You can probably still find it on I-Player.
There are bits about folk song and music
... and dancing!
Ian Hislop begins by questioning the authenticity of some of the idealised art of the nineteenth century.
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| "The Country Inn" by Myles Birket Foster. |
- He interviews Vic Gammon about the folk song revival.
- Vic gives guarded credit to Cecil Sharp ...
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| What a strange way to ride a bicycle! |
- Did the Victorian engagement with folk music fuel ‘aggressive nationalism’ that contributed to WW1?
- Then there was Morris dancing ...
- Were those battle-weary, shell-shocked soldiers really helped in their rehabilitation by attending Daisy Dakin‘s classes?
(It is so writ: it must be true!)
Hislop is somewhat cynical about the myth that describes ‘Merrie England’.
- There is similar ambivalence from another circumspect academic, (The Imagined Village, Boyes, G., Manchester, 1993)
- Briefly and sympathetically, he considers the life and literary works of J.R.R. Tolkien ...
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| Mordor … “Birmingham by any other name!” |
He visits Ambridge in fictional Borstetshire, rural home of The Archers.
- Ned Larkin bemoans the invention of the traction engine.
- Hens are given spectacles!
Then there’s a bit about railways!
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| Monsal Dale viaduct in Derbyshire. |
1 comment:
Well Colin Ian Hislop is known for taking the rise -- so I'll just say how wonderful to my eye is the painting "The Country Inn" by Myles Birket Foster. Of course Ian, though very witty, is nevertheless predominately of a predatory ilk. He feeds off everything and so now it's Folk music. The viaduct is nice but not, surely, anywhere near our very own version at Balcombe. How do I attach photo of same?
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