Black Adder I can completely understand.
The British Spitfire is something I envy only second to the P-51 Mustang.
But there are two things I don't understand about Britain and that is the Royal Family and the BBC.
I surmise the former is some kind of obsession that we here in the US have with Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, but the second is a bit of a creature I'm sure I won't understand since I didn't grow up in the UK.
Thus, having no knowledge or understanding why the BBC is so key to British culture, I shall post a chart from another jewel of British culture, The Economist, in the hopes of boosting British readership.
And hopefully somebody from across the pond can explain to me why this is relevant.
3 comments:
Cap'n,
I'm not sure I understand the question? Are you asking why the BBC matters, or are you asking what the chart itself is relevant to?
If the UK is anything like Canada, they probably have their panties in a wad because American television tends to rule the waves, so to speak.
But, on a related note, didn't Black Adder come from the BBC? (Or was that ITV?) And you are absolutely right - I am rewatching the series right now and it was hilarious! If so, then BBC matters because of shows like Black Adder.
Name countries with an officially sanctioned state broadcaster... The USSR? Cuba? South Korea? China... and... the UK!
Many of us over here like to think that the Beeb is a great cultural institution - and once it was (Blackadder, Monty Python etc.) Now its just a tax on television ownership which funds the Great and The Good deciding what we get to see on the telly.
Arrgghh.
Basically it shows that up until the mid 50's The BBC had the highest viewership (for obvious reasons) and as the number of terrestrial TV channels increased that percentage went down. This percentage went down even further once cable and satellite T.V entered the scene.
Unfortunately everyone in the UK who owns a TV (or any device capable of viewing realtime TV)has to have a TV licence and this money goes to the BBC (hence no commercials).
The BBC do still make a few great programmes but there are a lot of re-runs of classics too
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