Grayson Perry, right, and his white van driver Kirk in the van
(Picture: Channel 4)It’s no use saying “Don’t mention the War!” We’re less than five minutes into the first episode of Grayson Perry’s new Channel 4 series when the Second World War rears its tiresome head in a conversation with Dover’s leading self-appointed migrant-spotter, Jeremy Davis, because of course he’s called Jeremy, and of course he’s obsessed with the war.
If you were expecting cosiness from Grayson Perry’s Full English, a road trip through England with a white van man (his name is Kirk, he’s from Yorkshire) on a foray into what it means to be English, then look away now. This first episode, set around the South East, kicks us off right in the thick of the country’s thorniest debate. Perry opens the series in Dover, where nearly 50,000 people a year are landing after undertaking the treacherous, terrifying trip across the Channel.
