This was a Big one coming. First off- HUGE thanks to all the #UK geograpeeps that either helped out or participated in this video especially @JayForeman (Guest host) and Thomas Watson for taking me on a wild road trip trough all #England #Scotland and #Wales. We couldn't fit all the information and it STILL ended up over 47 minutes long. Welcome to the land of Kings, Queens and everything in betweens. Cheers, and enjoy this one!
The only way it could've been better was if he'd also been able to get Mark. Have a proper Map Men Map Men Map Map Map Men Men co-hosting power duo. But Jay's phemonenal.
Barbs should just leave the others out of this episode and get Jay, Mark, Tom Scott and GeoWizard instead of them. I mean it's hard to be worse than Art lmao.
It's actually incredible that after over 8.5 years, you're finally like a dozen countries away from the end of the main A-Z series. Compared to the early 10-minute episodes, your production value has grown immensely.
@@300fusionfall Give the team a chance. These new buggers keep popping up and they're not the mix of endearingly eccentric e.g. The (ahem) Principality of Sealand in the Thames Estuary nor the personal fiefdom of some drug-addled Generalissimo e.g. well, modesty forbids. No, they're more grown up now and seek to right perceived wrongs, _not all_ from the recent past of European expansionism, some from time before. Yes, kids, grievances and injustice existed before the birth of the pink map paradox. Look [it up] before you leap onto the latest lazily mardy muck cart. Not all that glisters is gold... Um, yeah.
Still can’t believe that I was a co-host on my favourite show of all time! That week was easily the most random / exciting one of my life and I’m so happy you got to experience the rest of the UK outside of London. Next time you come though Paul, make sure it’s for a minimum of 1 week, 2000 miles in 3 days really does take it out of you, haha 💀 For the record too guys (and girls), both Barbs and Jay are complete legends and I feel honoured to have met and filmed with both of them, really cool and smart guys who I hope to meet / host / work / hang out with again some day :)
as a portuguese person i wish our alliance with the uk was mentioned, not only do we have a lot of shared history in terms of colonial issues, their most famous dish (fish and chips) is literally from sephardic portuguese jewish people that immigrated to the uk
I believe we also drink tea due to influence from the wife of Charles II, Catarina de Bragança, I was dissapointed not to see Portugal mentioned at all :(
Loved the time I spent in Portugal, I feel like our sense of humour is quite similar. Also have a lot of Portuguese speakers near me, Brazilian and Portuguese
When the Jews arrived in Britain, potatoes were not even discovered by Europeans. People been frying meats, vegetables and fish for hundreds of years around the world. It's like somebody claiming they invented bread or soup 😂
@@TheTwoFingeredBullFrog The Sephardi Jews brought their tradition of frying fish in breading/batter to England. Before that any fish that was fried was usually pan fried or at best lightly coated in flour
43:40 I can't believe you didn't include Portugal. The oldest alliance in the world is between the UK and Portugal and while the Brits have a love/hate relationship with the Spanish, the French, the Germans, etc... The Portuguese and British are like the two childhood friends that are now aging but still talk to eachother and catch up when they can.
@@crose7412 I personally didn't know that place name endings were influenced by certain ethnic groups, was actually always curious about the obvious pattern
As a British native myself I do strongly recommend everyone who is visiting the UK to keep an open mind about the traditional food as it is a lot nicer than people and the sterio type like to make it out to be. Recomended meals to try include Fish and Chips (seen by most as the national dish and which tastes similar to Japanese fried Tempura), the Sunday Roast, The English breakfast and Sheppards pie, though the first 2 alone will already be good enough. For the fish and chips I recommend using either salt or vinegar on the chips or at least one of each for extra taste. They kind of look like takeaway places from the inside as the whole point is to get them from a proper fish and chip shop instead of a pub or restaurant. With The Golden Chippy fish and chip shop being the biggest lore in London for tourists, though poppies is also a popular fish and chip shop in London. That being said I still advise trying Fish and Chips on the coast instead as they generally just tend to taste so much nicer but if you won't be on the coast, you'll know where to go. For international food, I recomend either Italian, Indian or Japanese. Seriously though, I would honestly find it a lot more open minded and respectful to give the food a fair chance as that's part of the whole cultural experience, hence emerging yourself in the culture. If you don't like it then fair enough but an open minded try will never hurt and British food is a lot nicer than people make it out to be.
Reminder that most of the current British cuisine is a product of the Great Depression and the World Wars where the food were rationed heavily leaving behind basic materials as culinary products.
An extremely important but often unstated or unnoticed facet of the UK is its incredibly strong literary culture. The UK publishes 500 new titles PER DAY and has the most books published per person per year of any nation in Europe (and most likely on the entire planet if edition reprints are taken out of other nations' stats) The only nations whose literary traditions come close is Iceland (who due to its small size has more authors per person), and Slovenia, whose national mythos is based on literature. British books are cornerstones of western literary canon and the foundations of multiple genres, and a large reason for that is that it is simply very cheap to buy new books, relative to many other countries
I'm surprised they skipped the "famous people" section. I suppose the idea is that the audience is already familiar with a lot of British figures, but it'd be nice to highlight some of the important stuff.
What's really weird is when you're from a commonwealth nation, a lot of the things which people from most other countries find weird about the UK is actually quite normal to you.
Tea breaks, school uniforms, British style education system (with students taking 'O' and 'A' level papers set by Cambridge), left side of the road driving, double decker buses, Type G plugs, obsession for football, British vocabulary (trousers, lorry, maths, spanner, car boot, torch, lift, dual carriageway, carpark) and SO much more. There's so many things in my daily life I could point to and say "It's this way because some British people many years ago decided it should be this way and we kept it even after they left".
@@flyerboy991 O levels have not been in existence since 1988. The only reason i know is that i was the last group to take them in 1987. GCSEs came in in 1988. A levels in England still exist.
@@jimbo6059 Is that so? Cause it's still around here. Students still need to sit for 'O' Levels (or 'N' Levels if they're in a different stream) in order to graduate from secondary school. If they go to a junior college after graduation, they'll sit for 'A' Levels in order to graduate from there. Even if the UK itself doesn't practice it anymore, I still like to think of it as yet another example of British influence in my country.
What does it mean to be Ukrainian? Ukrainians: "To be free and strong enough to fight for it" What does it mean to be British? Brits: "To be a Gregg Sausage roll" Before you say it, I know the context of these questions are VASTLY different right now, so answers might not have been 100% comparable, but I thought the contrast was funny.
Portugal is one of England's best friends because of its very old alliance so I think it should have been mentioned in the international relations part but otherwise a very good video. Love from portugal
@@graceneilitz7661 ohh god why are Portuguese still salty about Goa 🤦🏻♂️. Its been decades get over it. Goans are and always were proud Indians, Portuguese had no business there.
I'm half zambian and british and i definitely visited the UK 3 years ago during christmas and I enjoyed the culture and had fun there. I felt it was like my other home and i didn't want to go back to zambia which is my homecountry. I love the UK so much by the way 🇿🇲❤🇬🇧
@JackSonEFla2because I'm a lineal descendant of my greatgrandfather who came from scotland to settle in africa and my father is related to him and his proud of his british roots by the way.
It's amazing to think back to Geography Now's first videos, which were a few minutes long, and, now, they are fully researched, well edited and crafted 45 minutes long videos. Crazy how the end is almost here
Hopefully in the near future. They could give many of the early countries he did the full video treatment they truly deserve. Would love to see some of the early nations (Argentina, Brazil, China, Chile, etc.) even a few of the smaller notable nations like Armenia, Bolivia, Costa Rica, etc. would be great to get a lot more info on them.
just to clarify a bit of misinformation in this video. they used the wrong statistics when mentioning city sized. Manchester is not the second biggest city in the uk, it has 510k people in it, and it's country has 2.8 million it, which is where the innacurates "2nd biggest city in the uk" line comes from. the CITY of Manchester, is 5th biggest city in the uk, not the 2nd as this video misattributes it as.
True but I honestly think now it’s kinda unfair that Britain almost got a 50 minute long video while Germany and France’s videos are about 12-15 minutes long.😅 Also Händel is German not British.
Fun fact, Scotland has its own education system which is entirely separate and very different to the rest of the UK, even the qualifications are different! Scots also get free university tuition.
That seems like how it is in America since states control education too. The federal government has no laws on education. This is also why saying “American education system” makes no sense.
Fellow Scot here, our education systems are connected but distinct, and university here is not free, it's just free at point of use. We do have to pay it back via installments once we begin work.
I would have thought Australias relationship with the UK would have had a greater mention, given the fact, as much as Australians may deny it, there is still so much in common between the two, in a weird way, the relationship between Australia and the Uk, mainly England, is rather similar to the US and Canadian relationship.
I was surprised that the USA would be the "closest" friend. While the USA and UK are most certainly very close, the British influence is not as distant in Australia.
@@marcsamuelson1011 i mean there is so much more aussies and brits have in common than americans and brits, but hey maybe the UK still looks down at aussies.
@@marcsamuelson1011 agreed, uk and Australia have much in common in terms of culture. The US doesn't even have a people with British ancestry at this point.
@@matis9118they don’t look down on Aussies? What are you talking about, the Queen has done so many gestures every year to thank the ANZACs for their hard work.
Thank you mate, that means a lot! It was honestly the craziest week of my life, really never expected Paul to even respond to my DM inviting him to crash on my sofa and to go on a road trip with me around the whole of the UK for 4 or 5 days, then the next thing I knew I was co-presenting my favourite show of all time!
A shame there wasn’t a little more on Northern Ireland in the ‘what it means to be from the UK’ or the languages section, because there are Irish speakers there! There’s even a Gaeltacht in Belfast. I guess it feels fraught to talk about? And my understanding is that northern Irish identity can be very complicated. Nice to see mentions of Gaelic football and hurling. Had a fun time watching!
Northern Ireland simply never comes to mind as part of the UK to not only the average American but even the average Brit. I (someone from Ireland) was watching this expecting some reference but tbh I don't blame there not being much of an emphasis on NI; it's semi-detached from the UK at best. Irish republicans wave flags to proclaim their identity there in spite of NI being in the UK; unionists/loyalists wave their flag because they feel insecure and under siege
Funny enough, malaysia is quite similar with the UK. Both is a country that made of a bunch of smaller country. Both a constitutional monarchy country.We love complicated things and complain a lot.
Just a small correction on the image captions. The Scottish Gaelic singer's name is Julie Fowlis, not Judy Fowlis. For those interested in the Scottish Gaelic language and that like soft, traditional songs, Julie's music is phenomenal. I really enjoyed this overview of the UK and like always, you do an awesome job with your episodes of Geography Now!
The UK has to be one of the most bizarrely complicated countries in the world to talk about! There's just no simple way to really describe them. And I think that's awesome!
@chheinrich8486 I don't worry about, everything here is stupidly confusing. but it works so we just leave it. everything's been the same here for hundreds of years. but that's what happens when you don't have civil wars or Revolutions. along as I can go to work, eat and sleep then i dont worry about it
I've been watching Geography Now for almost 4 years now and always wondered what my country episode will be like. Absolutely smashed it, one of my favourite Geography Now episodes to date
As a fellow Brit myself, I've waited years for this episode to come. The amount of research and accuracy that's gone into this is spot on. Am amazed that Portugal didn't get a mention, they're our oldest ally of all, an alliance that has lasted for more than 600 years. Many Portuguese diaspora come to live & work in the UK, most of whom get naturalized at British citizens. They're like an extended family and we really like hanging out when possible. The Benelux nations also deserve a mention, especially Belgium. And don't forget New Zealand in addition to Australia, they're a close ally too! There are other nationalities who make up the population too, such as Americans, South Africans, and more recently Hong Kongers. And many Europeans who joined the European Union back in 2004 also came, notably Poles and Lithuanians. Regarding Asia: diplomatic ties to South Korea has got to be possibly our longest running. We've also cozied up to Taiwan & Japan too. Something else missing from the culture is our award-winning Scotch Whisky, famous the world over and lots of us enjoy it. Otherwise, a very enjoyable episode, great job.
I'm surprised they didn't go more in depth on Australia and the Uks relationship. We literally have over a million british born people living here in Australia (including my own grandparents) with the vast majority of the rest of our population being of British descent and our countries have been close since our bloody foundation (which was by the british themselves). I can see a possible reason why is because they didn't want to include a lot of the atrocities that took place in Australia by the British which is fair enough but still could've gone into more detail on our relationship.
It’s important to note that Scotland has a completely different education system to the rest of the uk. For example: instead of GCSEs there are National 5s and instead of A-levels there are highers and advanced highers(A-levels have a difficulty that is in between the two)
Us Brits have been waiting a decade for this, and I couldn't be more grateful it is finally here 😂 Amazing that of all people, you brought Jay Foreman on 🙌
I feel like I've been silently & patiently waiting for this episode for 5 years. & It did not disappoint and was larger and more detailed than I could have ever imagined, thank you to all involved. (UK here)
As a Dutchman, I've visited the UK a bit more than 5 times in my life, and the food has been nothing but amazing every single time. The average quality of pub food is astoundingly high
As an Englishman, I always argue that we don't claim to have the finest or best food in the world but we do have the best "Comfort" food in the world *
I'm from england, and while we DO indeed eat a lot of terribly bland and simply BAD food, we also are capable of some world class dishes, it all depends on context. but yeah pub food is often pretty good depending on the pub. however the average cafe, diner or restaurant will be bland gristly crap or cheap frozen food... but... those that ARENT average can be amazing.
It‘s astounding how many people in Europe speak English as their second language and how well they do it. I mean for Jay and Thomas you were barely able to hear that they‘re British.
Eh, anyone in Europe can definitely pinpoint a Brit from how they talk. I guess it's like Australians and Kiwis, they can tell each other apart but the rest of the world can't.
just to clarify a bit of misinformation in this video. they used the wrong statistics when mentioning city sized. Manchester is not the second biggest city in the uk, it has 510k people in it, and it's country has 2.8 million it, which is where the innacurates "2nd biggest city in the uk" line comes from. the CITY of Manchester, is 5th biggest city in the uk, not the 2nd as this video misattributes it as.
As a Brit, I'd say this is a really well made video! While I know it's impossible to say everything about a country with such a long and complicated history, I'm a bit surprised you didn't mention the UK's history with Hong Kong, although I know it's a political controversial subject.
All of it was great but as a Brit I thought the Friendzone was pretty off. Not including Portugal who are our oldest ever ally and we have treaties stretching back to 1373. The Dutch are close allies. However I would say our closest allies on a people level are Australia, New Zealand and Canada. I want to emphasise that I as a Brit, would say that the United States is far from our closest Friend on a people level, though they may be one of our closest political allies, along with France, Germany and Australia, New Zealand and Canada
As a Canadian... I feel that UK and US in many ways closer than UK/Canada... as they begrudgingly consider each other peers. Canadians/NZers FEEL closer to UK than your average American... but in more a distant cousin than a "bestie" UK/US have a closer "friendship" I guess... US/UK are friends by choice... Canada/NZ/AU are friends by obligation.
As a Brit I'd say Australia is closer to the UK than America nowadays. Still very close as being part of the Anglosphere though. Portugal should've been mentioned. I also think Germany is worth a mention, Brits have a lot of respect for Germans due to similar culture.
As a Hong Konger, I congratulate Barbs on stumbling upon one of our favorite drinks - Yuenyeung where we literally take British tea with milk and mix it with coffee. Delicious!!! Now don’t you dare do that with Chinese tea though haha 😂
Surprised you didn’t talk about the north-south divide? It’s a massive part of culture in England, at least in the eyes of Northerners. It’s nice that the constituent countries got recognised, but maybe shining a spotlight on the specific challenges faced by Northern England, a distinct cultural region, should have been included?
As a British person (Welsh more specifically), I've been waiting for this episode for a long time and it didn't disappoint! I also love how every one of the UK nations was presented individually and represented well! And as a Swansea boy, it made me laugh to see Paul try to pronounce Llanelli! It's literally one of the towns next door to here! But Jay pronounced it perfectly, which is rare for an English person! Like Amanda Holden attempting to pronounce Llanelli on a live semi-final of Britain's Got Talent a few years ago! Most of us here in Wales have never forgiven her for that! 🤣🤣🤣 The only thing I will say is that in the education section, Jay was slightly mistaken about the school leaving age. Compulsory education in this country ends at 16, not 18. It'd only be 18 if you're in one of the big public schools such as Eton, Harrow, Radley, Rugby, Charterhouse, etc, but in the state sector you can either stay on and go into sixth form, or to a sixth form college, after your GCSEs or take up an apprenticeship or other work. It just depends on your preferences. Basically, BTEC and A Levels aren't compulsory! I'm also gutted that there wasn't more stuff in the culture section about our television (which we invented!) such as our love of our soap operas (EastEnders, Coronation Street, Hollyoaks, Doctors, etc) and how Coronation Street is the longest-running TV drama series and how William Roache from Coronation Street is the longest-running soap opera actor ever. Or how we have some of the longest-running programmes of particular genres in the world (e.g. Casualty for medical drama, The Bill for police procedural drama, Last of The Summer Wine for comedy and The Sky at Night for factual). But it was a brilliant presentation all the same. 😀
I believe the compulsory education age has recently changed from 16 to 18. However they still count vocational courses and apprenticeships as compulsory education.
@@ennythinn - I've looked it up and you're right, but not when it comes to the UK in general. Bare in mind that we have devolution in Wales (unfortunately), so our education laws are slightly different. The compulsory age has only changed in England. The old age applies to us, Scotland and Northern Ireland (i.e. the devolved parts of the country).
@@kwesikwansakennedy2196 - Yeah my dad's Ghanaian. Born in Accra, but grew up in Elmina. He's Fante with a bit of German/Dutch. And my mum's from Swansea (same as me) but has a English/Scottish/Irish background. And concidering that we have the same first name, you're of Ghanaian decent as well, I'm guessing?
Like any Irishman, I'm lowkey discouraged from emphasising our similarities to the British. But dang, Jay's description of semi-imperial measurement reeealy hits home for me
Being discouraged is just nationalism… it was only a century ago that Irish independence was even a popular idea. Even American independence was an unpopular idea. People just love to be different I guess
I just Imagine Barbie and the rest of the Geography Now team breathing a sigh of relief after finally releasing a video about such a cultural and historical juggernaut for two seconds then immediately realizing what's next
To be honest I personally think France would be included in the ‘best friends’ bit- i would say they’re kind of like our twin sibling- squabbling a lot but always very close
Wow, this episode definitely makes the UK seem like the most complicated country, but then how much of that is because Jay is known for his interest in complicated administrative arrangements through his own TH-cam channel. Complicated aspects about other countries in earlier episodes are usually brushed over, but here Jay went all in. In any case, nicely done video. I lived in the UK once, met the queen a couple of times, and miss crumpets with marmite
@@TreacleMary Sure but it is a fact that it used to be the case that the Welsh language was referred to as the British language. Your comment won't change that.
Also, Brythonic, or Common Brittonic is a different language entirely, being the ancestor of the Breton, Cornish, and Welsh languages. The word Briton is cognate to the word Brython, and it seems to be the case that the word 'British' had a more Celtic connotation that the current usage of the word, and it apparently used to be synonymous with 'Welsh', which is no longer the case now.
A quick addition to the music bit would be the Afro-Caribbean roots and the birth of the sounds that defined the UK in the 90s and 2000s like Jungle, Garage, Drum and Bass and Dubstep. Another more recent addition would be the birth of hyper-pop, with brilliant producers like AG Cook and SOPHIE.
Yeah, also found it super weird that this large part of British music was missed out. Also, all the music that came out of the "British Invasion" was heavily influenced by Black music from the USA (Rock'n'Roll, Soul, R'n'B).
@@shaiyanomamo3705 true. Not dismissing any contributions and evolutions by other people and countries, but Black music of America, the Caribbean and Britain has birthed and shaped the sounds of almost all music we hear today.
My wife always complains that the UK may send (if they qualify) four teams to a European or World Football Championship. She finds it unfair. Well, imagine all the German Länder were independet UEFA members...
College in the UK is also a subdivision of a university that is sort of self-governing. You find them in the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, London and Wales (until 2007).
Fun fact: that picture 31:46 depicts *Polish* nobility. More specifically the magnates (the wealthiest nobles) in the second half of the 16th century. It's part of a series of illustrations depicting clothes worn in Poland throughout the ages by various social classes and groups, made by famous Polish painter Jan Matejko. Speaking of Polish, it's the most widely spoken immigrant language in the UK, followed by Romanian, Punjabi and Urdu (according to the 2021 census).
Kinda expected that Polish would be the most widely spoken language as there’s alot of them over here, Poles from my experience are hard-working people and fit in just fine in comparison to some other immigrants from the European mainland. Most of them are much more polite and definitely more social then the average person around.
Yes! York got a mention. Thanks guys. As well as the Shambles, York also has largest gothic cathedral in Northern Europe (The York Minster), the largest railway museum in the world (The National Railway Museum), the Jorvik Viking Centre (Jorvik was the viking name for York, and Eboracum during Roman times) and York Racecourse (the Knavesmire) which is used for Horse Racing and can hold up to 125,000 people. York also has a weird law where you can legally kill a scotsman who's within the city walls and is carrying a bow and arrow (ofcourse this has been superseded by the Homicide Act), which dates back to when the Scottish sacked York during the Scottish Wars of Independence during the 14th century.
As someone from India who has visited uk and Europe multiples times, I feel so home in UK. Be it the language or so many brown people around or the brits getting used to us or that wonderful nice people ive met. I could go anywhere in the UK and not feel a stranger. Cant wait to go back and watch a footie game, eat all the delicious food and party!
Portugal is our longest ever ally. BIG props to the Portuguese, lovely people beautiful country and had some of the greatest explorers to have ever sailed the seas. Poland is next. Absolutely LOVE the Polish people. Strong, Hardy people who have come over here to Britain and made it better place for their presence.
I think many British have forgotten just how hard the European and Asian families worked to rebuild the UK after WWII. They brought their families and they helped rebuild our shattered cities and economies, and the thanks they get is the vile racism and xenophobia that is sneaking back into our culture, no thanks to the US culture bleeding in too.
I was so happy to be a part of this episode! Thank you so much for having me, it was finally nice to meet you after 10 years of being a fan! 🇬🇧 Edit: btw I’m @snacksifu (in case you were wondering)
Was great meeting you mate, even if it was for only a few seconds, haha! And once again, thank you for spotting me and telling me where Paul went, I might have not had a chance to say bye in time without you guys!
I've learned more about my own country in this video than I ever did at school, also great to see that Jay was the co-host here (perfect choice) on top of that im happy that you guys did your research on wales because most people don't even know it's a country and assume im from England.
Never subscribed to a YT channel that I even neither know nor heard of quicker than Jay's. So funny. So entertaining. So informative. Great stuff, you both. Thank you for making and sharing.
20:26 I would like to mention that technically are largest native mammal is actually the European Bison, it was once native went extinct in the uk but a herd has been reintroduced onto a site in Kent where they roam freely just in a restricted area.
From the UK - you've absolutely knocked this one out of the park. Honestly the only things I would add are the UK's huge influence on global motorsport (not even a mention of Brooklands or Silverstone is pretty rough) and how we see Germany as our main rival in sports. Otherwise there really isn't anything I can fault, this is a fantastic video - 10/10. 🇬🇧
Literally the best co-host this series has had, I love how Jay's energy meshed with GN's typical style of humor (or should I say, humoUr) - there was so much to cover and you crammed a surprisingly large amount of the beautiful mess that is the UK into a video that felt way shorter than it was Cheers from a Polish-Dutch citizen! (aka a representative of one of the biggest European immigrant communities in your country, as well as a colonial ex-rival)
Jay's youtube channel especially Map Men episodes are one of my favourites if you haven't seen them already, 😊 as a British person its nice to see Jay has the same feelings as I do about the country and some of the decisions it had made recently, alot of us feel the same.
@@sawer my father is a Dutchman, but I’ve been born and raised in Poland - I have dual citizenship and I frequently visit the Netherlands, so by all accounts I’m both Polish and Dutch
So cool you got David Bennett… there are SO MANY GREAT UK Music TH-camRS… Wings of Pegasus, Guitaristas, Mary Spender, Chris Buck, Justin Hawkins Rides Again, Andy Edwards, and many more!
I HAVE WAITED THIS VIDEO FOR SO LONG I'M ALMOST CRYING EVERYTHING HERE IS SO PERFECT Greetings from Finland's self-proclaimed no. 1 Anglophile, GN fan and Jay Foreman -stan! I need to send some salmiakki to you Barbs
I haven’t said that before, but guys, you are putting an amazing amount of effort in every one of your videos. Being informed about our world makes us better human beings, as we understand that we all share a common home, the Earth. Congrats once again for your amazing work, a channel that is definitely one of the best on its kind! Love from Greece! 🙏🏻🗺🗺
This. Was. BRILLIANT! so we’ll done and with so much info. Only points are that Derbyshire is pronounced “DArbyshire” - we’re precious about that, Birmingham and Manchester will both tell you they’re the 2nd city and Portugal is our oldest “friend and ally” and deserved a mention. Either way, it was a brilliant video and I really appreciate everything that went in to making it. Thank you!
As a Colombian, I forget we also have mixed measuring systems (until I saw this). We do gas in gallons, pints of beer, sometimes use feet and inches (for TVs) and we do pounds (although our pounds are literally half a kilo thus the government has prohibited is use in offical documents and packaging, especially for export).
One thing that people rarely talk about is Britain’s legal influence. Many laws from British colonial authority remain in countries which were at some point or other colonised (including some really terrible laws that have been used to attack sexual minorities), but today the English courts and the UK Supreme Court (via the Privy Council, where British judges decide cases voluntarily sent from commonwealth countries) have a very strong influence on the interpretation and development of law from constitutional to criminal to commercial and contracts. The English and British judicial system is well respected for how independent it is from government and fair it’s judgments are, and decisions are often followed in the US, India, Australia, NZ etc. English courts also invented “equity” which forms the basis for shareholder law, charities, and trusts among other things. English law forms the basis for most international law, and many international jurisdictions like the DIFC in Dubai expressly use English law, so English-trained lawyers often work in international arbitrations and cases. Britain also took a leading role in writing many of the conventions and treaties that underpin the international community, both during the colonial era and using its international influence and respect post-war. It’s worth pointing out that Britain as a whole is not a single jurisdiction, but rather split into Northern Ireland, Scotland, and England and Wales. English and Welsh law is often referred to as English law, and as British law by those less familiar with the system. The exception is “reserved matters” which the UK Parliament legislates on, and the jurisdiction of the UK Supreme Court which covers most issues but not all from England and Wales, Scotland, and NI.
I was worried that when you guys covered the UK, the constituent nations would be marginalised. But you've done a fantastic job of representing all cultures across the Isles, and not conflated the 'UK' with 'England/London' like so many others do.
10:24 For those who don't know, Jay saying Oliver Cromwell's name in a singsong fashion is actually in reference to the comedian troupe Monty Python song Oliver Cromwell, singing about his life to Chopin's Heroic Polonaise.
I have been to Uk 3 times (once in Londan and Leister, once in Broadstairs and Cantebury and once in Edinbrough). Going in again this year i will be part of The Tall Ships races. Looked so much for this episode! i m from Estonia and have watched you since the Estonian episode. keep up the good work cant wait until the last countrie episode is done and you will start with something New!
I've been waiting for this for sooooooo long and it exceeded my expectations Amazing how much impact cultural-wise have had UK all over the world and still has Love to UK from Poland eapecially Wales and Dorset where I've been on several occssions P.S. Man USA episode is gonna be so massive
Is there anything more satisfying as a Brit, than laughing about all the nonsense and absurdities and contradictions of our countries foundations? It low-key saves us from going a bit mad... so thanks for this brilliant, well-researched video. And shout out Jay for the deep-cut Monty Python reference ('lord protectooor of england') ps. I cracked up at the unexpected David Bennett cameo, did not expect all the TH-camrs I learn from and repeat facts from constantly to all appear in the same video 😅
This was a Big one coming. First off- HUGE thanks to all the #UK geograpeeps that either helped out or participated in this video especially @JayForeman (Guest host) and Thomas Watson for taking me on a wild road trip trough all #England #Scotland and #Wales. We couldn't fit all the information and it STILL ended up over 47 minutes long. Welcome to the land of Kings, Queens and everything in betweens. Cheers, and enjoy this one!
UK!!
🇬🇧😎
Yes
First reply
Edit: Third
Great video!
@@ianeons9278 you're not lmao
Jay Foreman was the best possible co-host for this video 😂
The only way it could've been better was if he'd also been able to get Mark. Have a proper Map Men Map Men Map Map Map Men Men co-hosting power duo. But Jay's phemonenal.
Shoulda had GeoWizard on! Or maybe not because he would have outshined Barbs’s geography knowledge
No offence but its Tom Scott
The only person better could have been Jacksucksatlife
Barbs should just leave the others out of this episode and get Jay, Mark, Tom Scott and GeoWizard instead of them. I mean it's hard to be worse than Art lmao.
It's actually incredible that after over 8.5 years, you're finally like a dozen countries away from the end of the main A-Z series. Compared to the early 10-minute episodes, your production value has grown immensely.
It's only fair they start remaking those early episodes after they finish.
@@300fusionfall As an Argentine i need a remake of the Argentina one, it was only 10 minutes long 😢
@@21stcenturydegenerate29 My country, Greece could've been more in depth as well.
@@300fusionfall Give the team a chance. These new buggers keep popping up and they're not the mix of endearingly eccentric e.g. The (ahem) Principality of Sealand in the Thames Estuary nor the personal fiefdom of some drug-addled Generalissimo e.g. well, modesty forbids.
No, they're more grown up now and seek to right perceived wrongs, _not all_ from the recent past of European expansionism, some from time before.
Yes, kids, grievances and injustice existed before the birth of the pink map paradox. Look [it up] before you leap onto the latest lazily mardy muck cart. Not all that glisters is gold...
Um, yeah.
@@300fusionfall My country Bangladesh has so many stuffs in it, why only 10 minutes
It was an honour to supply the music segment for this video!! (And yeah that is “honour” spelt with a “U” 😄)
Hi david
@@Schlesticle hi!
@@DavidBennettPiano seems like a lot of people say that they love the collab but havent found this comment lol
You did great but c‘mon Händel is German not British.
Still can’t believe that I was a co-host on my favourite show of all time! That week was easily the most random / exciting one of my life and I’m so happy you got to experience the rest of the UK outside of London.
Next time you come though Paul, make sure it’s for a minimum of 1 week, 2000 miles in 3 days really does take it out of you, haha 💀
For the record too guys (and girls), both Barbs and Jay are complete legends and I feel honoured to have met and filmed with both of them, really cool and smart guys who I hope to meet / host / work / hang out with again some day :)
@@ThePoshPenguin 12:44 onwards :)
You had a lot of fun and is very informative with all of the places and most popular places in the UK.
@@Matsuna13 Thank you, it was a lot of fun :)
i still cant believe the guy who saved southend pier was on geography now!
@@VietnameseBall911 Me neither mate 😂
as a portuguese person i wish our alliance with the uk was mentioned, not only do we have a lot of shared history in terms of colonial issues, their most famous dish (fish and chips) is literally from sephardic portuguese jewish people that immigrated to the uk
I believe we also drink tea due to influence from the wife of Charles II, Catarina de Bragança, I was dissapointed not to see Portugal mentioned at all :(
Portugal, our oldest friends in Europe!
Loved the time I spent in Portugal, I feel like our sense of humour is quite similar. Also have a lot of Portuguese speakers near me, Brazilian and Portuguese
When the Jews arrived in Britain, potatoes were not even discovered by Europeans. People been frying meats, vegetables and fish for hundreds of years around the world. It's like somebody claiming they invented bread or soup 😂
@@TheTwoFingeredBullFrog The Sephardi Jews brought their tradition of frying fish in breading/batter to England. Before that any fish that was fried was usually pan fried or at best lightly coated in flour
43:40 I can't believe you didn't include Portugal.
The oldest alliance in the world is between the UK and Portugal and while the Brits have a love/hate relationship with the Spanish, the French, the Germans, etc... The Portuguese and British are like the two childhood friends that are now aging but still talk to eachother and catch up when they can.
Bro how have you even watched that far 😂
@@henryt2612 ikr
I think I remember Barbs mentioning England in the Portugal episode for the friend zone section, but I’m not certain.
People fast forward and skip around, guys.
@@BoraCM Yeah he actually did I remember it from the episode.
Ive been waiting 8 years to learn about my own country and the day has finally come
8 years???? Damn
@mpscrapz95 What did you learn?
@@crose7412 I personally didn't know that place name endings were influenced by certain ethnic groups, was actually always curious about the obvious pattern
As a British native myself I do strongly recommend everyone who is visiting the UK to keep an open mind about the traditional food as it is a lot nicer than people and the sterio type like to make it out to be. Recomended meals to try include Fish and Chips (seen by most as the national dish and which tastes similar to Japanese fried Tempura), the Sunday Roast, The English breakfast and Sheppards pie, though the first 2 alone will already be good enough.
For the fish and chips I recommend using either salt or vinegar on the chips or at least one of each for extra taste. They kind of look like takeaway places from the inside as the whole point is to get them from a proper fish and chip shop instead of a pub or restaurant. With The Golden Chippy fish and chip shop being the biggest lore in London for tourists, though poppies is also a popular fish and chip shop in London.
That being said I still advise trying Fish and Chips on the coast instead as they generally just tend to taste so much nicer but if you won't be on the coast, you'll know where to go. For international food, I recomend either Italian, Indian or Japanese. Seriously though, I would honestly find it a lot more open minded and respectful to give the food a fair chance as that's part of the whole cultural experience, hence emerging yourself in the culture. If you don't like it then fair enough but an open minded try will never hurt and British food is a lot nicer than people make it out to be.
@dragoslavdelavega558 People have been saying that for years.. never happens. Change the record.
I read this in a very bad and shitty british accent
@@Mykst not true America had lots of amazing accents.
has*
Reminder that most of the current British cuisine is a product of the Great Depression and the World Wars where the food were rationed heavily leaving behind basic materials as culinary products.
An extremely important but often unstated or unnoticed facet of the UK is its incredibly strong literary culture. The UK publishes 500 new titles PER DAY and has the most books published per person per year of any nation in Europe (and most likely on the entire planet if edition reprints are taken out of other nations' stats)
The only nations whose literary traditions come close is Iceland (who due to its small size has more authors per person), and Slovenia, whose national mythos is based on literature. British books are cornerstones of western literary canon and the foundations of multiple genres, and a large reason for that is that it is simply very cheap to buy new books, relative to many other countries
He absolutely should have talked about literature. There are so many famous writers from the UK.
I'm surprised they skipped the "famous people" section. I suppose the idea is that the audience is already familiar with a lot of British figures, but it'd be nice to highlight some of the important stuff.
Lord of the rings Harry Potter not even a mention
Don’t forget famous textbooks like Gray’s anatomy
The same goes for music!
What's really weird is when you're from a commonwealth nation, a lot of the things which people from most other countries find weird about the UK is actually quite normal to you.
As a Canadian… yeah
Tea breaks, school uniforms, British style education system (with students taking 'O' and 'A' level papers set by Cambridge), left side of the road driving, double decker buses, Type G plugs, obsession for football, British vocabulary (trousers, lorry, maths, spanner, car boot, torch, lift, dual carriageway, carpark) and SO much more.
There's so many things in my daily life I could point to and say "It's this way because some British people many years ago decided it should be this way and we kept it even after they left".
Yeah I’m a Canadian and some of this stuff looks normal to me lmao. I’m likely going to feel the same about the US.
@@flyerboy991 O levels have not been in existence since 1988. The only reason i know is that i was the last group to take them in 1987. GCSEs came in in 1988. A levels in England still exist.
@@jimbo6059 Is that so? Cause it's still around here. Students still need to sit for 'O' Levels (or 'N' Levels if they're in a different stream) in order to graduate from secondary school. If they go to a junior college after graduation, they'll sit for 'A' Levels in order to graduate from there.
Even if the UK itself doesn't practice it anymore, I still like to think of it as yet another example of British influence in my country.
What does it mean to be Ukrainian?
Ukrainians: "To be free and strong enough to fight for it"
What does it mean to be British?
Brits: "To be a Gregg Sausage roll"
Before you say it, I know the context of these questions are VASTLY different right now, so answers might not have been 100% comparable, but I thought the contrast was funny.
Don’t forget that we go to Spain drunk, and we hate Luton.
Patriotism takes many forms.
@@ESCFansUnited oh boy next season premier league gonna be lit
@@Dz73zxxx you know it for sure
@@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721 oh hating Luton is a national pastime
Could have mentioned Rugby league (Union was mentioned) being played mostly in the North of England.
I’ve been waiting for this episode for years! So glad that Jay Foreman was this episode’s co-host! 🇬🇧🤝🇺🇸
Me too! I’m glad to see an episode about the UK finally
For a truly representative view of Birtain he also needed Jay from the inbetweeners aka the pussay patrol!
Portugal is one of England's best friends because of its very old alliance so I think it should have been mentioned in the international relations part but otherwise a very good video.
Love from portugal
Not when the UK stole land from Portugal around 1900. Or when the UK refused to help with Goa.
Yes, I was surprised Portugal wasn't mentioned!
Strongly agree. Portugal should've been mentioned.
@@graceneilitz7661 I mean would you really want Portugal to still have colonial holdings in India?
@@graceneilitz7661 ohh god why are Portuguese still salty about Goa 🤦🏻♂️. Its been decades get over it. Goans are and always were proud Indians, Portuguese had no business there.
I'm half zambian and british and i definitely visited the UK 3 years ago during christmas and I enjoyed the culture and had fun there. I felt it was like my other home and i didn't want to go back to zambia which is my homecountry. I love the UK so much by the way 🇿🇲❤🇬🇧
@JackSonEFla2 UK colonised Zambia, so there's the connection. Zambian people can easily work in the UK, in healthcare at least.
@FriedEgg101 that's right.
@JackSonEFla2because I'm a lineal descendant of my greatgrandfather who came from scotland to settle in africa and my father is related to him and his proud of his british roots by the way.
@@anthonymanderson7671well so you're just 1/8 british.
@@andersonluna7551yeah
It's amazing to think back to Geography Now's first videos, which were a few minutes long, and, now, they are fully researched, well edited and crafted 45 minutes long videos. Crazy how the end is almost here
Hopefully in the near future. They could give many of the early countries he did the full video treatment they truly deserve. Would love to see some of the early nations (Argentina, Brazil, China, Chile, etc.) even a few of the smaller notable nations like Armenia, Bolivia, Costa Rica, etc. would be great to get a lot more info on them.
just to clarify a bit of misinformation in this video. they used the wrong statistics when mentioning city sized. Manchester is not the second biggest city in the uk, it has 510k people in it, and it's country has 2.8 million it, which is where the innacurates "2nd biggest city in the uk" line comes from. the CITY of Manchester, is 5th biggest city in the uk, not the 2nd as this video misattributes it as.
Didn't he say that he plans to move to disputed regions like Kosovo after he does Zimbabwe?
True but I honestly think now it’s kinda unfair that Britain almost got a 50 minute long video while Germany and France’s videos are about 12-15 minutes long.😅 Also Händel is German not British.
@@linajurgensen4698 guess they could remake some once it's finsh?
Having the UK and US back to back feels like the infinity war and endgame era of geography now episodes
😂 🇬🇧♾️🇺🇸
😂😂😂
Fun fact, Scotland has its own education system which is entirely separate and very different to the rest of the UK, even the qualifications are different! Scots also get free university tuition.
Subsidised by England
@@dlc2479 thanks England☺️
That seems like how it is in America since states control education too. The federal government has no laws on education. This is also why saying “American education system” makes no sense.
@@dlc2479no, subsidised by all UK taxpayers for the Scottish government to do as it sees fit, as education is a fully devolved matter.
Fellow Scot here, our education systems are connected but distinct, and university here is not free, it's just free at point of use. We do have to pay it back via installments once we begin work.
I would have thought Australias relationship with the UK would have had a greater mention, given the fact, as much as Australians may deny it, there is still so much in common between the two, in a weird way, the relationship between Australia and the Uk, mainly England, is rather similar to the US and Canadian relationship.
I was surprised that the USA would be the "closest" friend. While the USA and UK are most certainly very close, the British influence is not as distant in Australia.
@@marcsamuelson1011 i mean there is so much more aussies and brits have in common than americans and brits, but hey maybe the UK still looks down at aussies.
@@marcsamuelson1011 agreed, uk and Australia have much in common in terms of culture. The US doesn't even have a people with British ancestry at this point.
@@marcsamuelson1011 while true, the UK's closest economic friend is still the us by far (and closest military friend too)
@@matis9118they don’t look down on Aussies? What are you talking about, the Queen has done so many gestures every year to thank the ANZACs for their hard work.
How in the living hell did you guys forget about Portugal in your friendzone segment? They literally have the oldest alliance in the world!!!! 🇬🇧❤🇵🇹
aww❤🇵🇹🇬🇧
^ This ^
This
This
BOOOOOOOOHHHH!!!
Thomas sounded so excited for being featured in the episode, he seemed genuinely happy throughout his segment, what a nice lad. Bless his soul.
Thank you mate, that means a lot! It was honestly the craziest week of my life, really never expected Paul to even respond to my DM inviting him to crash on my sofa and to go on a road trip with me around the whole of the UK for 4 or 5 days, then the next thing I knew I was co-presenting my favourite show of all time!
@@thomaswatson1995dude you were my favorite part of this entire channel. You did well.
@@multiyapples If you mean that I genuinely massively appreciate it, haha :) Cheers mate!
@@thomaswatson1995 I really do mate. Cheers.
You don’t know how long I’ve waited for this episode, I’m welsh and I’m glad my country got recognition.
He got our population wrong though, we are nearly 5% of the UK not 1.5%! I wonder where he got that number from haha
@@kdizzle44 sources trust me bro
Wales = not a real country .
@@pietrojenkins6901 die.
@@pietrojenkins6901 shut up i live here its a real country
A shame there wasn’t a little more on Northern Ireland in the ‘what it means to be from the UK’ or the languages section, because there are Irish speakers there! There’s even a Gaeltacht in Belfast. I guess it feels fraught to talk about? And my understanding is that northern Irish identity can be very complicated. Nice to see mentions of Gaelic football and hurling. Had a fun time watching!
Tbf I think they split NI information between the ROI and UK videos as to avoid any offence (very easy to do here lol).
Northern Ireland simply never comes to mind as part of the UK to not only the average American but even the average Brit. I (someone from Ireland) was watching this expecting some reference but tbh I don't blame there not being much of an emphasis on NI; it's semi-detached from the UK at best. Irish republicans wave flags to proclaim their identity there in spite of NI being in the UK; unionists/loyalists wave their flag because they feel insecure and under siege
Lions were common in South Europe, but humans hunted them to extinction in antiquity.
And the Scot’s picked the unicorn because they are the natural enemies of lions.
*_Same in Arabia and Other places in Asia like Iran, India............._*
People in Roman Britain would've been familiar with lions though because they were transported there for arena events.
It’s the Lion of Judah. The Royals claim they descend from the line of David.
@@JohnnyLouisXIX lol India still has lions
As a Welsh person and someone from Llanelli. I really appreciiate the effort put into the pronunciations for the place names. Da Iawn
Da lawn?
@@dollarweeb4573
"Very good"
@@dollarweeb4573 Da lawn.
I think they both did a great job. Stwff bendigedig.
They got Dyfed wrong and Eisteddfod tho
Yes!!!! Finally I've been waiting for the UK episode for years. I would love to visit the UK one day.
Love UK from Malaysia.
🇲🇾❤🇬🇧
My girlfriend is malaysian we live in UK together
@@hallowedproductions3334 Wow, really? That's amazing man. I would love to study in the UK one day.
@@AM-mv6ro One day my brother. 😊😊😊
love to visit our former colonizer
Funny enough, malaysia is quite similar with the UK. Both is a country that made of a bunch of smaller country. Both a constitutional monarchy country.We love complicated things and complain a lot.
Just a small correction on the image captions. The Scottish Gaelic singer's name is Julie Fowlis, not Judy Fowlis. For those interested in the Scottish Gaelic language and that like soft, traditional songs, Julie's music is phenomenal. I really enjoyed this overview of the UK and like always, you do an awesome job with your episodes of Geography Now!
I love her so much!
The UK has to be one of the most bizarrely complicated countries in the world to talk about! There's just no simple way to really describe them. And I think that's awesome!
It's not. Other countries in the world deserve more video time than how stupid the UK is...
At least we germans streamlined our county from the mess that was the holy Roman empire 😂
@@chheinrich8486 ahhah I think that says just as much about the British character than the German (in how each nation simplifies lol)
@chheinrich8486 I don't worry about, everything here is stupidly confusing. but it works so we just leave it. everything's been the same here for hundreds of years.
but that's what happens when you don't have civil wars or Revolutions.
along as I can go to work, eat and sleep then i dont worry about it
@chheinrich8486 well the Soviets kinda un-streamlined for a few decades.
I've been watching Geography Now for almost 4 years now and always wondered what my country episode will be like. Absolutely smashed it, one of my favourite Geography Now episodes to date
Neato
I remember watching him when I was a high school freshman, now I'm a graduating university student.
9:51 minor correction. The colony in 1585 was the failed colony of Roanoke in what is modern day North Carolina. Jamestown was established in 1607.
Easily one of the best episodes! Plenty of laughs and educational value! Thank you UK 🇬🇧 from USA 🇺🇸
As a fellow Brit myself, I've waited years for this episode to come. The amount of research and accuracy that's gone into this is spot on.
Am amazed that Portugal didn't get a mention, they're our oldest ally of all, an alliance that has lasted for more than 600 years. Many Portuguese diaspora come to live & work in the UK, most of whom get naturalized at British citizens. They're like an extended family and we really like hanging out when possible. The Benelux nations also deserve a mention, especially Belgium.
And don't forget New Zealand in addition to Australia, they're a close ally too!
There are other nationalities who make up the population too, such as Americans, South Africans, and more recently Hong Kongers. And many Europeans who joined the European Union back in 2004 also came, notably Poles and Lithuanians.
Regarding Asia: diplomatic ties to South Korea has got to be possibly our longest running. We've also cozied up to Taiwan & Japan too.
Something else missing from the culture is our award-winning Scotch Whisky, famous the world over and lots of us enjoy it.
Otherwise, a very enjoyable episode, great job.
I'm surprised they didn't go more in depth on Australia and the Uks relationship. We literally have over a million british born people living here in Australia (including my own grandparents) with the vast majority of the rest of our population being of British descent and our countries have been close since our bloody foundation (which was by the british themselves). I can see a possible reason why is because they didn't want to include a lot of the atrocities that took place in Australia by the British which is fair enough but still could've gone into more detail on our relationship.
Also he should have mentioned Rishi Sunak the prime minister in the context of the Indian Population in the UK
Uk in ww1: After 600 years? Still friends?
Portugal: For sure!
This episode fell way below usual standards of depth. I spent the whole time screaming at the screen!
I'd say we have closer ties to Japan than South Korea.
It’s important to note that Scotland has a completely different education system to the rest of the uk. For example: instead of GCSEs there are National 5s and instead of A-levels there are highers and advanced highers(A-levels have a difficulty that is in between the two)
The ultimate duo for our nerdy viewing pleasure. You both, plus all the co-hosts. did brilliantly!
Absolutely outrageous that you didn’t mention that Portugal is our best and oldest friend!
The UK doesn't have friends. Just colonies categorized with confusing names to disguise the tax havens.
England’s best friend, not Scotland, Wales’ or NI’s.
sorry do not respect people who lost 13-0 😂😂😂😂😂
who cares
Well we are in the same time zone.
Us Brits have been waiting a decade for this, and I couldn't be more grateful it is finally here 😂 Amazing that of all people, you brought Jay Foreman on 🙌
Imagine the peoole from Zimbabwe
Yeah amazing, some lefty who’s no idea about his country outside of London 🙄 literally couldn’t have picked anyone worse
As a brit living in Central Asia, this made me so homesick 🥹 never thought it was possible, lots of love ♥
What country are you living in?
Are you there permanently?
Why are you living there
Why are you in Central Asia lol
Yeah, I’m a bit curious as to why you’re in Central Asia of all places lmao
Do you like low priced gas or something?
Seeing you mention The bailiwicks aren't in the UK made me proud. It's always a pain explaining where I'm from
It is finally here! I have been so excited for this one! And Jay Foreman was a fantastic guest for this episode!
As a proud resident of Llanelli, I am super happy to see my town being mentioned on Geography Now!
I’m from gowerton!
@@onsitehistory228 Awesome, you're from the prettier side of the bridge 😂
Im from carmarthen but all of my dads family are turks
I’m gonna come find you
I also never expected Chiswick to get a shout out 🙋🏻
I feel like I've been silently & patiently waiting for this episode for 5 years. & It did not disappoint and was larger and more detailed than I could have ever imagined, thank you to all involved. (UK here)
As a Dutchman, I've visited the UK a bit more than 5 times in my life, and the food has been nothing but amazing every single time. The average quality of pub food is astoundingly high
As an Englishman, I always argue that we don't claim to have the finest or best food in the world but we do have the best "Comfort" food in the world *
I'm from england, and while we DO indeed eat a lot of terribly bland and simply BAD food, we also are capable of some world class dishes, it all depends on context.
but yeah pub food is often pretty good depending on the pub.
however the average cafe, diner or restaurant will be bland gristly crap or cheap frozen food... but... those that ARENT average can be amazing.
As an American with Jamaican parents who loves Britcoms and Craig David, I'd say you did a smashing job on this episode. Cheers, mate.
Same! Both of my parents are Jamaican and mothers dad is Bajan. This episode was spectacular
Craig David! Really!? 😅
@@cordoroy9515 Yes. Been a fan since 2002. He's rather underated as an R&B artist.
@PHSDM104 Fair-do's, each to there own. I was never a fan but then, his genre wasn't really in my wheelhouse.
@@PHSDM104 can’t forget about him as a garage artist
It‘s astounding how many people in Europe speak English as their second language and how well they do it. I mean for Jay and Thomas you were barely able to hear that they‘re British.
Eh, anyone in Europe can definitely pinpoint a Brit from how they talk. I guess it's like Australians and Kiwis, they can tell each other apart but the rest of the world can't.
Actually I’ve never heard British, they all speak English, it must be a secretive language
yeah ok the language of the money but certainly not the language of our hearts, not by choice that is (european here)
@@KrlKngMrtssn I'm Also British and one more thing God Save The King!
just to clarify a bit of misinformation in this video. they used the wrong statistics when mentioning city sized. Manchester is not the second biggest city in the uk, it has 510k people in it, and it's country has 2.8 million it, which is where the innacurates "2nd biggest city in the uk" line comes from. the CITY of Manchester, is 5th biggest city in the uk, not the 2nd as this video misattributes it as.
As a Brit, I'd say this is a really well made video! While I know it's impossible to say everything about a country with such a long and complicated history, I'm a bit surprised you didn't mention the UK's history with Hong Kong, although I know it's a political controversial subject.
I have been living in UK since my birth and still do, it's a beautiful country, love it as a Polish 🇵🇱❤🇬🇧
Glad to hear
Up the poles
I love Poland.
Go back
How exactly are you Polish if you were born here, and have lived here your entire life? 🤨
Loved seeing Jay Foreman in this video. His signature sense of comedy shines through in this, even while blending with the Geography Now format.
All of it was great but as a Brit I thought the Friendzone was pretty off. Not including Portugal who are our oldest ever ally and we have treaties stretching back to 1373. The Dutch are close allies. However I would say our closest allies on a people level are Australia, New Zealand and Canada. I want to emphasise that I as a Brit, would say that the United States is far from our closest Friend on a people level, though they may be one of our closest political allies, along with France, Germany and Australia, New Zealand and Canada
As a Canadian... I feel that UK and US in many ways closer than UK/Canada... as they begrudgingly consider each other peers. Canadians/NZers FEEL closer to UK than your average American... but in more a distant cousin than a "bestie" UK/US have a closer "friendship"
I guess... US/UK are friends by choice... Canada/NZ/AU are friends by obligation.
Was gonna say its odd that Portugal didn't get a mention!
As a Brit I'd say Australia is closer to the UK than America nowadays. Still very close as being part of the Anglosphere though. Portugal should've been mentioned. I also think Germany is worth a mention, Brits have a lot of respect for Germans due to similar culture.
@@TheNewGreenIsBlue I'd say it's like a love triangle. Canada likes the UK and the UK likes the US.
@sdrawkcabUK you can always hear the Americans in London
As a Hong Konger, I congratulate Barbs on stumbling upon one of our favorite drinks - Yuenyeung where we literally take British tea with milk and mix it with coffee. Delicious!!! Now don’t you dare do that with Chinese tea though haha 😂
You're in our thoughts Hong Kong. Big love to you.
I'm gonna have to try that now, sounds pretty nice
Yesssss!!!
+Also Hong Konger Ahhhhhh
The disrespect towards the British tea is what makes mixing it that way taste so delicious
Hehe, gotta love a bit of coftea!
Surprised you didn’t talk about the north-south divide? It’s a massive part of culture in England, at least in the eyes of Northerners. It’s nice that the constituent countries got recognised, but maybe shining a spotlight on the specific challenges faced by Northern England, a distinct cultural region, should have been included?
As a British person (Welsh more specifically), I've been waiting for this episode for a long time and it didn't disappoint! I also love how every one of the UK nations was presented individually and represented well!
And as a Swansea boy, it made me laugh to see Paul try to pronounce Llanelli! It's literally one of the towns next door to here! But Jay pronounced it perfectly, which is rare for an English person! Like Amanda Holden attempting to pronounce Llanelli on a live semi-final of Britain's Got Talent a few years ago! Most of us here in Wales have never forgiven her for that! 🤣🤣🤣
The only thing I will say is that in the education section, Jay was slightly mistaken about the school leaving age. Compulsory education in this country ends at 16, not 18. It'd only be 18 if you're in one of the big public schools such as Eton, Harrow, Radley, Rugby, Charterhouse, etc, but in the state sector you can either stay on and go into sixth form, or to a sixth form college, after your GCSEs or take up an apprenticeship or other work. It just depends on your preferences.
Basically, BTEC and A Levels aren't compulsory!
I'm also gutted that there wasn't more stuff in the culture section about our television (which we invented!) such as our love of our soap operas (EastEnders, Coronation Street, Hollyoaks, Doctors, etc) and how Coronation Street is the longest-running TV drama series and how William Roache from Coronation Street is the longest-running soap opera actor ever. Or how we have some of the longest-running programmes of particular genres in the world (e.g. Casualty for medical drama, The Bill for police procedural drama, Last of The Summer Wine for comedy and The Sky at Night for factual).
But it was a brilliant presentation all the same. 😀
I believe the compulsory education age has recently changed from 16 to 18. However they still count vocational courses and apprenticeships as compulsory education.
@@ennythinn - I've looked it up and you're right, but not when it comes to the UK in general. Bare in mind that we have devolution in Wales (unfortunately), so our education laws are slightly different. The compulsory age has only changed in England. The old age applies to us, Scotland and Northern Ireland (i.e. the devolved parts of the country).
@@kwesiidun8512 hello there Kwesi !
Got Ghanaian descent? 🌚
@@kwesikwansakennedy2196 - Yeah my dad's Ghanaian. Born in Accra, but grew up in Elmina. He's Fante with a bit of German/Dutch. And my mum's from Swansea (same as me) but has a English/Scottish/Irish background. And concidering that we have the same first name, you're of Ghanaian decent as well, I'm guessing?
@@kwesiidun8512 So you’re half-Ghanaian that’s cool.
Like any Irishman, I'm lowkey discouraged from emphasising our similarities to the British. But dang, Jay's description of semi-imperial measurement reeealy hits home for me
@HP-jz5se we are the exact same it’s only when we are abroad today we realise that
The similarities don’t require emphasis.
Being discouraged is just nationalism… it was only a century ago that Irish independence was even a popular idea. Even American independence was an unpopular idea. People just love to be different I guess
really though? i’m irish and the only imperial measurement i ever use is using feet for height instead of centimeters
@@xAppleGamingg pints
I just Imagine Barbie and the rest of the Geography Now team breathing a sigh of relief after finally releasing a video about such a cultural and historical juggernaut for two seconds then immediately realizing what's next
What is next?
@@monkeyman4097 The USA
as the man said: "...good luck..." 🤣
3 of 4 videos gets you Ukraine, UK and USA. Makes them long for the halcyon days of Liechtenstein, Lithuania and Luxembourg.
@@theMoersterhalcyon, that’s a word I haven’t heard in a while. Title of one of my fav albums by Spiritbox too
To be honest I personally think France would be included in the ‘best friends’ bit- i would say they’re kind of like our twin sibling- squabbling a lot but always very close
Our sibling is the Americans but the French are our annoying ex who is a bit possessive
Despite adoring France and having visited many times, I could not disagree with this more! They are and will always be the Old Enemy
No. I prefer Germany. We are brothers
Wow, this episode definitely makes the UK seem like the most complicated country, but then how much of that is because Jay is known for his interest in complicated administrative arrangements through his own TH-cam channel. Complicated aspects about other countries in earlier episodes are usually brushed over, but here Jay went all in. In any case, nicely done video. I lived in the UK once, met the queen a couple of times, and miss crumpets with marmite
the thing is, it's impressive how he explained it as complicated to you guys, because to anyone who lives here, it's just normal.
Lol, I actually was waiting for him to say how he met the queen or in some another form mentioning that
Fun fact: The Welsh language was once referred to as the 'British language'
Brythonic =/= British
@@TreacleMary Sure but it is a fact that it used to be the case that the Welsh language was referred to as the British language. Your comment won't change that.
Also, Brythonic, or Common Brittonic is a different language entirely, being the ancestor of the Breton, Cornish, and Welsh languages. The word Briton is cognate to the word Brython, and it seems to be the case that the word 'British' had a more Celtic connotation that the current usage of the word, and it apparently used to be synonymous with 'Welsh', which is no longer the case now.
Wasn’t exclusive to Wales either. Brittany in France and Galicia in Spain formed what is referred to as the “Brittonic community”.
@@XXXTENTAClON227 Brittonic. Not British
A quick addition to the music bit would be the Afro-Caribbean roots and the birth of the sounds that defined the UK in the 90s and 2000s like Jungle, Garage, Drum and Bass and Dubstep. Another more recent addition would be the birth of hyper-pop, with brilliant producers like AG Cook and SOPHIE.
yeah agreed, this is definitely a big crucial and prominent part of the british music scene!! :)
They literally missed out the one of the biggest street carnival in the world which is of caribbean origin - Notting hill carnival
Grime and Riddim dubstep.
Yeah, also found it super weird that this large part of British music was missed out. Also, all the music that came out of the "British Invasion" was heavily influenced by Black music from the USA (Rock'n'Roll, Soul, R'n'B).
@@shaiyanomamo3705 true. Not dismissing any contributions and evolutions by other people and countries, but Black music of America, the Caribbean and Britain has birthed and shaped the sounds of almost all music we hear today.
24:55 caught me well off guard! 😂 I used to go school with that lad, Matt, in Leicester 😂
so, the UK: the most overcomplicated geographical anomaly on earth. because even calling it a country is controversial
because it's a union of countries, hence the "United Kingdom".
Oh, have you heard about Bosina and Herzogovina?…
@@MrOldWilliam The Balkans are such an uncontroversial set of good friends :)
@@distortionmusic We just love and hate each other in equal measures at the same time
My wife always complains that the UK may send (if they qualify) four teams to a European or World Football Championship. She finds it unfair. Well, imagine all the German Länder were independet UEFA members...
I did NOT expect David to do the music segment, I love his music theory videos
I've been waiting for this episode for 3 years and I was not disappointed. Excited for everyone to learn about my country. 🇬🇧
College in the UK is also a subdivision of a university that is sort of self-governing. You find them in the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, London and Wales (until 2007).
Fun fact: that picture 31:46 depicts *Polish* nobility. More specifically the magnates (the wealthiest nobles) in the second half of the 16th century. It's part of a series of illustrations depicting clothes worn in Poland throughout the ages by various social classes and groups, made by famous Polish painter Jan Matejko.
Speaking of Polish, it's the most widely spoken immigrant language in the UK, followed by Romanian, Punjabi and Urdu (according to the 2021 census).
Kinda expected that Polish would be the most widely spoken language as there’s alot of them over here, Poles from my experience are hard-working people and fit in just fine in comparison to some other immigrants from the European mainland. Most of them are much more polite and definitely more social then the average person around.
There can't be a better geography based crossover than Map Men and Geography Now! Thank you Barbs for bringing in Jay
Yes! York got a mention. Thanks guys. As well as the Shambles, York also has largest gothic cathedral in Northern Europe (The York Minster), the largest railway museum in the world (The National Railway Museum), the Jorvik Viking Centre (Jorvik was the viking name for York, and Eboracum during Roman times) and York Racecourse (the Knavesmire) which is used for Horse Racing and can hold up to 125,000 people. York also has a weird law where you can legally kill a scotsman who's within the city walls and is carrying a bow and arrow (ofcourse this has been superseded by the Homicide Act), which dates back to when the Scottish sacked York during the Scottish Wars of Independence during the 14th century.
York is the greatest city in the UK
@@LamaKickMojo correct!
Sure that's not an urban myth? We have the exact same story for my city Chester except it's a crossbow and it's Welshmen inside the walls after dark.
@LamaKickMojo can't realy argue with that
As someone from Yorkshire, I only have one word to say... YORKSHIRE! :P
I'm from England UK and you did an awesome job of explaining my country.
Appreciate you dropped a mention to Middlesbrough, it's often overlooked but its contribution to the industrial revolution was immense
Shame you didn't get promoted this year though
@@nialler78Aye it was gutting, quite confident for next season though
David Bennett Piano x Geography Now is a crossover I didn’t think I needed but I am here for it. Two of my favorite TH-cam channels.
Of only they could have asked. Sir David Attenborough to cover the wildlife part. However that might be a bit to over the top.
And as per tradition, The Beatles and Radiohead were mentioned
As someone from India who has visited uk and Europe multiples times, I feel so home in UK. Be it the language or so many brown people around or the brits getting used to us or that wonderful nice people ive met. I could go anywhere in the UK and not feel a stranger. Cant wait to go back and watch a footie game, eat all the delicious food and party!
You're always welcome my friend 😊
Thanks for making me like my country a little more :)
You feel at home probably because there are millions of Indians in the UK...
hey as a Brit come on over happy to have you mate! YNWA as well ;D
@@p0pov13it’s our punishment because we colonised them 💀
1:22
"I made one of these, he's really good" is the most British way to describe your child
I’ve been anticipating the UK and US episodes forever. This one was really good.
This is so exiting, time to learn about my own country 😂🇬🇧
Same
yessir same
Same
Same here 😂
Been waiting for this for so long
Portugal is our longest ever ally. BIG props to the Portuguese, lovely people beautiful country and had some of the greatest explorers to have ever sailed the seas.
Poland is next. Absolutely LOVE the Polish people. Strong, Hardy people who have come over here to Britain and made it better place for their presence.
I think many British have forgotten just how hard the European and Asian families worked to rebuild the UK after WWII. They brought their families and they helped rebuild our shattered cities and economies, and the thanks they get is the vile racism and xenophobia that is sneaking back into our culture, no thanks to the US culture bleeding in too.
Portugal might be England's oldest ally, but France is Scotland's oldest ally.
Big up Poland for helping us to win the battle of Britain!
@@kjh23gk Yes, for nearly a century more.
I was so happy to be a part of this episode! Thank you so much for having me, it was finally nice to meet you after 10 years of being a fan! 🇬🇧
Edit: btw I’m @snacksifu (in case you were wondering)
Was great meeting you mate, even if it was for only a few seconds, haha! And once again, thank you for spotting me and telling me where Paul went, I might have not had a chance to say bye in time without you guys!
I've learned more about my own country in this video than I ever did at school, also great to see that Jay was the co-host here (perfect choice) on top of that im happy that you guys did your research on wales because most people don't even know it's a country and assume im from England.
Never subscribed to a YT channel that I even neither know nor heard of quicker than Jay's. So funny. So entertaining. So informative. Great stuff, you both. Thank you for making and sharing.
What a fun loaded episode. Jay Foreman and Barbs have an awesome comedic chemistry.
Foreman sounds jewish
20:26 I would like to mention that technically are largest native mammal is actually the European Bison, it was once native went extinct in the uk but a herd has been reintroduced onto a site in Kent where they roam freely just in a restricted area.
been waiting for this episode! so well done, thank you
so happy that you got Jay Foreman for this episode too
Surprised no mention of New Zealand, Netherlands, or Portugal being friends.
Precisely
also belgium
The Dutch Republic confused them before. So better not mention the glorious 'revolution' either.
From the UK - you've absolutely knocked this one out of the park. Honestly the only things I would add are the UK's huge influence on global motorsport (not even a mention of Brooklands or Silverstone is pretty rough) and how we see Germany as our main rival in sports. Otherwise there really isn't anything I can fault, this is a fantastic video - 10/10. 🇬🇧
The video was already nearly 50 mins tbf
Literally the best co-host this series has had, I love how Jay's energy meshed with GN's typical style of humor (or should I say, humoUr) - there was so much to cover and you crammed a surprisingly large amount of the beautiful mess that is the UK into a video that felt way shorter than it was
Cheers from a Polish-Dutch citizen! (aka a representative of one of the biggest European immigrant communities in your country, as well as a colonial ex-rival)
Jay's youtube channel especially Map Men episodes are one of my favourites if you haven't seen them already, 😊 as a British person its nice to see Jay has the same feelings as I do about the country and some of the decisions it had made recently, alot of us feel the same.
Polish-Dutch? Is that like you are Polish born living in the Netherlands or vice versa? As a plain Dutch myself, id love to learn :)
@@sawer my father is a Dutchman, but I’ve been born and raised in Poland - I have dual citizenship and I frequently visit the Netherlands, so by all accounts I’m both Polish and Dutch
@@BlueSunTH-cam yes, I love Map Men and Unfinished London
So cool you got David Bennett… there are SO MANY GREAT UK Music TH-camRS… Wings of Pegasus, Guitaristas, Mary Spender, Chris Buck, Justin Hawkins Rides Again, Andy Edwards, and many more!
yeah so many youtubers
Thank you for your lovely segment with all the interviews asking what it means to be British! Such a great show of what a diverse country this is
I HAVE WAITED THIS VIDEO FOR SO LONG I'M ALMOST CRYING EVERYTHING HERE IS SO PERFECT
Greetings from Finland's self-proclaimed no. 1 Anglophile, GN fan and Jay Foreman -stan! I need to send some salmiakki to you Barbs
I haven’t said that before, but guys, you are putting an amazing amount of effort in every one of your videos. Being informed about our world makes us better human beings, as we understand that we all share a common home, the Earth. Congrats once again for your amazing work, a channel that is definitely one of the best on its kind! Love from Greece! 🙏🏻🗺🗺
Love from the United States of America to the United Kingdom! 🇺🇸❤️🇬🇧
So happy to see not just Jay but also the lovely cameo from David Benett on this episode, really well done guys ❤
As a music nerd I was so surprised on David’s appearance
I love David Bennett's channel. I especially love how he recreates popular songs.
This. Was. BRILLIANT! so we’ll done and with so much info. Only points are that Derbyshire is pronounced “DArbyshire” - we’re precious about that, Birmingham and Manchester will both tell you they’re the 2nd city and Portugal is our oldest “friend and ally” and deserved a mention. Either way, it was a brilliant video and I really appreciate everything that went in to making it. Thank you!
So happy to see my local cheese rolling mentioned 😊 It actually took place yesterday.
This was a great video!
As a Colombian, I forget we also have mixed measuring systems (until I saw this). We do gas in gallons, pints of beer, sometimes use feet and inches (for TVs) and we do pounds (although our pounds are literally half a kilo thus the government has prohibited is use in offical documents and packaging, especially for export).
There is a 500g 'pound' in the Netherlands, too. Their word is 'pond' (pronounced "pont"). 😉
One thing that people rarely talk about is Britain’s legal influence. Many laws from British colonial authority remain in countries which were at some point or other colonised (including some really terrible laws that have been used to attack sexual minorities), but today the English courts and the UK Supreme Court (via the Privy Council, where British judges decide cases voluntarily sent from commonwealth countries) have a very strong influence on the interpretation and development of law from constitutional to criminal to commercial and contracts. The English and British judicial system is well respected for how independent it is from government and fair it’s judgments are, and decisions are often followed in the US, India, Australia, NZ etc. English courts also invented “equity” which forms the basis for shareholder law, charities, and trusts among other things. English law forms the basis for most international law, and many international jurisdictions like the DIFC in Dubai expressly use English law, so English-trained lawyers often work in international arbitrations and cases. Britain also took a leading role in writing many of the conventions and treaties that underpin the international community, both during the colonial era and using its international influence and respect post-war.
It’s worth pointing out that Britain as a whole is not a single jurisdiction, but rather split into Northern Ireland, Scotland, and England and Wales. English and Welsh law is often referred to as English law, and as British law by those less familiar with the system. The exception is “reserved matters” which the UK Parliament legislates on, and the jurisdiction of the UK Supreme Court which covers most issues but not all from England and Wales, Scotland, and NI.
Well said
okay but this collaboration is exactly what I never knew I needed so much in my life
I was worried that when you guys covered the UK, the constituent nations would be marginalised. But you've done a fantastic job of representing all cultures across the Isles, and not conflated the 'UK' with 'England/London' like so many others do.
Yep. Most people think England is just London. If they are football fans it’s London & Manchester. That’s it 😅
Northern Ireland was largely ignored
@@danrua01 classic, just like the british administration
Didn't even bother to mention Haggis when talking about food because the guy was from London
Not really
10:24 For those who don't know, Jay saying Oliver Cromwell's name in a singsong fashion is actually in reference to the comedian troupe Monty Python song Oliver Cromwell, singing about his life to Chopin's Heroic Polonaise.
I'm so glad this video finally came out, and i enjoyed it. Love from London, UK!❤
@JackSonEFla2chill dude, by the way love from india
Love the UK from an American!
I have been to Uk 3 times (once in Londan and Leister, once in Broadstairs and Cantebury and once in Edinbrough). Going in again this year i will be part of The Tall Ships races. Looked so much for this episode! i m from Estonia and have watched you since the Estonian episode. keep up the good work cant wait until the last countrie episode is done and you will start with something New!
I love Estonia! I have some very close Estonian friends and really enjoyed visiting Tallinn. As a Brit your country is so underrated:)
I've been waiting for this for sooooooo long and it exceeded my expectations
Amazing how much impact cultural-wise have had UK all over the world and still has
Love to UK from Poland eapecially Wales and Dorset where I've been on several occssions
P.S. Man USA episode is gonna be so massive
Is there anything more satisfying as a Brit, than laughing about all the nonsense and absurdities and contradictions of our countries foundations? It low-key saves us from going a bit mad... so thanks for this brilliant, well-researched video. And shout out Jay for the deep-cut Monty Python reference ('lord protectooor of england') ps. I cracked up at the unexpected David Bennett cameo, did not expect all the TH-camrs I learn from and repeat facts from constantly to all appear in the same video 😅