Thursday October 4th, 2012
In the wake of a summer of Olympic fever (I can’t have been
the only one weeping on my sofa as Jessica Ennis took her gold), and following the
annual catastrophic breakdown of reserve in X Factor contestants as they are
granted 5 minutes of fame before being relegated from human memory forever, the
time seems ripe for a documentary investigating that old stereotype of the
British stiff upper lip.
The culture of Keep Calm and Carry On seems to suggest that
this is a part of our national character that we treasure, along with insane queuing
skills. Ian Hislop, as self-assured as a brilliant if slightly intimidatingly
clever history teacher, sets out in Stiff Upper Lip – an Emotional History of
Britain to discover where this perception of the British came from, and whether
it still rings true.
It is a fresh and interesting way to explore British
history, and the opening episode of the series, focusing on the emergence of
the stiff upper lip, navigated a dexterous course through art, literature and
our national treasures in order to interrogate a history more difficult to pin
down but arguably more enthralling than one involving facts and dates.
The conclusion of this enjoyable hour of television was that
whilst prior to the late 18th Century we were quite an excitable
bunch, when the French Revolution kicked off we became rather alarmed at the
apparent link between excessive emotion and radical politics. Faced with the
terrifying prospect of becoming like the French (a fear that still resonates
with Boris Johnson today), the British reacted by constructing a contrasting
national character, embodied by the restrained heroes and heroines of Jane
Austen and the reserved British icon the Duke of Wellington, a suitable opponent
to the rather more vulgar Napoleon. By the mid-1800s the stiff upper lip had
become entrenched in the national psyche, evolving into the infamously
repressed Victorian era, which will be explored by Hislop next week.
A fascinating, if hardly groundbreaking, documentary, Stiff
Upper Lip benefits hugely from its timely airing – basking in the warm glow
from our greatest summer, we are experiencing unusual levels of national pride
and are once more intrigued by what it means to be British. This, and Hislop’s confident
and wry presentation, adds weight to what could have been a flimsy subject. I
have to admit I was surprised to see that it had being stretched to a 3 part
series – whether it holds quite enough interest for that remains to be seen. I
will, however, tune in for the conclusion, to see if my screeches of excitement
during the Olympic Opening Ceremony mean I should be packing my bags for a less
reserved isle.
