I watched 100% English on channel 4 Monday night presented by the alleged culture expert Andrew Graham-Dixon. Basically the programme involved several real life and celebrity volunteers who agreed to give a sample of their DNA for examination to ascertain if their ancestral roots where of British origin.
During the programme I giggled at various instances, such as when the woman who was heavily into the Anglo-Saxon past and had even set up an organisation to recognise the English as an ethnic group had her results back. The results showed she was of Romany / East European origin with some Northern European etc, she wasn’t best pleased and later threatened legal action against the programme, claiming the DNA findings to be inaccurate. Other results followed, Lord Tebbit , journalist Gary Bushell and also Carol Thatcher (that’s Maggies daughter for American readers) with differing results and ethnic origins.
It wasn’t till after the programme that my brain started ticking, first impressions were that presenter Andrew Graham-Dixon had been quite smug about it all, whilst looking serious on presenting the results you could see there was an inner gloating about him. This was mainly due to the fact he’d mostly managed to get the participants to reveal their patriotic or racist thoughts before the DNA tests, only for them to later find their origins weren’t as English as they might have thought. Most were incredulous as most of their immediate family or a few generations back were English, it’s just that the DNA is traceable back for literally hundreds of years.
Andrew Graham-Dixon also kept using the phrase ‘Do you consider the black footballer Ian Wright to be English?’ This grated on me, because though Ian Wright was born in Woolwich and is very proudly English I’m sure he has over sea’s roots and is equally as proud of them too.
So how do you define being English? It’s surely a contentious and debatable subject to some.
People that came here back in the 50s/60s to work here and supplement the service industries and growing need for labour probably consider themselves English, though will always revere their origins and roots. Let’s face it, they came here, worked hard and integrated and contributed to our culture, they have the right to call themselves English and be proud of it.
There’s lots of other ways people may consider themselves English, a lot of people try and flee here from the third world, or oppressive regimes, they openly dream of living in England and becoming an English citizen. There’s people that are born here but have foreign parents etc and the lists and arguments to be considered English goes on.
What made me angry after the programme was the fact people were belittled to some extent for purely being patriotic, ok so their ancestry may come from other parts of the globe but in their hearts you could see they regarded themselves as English and why shouldn’t they?!
Also, how accurate is DNA for that sort of thing? How much does the guy in the street know about DNA? Sure we know its good for finding murderers etc and cloning but that’s only what we read or see on television, I have to confess to finding some aspects of it ambiguous, though I readily admit this is due to my lack of knowledge on it.
And finally, its well known we are a mongrel nation to a large degree, we are hardly unique in our genetic make up. I have French/Irish roots from a few generations back but I will always consider myself English and be proud of it, why should anyone be humiliated and be made not to feel proud of our heritage, ways and culture?
So, in retrospect, the programme sucked.
During the programme I giggled at various instances, such as when the woman who was heavily into the Anglo-Saxon past and had even set up an organisation to recognise the English as an ethnic group had her results back. The results showed she was of Romany / East European origin with some Northern European etc, she wasn’t best pleased and later threatened legal action against the programme, claiming the DNA findings to be inaccurate. Other results followed, Lord Tebbit , journalist Gary Bushell and also Carol Thatcher (that’s Maggies daughter for American readers) with differing results and ethnic origins.
It wasn’t till after the programme that my brain started ticking, first impressions were that presenter Andrew Graham-Dixon had been quite smug about it all, whilst looking serious on presenting the results you could see there was an inner gloating about him. This was mainly due to the fact he’d mostly managed to get the participants to reveal their patriotic or racist thoughts before the DNA tests, only for them to later find their origins weren’t as English as they might have thought. Most were incredulous as most of their immediate family or a few generations back were English, it’s just that the DNA is traceable back for literally hundreds of years.
Andrew Graham-Dixon also kept using the phrase ‘Do you consider the black footballer Ian Wright to be English?’ This grated on me, because though Ian Wright was born in Woolwich and is very proudly English I’m sure he has over sea’s roots and is equally as proud of them too.
So how do you define being English? It’s surely a contentious and debatable subject to some.
People that came here back in the 50s/60s to work here and supplement the service industries and growing need for labour probably consider themselves English, though will always revere their origins and roots. Let’s face it, they came here, worked hard and integrated and contributed to our culture, they have the right to call themselves English and be proud of it.
There’s lots of other ways people may consider themselves English, a lot of people try and flee here from the third world, or oppressive regimes, they openly dream of living in England and becoming an English citizen. There’s people that are born here but have foreign parents etc and the lists and arguments to be considered English goes on.
What made me angry after the programme was the fact people were belittled to some extent for purely being patriotic, ok so their ancestry may come from other parts of the globe but in their hearts you could see they regarded themselves as English and why shouldn’t they?!
Also, how accurate is DNA for that sort of thing? How much does the guy in the street know about DNA? Sure we know its good for finding murderers etc and cloning but that’s only what we read or see on television, I have to confess to finding some aspects of it ambiguous, though I readily admit this is due to my lack of knowledge on it.
And finally, its well known we are a mongrel nation to a large degree, we are hardly unique in our genetic make up. I have French/Irish roots from a few generations back but I will always consider myself English and be proud of it, why should anyone be humiliated and be made not to feel proud of our heritage, ways and culture?
So, in retrospect, the programme sucked.
2 comments:
i had heard of the programme, but didn't see it (thats what happens when you don't have a working tv).
as it was described to me i thought it fell into the category of recent things that do their utmost to disprove the notion of being english or being proud to be english.
my mum was irish. my dad may have been from east european jewish stock (if his tall tales were to be believed). me i am english.
why.
i was born here. i was educated here, my health has been cared for here. while it may not be strictly the land of my fathers, it is the land of my heart.
i am patriotic.
i am not ashamed of the flag or the nation, which is not to say i absolve the country of all its sins.
ironically we encourage the various ethnic groups within the country to be proud of their heritage, to be proud of their roots. while all the time seemingly trying to cut the ground out from underneath those who want to be english.
rant over.
vote pat.
Kinda glad I didn't watch it now, bit fed up of people having a go cos I love being English, thanks for the overview tho Jay
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