I read in another blog that the BBC America is pulling it's wonderful older shows, such as Keeping Up Appearances and Are You Being Served?

What a shame! Shows like that may be old, but they bring laughter to people over here, who often don't have much reason to laugh. My mum was DYING, and shows like AYBS and KUA made her smile, they made her burst out in gales of laughter! What the heck is wrong with that? So the shows are "old Britain," so what??

Old Britain, new Britain--does it matter so much, if these shows still bring joy to those who watch it?

We've an old 70's series here, All in the Family, that though it no longer reflects what (most of) America is in the 21st century, it still brings laughter to those of us who, again, have precious little to laugh about, in our lives.

And isn't that more important than some uptight narrow view of political correctness? But maybe some Brits don't think so. In any case, glad I opted out of getting the highly expensive premium cable package so I could get BBC America--if they are going to get all snobby and yank the very shows that made me come to love Brit-coms in the first place, to heck with that! I'll save my cash and buy the DVD's. ;)

I'd like to think I'm intelligent enough to understand that these older shows don't represent the current British culture--once again, it seems the BBC and people overseas are playing to the stereotype that all Americans are stupid. Not all of us--but maybe some Brits need to reexamine their own points of view?

My impression, is that this whole thing centres on ome sort of mass national insecurity about one's 21st century British identity--which is, from my observation, is what this is really all about, should not be used to prevent Americans from enjoying the very shows, that got them watching the BBC in the first place. I think that attitude, quite frankly, is patiently stupid.