Showing results by author "John O’Farrell" in History

The less-than-serious history podcast with stand up comedian Angela Barnes (The News Quiz, Mock The Week and Live at The Apollo) and writer John O'Farrell (An Utterly Impartial History of Britain, Things Can Only Get Better, Spitting Image). In each podcast our two history nerds discuss, explain and laugh at interesting and quirky episodes from the olden days, such as East German Nudism, Spy Pigeons or Vlad the Impaler. Angela and John’s in-depth knowledge of world history has been described as ‘laughable’ - and now they read the history books so that you don't have to. The We Are ...

From 55 BC to AD 1945, An Utterly Impartial History of Britain informs, explains, but most of all laughs at the seemingly incomprehensible rollercoaster of events that make up the story of Great Britain.

Following his hugely popular account of the previous 2000 years, John O'Farrell now comes bang up to date with a hilarious modern history asking 'How the hell did we end up here?' An Utterly Exasperated History of Modern Britain informs, elucidates and laughs at all the bizarre events, ridiculous characters and stupid decisions that have shaped Britain's story since 1945; leaving the Twenty-First Century reader feeling fantastically smug for having the benefit of hindsight.

Beginning with New Labour’s pithy campaign promises such as Education, Education, Education, and ending with the worst financial crises of the last six decades, the Noughties saw Labour fade from its glimmering best to a government obsessed with ‘spin’, WMDs and watching us like Big Brother while we all watched Big Brother. From the million children lifted off the poverty line, Britain winning the 2012 Olympic bid to the cataclysmic terrorist acts on the West.

A decade dominated by the collapse of the manufacturing industry, troubles escalating in Ireland, the Falklands war, AIDs and yuppies. Not to mention the country being run by one of the most unpopular leaders of the country since polling began. Thankfully, the marriage of Charles and Di in a spectacular wedding lifted the spirits of the nation for a while, until Di promised to love, honour and then fracture the Royal Family with a string of embarrassing revelations.

The 1950s was an era viewed by many Britons to be a Golden Age; in fact, the Isle of Wight liked it so much they decided to stay there. With the end of rationing, the increase in availability of consumer goods and the money with which to buy it, Britain rushed out to purchase luxuries like TVs, fridges and its first nuclear deterrent (though their pocket money couldn’t quite stretch to it). The teenager was also invented somewhere in the United States, causing mass panic across vast swathes of suburban England.

Strikes, hooliganism, IRA bombings and the most atrocious haircuts of the last 50 years. The 1970s do appear to be a dark time in Britain’s history. While whole counties were subsumed by concrete, roundabouts, and subways (assisting the burgeoning mugging industry), power cuts reduced the nation to women shopping in candlelight and, god forbid, actually having sex with their husbands.

Significant moments of the 1990s included the first Gulf War, the Fall of the Berlin Wall and John Major’s radical new traffic cone hotline. Britain would begin the decade in recession, coming to its climax on Black Wednesday, a term coined by little known shadow chancellor Gordon Brown, the rail industry would be come privatised and Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait led to the first Gulf War.

The swinging sixties introduced several progressive laws to the residents of the British Isles. The conversion of the nation to flared trousers, the legalisation of colour and the right to live in a newly built tower block almost entirely made from asbestos. Yet despite the freedoms gained, the vibrant clothing, the music, often the grooviest experience of the average youth of Britain was down a mine.

Following his hugely popular account of the previous 2000 years, John O'Farrell now comes bang up to date with a hilarious modern history asking 'How the hell did we end up here?' He informs, elucidates, and laughs at all the bizarre events, ridiculous characters, and stupid decisions that have shaped Britain's story since 1945 - leaving the 21st-century reader feeling fantastically smug for having the benefit of hindsight.