English people

But in New Zealand, you've got this wonderful contrast of lethal transition, haven't you? The handling is just sublime.

As an Englishman watching that, that is what you dream of.

That's the rugby you dream of watching, isn't it? And it's the rugby which the All Blacks can play.

Now, if they can if they can accompany that with some physical grunt as well, then, you know, the next year is going to be really interesting, isn't it?

We talked about lethal transition.

That scares me.

If I'm an Englishman watching what New Zealand can do in 10 seconds of rugby...

You could be defending on your line and then suddenly be under England's sticks.

Like Americans were disgusted by that.

They're like, why, why'd we go to war? To like make, to make, to make Englishmen rich and to, you know, like let the French swagger around, you know, and, and, and, and, and humiliate their enemies.

Like this is fucking garbage, you know? Like that's not to say like the American sentiment before that about World War I was like good or something, okay? But my point is that people, Americans viewed World War I as the country having been duped.

You know, that, you know, bankers and, and Anglophone, you know, kind of blue blood types who viewed the whole thing as a game, you know, manipulating policy, you know, to their own benefits.

You know, particularly, you know, when you're talking about, um, the personages of, of monarchs and, and their heirs, like people identify with them personally.

Like if you, um...

I mean, even to this day, man, like, like if you go around like insulting the Queen, like Englishmen get mad.

You know, like, like you're insulting the Virgin Madonna or like their mom or something.

For a Portuguese dentist in London, life, she is miserable.

The English, they do not come.

And the Portuguese, they come, they come, but they have teeth like, like pearls.

Ah, fish, I presume.

She led the French military to victory over England in the Hundred Years' War.

And then when she got caught by the English, they put her on trial, declare her a witch, burn her at the stake.

So...

Then the ironic thing is, within 20 years of her execution, Pope Calixtus reversed her conviction, and by the 20th century, she became the patron saint of France.

The historical evidence supports a woman who was displaced and subsequently aligned herself with forces opposed to the French crown.

Did she marry an Englishman? She's already had three husbands.

I'm sure she wouldn't object to a fourth.

I'm not sure.

Like Americans were disgusted by that.

They're like, "Why, why'd we go to war? To like make, to make, to make Englishmen rich and to, you know, let, let the French swagger around, uh, you know, and, and, and, uh, and, and humiliate their enemies?" Like this is fucking garbage, you know? Um, like that's not to say like the American sentiment before that about World War I was like good or something, okay? But my point is that, um, people, Americans viewed World War I as the country having been duped.

You know, that, you know, bankers and, uh, and, and anglophone, uh, you know, kinda blue blood types who, uh, viewed the whole thing as a game, you know, manipulating, uh, policy, you know, to their own benefits.

You know, like nobody, nobody, like nobody, like nobody on the American street was like, "Oh yeah, the Germans started this war." You know, and it was, it was viewed as an incredibly cynical kind of rationale for a lot of really gross abuses.

You know, it's like what, what, um, like what...

I mean, I mean, Hitler made that point too.

Like, what does Germany want with colonies? You know, um, and that's, uh, you know, uh, I made the point not just in our first episode of this series, but, you know, during the series on, on Churchill's war and the Second World War, this idea that the English hated Germany or like this, this bizarre kinda like bigotry of people like advanced art of the Germans are this like alien hostile race that is dangerous, and they're like the Huns.

Like, nobody thought that way.

Right.

Now, it's worth saying here that the British and the English in particular have long had a complicated relationship with the Roman Empire and its history.

Right.

So for one thing, in a lot of ways, the British saw the Romans as figurative ancestors, if you will, in the sense that the Romans were an imperial power, much like the British, for a long stretch of their history, fancied themselves an imperial power.

Right.

Yeah.

Anyway, these complications in how the English in particular see empire are fully visible in Centurion, which unfortunately I don't think really does much to address them in a particularly interesting way.

So, for example, to be fair, there is a superficial effort at least to recognize that the Roman conquest of Britain was violent.

We're starting off tonight with the best story of its kind ever written.

You will find it in every representative library of classic English narratives.

It is Bram Stoker's Dracula.

The next time I speak to you, I am Dr. Arthur Seward.

Well, in God's name, open it.

As you will, Mr. Harker.

You English have a proverb which is very close to my heart.

Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest.

And that's what we're here to show you today.

Peter, true or false, AI can now text you first, which is more than any Englishman has ever managed after a first date.

Come on, man.

Why do we always go there? That's patently false.

Who was it? You miss 100%

of the baskets you don't hit or whatever it was.

Spoken like a true Englishman.

Yeah.