People seeking to explain Brexit have looked to Winston Churchill and the 16th-century English reformation but they may just as well have looked to Captain Mainwaring and Basil Fawlty, according to an expert.
That, argues the historian Prof Gavin Schaffer, is because tone of British sitcoms from the 60s, 70s and 80s – such as Fawlty Towers, Dad’s Army and ’Allo ’Allo! – give an insight into parts of the sense of identity and political culture that contributed to the vote to leave the European Union in 2016.
Schaffer said: “Many Britons took ’Allo ’Allo! to their hearts as it presented a lighthearted reflection of European differences, that ultimately spoke to the core differences between Britain and her European neighbours.
“The show also tells us something about how British attitudes to Europe were changing and not changing in the late 80s and early 90s, as Britain edged closer to her European neighbours. Despite closer bonds, British voices of Euroscepticism never strayed too far from suspicions rooted in the second world war.”
The University of Birmingham professor has contributed a chapter to the Bloomsbury book British Humour and the Second World War: ‘Keep Smiling Through’.
Churchill’s line that the UK was “with Europe, but not of it”; that it was “linked but not comprised” and “interested and associated, but not absorbed” is often cited as one of the most succinct explanations of the way Britons have felt about their relationship with Europe since the end of the second world war. And some have argued that the English distance dates back to the reformation, when King Henry VIII broke with Rome.
Yet Schaffer has argued that the sort of popular entertainment enjoyed by millions across the country is at least as instructive of pro-Brexit attitudes.
“The argument that there was something specifically British about being able to laugh at yourself was key to much of the public affection for ’Allo ’Allo!. This helps to explain British-European relations in this period – illustrating the extent to which British people considered their outlook, and principles, different and exceptional.
“Continuing affection for this kind of humour points to something of a British blind spot about the legacy of the war and the barriers between Britain and the rest of Europe. What lurks in the shadows is a nation deeply ill at ease with its European neighbours and itself. Listening very carefully to ’Allo ’Allo! reveals a story of a nation that remains unready for further European integration.”
Schaffer said Britain’s uneasy relationship with Europe has often been present in such works, even if unsaid. In Fawlty Towers, he wrote, it was deliberately set up as the elephant in the room. For example, in one episode, which was broadcast shortly after a yes vote in the 1975 European referendum, Basil Fawlty tells his German guests: “I didn’t vote for it myself, quite honestly. But, now that we’re in, I’m determined to make it work.”
And he said Dad’s Army portrayed the war as a period of national cooperation, with the characters becoming an exemplar of British character triumphing over European foes.
