Culture of the United Kingdom

               Culture of the United Kingdom

 
The culture of the United Kingdom is the pattern of human activity and symbolism associated with the United Kingdom and its people. It is informed by the UK's history as a developed island country, liberal democracy and major power, its predominantly Christian religious life, and its composition of four countries—England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales—each of which has distinct customs, cultures and symbolism. The wider culture of Europe has also influenced British culture, and Humanism, Protestantism and representative democracy developed from broader Western culture.

British literature, music, cinema, art, theatre, media, television, philosophy and architecture are influential and respected across the world. The United Kingdom is also prominent in science and technology. Sport is an important part of British culture; numerous sports originated in the country, including the national game, football. The UK has been described as a "cultural superpower", and London has been described as a world cultural capital.

The Industrial Revolution, with its origins in the UK, had a profound effect on the socio-economic and cultural conditions of the world. As a result of the British Empire, significant British influence can be observed in the language, culture and institutions of a geographically wide assortment of countries, including Australia, Canada, India, Republic of Ireland, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Africa and the United States. These states are sometimes collectively known as the Anglosphere, and are among Britain's closest allies. In turn the empire also influenced British culture, particularly British cuisine.

As a result of the history of the formation of the United Kingdom, the cultures of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are diverse and have varying degrees of overlap and distinctiveness. Important parts of British folklore include Robin Hood, the Arthurian myth and Jack and the Beanstalk.

                                       Language

The English language is the official language of the UK, and is spoken monolingually by an estimated 95% of the British population.

However, individual countries within the UK have frameworks for the promotion of their indigenous languages. In Wales, all pupils at state schools must either be taught through the medium of Welsh or study it as an additional language until aged 16, and the Welsh Language Act 1993 and the Government of Wales Act 1998 provide that the Welsh and English languages should be treated equally in the public sector, so far as is reasonable and practicable. Irish and Ulster Scots enjoy limited use alongside English in Northern Ireland, mainly in publicly commissioned translations. The Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act, passed by the Scottish Parliament in 2005, recognised Gaelic as an official language of Scotland, commanding equal respect with English, and required the creation of a national plan for Gaelic to provide strategic direction for the development of the Gaelic language. There is also an effort underway to recognise Scots as a language in Scotland, though this remains controversial. The Cornish language enjoys neither official recognition nor promotion by the state in Cornwall.

Under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, the UK Government has committed to the promotion of certain linguistic traditions. The United Kingdom has ratified the charter for: Welsh (in Wales), Scottish Gaelic and Scots (in Scotland), Cornish (in Cornwall), and Irish and Ulster Scots (in Northern Ireland). British Sign Language is also a recognised language.

                                       The Arts

Literature

At its formation, the United Kingdom immediately inherited the literary traditions of England and Scotland, including the earliest existing native literature written in the Celtic languages, Anglo-Saxon literature and more recent English literature including the works of Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare and John Milton.

The early 18th century is known as the Augustan Age of English literature. The poetry of the time was highly formal, as exemplified by the works of Alexander Pope and theEnglish novel became popular, with Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Henry Fielding's Tom Jones and Samuel Richardson's Pamela.

From the late 18th century, the Romantic period showed a flowering of poetry comparable with the Renaissance two hundred years earlier and a revival of interest in vernacular literature. In Scotland the poetry of Robert Burns revived interest in Scots literature, and the Weaver Poets of Ulster were influenced by literature from Scotland. In Wales the late 18th century saw the revival of the eisteddfod tradition, inspired by Iolo Morganwg.

In the 19th century, major poets in English literature included William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Alfred Lord Tennyson, John Keats, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Percy Shelley and Lord Byron. The Victorian period was the golden age of the realistic English novel, represented by Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters (Charlotte,Emily and Anne), Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, George Eliot and Thomas Hardy.

World War I gave rise to British war poets and writers such as Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves and Rupert Brooke who wrote (often paradoxically), of their expectations of war, and/or their experiences in the trench.

The most widely popular writer of the early years of the 20th century was arguably Rudyard Kipling. To date the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Kipling's novels include The Jungle Book, The Man Who Would Be King and Kim, while his inspirational poem If— is a national favourite. Like William Ernest Henley's poem Invictus, it is a memorable evocation of Victorian stoicism, a traditional British virtue.

Notable Irish writers include Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, Bram Stoker, Jonathan Swift, George Bernard Shaw and W. B. Yeats. The Celtic Revival stimulated a new appreciation of traditional Irish literature. The Scottish Renaissance of the early 20th century brought modernism to Scottish literature as well as an interest in new forms in the literatures of Scottish Gaelic and Scots. The English novel developed in the 20th century into much greater variety and was greatly enriched by immigrant writers. It remains today the dominant English literary form.

Other globally well-known British novelists include George Orwell, C. S. Lewis, Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle, H. G. Wells, D. H. Lawrence, Mary Shelley, Lewis Carroll, J. R. R. Tolkien, Virginia Woolf, Ian Fleming, Walter Scott, Agatha Christie, J. M. Barrie, Joseph Conrad, Graham Greene, E. M. Forster, Aldous Huxley, Roald Dahl,Helen Fielding, Arthur C. Clarke, Alan Moore, Ian McEwan, Anthony Burgess, Evelyn Waugh, William Golding, Salman Rushdie, Douglas Adams, P. G. Wodehouse, Martin Amis, Anthony Trollope, Beatrix Potter, A. A. Milne, Philip Pullman, Terry Pratchett, H. Rider Haggard, Neil Gaiman and J. K. Rowling. Important British poets of the 20th century include Rudyard Kipling, Ted Hughes, Philip Larkin, John Betjeman and Dylan Thomas. In 2003 the BBC carried out a UK survey entitled The Big Read in order to find the "nation's best-loved novel" of all time, with works by English novelists Tolkien, Austen, Pullman, Adams and Rowling making up the top five on the list.

Theatre

From its formation in 1707, the United Kingdom has had a vibrant tradition of theatre, much of it inherited from England and Scotland. The West End is the main theatre district in the UK, which is located in the West End of London. The West End's Theatre Royal in Covent Garden in the City of Westminster dates back to the mid 17th century, making it the oldest London theatre.

In the 18th century, the highbrow and provocative Restoration comedy lost favour, to be replaced by sentimental comedy, domestic tragedy such as George Lillo's The London Merchant (1731), and by an overwhelming interest in Italian opera. Popular entertainment became more important in this period than ever before, with fair-booth burlesque and mixed forms that are the ancestors of the English music hall. These forms flourished at the expense of legitimate English drama, which went into a long period of decline. By the early 19th century it was no longer represented by stage plays at all, but by thecloset drama, plays written to be privately read in a "closet" (a small domestic room).

In 1847, a critic using the pseudonym Dramaticus published a pamphlet describing the parlous state of British theatre. Production of serious plays was restricted to the patent theatres, and new plays were subjected to censorship by the Lord Chamberlain's Office. At the same time, there was a burgeoning theatre sector featuring a diet of low melodrama and musical burlesque; but critics described British theatre as driven by commercialism and a 'star' system.

A change came in the late 19th century with the plays on the London stage by the Irishmen George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde, who influenced domestic English drama and vitalised it again. The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre was opened in Shakespeare's birthplace Stratford upon Avon in 1879; and Herbert Beerbohm Treefounded an Academy of Dramatic Art at Her Majesty's Theatre in 1904.] Producer Richard D'Oyly Carte brought together librettist W. S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan, and nurtured their collaboration. Among Gilbert and Sullivan's best known comic operas are H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado. Carte built the West End's Savoy Theatre in 1881 to present their joint works, and through the inventor of electric light Sir Joseph Swan, the Savoy was the first theatre, and the first public building in the world, to be lit entirely by electricity.

Sadler's Wells, under Lilian Baylis, nurtured talent that led to the development of an opera company, which became the English National Opera (ENO), a theatre company, which evolved into the National Theatre, and a ballet company, which eventually became the English Royal Ballet.

Making his professional West End debut at the Garrick Theatre in 1911, flamboyant playwright, composer and actor Noël Coward had a career spanning over 50 years, in which he wrote many comic plays, and over a dozen musical theatre works. In July 1962, a board was set up to supervise construction of a National Theatre in London and a separate board was constituted to run a National Theatre Company and lease the Old Vic theatre. The Company was to remain at the Old Vic until 1976, when the new South Bank building was opened. A National Theatre of Scotland was set up in 2006. Today the West End of London has a large number of theatres, particularly centred around Shaftesbury Avenue. A prolific composer of musical theatre in the 20th century, Andrew Lloyd Webber has been referred to as "the most commercially successful composer in history". His musicals which include; The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, have dominated the West End for a number of years and have travelled to Broadway in New York and around the world as well as being turned into films. Lloyd Webber has worked with producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh, lyricist Sir Tim Rice, actress and singer Sarah Brightman, while his musicals originally starred Elaine Paige, who with continued success has become known as the First Lady of British Musical Theatre.

The Royal Shakespeare Company operates out of Stratford-upon-Avon, producing mainly but not exclusively Shakespeare's plays. Important modern playwrights include Nobel laureate Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, Alan Ayckbourn, John Osborne, Michael Frayn and Arnold Wesker.

Music

While the British national anthem "God Save the Queen" and other patriotic songs such as "Rule, Britannia!" represent the United Kingdom, each of the four individual countries of the UK also has their own patriotic hymns. Edward Elgar's "Land of Hope and Glory", and Hubert Parry's "Jerusalem" set to William Blake's poem And did those feet in ancient time, are among England's most patriotic hymns.Scottish patriotic songs include "Flower of Scotland", "Scotland the Brave" and "Scots Wha Hae"; patriotic Welsh hymns include "Bread of Heaven", set to the tune "Cwm Rhondda", and "Land of My Fathers"; the latter is the national anthem of Wales. The patriotic Northern Irish ballad Danny Boy is set to the tune "Londonderry Air". The traditional marching song, "The British Grenadiers", is often performed by British Army bands, and is played at the Trooping the Colour.Jeremiah Clarke's "Trumpet Voluntary" is popular for wedding music, and has featured in royal weddings.

Other notable British composers: Henry Purcell, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Benjamin Britten, Gustav Holst, William Byrd, Thomas Tallis, Henry Wood, John Taverner, John Blow, Arthur Sullivan, William Walton, John Stafford Smith, Henry Bishop, Ivor Novello, Malcolm Arnold, Michael Tippett and John Barry have made major contributions to British music, and are known internationally. Living composers include Sir George Martin, John Tavener,Harrison Birtwistle, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Oliver Knussen, Harry Gregson Williams, Mike Oldfield, John Rutter, James MacMillan, Joby Talbot, John Powell, David Arnold, Anne Dudley, Trevor Horn, John Murphy, Brian Eno, Clint Mansell, Craig Armstrong and Michael Nyman.

The traditional folk music of England has contributed to several genres, such as sea shanties, jigs, hornpipes and dance music. It has its own distinct variations and regional peculiarities.Wynkyn de Worde's printed ballads of Robin Hood from the 16th century are an important artefact, as are John Playford's The Dancing Master and Robert Harley's Roxburghe Balladscollections. Some of the best known songs are Greensleeves, Scarborough Fair, Pastime with Good Company, Over the Hills and Far Away amongst others. The bagpipes have long been a national symbol of Scotland, and the Great Highland Bagpipe is widely recognised. The most famous Scottish folk song, Auld Lang Syne, is well known throughout the English-speaking world, and is often sung to celebrate the start of the New Year, especially at Hogmanay in Edinburgh.

From the mid-16th century, nursery rhymes began to be recorded in English plays. Some of the best known nursery rhymes from Britain include; Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Roses are red,Jack and Jill, Cock a doodle doo, Baa, Baa, Black Sheep, The Grand Old Duke of York, London Bridge Is Falling Down, Hey Diddle Diddle, Three Blind Mice, Little Miss Muffet, Pat-a-cake,Pop Goes the Weasel, One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, Peter Piper, Hickory Dickory Dock, Rock-a-bye Baby, One for Sorrow, This Old Man, Simple Simon, Old Mother Hubbard, Little Bo Peep,Sing a Song of Sixpence, Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, Old King Cole and Humpty Dumpty.

Christmas carols in English first appear in a 1426 work by John Awdlay, a Shropshire chaplain who lists twenty five "caroles of Cristemas", probably sung by groups of 'wassailers', who went from house to house. Some of the most notable carols from the UK include; We Wish You a Merry Christmas, O Come All Ye Faithful, The First Noel, God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen, The Holly and the Ivy, I Saw Three Ships, Deck the Halls, In the Bleak Midwinter, Joy to the World, Once in Royal David's City, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, What Child Is This?, Good King Wenceslas, Here We Come A-Carolingand While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks. The music of Christmas has always been a combination of sacred and secular, and every year in the UK there is highly publicised competition to be theChristmas number one single, which has led to the production of music which still provides the mainstay of festive playlists. The UK single and album charts are revealed every Sunday on BBC Radio 1, withElton John's "Candle in the Wind 1997" the all-time best-selling single in the UK, and Queen's Greatest Hits the best-selling album in UK chart history.

The United Kingdom supports a number of major orchestras including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia, the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. London is one of the world's major centres for classical music: it has several important concert halls and is also home to the Royal Opera House, one of the world's leading opera houses. British traditional music has also been very influential abroad. The Brit Awards, the BPI's annual pop music awards, take place at the O2 Arena every February.

The UK was one of the two main countries in the development of rock music, and has provided global acts including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Pink Floyd, Queen, Elton John, David Bowie, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, The Kinks, Yardbirds, Sex Pistols, The Clash, Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Dire Straits,Bee Gees, Rod Stewart, The Animals, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Whitesnake, Motörhead, Phil Collins, Duran Duran, Billy Idol, ELO, The Hollies, Sting, Annie Lennox,George Michael, Genesis, The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Police, UB40, Ozzy Osbourne, The Smiths, Joy Division, Foreigner, Elvis Costello, Dusty Springfield, Status Quo, Cat Stevens, Judas Priest, Bonnie Tyler, Pet Shop Boys, Joe Cocker, T. Rex, Depeche Mode, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Roxy Music, The Jam,Rainbow, Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, Seal, Eurythmics, Free, King Crimson, Moody Blues, The Troggs, Steve Winwood, Robert Palmer, Cream, The Foundations,Herman's Hermits, Procol Harum, Yes, The Pretenders, Simple Minds, Marillion, Nazareth, The Sweet, Human League, Supertramp, Tears for Fears, New Order, Bad Company, Brian Johnson, The Stone Roses, Pulp, Suede, Manic Street Preachers, Travis, Oasis and Blur. It has provided inspiration for many modern bands of today, including Coldplay, Radiohead, The Verve, Snow Patrol, Gorillaz, Muse, Kaiser Chiefs, Placebo, Franz Ferdinand, Bullet for My Valentine, The Libertines, Bush, The Kooks, Bloc Party, Stereophonics, Keane, Florence and the Machine, Mumford & Sons, Lostprophets and Arctic Monkeys. Since then it has also pioneered various forms of electronic dance music includingdubstep, acid house, uk garage, drum and bass and trip hop, all of which were in whole or part developed in the United Kingdom. Acclaimed British dance acts include The Prodigy, Massive Attack, Underworld,Orbital, Jamiroquai, Basement Jaxx, The Chemical Brothers, Portishead, Faithless, The KLF, Goldfrapp, Aphex Twin and Fatboy Slim. Other notable British artists in pop music include Spice Girls, Adele, Leona Lewis, Amy Winehouse, Duffy, Lily Allen, Dido, James Blunt, Mika, Calvin Harris, One Direction, Imogen Heap, Kim Wilde, Sade, Fleetwood Mac, Small Faces, Tom Jones, Natasha Bedingfield, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Billy Ocean, Culture Club,Davy Jones, Erasure, Simply Red, Gary Numan, Madness and Robbie Williams. British rap is also becoming increasingly popular, mainly within the youth of large cities such as London, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, Leeds and Sheffield. Popular British R&B artists include Taio Cruz, Jay Sean, Tinie Tempah, M.I.A, Tinchy Stryder, Jessie J, Dizzee Rascal, Rita Ora, Joss Stone and N-Dubz.

Cinema

The UK has had a large impact on modern cinema, producing some of the greatest actors, directors and motion pictures of all time including, Sir Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin, David Lean, Laurence Olivier,Vivien Leigh, Audrey Hepburn, John Gielgud, Sean Connery, Richard Burton, Vanessa Redgrave, Michael Caine, Anthony Hopkins and Daniel Day-Lewis. The BFI Top 100 British films is a poll conducted by theBritish Film Institute which ranks what they consider to be the 100 greatest British films of all time. Two of the biggest actors in the silent era were Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel. English photographerEadweard Muybridge pioneered motion picture, while pioneering Scottish documentary maker John Grierson coined the term "documentary" to describe a non-fiction film in 1926. Hitchcock's Blackmail(1929), is often regarded as the first British sound feature, while The 39 Steps (1935) features a signature Hitchcock cameo. Sir Alexander Korda's The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), was the first British production to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Boris Karloff played the leading role in several major Hollywood horror films in the 1930s. Famous for recording many motion picture film scores, the London Symphony Orchestra first performed film music in 1935.The first British Academy Film Awards ceremony took place in 1947. Sir Laurence Olivier starred in and directed Henry V (1944), and Hamlet (1948), the latter being the first non-American film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture and also picked up the BAFTA Award for Best Film. The third Shakespearean film directed by Olivier was Richard III (1955). The British film-making partnership of Powell and Pressburger made a series of influential films in the 1940s and 1950s, with The Red Shoes (1948) their most commercially successful film. Carol Reed directed The Third Man (1949), regarded among the best British films of the 20th century.

David Lean emerged as a major filmmaker in the 1940s with Brief Encounter (1945) and Great Expectations (1946), and his first big-screen epic The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) won seven Academy Awards. Towards the end of the 1950s, Hammer Films embarked on their series of influential and wildly successful horror films, including lavish colour versions of Frankenstein (1957), Dracula (1958) and The Mummy(1959), with actors Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee at the forefront. A West Country native where many well-known English pirates hailed from, Robert Newton's portrayal of Long John Silver in 1950s films popularised the stereotypical West Country pirate accent.Films that explored the "Swinging London" phenomenon of the 1960s included, Alfie (1966), Blowup (1966) and Bedazzled (1967). The James Bondfilm series began in the early 1960s, with Sean Connery in the leading role. After The Beatles films A Hard Day's Night (1964) and Help! (1965), it became standard for each new pop group to have a verité style feature film made about them.

Other major British films of 60s included Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Tom Jones (1963), Zulu (1964) and Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965). Four of the decade's Academy Award winners for best picture were British productions, including six Oscars for the film musical Oliver! (1968), based on Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist. British actors in starring roles in 1960s films included Sir Alec Guinness, Richard Burton, Peter Sellers, Audrey Hepburn, Julie Christie, Michael Caine, Rex Harrison, Julie Andrews and David Niven. In 1969 Ken Russell directed Women in Love starring Glenda Jackson, who won the Academy Award for best actress. In the 1970s, Ronald Neame directed the festive favourite Scrooge (1970), while adaptations of Agatha Christie stories Murder on the Orient Express (1974) andDeath on the Nile (1978) were critically acclaimed. British musical comedy film The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) featuring Tim Curry, is the longest-running theatrical release in film history. In the mid-1970s, seminal British comedy team Monty Python switched their attention to films, beginning with Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), followed by Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979), the latter regularly voted the funniest film of all time by the British public.Hollywood blockbusters that were filmed at major British studios in 1977–79, include Star Wars (featuring Alec Guinness, and 'the dean of special effects' John Stears)at Elstree Studios, Superman II (featuring Terence Stamp) at Pinewood, and Alien (directed by Ridley Scott) at Shepperton.

British films won back to back Academy Award for best picture in the 1980s, with Chariots of Fire (1982), followed by Gandhi (1983). John Hurt won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor for his titular role as 19th century Englishman Joseph Merrick in The Elephant Man (1980). Richard Marquand directed Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi in 1983, the only non-American to direct a Star Wars film. The 1990s saw a large number of traditional British period dramas, including Sense and Sensibility(1995), Restoration (1995), Emma (1996), Mrs. Brown (1997), The Wings of the Dove (1997), Shakespeare in Love (1998) and Topsy-Turvy (1999). Anthony Minghella's biggest directorial success was The English Patient (1996), winning nine Academy Awards. English film composer Michael Nyman wrote the critically acclaimed score for The Piano (1993). Elton John and lyricist Sir Tim Rice collaborated to write music for Disney's The Lion King (1994), winning the Academy Award for Best Original Song, as did Phil Collins for Disney's Tarzan (1999). Scottish composer Craig Armstrong wrote the award winning score for the modern version ofShakespeare's Romeo + Juliet (1996). BAFTA award winning British films included Danny Boyle's drama Trainspotting (1996) that centres on life in Edinburgh, the 1997 comedy The Full Monty set in Sheffield, and the biographical drama Elizabeth (1998). Richard Curtis's scripted Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), set a pattern for British-set romantic comedies, including Sliding Doors (1998) and Notting Hill (1999).

At the start of the 21st century, three major international British successes were the romantic comedies Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), sequel Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), and Richard Curtis's directorial debut Love Actually (2003). In 2000, Leavesden Film Studios began filming the first instalment of the Harry Potter film series. English composer Clint Mansell's score for Requiem for a Dreamhas been well received, and its main theme Lux Aeterna has gained wide usage in popular culture and has featured in a number of film trailers. Famous for his creation Mr. Bean, the much celebrated comedian Rowan Atkinson starred in Johnny English (2003). Wallace and Gromit creator and four time Academy Award winning animator Nick Park directed Chicken Run (2000) and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005). Helen Mirren starred as Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006), winning Academy and Bafta Awards for best actress. Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire (2008) was the most successful British film of the decade, receiving critical acclaim and won eight Academy Awards. Historical drama The King's Speech (2010), featuring Colin Firth as George VI, received widespread acclaim, won four Academy Awards and seven Baftas, and is being hailed as the most successful independent British film ever. In 2012, the twenty-third James Bond film Skyfall became the highest-grossing film of all-time in the UK.