Although I thought it was interesting seeing some of the English icons in performance (I wasn't living here then so they aren't so much part of my folk psyche) I still think it's a bloomin' great cheek for BBC to bill this as Folk BRITANNIA. The series seems to be specifically England-oriented and, even when it drifted north of the border into Scotland, it still only briefly examined activities which specifically related to English language English experience. There was absolutely nothing about Wales, probably because things were considerably different here.

You're right about the Protest bit. The singers were there, but anything that was too specifically political was not. Trad and protest song were absolutely central to '60s and '70s social unrest in Wales. In other places as well, for all I know; this series certainly wouldn't have enlightened me in that direction.

And it isn't a matter of a lack of existing film footage. That's a rubbish arguement. It's a lack of half decent production values and research - plus the decision from the outset that it wasn't actually going to be truly Britannic.

I also agree about that terrible 'comedy' thing that followed at 11.00. I managed about 5 minutes of it. Someone once told me to be careful in business meetings of sentences containing the word 'but'. They pointed out that, however the sentence starts out, everything BEFORE the word 'but' is bullshit. That 'comedy' was the same as the word 'but'. A BBC reminder to viewers that folk/trad should still be considered a joke.

sheesh

sian