Having been left Albion's shores these eleven years past, I have only returned to my homeland twice. On the second occassion, in 2005, I found myself being confronted at almost every turn with denizens of Blair's Britain.
Travelling from Newcastle station to nearby Sunderland I came across a phenomena where idle youths dressed in track suits and sporting apparent items of Burberry clothes or accessories and almost constsantly talking on mobile phones predominated in towns and on public transport. An old school chum identified this class as "Chavs" which would be known in the venacular of the United States as white trash and who is exemplified in Little Britain by Vicky, the archetyal Chav.
Indeed the endearing feature of this series and which is more prominent in Season 2 is the degree to which Britain laughs at itself through the mechanism of Little Britain. A friend commented to me that a number of the jokes and scenes were very repetitive and the degree of variation between sketches was not that great. While at first, I agreed, after several watchings it is clear that the writers of this show are able to focus on the stupidities which prevail in contempoaray British society. Take the question of cultural assimilation which is so loudly claimed as being the exemplar for other societies to follow. What Little Britain shows us is that the spin is radically different from the reality as indicated by the two ladies sampling different foodstuffs and the reaction of one of them upon discovering the social standing of the maker of that foodstuffs.
Similarly the homophobic attitudes of Daffyd, the only gay in the village. Again the reality being somewhat different from the publi9c persona. Whilst on that theme, some of the most hilarious sketches are about the straight Prime Minister and his gay secretary who has a thing for him. There is a degree of cruelty too particularly in the sketches of the mental patient who's behavious is being supervised by a medical practitioner who clearly has nothing to say in the face of repeated anti-social behaviour by a patient who often indicates every evidence of compos mentis but who perpetrates a fraud on the mental health care policy of the state.
Much of this show can be taken as being offensive and would be if it was not portrayed within the context of Britons laughing at Britain. The effects are heightened by the lush baritone of Tom Baker, better known as the fourth incarnation of everyone's favourite timelord.
All in all a vulgar comedy in the grand British tradition of Carry On and Monty Python yet at the same time, this is certainly a sharp witted social commentary which should make us all think in between all the laughter.