Greatest Briton of All-Time

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diana is leading the polls but is she really the greatest of all time? where's hugh grant?

― keith (keithmcl), Monday, 4 November 2002 00:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Pinefox, obv

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 4 November 2002 00:37 (twenty-two years ago)

I can't believe anyone would say Diana! Crikey, a skanky-no-good-ho was what she was. All the good she did was to entertain bored housewives with her emotional instability and marital infidelities.

Why are people so unable to think about anything other than the immediate past? It's like all the "Best of the 20th Century" lists that only included things from the last 30 years.

I vote for Pinefox too.

― toraneko (toraneko), Monday, 4 November 2002 01:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Oops, sorry Pinefox, I've decided to vote for the Lady of the Lake instead, followed by King Arthur and Robin Hood.

― toraneko (toraneko), Monday, 4 November 2002 01:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm just glad Churchill didn't win, the bastard.

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 4 November 2002 04:26 (twenty-two years ago)

And besides, I say that England's greatest prime minister was Lord Palmerston!

― Leee (Leee), Monday, 4 November 2002 06:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Johnny Rotten, of course! Ok, I may be a *little* biased but he deserves higher than 87.

I'm pleased to see Ernest Shackleton at 11, though. Maybe he's not the greatest Briton of all-time but he was pretty cool & one of my favorite historical figures ever. Much cooler than that jerk Robert F. Scott all the way down at 54.

― Miss Laura, Monday, 4 November 2002 09:30 (twenty-two years ago)

No Wodehouse. No Kipling. The list sucks.

― Sam (chirombo), Monday, 4 November 2002 09:49 (twenty-two years ago)

no derek bailey, thus list completely invalidated.

― Denise Lambert, Monday, 4 November 2002 10:21 (twenty-two years ago)

I have watched a few of the programmes about each person in the top ten, and am so easily influenced that I decide that THAT PERSON is like so cool and amzing they they must be the GREATEST. However, this doesn't work for Diana as she's just a stinking rotten parasite and embodies much that is wrong with Britain, or Churchill who I know was a bastard (I know this is true, because my Grandma told me). Am currently fond of Brunel and Cromwell. Am worried about how interested in this I am.

― Madeleine (Madeleine), Monday, 4 November 2002 10:45 (twenty-two years ago)

i wish i knew a whole bunch of easily lead motherfuckers so i could talk them all into voting for me.

― g-kit (g-kit), Monday, 4 November 2002 10:47 (twenty-two years ago)

admit it madeleine, yr prince philip really, aren't you?

― Denise Lambert, Monday, 4 November 2002 10:56 (twenty-two years ago)

lady of the lake = french

ans to q = oliver postgate

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 4 November 2002 11:01 (twenty-two years ago)

No 17: Michael Crawford

Am I the only one who is totally baffled by this?

― Alfie (Alfie), Monday, 4 November 2002 11:31 (twenty-two years ago)

yes he should have come top!

― Obvious Kneejerk Response, Monday, 4 November 2002 11:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Have been rumbled. I have to find something to fill my days with as my wife won't let me help her run the country. Seems to think I'm not very good at it....

― Philip (Madeleine), Monday, 4 November 2002 11:53 (twenty-two years ago)

the whole point of this is completely lost on me.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 4 November 2002 11:57 (twenty-two years ago)

and yes, i do hate fun.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 4 November 2002 11:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Richard Fairbrass.

― Graham (graham), Monday, 4 November 2002 12:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Did anyone see The Vicious Circle last night. One hour of six minor celebs and scientists (!) slagging off the Great Britons: Diana program. Longer and better that the program itself. ANd almost definately libellous twice (still whose watching CHannel Five at 11:30pm on a Sunday).

― Pete (Pete), Monday, 4 November 2002 12:38 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah i switched off as soon as it wasn't a cheesy doc abt plump US cops catching a serial killer

haha during the ten seconds i watched they were discussing "dumbing down"

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 4 November 2002 12:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah Alfie - I went on about the Michael Crawford placing to people when it was on TV (Anne Robinson didn't hide her own bafflement) but none of my friends seemed interested. Second greatest living Briton apparently. V.curious.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 4 November 2002 13:33 (twenty-two years ago)

I noticed that only 30,000 people took part in the initial poll. That's more of a stump than a poll.

Second greatest living Briton apparently.

And not that long before he becomes the greatest, I trow.

― Alfie (Alfie), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 10:01 (twenty-two years ago)

almost as bad as NME's cool list

― blueski, Tuesday, 5 November 2002 11:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Julia Andrews but no Alfred Hitchcock or David Lean.

Freddie Mercury but no Rennie Mackintosh or Inigo Jones.

Richard Branson but no Clem Atlee.

This list is rubbish, and Lennon no,no,no,no.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 11:30 (twenty-two years ago)

No Jeremy Clarkson, thus the list = DUD.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 11:36 (twenty-two years ago)

they're saving him for greatest human of all time, dom

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 11:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Could the Michael Crawford placing be the result of rabid fan voting? I heard that the bicycle won the greatest invention of all time vote on R4 because of a cycle association rallying the troops and pointing them towards the website...

― Madchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 11:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Not that you'd ever be involved in anything like that, Madchen.

Vicious Circle = more VLS, yes?

― Tim (Tim), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 11:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Are there rabid Michael Crawford fans? Find me evidence on the web (I am busy).

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 11:53 (twenty-two years ago)

It was (two months) before my time, Tim.

― Madchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 11:59 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.oddworldz.com/wizard/pics/beret.jpg

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 12:06 (twenty-two years ago)

(proof for n.: note interweb overlords will not allow us to view it)

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 12:07 (twenty-two years ago)

YEs, though he doesn't actually appear in it (as his usual won't is). It is pretty much After Dark / Newsnight Review with six people being plyed with booze and being very, very rude about a TV programme. It needed to widen its range a touch (and hour on the Diana prog was a bit much) but it was pretty much a pub conversation with piss breaks (as the adverts were called). Some say edgy DV / split screen effect...

Needs to develop a touch.

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 12:08 (twenty-two years ago)

his usual wont = "no i won't"

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 12:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Possible evidence here. There's nothing on the Michael Crawford International Fan Association but who knows what's in the Members only section.

I'm a bit rusty on the maths, but I reckon with a poll of 30,000 it could only take 333 votes to get to number 17.

― Alfie (Alfie), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 12:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Diana wouldn't make my top several million. Shakespeare, Newton and Darwin, all in the top ten, are excellent choices. I am most exasperated at the omission of Tommy Cooper and Stan Laurel.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 20:09 (twenty-two years ago)

two weeks pass...

Anyone see the conclusion last night?

― DG (D_To_The_G), Monday, 25 November 2002 16:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Not me. Who won? I don't particularly care but if it was Diana I may have to start a massacre.

― Rebecca (reb), Monday, 25 November 2002 16:23 (twenty-two years ago)

it wasn't diana, she came third

[insert Dan Perry-ism here]

― zebedee, Monday, 25 November 2002 16:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Churchill won. It all seemed very stupid, having a vote for the winner of a vote they'd already had.

― Graham (graham), Monday, 25 November 2002 16:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Mmm the actual conclusion when the panel were grudgingly voting amongst the top 3 placements of Diana, Churchill and Brunel. If Diana had placed above Isambard Kingdom I would have taken a hammer to the TV, I think, but she didn't. Still rubbish that Churchill won it, though. I mean, really...? From this I judge that the phone lines were clogged by middle-aged men with large collections garnered from here: http://www.militarybookclub.co.uk

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Monday, 25 November 2002 16:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I was rather hoping that at the end AA Gill's chair would tip back and dump him in a furnace in true Bond-villain style

― DG (D_To_The_G), Monday, 25 November 2002 16:33 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought the whole of idea of rating people who excelled in different fields somewhat flawed in the first place. Even with Peter Snow's Sims-style character stats, trying to compare a political leader with an engineer or a writer with a scientist is like debating whether socks are better than saucepans.

― robster (robster), Monday, 25 November 2002 16:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Foolishly, I didn't know (or at least had forgotten) that it was Churchill who sent in the Black and Tans, which begs the question: what the FUCK was Mo Mowlam, of all people, doing endorsing him?

Churchill = little old lady vote, or at least while I was hunting for bargain records in a charity shop on Friday there were little old ladies arguing about it and they decided that since they thought Diana was lovely but she hadn't done very much it had to be Churchill.

― Rebecca (reb), Monday, 25 November 2002 16:59 (twenty-two years ago)

(well, ok, that was over the top, but it did seem a bit odd. that is all)

― Rebecca (reb), Monday, 25 November 2002 17:39 (twenty-two years ago)

i didn't win :(

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 25 November 2002 18:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I tried to get Ned Raggett an honoury place in the chart but the BBC were having none of it. ROBBED!

― Graham (graham), Monday, 25 November 2002 18:14 (twenty-two years ago)

But I'm not a Br...oh.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 25 November 2002 18:25 (twenty-two years ago)

King Alfred... the GREBT!

― Aimless, Monday, 25 November 2002 18:26 (twenty-two years ago)

''Churchill = little old lady vote, or at least while I was hunting for bargain records in a charity shop on Friday there were little old ladies arguing about it and they decided that since they thought Diana was lovely but she hadn't done very much it had to be Churchill''

yes, little old ladies shouldn't have the vote.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 25 November 2002 18:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes! Er...

(You're right, I'm being even more indefensibly stupid than usual tonight. Time to get offline and get some food, I suppose.)

― Rebecca (reb), Monday, 25 November 2002 18:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Mr. Bean!

― Rowanfan, Tuesday, 26 November 2002 02:34 (twenty-two years ago)

I can't believe that Darwin, who changed the way we think about ourselves and the history of life on the planet, Newton, perhaps the single most important scientist ever from any country (his work is still the basis of about half of A level maths) and Shakespeare, perhaps the single greatest artistic figure in the history of the world, all fell outside the top three. If only they'd worn expensive clothes and blonde hair and waved at crowds a bit, like the truly great Diana.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 26 November 2002 18:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Diana's work is the basis for the other half of A-level maths, but Martin might be unaware of this, having been out of education for some time.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 26 November 2002 18:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Martin do you like Gregory?

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 26 November 2002 18:45 (twenty-two years ago)

no one from Britain has ever contributed anything ever

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Tuesday, 26 November 2002 19:28 (twenty-two years ago)

wish diana had won. Then programme makers would stop churning out such shit in the first place.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 26 November 2002 23:23 (twenty-two years ago)

No-one from planet Earth has ever contributed anything ever. Air-breathing bastards.

― Al Ewing, Tuesday, 26 November 2002 23:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Lloyd Cole, obviously.

― Polaroid, Wednesday, 27 November 2002 00:16 (twenty-two years ago)

'Polaroid'?

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 27 November 2002 13:38 (twenty-two years ago)

big hit for black sabbath, wasn't it?

anyway, derek bailey should have won as he is indubitably the greatest single artist the world has ever known. they could have got ben watson to argue his case.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 27 November 2002 13:46 (twenty-two years ago)

anyway i suspect that the bbc fiddled the whole thing. the real "public vote" probably looked like this:

1. robbie williams. 2. di. 3. gareth. 4. will. 5. ant. 6. dec. 7. madonna. 8. charlie dimmock. 9. ross kemp. 10. little mo.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 27 November 2002 13:49 (twenty-two years ago)

''anyway, derek bailey should have won as he is indubitably the greatest single artist the world has ever known. they could have got ben watson to argue his case.''

well, 90% of his args would be censored if that ever happened.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 27 November 2002 17:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Julio! All Rebecca said was that it was the little old lady vote, not that there was anything so terrible about that!

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 27 November 2002 19:35 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, I was only kind of joking really. but then look at her response.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 27 November 2002 19:48 (twenty-two years ago)

how the hell did Michael Crawford get to number 17, anyway? there must be a lot of DICKHEAD 1970s throwbacks out there, even now.

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Wednesday, 27 November 2002 21:36 (twenty-two years ago)

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