My antennae went up at the very beginning when they showed pictures of a procession of great Brits, beginning with Shakespeare. The next one was Newton, great, but the rest of the list was Charles Darwin, Jane Austin, John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Are these really the people they revere? What about Sir Winston Churchill, Lady Thatcher? With all of the literary, scientific, and medical heavyweights they have had, not to mention great statesmen, they pick this mostly motley crew.
The pageantry was breath-taking, awesome during the agrarian and industrial revolution segments, but from there it deteriorated to texting and hooking up. Are these the great achievements of British endeavor? I understand that show business types never tire of patting themselves on the back, seeing themselves as the center of the universe, but are dead and dying Beatles really the apex of centuries of cultural evolution? It was just plain scarey, and we’ll be no better off if the country continues on its present course.
1-—OK, Lennon and Macca are ‘just’ (great) pop music talents, but why shouldnt we celebrate Darwin?.
I am immensely proud, being British, that the great man is on our banknotes, taught to our pupils, and is revered by most British people as a genius, great man and a national hero/treasure.
And Jane Austin helped change the face of literature. Why the objection to a great writer?.
2—The whole point was to take the people watching from the era just before the IR, through the IR, past the world wars, to modern day UK, which is where the texting/film clip/pop montage came in.