I think that sort of thing really only works for cities; an establishing shot of St. Mark’s Cathedral isn’t going to do you much good if the action is in Florence. (Not to hear the producers of Taking Lives – which established that the action was set in Montreal using a shot of the Château Frontenac :rolleyes: – tell it.)
To the extent that the others work (leaving aside cases like Singapore), it’s because they indicate cities in which shows set in that country are almost always set – e.g. the Tower Bridge does duty for Britain because Britain Is Only London.
Actually, now that I think about it, the Mounties are really the only one of these symbols that actually are nationwide. Of course, they don’t really wear the dress uniforms except on special occasions; the rest of the time they wear regular cop outfits.
I guess this is pointless since the OP has already responed to clarify, but…I’d assumed he meant the first obvious sign that he is home. For instance, whenever you emigrate to the USA, there is the Statue. Whenever you swim the English Channel, there are the White Cliffs. You shouldn’t need to travel a thousand miles inland to know you’re home.
They’re not that famous are they?
For Belfast, I would imagine political murals would be more ready identifiers or for NI the Giant’s Causeway.
Ireland (as a whole) is a tricky one. The Ha’Penny Bridge (in Dublin) is used a bit as an establishing shot in British shows but I’m not really sure how famous it is further afield. A generic Irish pub might fit the bill better or a spud-headed old man in a cap leading a donkey and cart down a boithrín with dry stone walls?
Actually reading the OP I’m not entirely clear what is being looked for. Is it literally the thing that would make you realise you were at home, or the filmic/tv shorthand?
I saw a documentary about the P.O.W.s who were held during the Vietnam War. It ended with the details of their release and return to the U.S. An Air Force cargo plane landed in Hanoi and brought them to an air base in the Philippines. After some time at the base hospital, they were flown to a base in California. One of them said in an interview how the pilot came in low over the Golden Gate Bridge so they could see that they were home.
We got symbols on both coasts. Depends where you’re coming from.
When I was a small child my parents used to vacation all over Northern California. (We lived in SF.) Everytime we came home, we’d either go over the GG bridge or see it across the bay. (We could see the top from near the house. I still get teary eyed forty years later at the sight of the art deco bridge.
