Racism is endemic in human culture; indeeed, xenophobia seems one humanity's defining attributes / failings. It is something we all must be very aware of, even in hindsight. Mr Wu is iconic to the Very English cause of seeing Johnny Foreigner as worthy but exotic; his ethnicity reduced to a comededic cliche - Gungadin likewise, though here his cause is one of bypassing the realities of his ethnicity to wallowing in a very mawkish individualism. Kipling's imperialist paternalism is just as patronising in The Land, in which he justifies the inner-apartheid of English social class in terms of its historical contuity. I do The Land as my party-piece, but I'm fully aware of which side of the Great Divide my natural born loyalties lie - I can also applaud a cracking performance of Gungadin, but I'm always aware of which bits the audiences are laughing at.

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MtheGM - I should have insterted an emoticon on that bit about B&C&A, although in several performances I've witnessed (& given) the implication of the butter being used an anal lubricant for some very rough fisting from his jolly old cook is more than implicit. Indeed I was once asked if the song was Gay. And why not, eh?