Friday 9 September 2022 10:37 PM Do mention the War... and pubs, and pets trends now
The Second World War ended over 75 years ago but as a nation we’re still obsessed by it. It remains a cornerstone of British culture, with the country still celebrating its war heroes and producing endless films, documentaries and books on the subject. But why?
‘We like to look back at a time when we really were a great nation,’ explains historian Keith Lowe in fascinating new Sky History series Britain’s Greatest Obsessions. ‘Before the war we were the biggest economy in the world. We had the biggest navy. Britannia really did rule the waves. But after it we were bankrupt, and we lost our empire and our number one spot to America.’
The war is one of six topics discussed in the series, in which six celebrities explore why certain subjects exert such a strong hold on the national psyche – from pets, pubs and the British sense of humour to the weather, class and our ding-dong with Hitler.
Lorraine Kelly is tasked with getting to the bottom of our obsession with the war and she believes the Blitz spirit, still evident in crises like the Covid pandemic, still resonates. ‘Camaraderie kept everyone going,’ she says. ‘People were sustained by the desire to do one’s bit.’
Harry Hill (pictured) concludes, what’s important is that a giggle sees us through bad times
Lorraine discovers that as well as defeating Nazism, the war also led to a technological boom and seismic changes in society. ‘It was a unique moment,’ she says. ‘It brought about societal change and the start of women’s liberation, and sparked technological advancements.’
Actress and presenter Liza Tarbuck tackles our obsession with the weather, which is uniquely unpredictable because of our geographical position stuck out in the Atlantic.
‘As a Brit I talk about it all the time and I’ve always been fascinated by the part it plays in our history,’ says Liza. ‘I thought it was just small talk, when in reality it governs daily choices, food, mood and history – everything.’
And that’s because of the crucial role the weather’s played in our military history, Liza discovers. In 1588 when the Spanish Armada was poised to invade and replace Queen Elizabeth I with a Catholic monarch, British weather saved the day.
Who better than naturalist Chris Packham (pictured) to delve into our obsession with pets? We Brits dote on 34 million of them, but hundreds of years ago they were status symbols, as only the wealthy could afford to have one
‘At a crucial moment the wind changed and the Spanish fleet was blown into the North Sea,’ Dr Robert Blyth, senior curator at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, tells Liza.
‘It was forced to go around the top of Scotland and down the west coast of Ireland, where it was battered by Atlantic storms and any hope of invasion was off. What they referred to at the time as a “Protestant wind” had saved England.’
The D-Day landings in June 1944 were dependent upon good weather, and a British meteorologist, James
