the work
of Banksy, whose satirical street work demonstrates a sharp sense of humour
210 Art, architecture and design
and social commentary. Little is known about the artist, who prefers to remain
anonymous. His works usually appear stencilled, and feature striking images
accompanied by humorous slogans. His works are often anti-war, anti-capitalist
or anti-establishment and include rats, apes, policemen, soldiers, children and
the elderly. For example, in 2005 he created a work depicting a cave painting
of a human hunting for wildlife while pushing a shopping trolley. The work was
then hung in Gallery 49 of the British Museum in London, and remained on the
wall for several hours before it was removed by security guards. In July 2012, prior
to the Olympic Games he created several pieces. One included an image of an
athlete throwing a missile instead of a javelin. Public opinion finds him amusing
and original, and his works – when they can be obtained – generate large sums
at auctions. However, critics accuse him of vandalism and a lack of originality.
Tracey Emin
One of the most famous and controversial artists to emerge in the late 1990s
is Tracey Emin (b. 1963), who uses intimate topics from childhood and adoles-
cence to create compositions with confessional themes. She left school at 13
and later won a place at the RCA to study painting. In the 1990s she worked
with Sarah Lucas, and later exhibited with the duo Gilbert and George.
Long before the popularity of TV reality shows, she appealed to public inter-
est in other people’s lives by using her own as the basis for her art, in which
sex and drink feature prominently. One of her most famous was about the
intimacy of sleep and relationships. Everyone I’ve Ever Slept With h (1995) is a
small tent with details of the title sewn inside; it attracted great publicity when
shown at the exhibition Sensation n, before being destroyed in a fire in 2004.
Her work My Bed d (1998) is an unmade bed, surrounded by empty vodka
bottles, KY jelly, soiled knickers and used condoms, in which the artist claims
to have spent four days contemplating suicide. It was later bought by Charles
Saatchi for £150,000. Mine All Mine e (2000) is a photographic portrait of her-
self filling her knickers with money, a cynical comment perhaps on the nature
of modern art, while You Forgot to Kiss My Soull was a solo exhibition in
2001, which included a range of work in drawings, installations, neon and
videos. Hers is raw, confessional story-telling, a comment on the nature of
a modern, confessional ‘reality’ culture, in which all must be revealed. It is
a mixture of the sexual and abject, of love and intensity which is delivered
with humour, melancholy and often darkness. However, critics often dismiss
her work as original and highly personal, but lacking in variety. Since 2006
a number of retrospective shows have been held of her work. She has been
increasingly involved in charity work, donating many pieces and in 2013 was
awarded a CBE for services to art.
Figure 9.4 Art enhances public spaces – a boy attempts to decorate a figure amid the office
blocks in the City of London.
© Nargis Christopher
212 Art, architecture and design
commercial opportunities, which have generated huge sums for a small number
of artists. Critics said it mirrored the debauched, debt-fuelled excess of the times,
while others welcomed its originality, vibrancy and expressiveness.
The trend was due in part to the withdrawal of government subsidies for artists.
Despite the return of a Labour government in 1997, there was no return to the
public generosity shown in the post-war period until the 1980s. Consequently,
artists and galleries have had to become increasingly adept at generating atten-
tion and sources of income through, for example, corporate sponsorship, public
donations, gallery cafés and souvenir shops.
At the same time, wealthy patrons have put art to commercial uses. For exam-
ple, businesses and organisations can improve their public image by sponsoring
artists, offering exhibition spaces, organising events, awarding prizes and so on. It
also helps them to reach wealthier and more educated ‘middle-class’ audiences,
who may be interested in the organisation’s goods and services.
Art is also important for the visual improvement of public spaces in the towns,
cities and countryside. For example, street sculpture, galleries, sculpture parks,
or the choice of a particular city as a ‘city of culture’ generates media attention.
It raises public awareness of the zone, area or town, and improves public percep-
tion of it. In turn, more people want to shop, live and work there; people who
are generally better educated, wealthier and more skilled. This raises the profile
of an area or city, and makes businesses and industry more likely to locate their
offices there.
But some things remained unchanged. The scene continues to be highly
centralised in London, and many artists from outside England, as well as
black and Asian artists, have yet to gain the recognition they deserve. Art in
Britain continues to be overwhelmingly studied, practised, commented upon
and commercialised by a predominantly white, English, middle-class commu-
nity. Furthermore, public taste remains highly conservative, often seeing art
as something to hang on the wall, depicting traditional portraits, still life or
landscape scenes. As a consequence, many British artists have become better
known abroad, where the public and media are often more receptive to new
developments.
Introduction
Since the late 1950s British architecture has been through several transformative
periods which have changed the face of towns and cities. Until the 1980s, Euro-
pean modernist influences dominated, particularly in the architecture of public
sector buildings, such as local authority housing and schools. Then, American
postmodern styles showed the way forward, as financial houses and the retail
sector demonstrated brash new styles that would accommodate new technology
for trade.
Art, architecture and design 213
But the public has frequently disagreed with the new styles, preferring the old
and familiar to the bold and new, and a powerful conservation movement has
developed to ensure that old buildings are restored and preserved. There are two
public authorities that support conservation: one is the National Trust (NT),
the other is English Heritage. The NT is a charity. It was created in 1895 to pro-
tect and preserve historic buildings and countryside areas of natural beauty, and
its properties include hundreds of palaces, country houses, gardens and monu-
ments that can be visited by the public. English Heritage is a government agency,
which advises and assists the government in matters of conservation. It currently
‘lists’ (protects from change) around 450,000 buildings and monuments, many
of which are private houses. In Scotland, buildings are listed by Historic Scot-
land and in Wales by Cadw (Welsh Historic Monuments). The Northern Ireland
Environment Agency lists buildings of historic interest in Northern Ireland.
Most architects are members of the Royal Institute of British Architects
(RIBA). The body was founded in 1831 and makes several awards to members
each year. The most prestigious is the Stirling Prize, which is named after the
British architect James Stirling, and is given to RIBA architects of the building
that has made the greatest contribution to British architecture in the past year.
Internationally, the Pritzker Prize is presented for ‘significant contributions to
humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture’ and is con-
sidered the most sought after award of its kind.
Modernists
In 1948, following the loss of many public buildings and some two million homes
during the Second World War, a plan was put in action to rebuild Britain’s towns
and cities. Public need was given paramount importance, and plans were prepared
for houses, schools, theatres, libraries, hospitals, civic centres and even entire new
towns, in order to improve social conditions in urban areas around the country.
In 1951 the Festival of Britain showed the future. The focal point was the Royal
Festival Hall, which was surrounded by exhibitions of colourful new designs in
furniture, painting, pottery and sculpture. These were made using light, clean,
new materials, such as nylon, plastic, formica and linoleum. It was an exciting,
romantic vision to a generation, many of whom had never sat at outdoor coffee
tables with umbrellas, had a foreign holiday or even seen any fresh, coloured paint.
Consumer objects were becoming increasingly available, such as TVs and
record players for the consumption of mass culture. Design was a key element of
their popularity, with light, efficient shapes made of plastic, and smooth, brightly
coloured surfaces, which were free of decoration and adornment.
In furniture, many earlier designs had been solid and heavy, and decorated
with an imperial grandeur. Alternatively, a simple countrified style was also popu-
lar, suggesting a cosy rurality. But by the early 1960s, spindly functional furni-
ture made of smooth, featureless wood by firms such as Ercol, G-Plan and others
appeared to be almost floating above the floor.
214 Art, architecture and design
More households could now afford a car, and in 1959 the Mini was launched.
Many other models of the period were heavy and slow, with dark interiors of
leather and walnut, recalling the decor of a gentlemen’s club or country house.
But being minimal, the Mini had none of it, bringing modernity and classlessness
to private transport. In most contemporary designs of all kinds from the Mini car
to the mini skirt, the form of the object was reflecting its function.
The new buildings on show at the Festival and the new designs put forward by
architects reflected the socialist hope for a futuristic, classless, egalitarian society.
At that time Britain’s cities were still dominated by ‘heavy’ Victorian buildings
from the nineteenth century. Their imposing Gothic or neo-classical exteriors
with Roman or Greek columns were a common sight in many cities, and sym-
bolised power and prestige. But local authorities around Britain began hiring and
commissioning work by young architects who designed using the principles of
modernist architecture, in which form followed function. These were light, airy,
functional and easy to clean. There was no superficial decoration or adornment,
and the look was sleek, strong and futuristic. It was also classless, since its features
were not associated with any particular social group or movement, which made it
seem ideal for the reconstruction of post-war society.
Public housing was a priority. Many people could not afford to buy houses, so
cheap, rented local authority or ‘council’ housing was provided on a large scale.
The idea was not new – the first council estate was built in Shoreditch in 1893.
But in Britain of the 1950s the idea of the state housing its people was still a radi-
cal one, and for many years it was something people aspired to.
Tall, imposing, modernist apartment blocks were quickly erected in parks
and gardens around Britain. By the end of the 1960s, some 4000 had been built.
Among the best known were the Alton Estate at Roehampton, London, the
Red Road in Glasgow and the Hyde Park Estate in Leeds. These were amaz-
ing structures compared with the small, old nineteenth-century houses nearby.
They were heated and spacious. They had baths and indoor toilets. Outside
they offered streets in the air, which the architects imagined would re-create
street life, with children’s games, gossip and community. Modernist design
aimed to promote physical health, and bright, airy flats were built with bal-
conies for exercising and sunbathing. In their splendid isolation, these clean,
centrally heated concrete and glass monuments looked down on ancient forms
of domestic dwellings with their chimneys and fireplaces which they were built
to replace.
But the new buildings quickly gained the new architecture a bad reputation.
Residents complained about the lack of atmosphere, the bad quality of the build-
ing materials and the poor finish. The plain, rough, concrete exteriors had no
decoration or features, and marked badly in the rain. Lifts were often broken,
roofs leaked, and repairs were frequently needed, which the municipal authorities
could not always finance.
Despite the problems, architects continued to design numerous public build-
ings in a similar way. A variation of the modernist style was New Brutalism,
which is attributed to the British couple Peter and Alison Smithson. Their
Art, architecture and design 215
Figure 9.5 Buildings in the City of London. The older, neo-classical Royal Exchange
building is in the foreground, while (left–right) Tower 42, the ‘Gherkin’ and
the ‘Cheesegrater’ jostle for attention at the back.
© Nargis Christopher
buildings observed modernist principles, but lacked their visual appeal, featuring
instead rough, unfinished surfaces that communicated solidity and strength, but
displayed no attempt to look attractive or easy on the eye. In central London,
municipal architects designed several Brutalist buildings as part of the South Bank
arts complex, which in the twenty-first century continues to be Britain’s premier
216 Art, architecture and design
arts venue. Alongside the multipurpose auditorium the Royal Festival Hall (1951)
was added the National Film Theatre (1957; relaunched as BFI Southbank in
2007), the Hayward Art Gallery (1968), the Purcell Room and the Queen Eliza-
beth Hall (1967), (which are both used as concert halls) and the National The-
atre (1976).
But, as with the new local authority flats, the modernist civic arts buildings
were not popular with the general public. Although they are dedicated to the
visual and expressive arts, they are cold and serious. They have few windows, no
clear entrance and the exposed concrete blocks stain when wet. The buildings
have many critics, but they also have their fans: since the 1970s the complex has
become a popular meeting place for young skateboard enthusiasts and graffiti
artists.
As well as expansion in the public housing and the arts, the 1960s was also
a time of growth in higher education to meet the needs of an expanding demo-
graphic of teenagers, who were enjoying greater access to higher education. Many
new colleges and universities were built with a more contemporary interpretation
of modernist principles, using plate glass, ceramic tiling and concrete towers,
such as the Universities of York and Warwick. The Engineering Faculty at Leices-
ter University (1959), the History Faculty at Cambridge University (1964) and
the Florey Building at Queen’s College, Oxford (1966) are all notable examples,
being designed by James Stirling (1926–92), one of the most admired architects
of the post-war period. These imaginative, unconventional buildings exhibit a
variety of influences.
However, Stirling’s work was appreciated less in Britain than abroad, where his
three designs for museums in the German cities of Dusseldorf, Cologne and Stutt-
gart brought him international recognition. His works were not always expressed
in the modernist style, but were often hybrid and highly individual, incorporat-
ing traditional and modern elements of design. The Neue Staatsgalerie (1984) in
Stuttgart demonstrates his unique approach and became one of the most highly
praised buildings of its time. In 1981 Stirling received architecture’s most presti-
gious international award, the Pritzker Prize.
London remains a focal point for modernist design. The enormous residential
complex of the Barbican Estate (Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, 1965–76) is well
built outside and in, and its brutal exterior is softened with ornamental lakes,
gardens and waterfalls, as well as numerous window boxes. It is also provided with
local amenities such as bars and restaurants, and its major arts centre is a prime
attraction for many visitors to the capital. Although it was initially disliked by
many, it has since become a Grade II listed building for the design integrity of the
complex, and one of the most popular estates in the city.
The striking landmark building of the Post Office Tower (now called the
British Telecom Tower) in Cleveland Street, London has also become a listed
building, even though it has only been open since 1965. Designed by Eric Bed-
ford when the Cold War was at its height, the 189 metre tall communications
tower was planned as an important link between the government’s bunker in the
Art, architecture and design 217
Figure 9.6 A residential area of the Barbican complex, in the City of London. A Brutalist
design for living, with its own cinemas, art gallery, library and conservatory.
© Nargis Christopher
countryside and the rest of the world. The designers noted that the only buildings
to survive nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the Second World War
were round, and therefore built a cylindrical tower rather than a rectangular one.
Fortunately it was never tested, and remains one of the city’s most distinctive
landmarks.
Although the public sector provided most of the significant new buildings
of the 1960s and 1970s, there were also some notable private sector works.
In the 1970s architect Richard Seifert claimed he had changed the face of
London more than any architect since Sir Christopher Wren in the seven-
teenth century. But unlike Wren’s baroque churches, such as St Paul’s Cathe-
dral, Seifert’s designs were mainly temples to commerce, such as Centre Point
(1966), the tall imposing building which stands in central London by Tot-
tenham Court Road Underground station. Tower 42 (also known as NatWest
Tower), built in 1981, is another of Seifert’s London landmarks and is situated
in the financial district known as the ‘Square Mile’ or ‘City’. Its distinctive
silhouette – which suggests a castle turret – remains a familiar feature of the
City of London skyline.
Architects and policy-makers in post-war Britain were determined not just
to improve cities, but to create entirely new ones. Early attempts to ameliorate
218 Art, architecture and design
conditions in the overcrowded cities resulted in the construction of Letch-
worth (1903) and Welwyn (1920), and between the early 1950s and mid-1970s
the government financed 14 more new towns in attractive areas of green coun-
tryside. Milton Keynes is one example, built between 1976 and 1979. The
architect Derek Walker took inspiration from 1960s Los Angeles, and designed
low-rise buildings with easy traffic flow around them. Like many new towns,
it has a low density of population and offered a high quality of life. It appears
clean and classless, reflecting the architects’ belief that they were creating a
new social order. But it lacks the entertainments and facilities of a big city, as
well as a sense of history and community, and critics originally described it as
sterile, grey, bleak and empty, with no history, charm or character, an architec-
tural Esperanto.
Richard Rogers
Richard Rogers (b. 1933) was born in Florence, Italy. His most famous works
include the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the headquarters of Lloyd’s of Lon-
don, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and the Millennium
Dome in London (now known as the O2 Arena).
He began his career at Yale University in the USA, together with the
British architect Norman Foster, with whom he subsequently formed a part-
nership in the practice known as Team 4, which specialised in adventurous,
stylish, high-tech industrial designs. Later, Rogers worked with the Italian
architect Renzo Piano to design the Centre Georges Pompidou, a futuristic
arts building in central Paris, a building which cemented his reputation for
exciting and bold new designs. The exterior is one of several impressive
aspects of the building. The escalators are carried in transparent tubes on
the outside. Other tubes are colour-coded and carry water, air and electricity.
The design allows convenient access for maintenance, repairs and improve-
ments of service equipment. These are practical features, which mean it can
be adapted quickly and easily to technical change. When it opened in 1977,
it soon became the most talked about building in Britain and France, and
began to rival the Eiffel Tower for attention.
The heart of London is home to several celebrated works by Rogers and
Partners, which capture the spirit of the times in which they were built. The
Lloyd’s building was completed in 1986, introducing high-tech postmodern
architecture to London’s financial district. A tall, impressive, machine-like
edifice it has become an icon of the advanced ‘high-tech’ style. It has a stain-
less steel exterior, supported by a web of tubes, the ensemble seeming
to anticipate the ‘industrialisation’ of the financial services industry. Inside,
there is a sense of space, where open floors are designed around a cen-
tral interior patio surrounded by escalators. The design produces a dramatic
effect, in which the building’s occupants seem to resemble actors on stage.
Rogers has occasionally been involved with large-scale projects that have
created controversy, for example his proposed extension to the National Gal-
lery in London was described by the Prince of Wales as ‘a monstrous car-
buncle’. But in 1995 he became the first ever architect to give the BBC Reith
Lectures, with a series titled Cities for a Small Planett in which he stated ‘cit-
ies are where life is often at its most precarious, they are also where we have
the greatest tangible opportunity for improvement, intervention and change’.
In 1996 he became Lord Rogers of Riverside, and later collaborated on
several architectural matters of national importance with the newly elected
Labour government, for example the Dome covering the Millennium Exhibi-
tion site at Greenwich in London, which quickly became a national land-
mark, before its conversion to a concert venue as the O2 Arena. In 2007
his practice became Rogers, Stirk, Harbour and Partners, and the company
keeps offices in London, Shanghai and Sydney, pursuing a variety of proj-
ects worldwide.
In 2011 One Hyde Park was launched, said to be the world’s most expen-
sive apartment block with a penthouse priced at £140 million, a development
reflecting London’s chaotic, overpriced property market, made turbulent by
222 Art, architecture and design
global speculators who invest in city property to grow their investments. Rog-
ers remains critically acclaimed for his bold, eye-catching designs, and one
of the few British architects who is well known to the general public. His
buildings have attracted attention and provoked comment around the world,
the most recent being the Leadenhall Building or ‘Cheesegrater’, in London,
which opened in 2014.
Norman Foster
Innovative, high-tech projects have made Norman Foster (b. 1935) one of
Britain’s most distinguished architects. After studying in Manchester and
the USA he worked with Richard Rogers in the innovative practice of Team
4. But his independent designs during the mid-1970s for an arts centre at
the University of East Anglia and the Willis Faber office building in Ipswich
quickly brought him to public attention. They are visually distinctive and tech-
nically advanced buildings, which are well integrated into their environment.
The Willis Faber building was so highly praised that it became a listed build-
ing within 30 years of its completion.
As Foster’s reputation grew, he received a growing number of commis-
sions from abroad. One of the most notable was for the Hong Kong and
Shanghai Bank (1986). The floors of this high-rise building hang from eight
towers, and make the building one of the most spectacular in the former
colony, its success confirming him as a major architect of world renown.
His most recent commissions in Britain have been mostly in or near Lon-
don, where he has designed approximately 35 buildings. Some of his recent
works include 30 St Mary Axe (the ‘Gherkin’), the new Wembley Stadium,
the redevelopment of Trafalgar Square and the Millennium Bridge, plus new
galleries for the Royal Academy, a passenger terminal under an umbrella
roof at Stansted Airport and the redevelopment of Parliament Square. Other
projects include the Jubilee Line Underground extension (1999) and Canary
Wharf Station, arguably London Underground’s most impressive station
since the 1930s, which resembles a subterranean cathedral.
Foster has also designed numerous buildings elsewhere in Britain, and
on several continents overseas, from the Sage Music Centre in Gateshead
(2004), to Beijing Airport, an 80-storey tower in Dubai and a 62-metre high
glass pyramid in Astana, Kazakhstan. Foster was awarded the Pritzker Prize
in 1999, the same year he was admitted to the House of Lords.
Women architects
Changes in society resulted in an acute need to adapt buildings and the urban
environment to meet people’s needs. Some argued that women use the city
224 Art, architecture and design
environment more than men, spending more time walking and interacting there,
and so understand its problems better. Furthermore, it is said that female archi-
tects are better able to communicate with clients and have a better understand-
ing of their needs.
Dame Zaha Hadid has become Britain’s best-known female architect, win-
ning the Pritzker Prize in 2004, the first woman to do so, for a pavilion built
in Zaragoza, Spain, as well as the Stirling Prize in 2010 and 2011. She is widely
respected for her designs, which range from Maggie’s Cancer Centre in Kircaldy
to the Guangzhou Opera House. Others are often connected with sports arenas,
for example the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park (2012) and the Al Wakrah
football stadium for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Eva Jiricna is also a noted architect whose designs worldwide have brought
many awards. Born in Prague, she has worked in London since 1969. Her stylish
monochrome interiors of shops, bars and restaurants have been widely imitated.
Some of her most notable work was in Mayfair’s Le Caprice restaurant (1981) and
the interior of the Lloyd’s building (1985–6).
Today, many women are involved in a range of projects, such as designing inte-
riors for fashionable restaurants, bars and city-centre apartments, and working with
local communities to improve some of the less attractive boroughs of Britain. But
the profession of architecture remains a male-dominated one, with only around
12 per cent of qualified architects being female. Studies show the reasons for
this are similar to those reported in any traditionally male-dominated profession,
and include unequal pay and sexism. The related professions of engineering and
building are also male-dominated, and some critics argue this tendency creates
‘masculine’ architecture: monuments of strength that reflect power and prestige,
in which power is exercised predominantly by men, and where a powerful ego is
needed in order to compete.
Architecture as logo
During the 1990s, architecture and art were increasingly used by business, cul-
tural and sporting organisations for self-promotion and the construction of image
and identity. Studies show how the creation of high-quality buildings by presti-
gious architects can raise the profile of an organisation and even a whole region,
improving its image and attracting media attention. In turn, people become
more interested in working for the organisation, or moving to the region to work
or live, or visiting the region as tourists. This is particularly the case with the
more highly skilled, educated and affluent demographic groups. In consequence,
the region’s social and cultural capital is improved, along with its potential for
economic development and expansion, as, attracted by the presence of a skilled
and educated workforce, businesses are more inclined to locate there. In this
way, high-profile buildings become synonymous with the region or organisation,
transforming their image and attracting the public towards them.
Architecture has come to be used as a ‘logo’ of places and organisations,
and even the construction of commercial brands. Some of the most impressive
Art, architecture and design 225
examples are in Newcastle and Gateshead, which have experienced immense
and traumatic economic changes. In the early 1980s, 50 per cent of all men were
employed in shipbuilding, mining, steel and engineering. In 2004 the figure was
just 3 per cent. The region was depressed, stripped of its identity and pride, but
a series of new projects aimed at cultural regeneration has helped to restore its
pride and vitality. One of the most distinctive is the Angel of the North, a tall,
imposing figure whose arms are held horizontally in the shape of a cross, stand-
ing at the side of the A1 road near Gateshead. Made in bronze and measuring
20 metres high, the Angel is a public sculpture designed by Antony Gormley
and built in the Tyneside steelyards in 1998. Many thought it bold and confi-
dent, but others found it sinister and Germanic, and local opponents argued the
money could have been used for schools and hospitals. But it has since become
a popular and successful symbol of the region in particular, and the north-east
as a whole.
Nearby, Gateshead is an area not traditionally associated with modern art and
architecture, but since the late 1990s the region has been transformed by a series
of new projects, the most spectacular being around the waterfront of the River
Tyne. Chief among these is Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, which in 2002
was converted by Dominic Williams from a 1950s flour mill into an art work-
shop and gallery, the largest contemporary art space outside London. Baltic is
matched by the visually spectacular, shining, bulbous armadillo officially known
as Sage Gateshead (2004), designed by Foster and Partners, with two concert
halls, a rehearsal space and 25 music rooms, which together make it the biggest
music resource in Britain. Sage takes its name from its biggest corporate sponsor,
a local company. At its heart is a 1,700-seat hall, which is intended to be one
of the world’s greatest concert venues. To achieve this, it has been built around
the acoustics, with ceiling and wall inserts that can be adjusted according to the
size of the audience, type of concert, instruments and so on. It stands near the
Gateshead Millennium Bridge, built by Wilkinson-Eyre in 2001 to link the city
to Newcastle. The spectacular new footbridge and cycle path is the first bridge
across the River Tyne for 100 years, and opens using an ingenious tilting mecha-
nism that makes the bridge pivot upwards to allow ships to pass underneath.
In Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham, the architecture of manufacturing
and heavy industry has been replaced by that of new financial and retail service
industries, reflecting wider trends around Britain. These now involve knowledge,
commercial, cultural, sports and leisure sectors, which in recent years have played
a steadily more important role in sustaining local communities. In Liverpool, the
iconic Pierhead area on the waterfront of the River Mersey was developed for the
city’s role as European Capital of Culture in 2008. The existing three Edwardian
‘graces’ or buildings that dominate the waterfront are complemented by architect
Will Alsop’s ‘Fourth Grace’, a spiral-shaped building on thin spindly legs, with a
circular top floor that resembles a squashed doughnut, where shops, flats, bars, a
hotel and a museum have enhanced the area.
In nearby Manchester, much has been done to help the city move on from its
‘Madchester’ epithet of the 1990s. Buildings such as the Imperial War Museum
226 Art, architecture and design
North by Daniel Libeskind (2002), which resembles a shattered globe, Ian
Simpson’s icy, sea green ‘mint lollipop’ – the Urbis Centre for Urban Culture
(2002) – and Arup Associates’ City of Manchester Stadium (also known as Eti-
had Stadium), built in 2002 for the Commonwealth Games and now the home of
Manchester City FC, have all helped the city energise its cultural and knowledge
sectors, as well as enhance the urban landscape.
In Scotland, Glasgow’s Science Centre (2001) features interactive and
multi-media exhibits, showing visitors how people and plants use their senses.
To the east, in the capital Edinburgh, the ‘sails’ of the Dynamic Earth Centre,
an avant-garde construction, built on the site of an old brewery, tell the story
of the Earth, using a mixture of real exhibits and virtual reality. Nearby, the
Scottish Parliament building was designed by Enric Miralles in 2004 and fea-
tures a distinctive roof like an upturned boat. In Wales, the Welsh Assembly
building in Cardiff, designed by Richard Rogers, opened in 2004. The building
is complemented by Jonathan Adams’s Wales Millennium Centre (2004), a
widely admired building made of stone and slate from quarries around Wales.
Inside are auditoriums for music, theatre, opera, dance and ballet from around
the world, which incorporate the latest high-tech acoustic and lighting sys-
tems. Above the foyer, an inscription reads ‘Creu Gwir Fel Gwydr O Ffwrnais
Awen’ (‘In these stones horizons sing’), a line by Gwyneth Lewis, a popular
Welsh poet.
Figure 9.8 The London Eye, with the Royal Festival Hall to the right.
© Nargis Christopher
228 Art, architecture and design
Figure 9.9 The headquarters of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) at 85 Albert
Embankment, London. Architect – Terry Farrell.
© Nargis Christopher
Across the river in Millbank is Tate Britain, while a bit further north in
Bloomsbury is the British Museum, where the Great Court has been restored by
Foster and Partners to make a large, two-acre plaza covered by an intricate glass
roof. At its heart is the famous Reading Room, which has been used by authors
such as Karl Marx, Virginia Woolf, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling and Oscar
Wilde.
In sport, the historic ‘twin towers’ of the old Wembley Stadium fell victim to
the demolishers, as the ground built for the British Empire Exhibition in 1924
was completely redeveloped into a national ‘super-stadium’, which opened in
2007. Designed by Norman Foster, it has a capacity of 90,000 and a sliding roof
to protect the pitch. A distinctive arch above the stadium identifies it from dis-
tance, and a large statue of former England captain Bobby Moore (Philip Jackson,
2007) stands outside the entrance, looking down the approach road of Wembley
Way.
Over in Stratford, east London, the Queen Elizabeth II Olympic Park was cre-
ated for the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympics. It comprises the athletes’
Olympic Village (now being transformed into private accommodation called East
Village), and several of the sporting venues including the London Aquatics Cen-
tre, the Olympic Stadium and the Media Centre. The Aquatics Centre by Zaha
Hadid is the most notable building, with its distinctive wave-like roof, which was
Art, architecture and design 229
built in 2004, well before London won the right to host the games, which came
at a final cost of £269 million, three times the original estimate. It is now open
to the general public.
Compared with many other world capitals, London is low rise. Even the tall-
est building in the European Union only measures 306 meters. London Bridge
Tower, popularly known as the ‘Shard’, was designed by Renzo Piano and opened
in 2012. Buildings on London’s skyline take increasingly unusual shapes, and the
‘Shard’ not only resembles a long sharp glass fragment, but its appearance also
changes with different lighting and seasons. Its height and fame have also made it
popular with base jumpers, urban explorers and climbers, who are known to visit
the building illegally to ascend, descend or dramatically dive off the building for
charity, entertainment or thrills.
Other London landmarks include the 160-metre-high ‘Walkie-Talkie’, nick-
named for its curvaceous, top-heavy appearance, which makes it resemble a
vintage piece of communications technology of the same name. Designed by
Uruguayan architect Rafael Vinoly, it was originally intended to be higher but
concerns about the effect on views of the nearby St Paul’s Cathedral resulted in
a reduction of 40 metres.
Richard Rogers’ Leadenhall Building (popularly known as the ‘Cheesegrater’
because of its wedge shape) is 225 metres high. It stands close to one of Rogers’
most famous other buildings, the Lloyd’s building, but although it is more visible
on the skyline, it is much less so at street level, where the imposing steel tubes
remain more impressive. One of the most distinctive and talked about buildings
north of the river is known as the ‘Gherkin’ for its unusual, vegetable-like shape.
Distinctive and playful, the 180-metre-high building was designed by Foster and
Partners, and won the Stirling Prize in 2004 for its innovative design.
While height continues to be of importance to a building’s owners, it appears
that designs have otherwise become less brash or imposing, and more restrained
and subtle. In the private sector, an international corporate style seems to pre-
vail, which incorporates less expressiveness and more homogeneity. Buildings
have become sleek, tall, but less aesthetically challenging. Exteriors now tend
to be covered, as exposing everything to the elements (as in the Lloyd’s build-
ing) means more maintenance required. The result is a kind of jellyfish effect,
in which lifts and other aspects of the building’s innards are only dimly revealed
to the spectator. Inside, minimal decoration, pale colours and natural materials
are preferred, in a style that has become increasingly common in a variety of
establishments, from insurance offices to Indian restaurants. Critics say it is bland
and characterless, the architecture and design of ‘not standing out’, of ‘no confi-
dence’, and the consequence of a withdrawal of investment by national and local
government in bold public buildings. But others argue it is functional, efficient
and rational.
Further criticism comes from those who work in such buildings, many of whom
express a dissatisfaction with their environments. The absence of opening win-
dows, the abundance of artificial lighting and the absence of privacy that often
goes with open-plan offices are among the most common complaints. But, unlike
230 Art, architecture and design
with other kinds of design, such as cars, boats or coffee machines, reviews of new
buildings rarely take into account opinions of those who use them the most, and
writing about modern architecture still focuses on elements such as design fea-
tures, intelligence, efficiency and cost.
Conservation
Despite the trend towards postmodernity in architecture of the new millennium,
architectural societies have demanded the preservation of early and unusual mod-
ernist buildings as part of Britain’s heritage, for example Cluster Block (Denys
Lasdun, 1955), a modest but distinctive apartment tower in Bethnal Green, east
London, and Trellick Tower (Erno Goldfinger, 1973) in west London, which
have both been restored to create fashionable, high-quality accommodation.
Demolition of buildings is a dangerous practice, because public taste changes.
Some buildings, once despised as ugly, are now highly regarded by the critics
and the general public, for example the elegant Midland Hotel next to St Pan-
cras Station in London, which resembles a Gothic, dream-like castle, suspended
in mid-air, has almost been demolished several times. Bankside Power Station,
which has now become Tate Modern, was almost demolished in the early 1980s,
and the Brutalist enclave of the South Bank arts complex has frequently been in
danger. In Sheffield, the large estate of local authority housing known as Park
Hill faced a similar fate. After initial optimism in the 1960s, it became known for
poverty, drugs and crime, and was nicknamed ‘San Quentin’ after the American
jail. But in 1998 it became a Grade II listed building – the largest listed building
in Europe – and protected from demolition. After an expensive makeover it was
shortlisted in 2013 for the prestigious RIBA Stirling Prize.
The Brutalist Tricorn Centre in Portsmouth was not so lucky. Constructed in
the mid-1960s, it comprised a nightclub, shops and a car park. In 2001, listeners
to BBC Radio 4 voted it the most hated building in the UK, and the Prince of
Wales entered the debate, describing it as ‘a mildewed lump of elephant drop-
pings’, although it was much admired by others, who thought it a fine example of
high Brutalism. However, following a heated dispute between local campaigners
for and against, the building was demolished in 2004. The finality of demoli-
tion mirrors the finality of a death sentence; once demolished the building can
never return. But times change and so does public taste and the kinds of buildings
people want to see, live, work and play in.
10 Popular music and fashion
Introduction
British pop has produced some of the best-known music ever recorded, and is
enjoyed by people of all ages. It also constitutes an important element of youth
culture, and offers a point of access into a world of fashion, image and style,
which together express identity and individuality. It also forms part of a commu-
nal experience, and can be heard ‘live’ in a variety of settings, from small pubs to
large outdoor events in fields and football stadiums. During the summer months,
music festivals of all kinds are held around Britain. Some take place over several
days, such as the annual Glastonbury Festival for new and established bands,
and the Notting Hill Carnival, Europe’s biggest street party, held by the Carib-
bean community in London. Traditional, indigenous music is also well supported
around Britain, with Gaelic and Celtic music often being honoured at festivals
in Scotland and Wales.
Music is well established on national and local broadcasting services. BBC
Radio 1 and 2, together with numerous independent radio stations, broadcast
hundreds of hours of popular music each week. BBC Radio 1Xtra broadcasts
black music from the UK and North America, while jazz and classical music
can be heard on Jazz FM, BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM. Numerous websites,
newspapers, style magazines, fanzines and a flourishing music press all carry
regular columns of information, gossip and comment on music of all kinds.
There are also many different types of music prizes awarded each year, among
them the Brit Awards, the Mercury Prize and the MOBO Awards (Music of
Black Origin).
Many musicians start out without any formal training. Others learn at school
and complete their studies at one of the prestigious London centres, such as the
Royal College of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Trin-
ity College of Music. Outside London, the main centres are the Royal Scottish
Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow and the Welsh College of Music and
Drama in Cardiff; several other colleges and universities also offer degrees and
diplomas in musical study.
232 Popular music and fashion
Post-war pop
After the horrors of the Second World War demand was strong for cosy, com-
forting music that brought a sense of well-being and romance. Popular music
consisted of gentle ballads, sung in a ‘crooning’ style which involved the inti-
mate expression of private emotions, in songs sung slowly and sentimentally.
In America, Italian-Americans such as Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Mario
Lanza and Dean Martin popularised the style, which later spread to Britain
where local ‘crooners’ included Frankie Vaughan, Dickie Valentine and Ronnie
Hilton. Theirs was relaxed and rhythmical music, created for refined, elegant
dancing and romancing.
A gramophone and records were still expensive items, and popular music
remained a mainly adult pastime. But as technology developed, production costs
fell. Radios became smaller, and with the invention of portable, transistor models
in the mid-1950s, the number of listeners grew quickly. A generation born in
wartime wanted excitement and consumer goods, and in America new radio sta-
tions appeared everywhere, offering lively music shows to capture and seduce a
generation of affluent young teenagers. Advertising was an important source of
income, and to create more airtime for publicity slots, radio stations demanded
songs of under three minutes, so musicians began to write short, catchy songs
to capture the listeners’ attention. In Britain, the pattern was repeated. Sales of
popular songs increased, and from 1952 a list of the 12 top-selling singles was
published in the New Musical Express, a British music weekly, and was soon after-
wards expanded to the top 20.
Skiffle
Although the explosive, driving rhythms of rock ’n’ roll were easy to compose,
they were difficult to imitate, as electric instruments and amplification were
still scarce in Britain. Around 1953 an acoustic type of music known as ‘skiffle’
emerged in and around the pubs and clubs of London’s Soho. It was fast, rhyth-
mical, and required a minimum of musical expertise. The instruments were few:
a ‘washboard’ (a type of percussion instrument used to mark time), two acoustic
guitars and an acoustic bass, with the option of a kazoo, a banjo or a piano. Music
was played with few keys and few chords, but the vigorous rhythmic support for
the vocals made it distinctive and infectious.
Like rock ’n’ roll its origins were black and American, and almost anyone
could play it. A DIY musical revolution began, as youths without any musical
knowledge or training picked up an instrument and taught themselves to play.
It was especially popular with young intellectuals in the art schools, who found
its authentic, uncommercial sound an attractive, classless one. The new music
appealed to youths trapped in a rigidly hierarchical Britain, and seemed perfectly
in tune with the post-war plan of both Labour and Conservative governments to
create a more open, equal society.
Its popular influence spread, and stars emerged such as Lonnie Donegan and
Ken Colyer. Donegan’s Rock Island Line (1956) was the first British record to
sell well in America, reaching number 6 in the US charts. At home, the BBC’s
Religious Department authorised a Twentieth Century Folk Mass that included
skiffle music. The Salvation Army had the Hallelujah Skiffle Group, and the
Popular music and fashion 235
breakfast cereal Rice Crispies offered a free ‘skiffle whistle’. But proposing the
washboard as a new route to the future of rock ’n’ roll was never taken seriously,
and by 1958 the acoustic music began to disappear in favour of a more exciting,
amplified sound.
The Beatles
Between 1962 and 1964, the cosmopolitan port of Liverpool provided the
focus for an international revolution in pop. Its clubs, coffee bars and dance
halls were already venues for poetry and jazz, and by 1962 a culture of pop
was developing. This involved hundreds of local groups playing a mixture
of blues-influenced pop songs, with aggressive rock ’n’ roll. Few bands sur-
vived or progressed from that era, but one became the most famous in the
world – the Beatles.
The history of the Beatles begins with a little-known Liverpool skiffle
band – the Quarrymen – who would later compose and play the most suc-
cessful music in the history of pop: John Lennon (1940–80), Paul McCart-
ney (b. 1942–), George Harrison (1943–2001) and, by 1962, Ringo Starr
(b. Richard Starkey, 1940–). Earlier the group had played under different
names with different personnel, but inspired by their new manager Brian
Epstein, their fortunes changed. Their first single, ‘Love Me Do’ (1962), was
highly successful, and over the next two years they had several songs that
reached number one in the British music charts, such as ‘She Loves You’, ‘I
Want To Hold Your Hand’ and ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’.
With their distinctive long hair, white shirts, narrow ties and dark suits,
they mixed charm with cheek. Because they looked and spoke like their
fans, many people identified with them, and they quickly became popular
around Britain. Previously, most pop groups sang versions of well-known
American hits, or used the material of professional songwriters. However,
most Beatles’ songs were written by Lennon and McCartney, with the main
contributor on each song providing the lead vocals. They sang short, senti-
mental and nostalgic songs, often using slang and imagery from everyday
life, which were combined with folk harmonies in the rhythm and blues style,
from the melancholy of ‘Love Me Do’ to the romance of ‘Do You Want to
Know A Secret?’
In 1963 they were described in the Sunday Times s as ‘the greatest com-
posers since Beethoven’, and in 1965 they were awarded the MBE by Harold
Wilson, the Labour Prime Minister. Their intense popularity became known
as ‘Beatlemania’, which in the USA was even more fanatical than in Britain,
and in 1966 the outbreaks of public hysteria that accompanied their appear-
ances everywhere led the Beatles to stop touring.
As the group matured, their music became more eclectic. In 1967 the
group released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. d It was a radical
departure from their earlier material. Songs took an affectionate look at an
almost disappeared English popular culture of northern brass bands, music-
hall entertainers and travelling circus acts. It was also notable for the length
236 Popular music and fashion
of songs, which did not conform to the two and a half or three minute format.
Instead, one flowed into the next. Packaging of the record was also innova-
tive, with printed lyrics and an attractive cover designed by the pop artist
Peter Blake. But the music also indicated an interest in drugs and mysticism,
and the band lost many fans. However, its sophistication also found them a
new, more intellectual audience, and marked the arrival of pop music as an
object of serious comment.
The band were still popular and famous, but they were also under pres-
sure. They began to look for more independence, both creatively and per-
sonally, and when their manager died in 1967 the band members began to
work separately. By 1970 all members of the group had made solo albums,
and in the same year the Beatles officially broke up, after 15 US and 13 UK
number one albums, and 21 US and 17 UK number one singles.
During their eight years together they created the best-loved body of
song-writing and music in the whole of post-war pop, but after splitting up
they never enjoyed the same level of public acclaim in their varied solo proj-
ects. McCartney was the most successful, notably with the band Wings, and
subsequently with numerous varied solo projects. In 2012 he took part in the
opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, and continues to make appear-
ances around the world. The author of ‘Yesterday’, one of the most played
songs of the twentieth century, he is possibly the most honoured musician
alive, and was knighted in 1997.
Figure 10.2 Over 50 years after their first gig in London, the Rolling Stones
continue to break records for their performances and record sales.
© epa european pressphoto agency B.V./Alamy
Mods
While the Beatles and the Stones were seducing British audiences with their
shows, soul music (especially from the Tamla Motown label) and Jamaican ska
or ‘bluebeat’ were the main musical styles of black America and the Caribbean.
They all had a strong, regular rhythm and were good records for dancing. Few
bands could play live dance music, so clubs offered recorded music from ‘discs’
and became ‘discothèques’, one of the first being La Discothèque, which opened
in 1964 in London’s Wardour Street.
Until the mid-1960s and the new music shows, black people were rarely seen
on TV. But the gowns and glamour of the Supremes and others was empowering.
It showed how it was possible to be disenfranchised, working class and cool. The
industries of popular culture recognised that a numerically significant section
of the population had money to spend on records and clothes, and worked to
exploit the market. Fashion became democratised, as the ‘canon’ of the couturier
240 Popular music and fashion
was challenged by the arrival of the ready-to-wear industry, which mass produced
stylish new clothes at affordable prices.
London was at that time the centre of art, fashion and pop music, in which
the prevailing style was minimal and modernist. For some years a clearly defined,
sartorial look had been developing among small groups of young, aspirational,
fashion-conscious men, known popularly as ‘mods’. The style typically included a
lightweight, continental suit with a three-button, two-vent jacket, narrow trou-
sers, button-collar shirt, narrow tie, zip boots and short hair, with a ‘fishtail’ parka
coat (preferably an ex-US Army M-51) to protect the clothes. For the girls, a
mini-skirt, or short dress, was commonly worn, together with knee-length boots,
heavy, bright make-up, thick mascara and short, straight geometrically cut hair,
which together emphasised sexuality and femininity.
The notion of the ‘ideal’ female body shape was also changing. The volup-
tuous, feminine curves that had been previously considered the female ideal were
replaced by the slim, skinny look. In a time of liberation, it appeared as if women
were not content merely competing with men in their social and working lives,
but they were now seeking to physically resemble them too. Pioneers of the new
look included Jean Shrimpton (‘the Shrimp’) and the skinny model known sim-
ply as ‘Twiggy’, whose innocent, waif-like look became the fashion yardstick.
The mid-1960s was a time of material prosperity, and consumerism was a cen-
tral element of mod style. One of its most distinctive features was the Vespa or
Lambretta scooter, typically adorned with an abundance of lights and mirrors.
By 1964 it provided many London mods with a way to reach Brighton, a popular
coastal resort that briefly became the location for confrontations with groups of
‘rockers’, a more traditional manifestation of working-class subculture. The rock-
ers’ characteristic symbols of powerful motorcycles, leather jackets, jeans and Bryl-
creemed hair made them resemble American motorcycle gangs of the early 1950s,
as seen in the American film The Wild One (1953). Mod style, however, was less
traditional and more aspirational, and seemed in opposition to the rockers’ dour,
lumpen, leather-clad resistance. The visual antagonism between the two styles
helped generate sensational newspaper headlines and reports about clashes with
stories so full of apocalyptic hyperbole they seemed to anticipate civil war.
However, studies showed the confrontations to be minor, and that reports
were exaggerated to sell copies to older members of the public, who were anxious
and uncomprehending about the behaviour of young people in a rapidly chang-
ing society. Nevertheless, it marked the beginning of a tribalism among British
youth, a fragmenting into different groups with different preferences in music,
clothes, hairstyles and other aspects of consumption, in what became a distinc-
tive characteristic of British society between the 1950s and the 1990s.
Mod style included a fondness for music, mainly jazz, ska and soul, and own-
ership of the rarest, most desirable records conferred status. The Who and The
Small Faces were two British bands popular with mods. The Who had a reputa-
tion as arrogant, angry and unpredictable, and to the delight of their fans, the
band spectacularly smashed their instruments at the end of their shows. ‘My Gen-
eration’ (1965) is one of their most famous songs, a violent musical declaration
about the breakdown in communication between younger and older generations.
Popular music and fashion 241
Figure 10.3 Fashionable footwear for the man-about-town, c. 1973. Boots for the stage
went several inches higher.
© David Christopher
Mud and the Bay City Rollers were among the first to cultivate a theatrical,
androgynous ‘look’. An outbreak of working-class flash followed, as fans began to
imitate their heroes, wearing make-up, glitter, velvet and ludicrously high plat-
form shoes. Concerts began to resemble fashion shows, as performers and fans
competed with one another for the most outrageous look.
246 Popular music and fashion
The glamorous, theatrical style (or lumpen fad, depending on the point of
view) was popularly known as ‘glam’ rock. Although there was little musical
unity among its exponents, the strong, rhythmic beat and the ‘sing-along’ foot-
ball-chant choruses of Slade, the lyrical simplicity of Elton John, the heavy rock
showmanship of Queen, and the avant-garde pop-rock experimentalism of Roxy
Music were all received enthusiastically by millions of fans, in an era that saw
style and presentation become as important as musical content and ability. How-
ever, many music critics were less enthusiastic. Bands who released only LPs were
considered innately superior to those who released singles, and they saw the new
glam rock fad as vulgar, ostentatious and highly commercial: a victory of artifice
over art.
David Bowie
One of the most enduring and influential performers to emerge from this
period is David Bowie (b. David Jones, 1947), a singer, songwriter and gui-
tarist who has become one of the most successful, controversial and influ-
ential of British musicians. He came into music from dance and drama, and
after leading several modest rock bands, he began as a solo artist. In 1969,
when the world was fascinated by the Apollo moon mission, he had his first
major success with ‘Space Oddity’, a dreamy, folk-inspired song about a
mission to escape from Earth. It also marked the projection of his songs
through different stage characters, beginning with the astronaut Major Tom.
Bowie became interested in the music of American singers Lou Reed
and Iggy Pop, and at the same time began to introduce more shocking and
theatrical elements into his own performances. In 1971 he changed to a
heavier rock sound for the album The Man Who Sold the World. d To publi-
cise it, he wore glitter, make-up, nail polish and even a dress, to create an
androgynous new identity; a provocative statement of style in Britain of the
early 1970s. Shortly afterwards he made The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust
and the Spiders from Marss (1972), a loosely sequenced concept album of
dystopian songs about a mythical pop star from space, delivered in a con-
ventional rock ’n’ roll style.
The shows that promoted it in 1972–73 were the most elaborate ever seen
on a British stage. Bowie dressed up theatrically with make-up and Japanese
Kabuki clothes, to deliver high-energy performances. Assisted by the ‘Spiders
from Mars’, a three-piece rock band from Hull, Bowie frequently shared the
spotlight with guitarist Mick Ronson in some of the concerts for which the for-
mer is best remembered. The shows attracted attention and notoriety wher-
ever the band went. Until then, no band had dared to wear make-up or adopt
such an outrageous look, and public discussion of sexuality was off-limits.
The Ziggy y album made Bowie famous, before his sudden abandonment of
the image and the band, in a dramatic final concert in London in 1973. Later
came Aladdin Sane e (1973), an album that suggested imminent nuclear war,
and Diamond Dogss (1974), a dark album about an Orwellian nightmare future,
released at a time when the future of the UK itself seemed to be in doubt.
He also began a career as an actor, appearing in plays and films, the most
critically acclaimed being The Man Who Fell to Earth h (1976). His subsequent
Popular music and fashion 247
musical career has been marked by continual reinvention and innovation,
although some moves initially alienated his fans. In 1975, Bowie attempted
to seduce the American market with the single ‘Fame’ and the subsequent
soul-inspired album Young Americans. s However, this lost him many British
fans, who found the switch from Ziggy to ‘soul boy’ confusing. In turn, Ameri-
can audiences were alienated by his Berlin-recorded albums Low w (1977),
Heroess (1977) and Lodgerr (1979), although they were well received in
Britain. During the 1980s international success returned with several hit sin-
gles including Ashes to Ashess (1980), Under Pressure e (with Queen, 1981)
and Let’s Dance e (1983). His style continued to evolve, and the 1980s and
1990s included experimental formations such as the heavy, industrial sound
of Tin Machine (1988–92).
Rejecting the system of royal honours, Bowie declined a CBE in 2000
and a knighthood in 2003, and in recent times has become more reclusive,
and has not performed live since 2006. During his absence he has grown
more famous than ever, and become critically respected as an original and
influential performer, who during the past 40 years has changed styles of
music, stage presentation, fashion, as well as giving confidence to millions
of gay fans and performers to express themselves. His album The Next Day
was released in 2013 to critical acclaim, and takes the sale of his albums to
an estimated 140 million worldwide. In the UK, he has been awarded nine
Platinum album certifications, 11 Gold and eight Silver, and in the US, five
Platinum and seven Gold certifications.
Figure 10.4 A commemorative plaque in Heddon St., London marks the location of the
cover photo for the iconic Ziggy Stardust album.
© David Christopher
were becoming as literary as they were sycophantic. But, a young generation was
growing bored with the elevation of music into a ‘high’ art form. It was a mighty
long way from rock ’n’ roll.
The response was a fundamentalist revival, as some British musicians began
to revive the honesty and simplicity of styles from the 1950s and early 1960s.
Popular music and fashion 249
They played short, fast three-minute songs in a mixture of R&B, rock ’n’ roll and
American country music in small pubs and clubs in London. At that time, pubs
were often unattractive places where men went to escape from the routines of
family life. It was a place to brag and booze, but a few in London went further,
and offered live music, such as the Hope and Anchor in Islington, and the Grey-
hound in Barons Court. The small venues broke down barriers between the musi-
cians and audience, so everyone felt a part of the show, and a circuit developed of
small pubs, clubs and colleges.
Soon, there was a DIY movement of young groups such as the Stranglers, Eddie
and the Hot Rods, Ian Dury’s Kilburn and the High Roads, and Brinsley Schwarz.
Songs were about life on London streets, rather than those of Memphis, and
singers sang with London accents, instead of the ersatz American ones that had
become popular elsewhere in rock. Their enthusiasm, energy and attitude made
many established groups appear even more tired and decadent.
The most successful and long-lived band from the pub rock scene was Dr Feel-
good. With a 1960s ‘mod’ look, they played a fast, urgent mixture of R&B and
rock ’n’ roll. Their music was elemental and electrifying, with the manic guitarist
Wilko Johnson supplying the current and singer Lee Brilleaux connecting with
the audience. Their first album Down by the Jetty (1975) provided the sonic tem-
plate for what was to follow.
Figure 10.5 A Sex Pistols tour poster from 1976 – many gigs were cancelled by the
local authorities.
© David Christopher
debut single, ‘Anarchy in the UK’. Their music was loud, primal and hostile.
It consisted of short guitar solos, repeated chords, a heavily distorted sound
and defiant, abrupt endings. Songs were delivered with energy and fire, in a
Cockney accent infused with insults and rejections, volcanically released in
a tone of bored sarcasm.
Popular music and fashion 251
There were no feminine clothes or fake American accents, no 12-bar
blues or virtuosity, and the scene was largely an underground one, only
covered by New Musical Expresss and Melody Makerr. Boys from council
estates shouting their truth in London accents was revolutionary in mid-
1970s Britain.
The band was created to attract attention and publicity off stage, as well
as on it, and following a television appearance in which they swore and
abused the presenter Bill Grundy, EMI sacked them. A tour followed, but
many municipal authorities cancelled concerts, allegedly to ‘protect’ local
people. A new bass player Sid Vicious (b. John Ritchie, 1957) arrived to
replace Matlock. Vicious was a disturbed youth whose anti-social behaviour
of vomiting, drug taking and assaults were encouraged to gain publicity.
The group found a new recording contract with A&M Records, and in the
Silver Jubilee year of 1977, amid street parties, bunting and cheap souvenirs
they released their biggest-selling single, ‘God Save the Queen’, which was
banned by the BBC and independent broadcasters. However, it still reached
number two in the music charts, and was followed by ‘Holidays in the Sun’,
‘Pretty Vacant’ and the album Never Mind the Bollocks s, which went to num-
ber one in the album charts in 1977.
Next came a tour of the USA, but internal problems saw Rotten and
Vicious leave the group. This was followed by tragedy in 1979, when Vicious
died of a heroin overdose following the alleged murder of his girlfriend.
The group was finished and never recorded again. McLaren subsequently
organised a biographical feature film The Great Rock ’n’ Roll Swindle e (Julien
Temple, 1980), which featured the fugitive Ronnie Biggs. Following imprison-
ment for his part in the Great Train Robbery of 1963, Biggs had escaped and
fled to Brazil where he remained in exile. Meanwhile, Rotten went on to a
new musical career with the band Public Image Limited (PIL), while the other
members disappeared from the music scene, as punk became mainstream
and lost its power to shock.
During their brief period of fame they recorded only 25 songs which
appeared on just five singles and one album in the United Kingdom. During
their time together the Sex Pistols illuminated the face of white pop, and their
influence has been enduring.
Post-punk
By 1980, new political questions were emerging, such as the politics of racism,
as Afro-Caribbean communities struggled for acceptance and racial equality, and
Popular music and fashion 253
reggae music became the new symbol of political difference, defiance and alterity.
Like punk, it expressed a symbolic challenge to the politics of the new Thatcher
government, and a rejection of the right-wing racism of the National Front (NF).
Bands including the Clash, the Police, PIL and the Gang of Four all recorded reg-
gae songs, while reggae icon Bob Marley wrote an amusing tribute to punk with
‘Punky Reggae Party’.
The fusion of styles continued, as several mixed-race bands formed to play the
popular mixture of pop and reggae known as ‘ska’. This was the Two Tone move-
ment, a political pop whose message was anti-racism and anti-Thatcher. Between
1979 and 1982, the Selecter, the Specials, the Beat, Madness and UB40 expressed
a defiant musical manifesto and gave their support to the growing Rock Against
Racism movement, which had been organised by the Socialist Workers’ Party in
1976 to fight discrimination. The bands appeared in numerous free public car-
nivals, often encouraging the audience to join them onstage in a gesture which
embraced black, white, male and female musicians and subcultures, and helped dif-
ferent forms of music to become established in Britain. The Specials’ ‘Ghost Town’
of 1981 is a mix of melancholy, restlessness and menace, in a year of confrontation
and riots.
The DIY ethic that had started with punk led to more independent record
labels. This meant the production and distribution of music was now in inde-
pendent hands, rather than a large corporate organisation. There was no adver-
tising or ‘plugging’ and the radio stations had to go to the labels to get records,
rather than the opposite. The ethos of the label was important, and making
money came second to making good music. Factory Records in Manchester
showed the way forward, while Zoo in Liverpool, Good Vibrations in Belfast
and Postcard Records in Glasgow all helped bands around the country to record
and develop.
A desire for honesty and authenticity in music led to renewed interest in folk
music. An Irish band, the Pogues, brought a mixture of Irish folk and punk to
new audiences in open-air festivals, clubs and concerts. Clannad fused Irish folk
with New Age music to create a new musical form. British audiences also began
to discover New Age music, which was arriving from the USA, and whose repeti-
tive and relaxing rhythms found appreciative audiences at the World of Music
and Dance (WOMAD) Festival, started in 1982 by the rock musician Peter
Gabriel to promote Anglo-Celtic and world music. During the 1980s and 1990s
the WOMAD Festival grew in size and popularity, becoming a mainstream event
from a small, marginal one, as world music embracing such diverse forms as Gre-
gorian chants, African drums and Mayan humming began to represent authentic
alternatives to the dominant commercial forms of dance and pop.
Figure 10.6 Record sleeves – the working man’s art collection. Records are popular with
collectors, and some artists still release their work in vinyl as well as in digital
formats.
© David Christopher
Britpop
By the early 1990s white British pop-rock had fused with acid house in music by
Primal Scream, the Happy Mondays and the Stone Roses. Politically inspired
bands such as Crass and the Levellers continued to express their angry opposition
to authority in general and the Tory Party in particular, with an alternative mani-
festation of hippy ideals: vegetarianism, crustiness, communes and squatting.
Other, more refined expressions of anger came from Billy Bragg and Paul Weller,
who supported numerous socialist causes with ‘benefit’ concerts and fund-raising
projects.
258 Popular music and fashion
But in the pubs and clubs of London and Manchester a new scene was devel-
oping, with a distinctively English sound. In contrast to the exoticism of acid
and techno, it was an honest expression of the modest, everyday and home-
grown, from guitar bands who acknowledged their musical roots. In London,
Suede and Blur were in the forefront, two bands clearly influenced by popular
British groups of the 1960s such as the Small Faces, the Kinks and early David
Bowie. In Manchester, the Gallagher brothers Noel and Liam had formed Oasis,
and influenced by the Beatles and the Sex Pistols they wrote lively, catchy
songs to create a wall of sound. Oasis’s first album Definitely Maybe (1994) and
Blur’s Parklife (1994) outlined the territory that would soon be known as ‘Brit-
pop’. Blur’s self-effacing, doggedly British character and cartoonish depictions
of familiar aspects of suburban life were sung in a satirical cockney drawl, most
notably on the title track of Parklife, whose spoken verses were inspired by the
Martin Amis novel London Fields. The album made it cool to be working class
again.
A year later new bands such as Supergrass, Pulp, Menswear, the Verve and
Radiohead helped to shape the new sound of British pop in a mainstream move-
ment which, fuelled by the north–south rivalry between Oasis and Blur, was
covered on a daily basis by the mass media. A new cultural confidence was devel-
oping across the arts.
Developments in pop were accompanied by new trends in fashion, film and
other popular arts. Celebrated, iconic British imagery was in vogue, often coin-
ciding with that worn by the mods of the 1960s; the circular RAF ‘target’ logo,
the ‘parka’ coat, the finely cut suit, Fred Perry sportswear and long-collared Ben
Sherman shirts were all part of the almost fetishistic style. Even the Union Flag
design was appropriated in clothing, on guitars, and as an upholstery pattern in
creations by Paul Smith and others. British fashion designers such as Paul Smith,
Oswald Boateng, Wayne Hemingway, Alexander McQueen and Vivienne West-
wood became household names, as smartly dressed men began stylishly to sport
the best of British labels, often encouraged by newly launched men’s magazines
such as Loaded.
When Oasis played at Knebworth in 1996, 2.5 million people, or around 5 per
cent of the population, applied for tickets. In the same year, England hosted the
Euro ’96 football tournament, and fielded one of the most characterful national
teams for some years. The mass appeal of pop music and football contributed to
a renewal of interest in British popular culture; football came home, pop and
fashion were celebrating Britishness, the British film industry was buoyant, new
British artists were capturing public attention, and the press and style magazines
began to talk of ‘Cool Britannia’.
But critical opinion was divided. Some remarked that, at its best, the music
of the period sounded like all the greatest British rock music produced during
the previous 40 years, while others were less generous, criticising the ‘nostalgic
reworkings’ of earlier bands as shameless imitations, and Britpop as a branch of
the heritage industry. They also described it as conservative, insular, parochial,
Popular music and fashion 259
self-conscious and derived. However, the public loved it, and it became a musical
soundtrack to the cultural and political renewal of the late 1990s, a time when
the USA had ceased to be a significant influence, and Britain stood proud in
splendid isolation musically, creatively and culturally.
2000–present
Post-2000, a new mood began to take hold in society. It was a time of rising
incomes, easy credit and full employment. The traditional class divisions were
disappearing, as the kind of society that produced them had largely disappeared
too, particularly with the decline of manufacturing and heavy industry and the
manual labour it required. In its place, a more entrepreneurial service industry
emerged, dominated by financial and retail and organisations in which women
were able to work on more equal terms with men.
However, Britain had become a far less collectivist culture, with a greater indi-
vidualism and pluralism of attitudes, values and ways of life. It was also a society of
greater divisions between rich and poor, in which a residual, fragmented underclass
of unskilled black, white and Asian youth mainly in the urban areas of the big cities
had been left behind and ignored as industry withdrew. The main consequence for
music was that there were no dominant social forces to provide a creative stimulus.
Even when the recession of 2007–08 hit, none emerged from a diverse and dif-
ferentiated society to provide the inspiration for strong creative musical currents.
Digital communications and the internet have made the current situation more
complex. They have made it possible for every bedroom to become a recording
studio and distribution centre, where music can be created and posted online,
removing the industry’s ‘middle-men’. On the one hand, this has made it easier
for many artists to make and distribute music but, on the other hand, it is harder
for a single, defining movement to emerge which catches the spirit of the times.
The lack of any contemporary movements in pop has created a vacuum that
is currently filled by various strands of highly commercial pop acts, as well as
established performers from the past. TV talent shows have been a significant
influence on this context. Their ‘rags to riches’ narratives of instant fame and
celebrity chimed with the times. Popstars (ITV, 2001), The X Factor (ITV, 2004–),
Britain’s Got Talent (ITV, 2007–) and several others offer children and young
adults the chance to win a large cash prize, a recording contract and instant
fame, with the public voting for their favourite performers. The shows have been
highly successful, with audiences of up to 16 million watching the final rounds;
almost a quarter of the British population. New acts in this respect have included
Hear’Say, Girls Aloud, Leona Lewis and One Direction, the last of the these the
most successful British boy band, with an 1980s teen pop sound and 20 million
followers on Twitter.
Professional musicians are critical of the shows, arguing the chart presence
of winners’ songs prevents the breakthrough of new bands. It also stifles cre-
ativity, as the public become accustomed to watching the kind of mainstream
260 Popular music and fashion
entertainment that the shows provide, and critical of anything more challenging.
On the other hand, talent shows are said to provide a communal musical experi-
ence for all the family, which is increasingly rare in an age of digital entertain-
ments when pleasures tend to be more solitary.
Apart from the overtly commercial influences of boy bands and talent compe-
titions, other strands of music making demonstrate strong retro influences with
a revival of post-punk in the music of Franz Ferdinand and the Libertines. More
established artists such as the Verve, Radiohead and Coldplay tended towards
calm, more introspective styles. The latter became the most commercially suc-
cessful band of the decade, while Robbie Williams’s achievements in successive
Brit Awards have made him one of the most popular and honoured British singers
for many years.
Meanwhile, long-established musicians such as Elton John, David Bowie,
Sting, Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones were all writing and performing
new material around the world, and winning awards for their influence and con-
tributions to music. Many have attracted the ultimate tribute in the form of their
own tribute band, a facsimile band that copies the original artists’ every note and
move, for example the Bootleg Beatles (the Beatles), Fabbagirls (Abba) and the
Counterfeit Stones (Rolling Stones), whose nostalgic popularity, especially with
student audiences, seems likely to continue.
Despite the commercialism and conservatism of mainstream music, black and
Asian music has continued to evolve, making records grounded in Britain’s eth-
nic diversity. In this fertile ground, new genres of music such as hard-core, jungle,
drum ’n’ bass and garage appeared, with their characteristic quick, light beats,
deep, plunging bass-lines and melodic vocals sung in a modern soul style, for
example by Craig David. Varieties of Asian music emerged, mixing samples of
Indian classical music and ‘Bollywood’ films with breakbeat, dance music, jazz
and electronica. Talvin Singh, Nitin Sawhney and Asian Dub Foundation were
among some of its most highly regarded exponents. Drum ’n’ bass beats, swirl-
ing guitars and Bollywood samples could be heard on ADB’s Community Music
(2000), while Sawhney’s Prophesy (2001) featured Euro-Arabic singing, string
sections from London and Madras, flamenco guitars, drum ’n’ bass beats and
Indian chanting by the London Community Gospel Choir. Asian Dub Founda-
tion has been able to sustain its popularity not only in the UK but also abroad,
with tours of Europe and Japan, recording an album in 2013 The Signal and the
Noise for release in Japan only.
Hip-hop music had inspired a generation of young black Afro-Caribbean musi-
cians in the big cities of the UK since the 1970s. But since then it has fragmented
into a number of different varieties including trip hop, acid jazz and the more
commercial grime, a style of music based on hip-hop and originating in the East
End of London. In 2002 the music station BBC Radio 1Xtra was created, and
broadcasts new black music primarily from the UK and North America to audi-
ences around Britain.
However, compared with the crossover and collaborations of musical styles
in previous decades, for example with Two Tone, and the recent provision of a
Popular music and fashion 261
national radio station, the black music scene in Britain today remains relatively
detached and insular. Critics say it is nihilistic, and glorifies guns and violence.
It is also said to be profoundly sexist in its marginalisation of women. There are
few female performers, and there has been little connection with non-black audi-
ences or musicians, despite public familiarity with hip-hop fashions, breakdance
and the public art of urban graffiti. However, in recent years the popularity of
black music has significantly risen, with a new generation of young socially con-
scious hip-hop musicians who are critical of racism and sexism. In 2009 and 2010
artists including Dizzee Rascal, NDubz, Tiny Tempah and Ms. Dynamite all won
many awards for their music and slowly began to reach a wider audience.
Fashion in the 2000s tended to mirror musical influences: hip hop and
more established, mainstream brands. In street style, dressing down involved
the art of decadent dishevelment. For men, baggy jeans worn low on the hips
put underwear on show, possibly for the first time ever in public. Soft ‘hoodie’
sweatshirts and spiky, ‘bed-head’ hair gave the appearance of just having got
out of bed. For girls, displays of decadence were similarly de rigueur. Skinny,
low-rise jeans worn with skimpy crop tops created an eye-catching exposure
of midriff, which was often highlighted by a glimpse of knicker elastic. Unisex
baseball caps and colourful trainers, preferably Nike Air Max, completed the
sartorial look.
Accessories were distinctly ostentatious. Displays of jewellery known vulgarly
as ‘bling’ included heavy, oversize sports watches, gold chains and rings, which
were often complemented by corporeal graffiti in the form of tattoos. More inva-
sive but equally commonplace were earrings and piercings for both sexes. Once
the preserve of women, sailors and fetishists, in the twenty-first century bodily
adornment became mainstream for both sexes.
But dressing up was also ‘in’. Fuelled by the credit boom, logos, labels and
brands of major designers became ubiquitous. Even the Burberry label, which for
many years had been synonymous with English style, was appropriated by disen-
franchised urban youth, popularly known as ‘chavs’, to the chagrin of the com-
pany. The consumption of luxury items was no longer confined to a small elite
group; it had become democratised and available to all, driven by the inflated
ability of people’s spending power, and the desire to shape identity through the
potency of purchases.
Figure 10.7 Concert tickets were once dull and stubby, but by the 1990s had colour,
holograms and more detailed designs, to help prevent forgeries of increasingly
expensive items.
© David Christopher
Popular music and fashion 263
nights at the Royal Albert Hall generate enormous sums. The use of their music
in adverts, films and on radio playlists also contributes significant amounts, as
does the repackaging of their back catalogue of songs in DVDs, box sets, albums
of greatest hits and so on. Merchandising of other products such as t-shirts and
souvenirs can be important too, and helps ‘recruit’ young fans.
In contrast, new bands require different strategies. Radio airplay is normally
important for the promotion of music, but in recent years the arrival of music
via the internet to smartphones, YouTube and Spotify and so on has created
new opportunities. In 2001 the ex-Blur singer Damon Albarn launched the vir-
tual Gorillaz and sold over seven million copies, a Guinness World Record. The
Arctic Monkeys found a different way forward, emerging through internet social
networking, and allowing fans to download songs directly from their website.
They were also able to make direct contact with band members via the website
and Twitter, strategies which helped them to attract attention and gain a main-
stream fan base.
Given that album sales are falling, and new releases are only a fraction of
total record sales, only a few hundred are currently needed to get into the music
charts. The biggest-selling album by an artist in 2013 was One Direction’s Mid-
night Memories, which sold 685,000 copies. However, the biggest selling album of
2013 was a compilation album of recent music Now That’s What I Call Music ’86,
which sold 1.1 million copies.
As well as making their music available for individual downloads, artists may
allow their repertoire to appear on streaming sites such as Spotify or Deezer
where, instead of getting paid once for an album sale, musicians receive a stream
of income year on year. A strong internet presence also helps to gain a world-
wide audience, and in recent years British music has increased its popularity in
America. In 2000, fewer than 2 per cent of the top 100 albums were from the UK.
However, by 2008 this had grown to 10 per cent, and around 13 per cent of all
albums sold in North America in 2012, with Adele, Lily Allen, Joss Stone and
Amy Winehouse gaining many awards, as well as bands including Coldplay and
Mumford and Sons.
Britain continues to be a world leader in pop and rock music, and its frag-
mented, diverse and commercial nature reflects the current state of the arts and
of society, where the most innovative and inspiring work is frequently the prod-
uct of British, Asian and Afro-Caribbean influences.
11 Sport
Introduction
Sport is part of mass culture, and an estimated three million people participate
in some sort of sporting activity every week, with walking (including rambling
and hiking), swimming, snooker, pool, billiards, keep-fit, yoga, cycling, football
and angling among the most popular. Watching sport, listening to it and reading
about it are also major leisure-time activities and important areas of mass media,
in which over 400,000 people are currently employed. Terrestrial television chan-
nels show recorded highlights and sometimes live games, but speech radio is still
an important part of national culture, and BBC Radio 5 Live, Talksport and local
FM radio stations bring commentary and comment on events around the world.
But for many spectators sport is not just leisure – it is a way of expressing per-
sonal and group identity, through supporting a team, chanting the club songs,
wearing club colours and clothing, as well as bearing tattoos, face paint, flags
and other adornments. Habitual attendance and taking part in its rituals provide
many fans with a sense of community, with the most fanatical choosing to get
married in their club’s ground, and even to have their ashes scattered there. For
George Orwell, serious sport was ‘war minus the shooting’.
Britain invented, codified and exported many sports. Soldiers, civil servants
and settlers overseas took cricket and rugby to the colonies, while engineers,
teachers and businessmen introduced football to other countries, especially
South America. The modern Olympic Games are said to have originated in the
Shropshire market town of Much Wenlock, where the founder of the Interna-
tional Olympic Committee Pierre de Coubertin visited in 1890, and took inspi-
ration from the annual Wenlock Olympian Games. The Paralympic movement
also began in Britain, in the Buckinghamshire village of Stoke Mandeville.
Throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth, most sports were
played by narrowly defined social groups, to the exclusion of others, which reflected
the highly stratified nature of British society. Country pursuits, such as horse racing
and fox-hunting, were the preserve of aristocrats and wealthy landowners, while
the origins of football and rugby lie in the English public schools such as Eton, Har-
row and Rugby. In contrast, the proletariat of the town and country enjoyed sports
such as boxing and dog racing, which were once widely practised around Britain.
Sport 265
But the twentieth century saw a greater openness and inclusivity in British
society, and many sports became absorbed into a mass leisure and entertainment
industry, to satisfy demand from urban consumers. Women began taking part in
most sports, and rates of participation among black and Asian sportspeople also
rose sharply, particularly in football, athletics and boxing. Today, disabled people
also play a far more active role in sport than ever before. As a consequence, there
is now less elitism and snobbery over who plays what, which has allowed more
people to freely practise sports that were once closed to them.
The mass popularity of sport has also brought huge business opportunities.
People are willing to pay high prices to see performances of a good standard,
whether in the stadium or in their armchairs. In particular, the income generated
by the sale of broadcasting rights to satellite media, such as Sky, has channelled
immense sums into professional sport. But critics argue that its transformation
into a branch of the entertainment industry has brought many disadvantages.
They argue that it has become too expensive; supporters are now treated as cus-
tomers, whose loyalty is exploited and needs ignored. Moreover, media coverage
exerts influence over whom spectators support, and how and where they spend
their money. The result is that many sports, especially the most popular ones
of football and rugby, have been largely removed from their amateur roots, and
what was once an expression of a local identity and pride has become a form of
commercial and often corporate entertainment for marketing, sale and purchase.
Figure 11.1 Football clubs seemed to grow organically out of the small, terraced communities
they represented.
© Peter Titmuss/Alamy
270 Sport
Rangers they endured, and the club did not sign Catholic players until 1989
when manager Graham Souness brought in Maurice Johnston, a Catholic, amid
great controversy and protest from a majority of their supporters.
Today, an intense rivalry still exists between Celtic and Rangers, and Glasgow
‘derbies’ always resemble a passionate international battle. Celtic loyalties are
often demonstrated through the bearing of the Irish ‘tricolour’ flag, while Rangers
fans often sport the Union flag, or the flag of Ulster with a red hand in the cen-
tre. Violent clashes are common, but such rivalry is not confined to Glasgow. In
Northern Ireland too, similar tensions still persist between clubs that have strong
sectarian traditions; for example it was not until 2005 that Derry City (Catholic)
and Linfield (Protestant) agreed to play each other in a fixture that had been
suspended since the ‘Troubles’ of the 1970s.
In England, sectarian divisions disappeared many years ago, and never became
a prominent feature of football. In the nineteenth century some teams took the
name ‘United’, to show they represented the whole of the city, including profes-
sionals and amateurs, Catholics and Protestants. Other clubs took names such as
‘Rovers’, ‘Rangers’ or ‘Wanderers’. In Victorian England, the freedom to rove and
wander meant freedom from the discipline of the clock, factory and field, which
conferred the image of a liberated, bohemian character, comparable with that of
a showman, gypsy, or touring musician.
Organised games helped promote a sense of solidarity, shared aims and respect
for the law. This was seen as important abroad as it was at home, and in the
countries of the Empire, colonial officials introduced British sports wherever they
went. Cricket, rugby and polo became well established in Australia, New Zea-
land, South Africa, India and Pakistan, and tournaments were later organised,
including the Empire Games (later becoming the Commonwealth Games), as
well as overseas ‘test’ matches by the England cricket team, and rugby tours by
all the home nations, all in an attempt to unite diverse peoples and colonies, and
instruct them in the English way.
Heritage helps people to understand who they are and where they are from. It has
also become a vital part of how the British define themselves, and festivals, buildings,
landscapes and artefacts are important elements of regional and national identity.
The significance of heritage means there are frequent arguments about what to
save, change and demolish. But, conservation lobbies are strong, and the organ-
isations English Heritage and the National Trust protect many aspects of the city
and the countryside, enforcing conservation laws that are said to be the toughest
in the world.
Festivals and celebrations also form part of Britain’s heritage. But, in contrast
to the conservation of buildings and landscapes, festivals and celebrations tend to
change and evolve, often reflecting changes in the society that holds them. Thus,
the ways in which Christmas is celebrated today are not necessarily the same as
a century ago, and so on.
The ways that heritage is displayed to the public have also changed greatly.
Many years ago, the main aim of museums and galleries was to collect, preserve
and display objects, and visitors would amble around dusty museums passively
observing artefacts in a cabinet. But today there is more emphasis on learning, on
the interpretation of objects and on audience participation. Some museums are
open air where the public can immerse themselves in the past, and most kinds
feature imaginative displays with interactive exhibits, screen shows and costumed
interpreters, which together communicate a sense of authenticity and realism.
Museums, festivals, landscapes and sites associated with historic events have
become important for tourism. Tourism has become the fifth largest industry
in the UK, and in 2013 contributed £26.4 billion to the British economy. The
British Museum is the UK’s most popular visitor attraction, and in 2013 it
attracted 6.7 million visitors.
Origins
Acquiring and collecting historic artefacts originates in ancient times, when effi-
gies of gods and the relics of saints were collected and displayed often in reli-
gious sites, such as churches and monasteries. They were highly valued, and were
thought to have special powers to heal the sick, bring good luck and so on.
286 Cultural heritage
It was not until the seventeenth century that more personal collections became
fashionable. On leaving the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, affluent
young men would often embark on a ‘grand tour’ overseas, with France and Italy
the most popular destinations. They would typically spend up to a year seeing
the sights of Renaissance Europe and the remains of classical civilisations, while
acquiring trophies and souvenirs that would be brought back to create exotic
interiors in their large country houses spread across the counties of England.
At the same time, scientific progress was prompting the collection of objects
from the natural world, especially zoological and geological specimens, and
from the mid-eighteenth century, growing public interest was reflected in the
creation of several new museums with important collections of artefacts. The
British Museum (1753) was the first national public museum in the world, while
the National Gallery (1824), the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) (1852),
the Science Museum (1857) and the Natural History Museum (1873) were all
erected to offer new ways of seeing the world. The same century also witnessed
Darwin’s theory of evolution which challenged religious thinking about the ori-
gins of humanity. Although the Bible claimed the Earth’s age to be around 6000
years old, many fossils and bones from sites around England were shown to be
much older. Consequently, it was thought they could give clues to the identity of
the first Britons.
Discoveries throughout the nineteenth century also led to a growing interest
in the care of ancient buildings and sites. The government realised it had an
important role to play in ensuring old buildings were not crushed by the march
of industrialism, and in 1882 passed new laws allowing officials to take over
neglected sites of historic interest.
Philanthropists and politicians of the period recognised that conservation had
not just a scientific role to improve public understanding of the past, but that it
also served an important cultural function. During the nineteenth century there
was industrialisation and expansion on a scale never seen before. People moved or
were forced to move from the countryside to the city in search of regular work, and
there was a sudden and dramatic interruption to social and cultural life. Uncon-
trolled urban growth led to poverty, grime, smog, insanitary conditions and social
disorder. But there was a relative lack of environmental concern with the city. The
rich and powerful saw it as a place to work and make money, but rarely as a place
to live, and there was more interest in caring for the depopulating countryside that
seemed to be increasingly subject to threats from new technology, especially the
railway, which was bringing rapid change to rural communities and landscapes.
For the art critic and philanthropist John Ruskin (1819–1900), conservation
of the past could help to promote a common culture and social cohesion, and it
was his vision of heritage as an ‘anchor’ in an increasingly restive nation that
began to link environmental issues to politics. His views were influential, and
in the latter part of the nineteenth century various philanthropic societies were
formed to preserve the countryside, such as the Commons Preservation Society
(1865), the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings (1877), the Society
for Checking the Abuses of Public Advertising (1893) and the National Trust
Cultural heritage 287
for Places of Historical Interest and Natural Beauty (1895). The countryside was
becoming something to aspire to, a kind of rural dream, and in 1897 the magazine
Country Life was founded to bring visions of arcadia into middle-class city draw-
ing rooms, as it still does today.
Abroad, the ethos of conservation spread around the British Empire. In the
1890s, Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India, introduced protectionist measures and
restored the Taj Mahal, complete with British-style lawns, which can still be
seen at the site, and many other buildings and monuments under British control
became subject to conservation and restoration.
In 1895 Sir Robert Hunter and Octavia Hill set up the National Trust for
Places of Historic Interest and National Beauty. It was more inclusive than previ-
ous bodies, and aimed to preserve not only grand country houses, but also rural
vernacular buildings. Today, it also protects historic landscapes, such as the Lake
District, as well as historic urban properties and nature reserves. Its statutory pow-
ers extend to Wales and Northern Ireland, but Scotland has a separate National
Trust of Scotland, which has similar aims and was founded in 1931. The Trust’s
logo of an oak leaf was taken from a medieval symbol on a beam in one of the first
cottages to be protected.
Between 1918 and 1939 another population shift took place, this time from
city centres to suburban areas of British towns and cities. People wanted to move
away from the smog, dirt and noise of the central, industrial areas, and live closer
to nature in green, leafy suburban environments with clean, fresh air. With new
roads and increased car ownership, part of the countryside’s attractiveness was
that it could be used as a leisure amenity. Motoring books encouraged people
to visit rural locations and historic places. Most roads were quiet and empty,
and motoring was seen as a liberating new way to explore the countryside even
though this sometimes caused damage, for example at the ancient site of Stone-
henge in southern England where visitors could walk among the stones, and even
began chipping some off to use as building material or garden ornaments.
Most country landowners resented the presence of visitors, and tried to keep the
public out, just as they had in the nineteenth century with the arrival of the railway.
But very little land in Britain is completely common and accessible to all, and the
growth in use of the countryside as a leisure facility by city dwellers and suburban-
ites led to frequent conflicts. A key moment occurred on the hill of Kinder Scout
in the Peak District in 1932, when ramblers famously organised a mass trespass on
the private slopes. The incident ended in violence and prison sentences, followed
by a long-running campaign by the Ramblers’ Association to open the countryside
to the public. The campaign endured until 2000, when the Countryside and Rights
of Way Act was introduced, finally allowing the public to walk in open country and
public common land without using paths, even when the land is privately owned.
In the cities, a different kind of battle was fought to protect the built environ-
ment. After the Second World War many of Britain’s historical buildings were
in ruins. Bombings of the historic cities of Plymouth, Exeter, Bath, Norwich and
York had destroyed some of the most valuable ones. But the attacks led to a sys-
tem for listing buildings of architectural merit around the UK, in order to identify
288 Cultural heritage
those that should be restored or rebuilt if they were damaged by enemy bombs in
future. Government inspectors began listing buildings, grading them as I, II or III,
a system of classification that is still used today by English Heritage.
In 1945 the Labour government led by Clement Attlee promised a new start for
all. Welfare was top of the agenda, with the introduction of the National Health
Service and the provision of new social or ‘council’ housing. A younger genera-
tion of architects and town planners believed new styles of building would solve
social and environmental problems, and modernist architecture would show the
way forward. Older buildings were seen as a problem, and there was large-scale
demolition of all kinds.
Nevertheless, some members of the public were sympathetic towards the Victo-
rian built environment. The poet John Betjeman caught the character of England
in his poetry and in his television presentations, expressing his instinctive feel-
ings with cosiness, warmth and humour, unlike Nikolaus Pevsner whose respected
architectural guides were more detached and academic. Both men led the most
important heritage campaign of the era, which attempted to save the Euston Arch,
a neoclassical monument marking the entrance to Euston train station. Despite
popular protest, the arch was destroyed in 1961 and the rubble was deposited in
the River Lea in east London. But, in the mid-1990s public opinion changed, and
a campaign began to recover the stones and resurrect this once fine landmark.
English Heritage
While the National Trust continues to conserve and manage many houses and
monuments of historic importance around the UK, the home nations have sepa-
rate bodies to advise on the care of environmental heritage. In England, the body
English Heritage (which is officially known as the Historic Buildings and Monu-
ments Commission for England) manages the historic environment, registering
listed buildings and historic sites of national importance, such as landscapes and
battlefields. Although it is funded by the Department of Culture, Media and
Sport, it is a non-governmental body.
English Heritage also acts as steward to over 400 historical and archaeological
sites from the stone-age circle of Stonehenge in Salisbury Plain, to the world’s
oldest iron bridge in Shropshire, to shipwrecks up to 12 miles from the British
coast. Around Britain, the bodies Historic Scotland, Cadw (in Wales) and the
Northern Ireland Environment Agency carry out similar functions.
The role of listing buildings is an important one. This refers to buildings placed
on the Statutory List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest.
There are around half a million currently listed in the UK, which means they
cannot be demolished, extended or altered without special permission from the
local planning authority. Owners may also be forced to maintain and repair listed
buildings, and may be prosecuted if they do not. Although most historic struc-
tures are listed, some are relatively new; for example, in 2011 the metal brutalist
Lloyd’s building in the City of London was given a Grade I listing when it was
just 25 years old. At the time, English Heritage said it was ‘universally recognised
as one of the key buildings of the modern epoch’. The pedestrian crossing that
appeared on the cover of the Beatles’ Abbey Road album is also listed, which
reflects the fact that almost anything can be protected as long as it can be shown
to be of special historic interest.
290 Cultural heritage
Figure 12.1 The Lloyd’s Building in London – a machine for working in – was given a
Grade I listing in 2011.
© Alex Christopher
Figure 12.2 A blue plaque in the City of London, close to the Church of St Bartholomew.
© David Christopher
292 Cultural heritage
Whose heritage?
The idea of heritage can be said to be more emotional and ideological than
that of conservation. Conservation is about preserving what is already there,
but heritage raises questions such as whose heritage is being represented, how
should it be done, and whether or not it should be represented in the first
place.
The kind of questions asked about heritage today are very different to those
asked previously. From 1945 until the 1990s an upper-class vision of society pre-
vailed, which emphasised imperial greatness, national triumph and deference to
the ruling class. For example, fine country houses were presented as one of the
great icons of British culture. Visitors looked up admiringly at their triumphal
nature; that of civilised man over the environment, and of Britain over the rest
of the world. But now when studying a country house, challenging new ques-
tions typically emerge, such as the origin of the enormous sums made by the
owners and, for example, their role in slave labour in the Caribbean. In turn,
this prompts observations about the contrast between the genteel civility of the
elegant buildings and formal gardens, compared with the brutal degradation of
slavery. In this way, the country house and its artefacts are reconceptualised for
audiences in the twenty-first century.
Since the 1990s there has been a similar tendency to rethink collections and
reconceptualise galleries. Britain is no longer a colonial power, and new stories
have emerged about its ascent to greatness. New questions are being asked, such
as how it was achieved and at what cost, as well as what was originally British
and ‘belonged’ to Britain. Stories told in museums and galleries about British
greatness in war, empire and discovery have been reconsidered and replaced by
new stories about the production, acquisition and consumption of objects. This
involved a refocusing on new questions of who made them, who used them,
where, why, what for and so on. This change of emphasis is illustrated in many
collections in museums today.
In the case of the British Museum, many of its exhibits were gathered from
overseas, and some critics argue that certain pieces should be returned to their
country of origin. However, defenders of its work say that the Museum does not
tell the story of Britain, but presents itself as a museum of the world. Its collec-
tions are from around the world, and are skilfully preserved and presented to
visitors from around the world, in an environment that is secure, protected and
free to enter.
Today, museums in Britain are multifaceted. They are seen as businesses, col-
lections, venues for education, learning and research. The stories they tell are
frequently contested, and new ones are continually emerging. For example, a
recent exhibition about Sherlock Holmes at the Museum of London explored
how Conan Doyle’s fictional character has transcended literature, and become
the subject of stage and screen. Film, photography and paintings were used to
re-create the Victorian London of Holmes, to enable the public to experience
virtually the world he knew and investigated.
Cultural heritage 293
Figure 12.3 Heritage of the imagination. The address is 221b Baker St., London, residence
of Sherlock Holmes, the man who never lived and never died. Yet, his fictional
home is now a major attraction for overseas visitors. Note there is even a blue
plaque on the wall.
© David Christopher
Figure 12.4 A battle scene is re-enacted at the Honourable Artillery Ground, surrounded
by the bastions of modern business in the heart of London.
© Nargis Christopher
Cultural heritage 295
and bring to life elements of British history in a colourful and engaging way.
However, such presentations are sometimes criticised as an oversimplification, a
‘dumbing down’ of historical events, and a ‘Disney-fication’ of the past, in order
to create spectacular light entertainment for twenty first-century non-specialist
audiences.
Sectarian rivalry
Although the United Kingdom is a mainly secular and multi-faith country, the
past rivalries between Protestants and Catholics that endured for several cen-
turies still find expression on certain days of the year. In England and Wales
anniversaries of past confrontations are largely forgotten, however in Northern
Ireland and parts of Scotland they still survive and can still be a source of tension.
Some of the most visible displays involve the Orange parades by Protestant
lodges. These are brotherhoods, with names such as the Orange Order, the Order
of Hibernians and the Apprentice Boys, who assemble and march through the
streets on certain days between April and August, celebrating important days in
Protestant history. The most important date is 12 July, the anniversary of Prince
William’s victory over Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne on the
east coast of Ireland in 1690. It is recognised as one of Britain’s most significant
battles, and one that marked the rise of Protestantism in Ireland, and is known
as Orangemen’s Day or Orange Day, which is a bank holiday. On this and other
occasions, lodge members typically wear dark suits adorned with an orange sash,
and bowler hats. Pipes, flutes and drums similar to those played by armies of the
Cultural heritage 299
past mark time as the lodge members march through the streets, waving Union
flags and banners. Lodges are mainly male, although there are some ladies’
lodges too.
But the Orange walks are controversial. Among those who hold religious
beliefs, Catholicism is the main faith in Northern Ireland today. The census of
2011 found a majority of almost 41 per cent claimed to be Catholic. It is also
the most religiously observant part of the UK with 45 per cent of the population
attending church regularly. Parades and marches are thus seen as triumphalist
and provocative by many Northern Irish, especially when they pass through pre-
dominantly Catholic areas. During the 1970s when the ‘Troubles’ were at their
height, fights and stone throwing sometimes broke out, and marchers were ver-
bally abused. However, today the situation is much calmer. Of more than 2000
annual parades, only a small number are considered to be potentially violent.
Marchers argue that disturbances are caused by outsiders and troublemakers, over
whom they have no control. They blame Catholic Nationalists for attacking
Protestant Unionists, and argue that marchers have a right to walk along public
roads and play their tunes without interference, and without the need to negoti-
ate where they wish to go.
In Scotland there are similar marches. However, the majority of the general
public are opposed to them, even though they commonly take place in the week-
ends of the summer months in Glasgow and some other regions. They claim they
are an incitement to violence and hatred, as well as being expensive to police.
Another event that has its origins in the rivalry and, at times, hostility between
Protestant and Catholic communities is Guy Fawkes Night, or Bonfire Night, a
rare example of an indigenous British festival that is still celebrated around the
country, although in parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland its observance can
still be controversial. It recalls events in 1605 when a group of Catholic conspira-
tors planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament and the Protestant King, James
I, with the intention of replacing him with a Catholic monarch. However, one
of the conspirators – Guy Fawkes – was discovered, and the ‘gunpowder plot’ was
foiled. Fawkes was tortured and executed, and soon afterwards the King ordered
a day of celebration to be held on 5 November. This has evolved into one of
fire, immolation and colourful explosions. Today, the occasion is still marked,
although due to secularisation and a much less zealous Protestantism in England,
the religious origins of the festivities are largely ignored. Moreover, ubiquitous
health and safety regulations have also led to the cancellation of many civic
celebrations.
Typically, a bonfire is lit as part of a local, community occasion, and fireworks
are set off into the night sky. Domestic versions of the event may include an effigy
of the Catholic terrorist – ‘the Guy’ – being made from old clothing packed with
newspapers or straw, which is tossed on top of the bonfire. Children collecting
wood for the bonfire was once a common sight in the week before 5 November,
as was street begging. Children would sit on the pavement accompanied by their
home-made effigy, calling out ‘Penny for the Guy’ to passers-by, to raise funds for
fireworks. However, this is rarely seen or heard today. Although the event has
Figure 12.6 A scene more usually associated with medieval barbarism, yet this could be a
garden in suburban Britain on Bonfire Night.
© FLPA/Alamy
Cultural heritage 301
changed little over the years, a more recent interpretation involves the burning
of celebrities and politicians in place of a ‘Guy’. Another recent trend is the wear-
ing of ‘Guy Fawkes’ masks at political demonstrations.
Like many historic festivals, festivities, celebrations and entertainments, the
story and origins of Guy Fawkes have been marginalised, but the spectacle is still
widely observed and enjoyed.
Music festivals
The countryside is still a dominant influence in British heritage, in conserva-
tion, in sport, recreation, entertainment and celebration, and it holds a magnetic
influence on those living in towns and cities, each year drawing millions to take
part in events and activities around the counties of the UK.
Some of the largest and best-known events have a focus on music, and in recent
times these have grown sharply in number and popularity. In 2004 there were
around 100 music festivals held around the UK, but by 2014 this had grown to
over 900. The top 200 festivals contribute £450 million to the economy in ticket
sales, travel, accommodation and food, and attract many visitors from overseas.
Larger ones, such as Glastonbury, regularly attract over 120,000 campers and are
broadcast internationally. At times, they have been a vehicle for counter-culture,
alternative lifestyles and explicitly political causes. But today they have become
more corporate in nature, and highly profitable forms of mass entertainment for
their organisers and sponsors.
Some of the earliest festivals were of classical music and opera. The Glynde-
bourne Festival Opera is held near Lewes in Sussex, and has taken place almost
every year since the original two-week festival began in 1934. Today, it takes
place over four months from May to August each year, when the resident London
Philharmonic Orchestra assists with some 76 performances, which are presented
to a total audience of over 85,000. The location is an important element of Glynde-
bourne’s appeal, as many artists and spectators are attracted by the verdant ele-
gance of the remote country setting.
By the 1950s jazz music was growing in popularity, and a number of outdoor,
country locations were chosen for concerts. This also coincided with the need for
the owners of country estates to generate income from their properties. America’s
Newport Jazz Festival had shown the way from 1954, and in 1956 Lord Montague
held a jazz festival at Beaulieu, as an imaginative solution to help preserve his
estate. The event proved highly successful, and soon afterwards a jazz event was
held at the Butlin’s Holiday Camp in Clacton, where Shirley Bassey and John
Dankworth entertained the crowds. Music festivals grew steadily in popularity,
size and duration, and were extended from one day to two or more, with dor-
mitory marquees to accommodate some of those staying overnight, and when
the Rolling Stones played at the Richmond Jazz Festival in 1964, some 27,000
attended.
Pop and rock were beginning to replace jazz in festival programmes, and one
of the highlights was Glastonbury Fair. It began in 1914 when classical music
302 Cultural heritage
concerts and lectures took place around a summer school at Glastonbury in Som-
erset, until 1926. However, it was not until 1970 that the Festival started again,
when local farmer Michael Eavis organised the Pilton Pop, Blues and Folk Festi-
val. It was attended by around 1500 fans, who paid an entrance fee of £1 to see T.
Rex, among others. The following year it was named the Glastonbury Fair, with
David Bowie, Joan Baez and Hawkwind headlining. Like many other open-air
festivals of the period, it also offered dance, poetry readings, theatre and other
sideshows.
A growing counter-culture was beginning to attach itself to the festival scene.
In the southern English countryside, a growing number of small events offered the
opportunity to raise awareness of alternative issues, celebrate arts, crafts, experi-
mentation, environmentalism, and a chance to meet like-minded individuals
who shared a similar disenchantment with conventional politics. In East Anglia,
local fairs reinvented seasonal gatherings in the countryside, imbuing them with
an environmental awareness and early ‘green’ politics. Many of the early events
were organised together with local authorities, who worked to ensure their safety
and efficient functioning. Most gatherings were small and free, as was the Wind-
sor Free Festival, a larger event that was illegally held on royal land between 1972
and 1974. Under the loose organisation of the anarchist Bill ‘Ubi’ Dwyer, festival
goers were encouraged to ‘bring what they would like to find’, with the aim of
creating an alternative community for several days. The success of Windsor led
to many similar events around the country, most notably Watchfield (1975), and
the Stonehenge free festival between 1972 and 1984.
Large festivals often raised funds for and awareness of political causes; how-
ever, unlike at the smaller events, the politics tended to be more mainstream
than alternative. Having seen the massed crowds at the American festival of
Woodstock in 1969, and around 200,000 music fans at the Isle of Wight Festival
in 1970, in 1971 the former Beatle George Harrison, together with Eric Clap-
ton and Ringo Starr, staged the Concert for Bangladesh in New York, raising
$250,000 to aid war casualties in the war-torn nation. It was the first of its kind,
and provided the inspiration for other large, politicised concerts and festivals in
Britain later in the decade, such as the Rock Against Racism concert supported
by the Anti-Nazi League in 1978 at Victoria Park in London, which featured the
Clash, Steel Pulse, X-Ray Spex and others, and was attended by over 100,000.
Rock Against Racism was aimed at promoting racial harmony through music,
and was one of the first organisations to mix black and white bands at a concert.
It worked closely with the Anti-Nazi League to organise gigs around Britain, and
helped to build support for anti-racism in schools, workplaces and the community
in general, as well as exposing far-right, neo-Nazi groups such as the National
Front and the British National Party.
At a time of escalating Cold War tension, the Glastonbury Festival contin-
ued to support various charitable and political causes such as the Campaign for
Nuclear Disarmament. But throughout the decade both large and small music
festivals became increasingly divorced from political causes and more char-
ity focused; for example, in 1985 the Live Aid concert at Wembley Stadium
Cultural heritage 303
in London helped to raised funds for a famine in Ethiopia. It was broadcast live
on television, and was seen by an estimated 1.9 billion viewers in around 150
countries.
Smaller, counter-cultural events became more aligned with dance music and
the apolitical hedonism that it offered, such as the Castlemorton Festival in 1992,
which attracted up to 40,000 ravers and others for a week-long event, the largest
of its kind since the Stonehenge Free Festival in the mid-1980s. However, the
free festival scene was coming under threat from hooliganism, media interest and
aggressive policing. The government felt compelled to act, and introduced the
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act of 1994, which aimed to outlaw outdoor
events in which music included ‘sounds wholly or predominantly characterised
by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats’. Never had raving been such
a serious business.
With the advent of the twenty-first century, public demand for festivals has
seen the number and variety increase almost exponentially. But unlike those of
previous decades, there has been a marked shift away from political awareness-
raising, from charitable causes and from counter-culture, towards corporatism and
profit. Festival goers have become customers with expectations, and the experi-
ence has changed from one of camping in a field with a poor sound system and
low standards of food and hygiene, to one of clean toilets, international cuisine,
no queues, a high fidelity sound, facilities for children, and in place of a damp,
smelly tent, high-quality accommodation is often available for hire.
Glastonbury remains the benchmark for many large mainstream festivals.
Despite its origins in the free festival and counter-cultural movements of the
1960s, it has grown to a five-day event, with a capacity of 135,000, attracting
some of the most notable pop and rock artists, along with hundreds of other acts.
The event helps to raise millions of pounds for good causes, including Oxfam,
Greenpeace and WaterAid, who also assist by offering their services as volun-
teers. Nevertheless, it is sometimes criticised for ‘selling out’; for becoming a
major corporate event characterised by expensive tickets, online ticketing sys-
tems, security guards and commercialisation, plus, for those able to afford its hire,
even the luxury of an on-site Winnebago, or an air-conditioned yurt.
Elsewhere in Britain, the festival scene has been characterised in recent years
by the arrival of smaller, ‘boutique’ events, such as Kendal Calling in Cumbria
and LeeFest in Surrey, and many others that offer high-quality accommodation
on site, fewer queues and other events such as comedy, theatre and tutorials on
photography. Trends are clearly moving towards a rebranding of festivals in terms
of exclusivity and conformity in events which are clean, well ordered and about
as subversive as a Glyndebourne opera. The business model is also being exported,
as larger events look to franchise their festivals overseas. In 2013, the organisers
of Field Day and The Warehouse Project staged an event The Unknown Festival
in Croatia, in 2014 Wonderfruit launched in Thailand and Bestival organisers
expect to launch an event in the USA in 2015.
Despite the globalisation of British festivals, there are very few festivals in
Britain for world music. The Africa Oye is the largest celebration of live African
304 Cultural heritage
Figure 12.7 Glastonbury Festival – the largest event of its kind in the world.
© S.I.N./Alamy
music in the UK, while Melas held in Bradford, Cardiff and Edinburgh celebrate
south Asian music and culture. Southburgh in Norfolk also offers a world music
festival. There is also the World of Music and Dance (WOMAD) in Malmesbury,
Wiltshire, which was first held in 1982, organised by musician Peter Gabriel and
others.
In complete contrast, for those with a taste for nostalgia, Marvellous Festivals
in Berkshire specialise in a festival of tribute bands, such as the Bootleg Beatles,
T. Rexstacy, and Boot Led Zeppelin.
accent
Accent refers to the type of pronunciation a person speaks with. In contrast, dia-
lect refers to differences in grammar and vocabulary. In Britain, both accent and
dialect may give clues about not only a person’s background but also their general
level of education. It is often said by linguists that non-mobile, older rural males
(NORMs) speak with some of the most distinctive accents, although in recent
decades this category has expanded to include immigrants to the UK.
Ealing comedies
A distinctive range of comedy films produced at the Ealing Studios in London
especially between 1948 and 1955, which typically featured the main characters
subverting authority or rebelling against the ruling class.
Establishment
In the 1960s it was widely believed that British society and politics was con-
trolled by a small number of wealthy families and individuals who had been to
elite public schools and universities. They included the royal family and others
who held key positions in the Church, government and armed forces. However,
the concept has little use today when new types of unelected bodies such as the
World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and powerful media figures also
hold great power and are able to influence official policy.
Good Friday Agreement
A series of agreements between the British and Irish governments, and the politi-
cal parties of Northern Ireland regarding civil and cultural rights, justice, polic-
ing and the decommissioning of weapons. The agreement helped to bring about
peace in Northern Ireland in the late 1990s, following decades of violence.
heritage films
The term is often used to describe a genre of films which strongly reflect con-
servative values of nationalism, patriotism and nostalgia for the days of British
imperial greatness. The style has been frequently represented by the team of
Merchant–Ivory in the 1980s, whose A Room with a View exemplifies the trend.
However, another view claims the glorious, romantic past is fundamentally
false, as the British Empire was a façade for an exploitative and sometimes cruel
310 Glossary
occupation. A stronger view argues it is a flawed attempt to represent a British
cultural identity, one which is maintained because it consistently sells well with
audiences at home and abroad.
hi-tech
A style in design and architecture which uses advanced technology and light-
weight, flexible materials, such as steel, glass and aluminium. Unlike in earlier styles,
the mechanical aspects of the building, such as pipes, lifts and air-conditioning
systems, are sometimes displayed on the outside. The style has been exploited by
Richard Rogers and Norman Foster among others.
IRA
The Irish Republican Army is an organisation of Irish Nationalists dedicated to
the establishment of a United Ireland, which was increasingly active in Britain
from the late 1960s when British troops patrolled the streets of many Northern
Irish cities.
‘kitchen sink’ drama
A style of play popular in the 1950s, a time when there was a new spirit of open-
ness in society, and a desire in the arts to offer authentic representations of it.
The ‘kitchen sink’ style put the lives of the poor and ordinary to the forefront,
in drama as well as in television, film and art, before becoming absorbed into the
mainstream of the 1960s, along with other elements of social realism.
Macpherson Report
This was a report in 1999 on the racist murder in 1993 of Stephen Lawrence, who
was stabbed by a group of white youths in south London. The initial investigation
was held to be inadequate, and following a judicial inquiry announced by the
Labour government, the former High Court judge Sir William Macpherson found
the police investigation showed professional incompetence, failed leadership and
a catalogue of errors due to ‘institutional racism’ within the force. The report was
a damning indictment of race relations in Britain.
magic realism
Magic realism is a genre of writing that originated in South America, especially
in the works of Gabriel Garcia Márquez, whose novel One Hundred Years of Soli-
tude mixes extravagant fantasy with factual reality, partly in a playful way, but
also in response to the manipulation of fact and fiction in South American poli-
tics by totalitarian regimes. It is probably not coincidental that in Britain the
style was exploited in the 1980s and early 1990s – notably by Salman Rushdie,
Angela Carter, Graham Swift and Peter Carey – when for many people, what
the Thatcher government said about society was very different from the reality
of living in it.
moral panics
From time to time a particular kind of behaviour is suddenly treated as sensa-
tional and problematic by the government and the mass media, even though it
has been present all along. In Britain, moral panics have often been encouraged
Glossary 311
by the political right, in order to criticise the left for its alleged incompetence.
Some of the best-documented examples include studies of Teds, mods and rock-
ers, muggers, New Age travellers and asylum seekers.
National Front
A small, far-right political organisation founded in 1966 and dedicated to the
expulsion of non-white immigrants from the UK, as well as the reintroduction of
capital punishment for certain offences.
neo-classical
This describes buildings from the early nineteenth to early twentieth century
in the classical styles of ancient Greece and Rome. These included many civic
and commercial buildings, such as town halls, banks and train stations which
emphasised civic power and pride, as well as reaffirming the kind of society that
the local government wanted to create.
neo-vernacular
Since the late 1980s there has been a trend in architecture to design types of
houses that are traditional in appearance, having the ‘look’ of houses from per-
haps 50–100 years earlier, but are modern in features and comforts. These are
sensitive to their (often rural) environment, and popular with house-buyers, who
generally prefer the look of older houses.
New Brutalism
A severely functional style of architecture, characterised by smooth, stark sur-
faces and sharp angles, which imposes itself on the environment and observer in
a kind of architectural anti-aesthetic. In Britain the style was commonly found in
local authority housing blocks of the 1950s and 1960s and the National Theatre
complex, designed by Denys Lasdun. However, the reputation of such buildings
suffered as they were often built quickly and cheaply, and concrete as a building
material soon went out of fashion.
outing
During the 1980s and 1990s there was a reaction against what many saw as the
hypocrisy of undeclared homosexuals in positions of power, who had spoken out
against gay equality in the Church and elsewhere. ‘Outing’ them involved pub-
licly declaring that the person in question was in fact gay.
pirate radio
Pirate radio refers to radio stations broadcasting illegally. In the mid-1960s many
broadcast rock music from ships in the Thames estuary and in the North Sea,
exploiting a legal loophole, which left them in international waters outside
British legal jurisdiction. Today, pirate radio stations are more likely to be found
in apartment blocks in urban areas.
political correctness
Many linguists believe that language influences attitudes and behaviour, and dur-
ing the 1980s there was a move to change language use in official documents in
312 Glossary
order to promote equality and avoid causing offence to groups such as women,
gays, the disabled and ethnic minorities. Local authorities and other official
bodies have attempted to promote political correctness by avoiding the use of
language that could reinforce stereotyped thinking; for example, words with the
suffix ‘man’ were altered to person, thus ‘chairman’ became ‘chairperson’, and
some female forms such as actress, air hostess and spinster fell out of use.
political left/left wing
Since the nineteenth century, British politics has been divided into two main
groups, the left and the right, which have their roots in philosophies of the eigh-
teenth and nineteenth centuries. The basic premise of the left was that a better,
fairer society could be achieved through the redistribution of wealth from rich
to poor, and that social problems were largely attributable to social inequality.
A more extreme view wanted to see the imposition of a communist society, in
which, theoretically at least, everyone would be equal and nobody exploited;
there would be no private business or private property; and elections would be
unnecessary. This was largely the belief of Karl Marx (1818–83) and Marxist
ideology, which divided the world until the 1990s. Although Marx lived and
worked in Britain for some years, his works found little favour. The Labour Party
was committed to some Marxist principles until the 1990s, such as the nationali-
sation of major industries, for example coal, steel and transport, but these were
removed under the leadership of Tony Blair.
political right/right wing
In contrast to the political left, the right was an early political view based on
philosophies of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which believed that a
better society could be created with small government, strong law, low taxes and
free enterprise. This found its maximum expression in recent times with ‘Thatch-
erism’ (see below).
soap opera
The term ‘soap opera’ was imported from America in the 1950s where mini-series
with lots of drama, domestic conflict and crises were sponsored by detergent man-
ufacturers who used the commercial breaks to advertise their products, primarily
to housewives watching daytime television.
social realism
Social realism emerged in the 1950s, with new works of theatre, literature, poetry
and art, television plays and soap operas aiming to represent society in a more
realistic way. It marked the beginning of the British ‘new wave’ in a movement
that was influenced by the ‘documentary’ style developed in Britain in the late
1930s.
spin/spin doctors
Spin and spin doctors were a new aspect of 1990s media and public relations.
The act of preparing and managing political or corporate information in the best
possible light is known as ‘spin’. The mass media frequently spin news to make
it eye-catching, controversial or sensational; political parties spin news so as to
Glossary 313
avoid damage and present themselves in the most acceptable way. Those who
‘spin’ the news are known as ‘spin doctors’.
suburbia
Suburbia is a generic name for areas of the city between the centre and the
countryside. Most people in Britain live in the suburbs, and increasingly work
there too. In recent years suburban life has been the subject of study, as an area
once known for its limited interest and the narrow-mindedness of its conformist
inhabitants is recognised as being far more varied and liberal than researchers
initially suspected.
tabloid
This is a print industry term meaning ‘compressed’. For many years it referred to
smaller-sized newspapers which were generally more sensational press with a wide
appeal. They had shorter articles and sentences and often used informal vocabu-
lary and slang. However, from around 2000, several of the larger, ‘broadsheet’
newspapers began to appear in a smaller, tabloid size, in the belief that many
readers found the format practical and preferable. Papers such as the Independent,
The Times and the Guardian now appear in smaller formats, and the term is no
longer synonymous with ‘low quality’ press.
Thatcherism
Thatcherism refers to the ideology and practices of the Conservative government
under Margaret Thatcher between 1979 and 1990. It involved cutting public
spending on social welfare and arts projects, a vast programme of privatisation of
almost all state-controlled industries and liberating market forces, together with a
strong police force to keep in check the inevitable social consequences. Abroad,
Thatcher’s foreign policy included a tough anti-communist/socialist stance and
much closer ties with the USA.
Thatcher frequently expressed her personal belief in the need to return to val-
ues of thrift, enterprise, the family, personal restraint and a strict code of con-
duct, which were often referred to as ‘Victorian values’. Her autocratic style and
strength were enough to carry forward her programmes until she was finally dis-
lodged by her own party following economic recession, the introduction of the
‘poll tax’ and internal divisions over closer ties with Europe.
Thatcherism profoundly affected British society not only in the 1980s, but also
through into the twenty-first century, as privatisation, the removal of subsidies
and business values have become mainstream in the arts and in many areas of
society. On the other hand, so-called ‘Victorian values’ have been largely ignored
as society has become more tolerant, plural and liberal.
Tory
The Conservative Party is often referred to as the Tory Party.
youth culture
In the post-war period British youth culture has frequently been characterised by
gangs and groups with specific values, attitudes, beliefs, behaviour, clothes, lan-
guage, drugs, music and so on. Essentially, youth culture refers to a style which is
314 Glossary
distinct from that of the dominant culture. Since the 1950s many youth cultures
have been related to youth and deviancy, for example ‘Teddy Boys’, ‘mods’, ‘rock-
ers’, ‘punks’ and ‘yardies’. Their existence mainly among the working class is said
to have provided a solution to their failure to adjust to mainstream society, or a
rejection/contempt for the values of the dominant class.
However, since the 1990s the ‘tribalism’ of British youth appears to have
declined. According to some theories, this reflects the disappearance of labour-
intensive manual industries and a decline in oppositional politics of left and
right, as well as the development of a multicultural society, which together have
contributed to a breakdown of traditional class divisions. At the same time, the
public has become both more tolerant and increasingly familiar with the ten-
dency of the mass media to exaggerate events, resulting in lower levels of interest
and the removal of the media’s role as an ‘amplifier’ of youth culture.
Index