You should hear the names our neighbour calls his cows. Quite an education. Andouille point was that someone on here likes them. Pervert. Francophilia has limits, after all.

Our mairie is wonderful - shared with another village - only open on Tuesday afternoons. M le maire is a complete buffoon, secretary is a very capable matron.

Have you ever looked at the Brits in France forums?

I'm (mercifully?) ignorant of their existence. Are they sort of an encyclopaedic version of A year in the merde?

I used to teach in a school in the banlieue. It was enriching for my vocabulary, but sadly there were no cows

They vary. Sometimes it's the 'why don't they all speak English' line, at other times the 'we're so INTEGRATED our postman says hello', at other times 'we're here, you stay where you are'. Those comparatives, I'm a foreign guest, he's an expat, they're a bunch of chavs. A lot of sadness, England-hating, broken-Britainism and the desire to 'live in a place like England in the fifties' - i.e. no blacks.
Our town even has a fish & chip van. You should see the gargoyles and stereotypes that drags out...

Thanks. I'm intrigued, but I know it will be a mistake if I give in to my curiosity.

I'm getting the sense from this thread that 'Great British' is just rebranding waffle: a label designed to evoke a sort of timeless, submerged identity, in order to hype a product that isn't new. It's interesting (to me) that 'English' doesn't seem to be used much in marketing. I keep reading about the reawakening of English national identity, but it seems the brand is still too toxic for commercial use.

Ah, God. Can someone stop Robert Webb narrating stuff?

Science on TV! That needs a few gags!

No it doesn't.

the problem with BBC4 is they do air good stuff but the 7.00 pm start hampers the channel

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There never was a golden age Mike, it's all an illusion

The Third Doctor Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974)

I really enjoyed BBC4's programme on the A303 that I stumbled across last night. Really interesting and engaging and the kind of thing the Beeb does better than anyone else (not that anyone else does do this kind of thing).

On a related note, Stewart Lee had a good jab at ITV the other night - "The televisual equivalent of a failed state!".

Also a good pop at Fearne Cotton - "She's gone from presenting children's programmes on the BBC to mainstream adult programmes on ITV, with surprising ease."

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Ten seconds... the pain begins.

Fifteen seconds... you can't breathe.

Twenty seconds... you give up and turn off the Jeremy Vine show.

I saw Stewart Lee's Top Gear routine for the first time the other day. It was brilliant stuff but rather undid its own point- that unpleasant jokes can be funny.