The BBC is doing a TV series on the subject, and here are their results. Mind you, they polled BBC viewers—not historians—which explains Julie Andrews, David Bowie and Michael Crawford. But Guy Fawkes? Someone explain to me why he’s “great!” And Johnny Rotten?!
Alfred the Great
Julie Andrews
King Arthur
David Attenborough
Jane Austen
Charles Babbage
Lord Baden Powell
Douglas Bader
David Beckham
Alexander Graham Bell
Tony Benn
Tim Berners Lee
Aneurin Bevan
Tony Blair
William Blake
William Booth
Boudicca
David Bowie
Richard Branson
Robert the Bruce
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Richard Burton
Donald Campbell
William Caxton
Charlie Chaplin
Geoffrey Chaucer
Leonard Cheshire
Winston Churchill
James Connelly
Captain James Cook
Michael Crawford
Oliver Cromwell
Aleister Crowley
Charles Darwin
Diana, Princess of Wales
Charles Dickens
Francis Drake
King Edward I
Edward Elgar
Queen Elizabeth I
Queen Elizabeth II
Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother
Michael Faraday
Guy Fawkes
Alexander Fleming
Bob Geldof
Owain Glyndwr
George Harrison
John Harrison
Stephen Hawking
King Henry II
King Henry V
King Henry VIII
Paul Hewson (Bono)
Edward Jenner
T.E. Lawrence
John Lennon
David Livingstone
David Lloyd George
John Logie Baird
John Lydon (Johnny Rotten)
James Clerk Maxwell
Paul McCartney
Freddie Mercury
Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery
Bobby Moore
Thomas More
Eric Morecambe
Admiral Horatio Nelson
Isaac Newton
Florence Nightingale
George O’Dowd (Boy George)
Thomas Paine
Emmeline Pankhurst
John Peel
Enoch Powell
Walter Raleigh
Steve Redgrave
King Richard III
Cliff Richard
J.K. Rowling
Robert Falcon Scott
Ernest Shackleton
William Shakespeare
George Stephenson
Marie Stopes
Margaret Thatcher
William Tindale
J.R.R. Tolkien
Alan Turing
Queen Victoria
William Wallace
Barnes Wallis
James Watt
Unknown soldier
Duke of Wellington
John Wesley
Frank Whittle
William Wilberforce
Robbie Williams
Guy Fawkes - in today’s terms a terrorist
Aleister Crowley - drug addict and corrupter of the innocent
Captain Scott - who got himself and his party killed due to incompetence
Robbie Williams - a straight pop singer of limited talent and no innovation.
Boy George - as Robbie Williams except gay.
Johnny Rotten - as Robbie Williams but less talent.
I could go on but there are so many pop singers with varying degrees of talent of whom only Lennon & McCartney and possibly Bowie could be described as innovators who had a direct impact on popular culture.
And then there are the sports(wo)men. Why? Because they make the country feel good? As important, no, less important, than the pop singers but more important than the thespians and entertainers.
There are also “celebrities”, such as John Peel (a radio presenter) instead of Sir Rober Peel, founder of the Metropolitan Police Force, the world’s first.
The Unknown Soldier. Didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I understand the symbolism but the whole point is that he’s unknown and is not one of the great and good. But a better choice than King Arthur. Might as well include Horatio Hornblower and Biggles. About as real.
A really good selection would include the Founding Fathers of the USA. After all, they were all British.
Also, where are David Lloyd George, Pitt the Elder, Ernest Rutherford, Robert Winston, Lord Kelvin (as in 273 degrees of coldness), Edward III (oh can’t have him, he ordered William Wallace’s execution and would Wallace have been there without Mel Gibson)?
I think that Guy Fawkes’ methods have a certain appeal these days. I’m not sure that blowing up the House of Commons would be that bad an idea, considering the vacuous, devious, contemptuous swine who currently inhabit it.
I’d like to see Kay Kendall listed, for purely selfish and mercenary reasons . . . Oh, by the way, there’s also a Pit thread on this same topic, for additional ranting.
So many beautiful pairs:[ul][] Charles Babbage and Aleister Crowley (between them, they could’ve invented the Wankel rotary engine)[]Caxton and Branson (the imprint of a virgin pickle)[]Eric Morecambe and Alan Turing (How’d ya like it so far? Sorry, I can’t stop)[]Thatcher and Steve Redgrave (it’s good to row)[/ul]
When you think of all the scientists and social reformers, engineers, authors, brilliant soldier and sailors, artists, architects, legal minds, and a hundred or more other world innovative Britons(many of which turn out to be either Scottish or Irish!) this is a pretty pathetic list.
WHOA! J. K. Rowling makes the list, and Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman don’t?!?!? That’s a load of bull. I mean, I like Harry Potter, but come on! Pratchett has more talent in his thumb than she has in her entire body.
BTW, Wallace’s execution was ordered by Edward I, who is on the list. Incidentally, I think Edward III is a notable omission, too.
Incidentally, I also find it terribly amusing that Richard III is on the list – either it’s the Shakespearean love-to-hate factor, or the Richard III Society has done its work well. But then, the whole list thing is very silly.
I voted in the original BBC poll, and I just got an email from them inviting me to appear on a live programme later this autumn in which they will be debating the top ten.
John Locke and Joseph Lister didn’t make it, but Freddy Mercury and Boy George did?
Anthony Trollope, Aldous Huxley and T.S. Eliot didn’t make it, but J.K. Rowling did?
Henry Purcell didn’t make it, Ralph Vaughn Williams didn’t make it, even Gilbert and Sullivan didn’t make it… but Cliff Richard and Robbie Williams did?
Sir Robert Peel, Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone, who built and controlled the mightiest Empire in history… none of them qualified. But Lady Di and her in-laws, who’ve never done anything except pose for pictures and provide fodder for gossip magazines… they did?
This is horrible. I EXPECT us Yanks to be silly and shallow, to put celebrity before accomplishment, to put glamor before substance… but somehow I thought the Brits would be a little less silly. What a letdown.
I voted on the original BBC poll, and I just got an email back from them inviting me to appear on a live programme this autumn when they’re going to be discussing the top ten!
