Ian Hislop's Stiff Upper Lip - Review

 

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 18^th 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.