The Greatest British.......
swingaleg
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Just watching Newsnight and there's a piece about the new Mike Leigh film about the artist JMW Turner.......starring Timothy Spall in a potentially Oscar winning performance
for a few years now I've thought of Turner as The Greatest British Artist.......and this got wondering who else qualifies as The Greatest British something-or-other
Few nominations......
Playwright - Shakespeare
Composer - Vaughan Williams
Prime minister - Churchill
Pop group - The Beatles
King - Edward 3rd
Feel free to add your nominations !
for a few years now I've thought of Turner as The Greatest British Artist.......and this got wondering who else qualifies as The Greatest British something-or-other
Few nominations......
Playwright - Shakespeare
Composer - Vaughan Williams
Prime minister - Churchill
Pop group - The Beatles
King - Edward 3rd
Feel free to add your nominations !
0
Comments
I'll do my own and say best British Car Ever
Rolls Royce
Ok, she's not British but they are the greatest.............
Poser - David Beckham
Henry Purcell or
William Byrd
Author Dickens
Politician Bevan
William Byrd is a great choice but I'd have to go with Thomas Tallis for that title e.g. his 'Lamentations of Jeremiah' is agonisingly beautiful:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbczcKGgcwM
Turner is undoubtedly our greatest artist though, as Shakespeare is our greatest playwright.
Arguably. He was on drugs and steroids most of the time. Anyway, that lot are nancy-boys compared to the likes of Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks.
That's a no brainer for obvious reasons.
He built this for example in the 19th century.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Western_Main_Line
It is simply a masterpiece of engineering, considering when it was built.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isambard_Kingdom_Brunel
Here's a cab view of part of the journey, which shows how the track is pretty well flat, but is often a series of slight curves, so slight you hardly notice at 125mph running.
Reading - Didcot Parkway Drivers Cab View
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCEyKrkVa2I
er, never mind
Billy Liar
Kes
Trainspotting
Whisky Galore
I'd add the 'Great Eastern' to that which, although a disaster in many respects, was also decades ahead of its time and remained the largest ship ever built for nearly 50 years.
+ Sightseers
Greatest novelist is a tricky one as there have been so many e.g. Austen, Dickens, Eliot, the Brontes, Thomas Hardy, D H Lawrence, Henry James (naturalised British), Joyce, etc.
Price.
Thomas Telford as well.
My favorite is Horatio Nelson, probably the best seaman of his era.
According to Skyscrapercity, the line was built with curve radii which allows trains to run up to 145mph, which the HST is capable of, and up to TGV speeds with tilting trains. The line would need some upgrades, such as in cab signalling, but the infrastructure is fundamentally there. And this in a railway line built in the 19th century. Forward thinking or what when it comes to train speeds.
IK Brunel's engineering feats are numerous and that is why he was voted the 2nd in the 100 Greatest Britons, after Churchill.
Another few.
Clifton Suspension Bridge.
Maidenhead Railway Bridge.
Box Tunnel.
Royal Albert Bridge.
Strongman - Geoff Capes
Powerlifter - Andy Bolton
Shurely shome mistake.
Scientist - James Clark Maxwell