17th August 2008
Britain's export of baddies plunges
The end of the British baddie? |
It study found that Britain - or Engerland as it's known in the US - is supplying the fewest villains, evil geniuses, double-crossers and other generic bad guys since the infamous lull of the mid-1970s.
Bad ass
"Put bluntly, roles for British baddies are drying up and our future prospects look bleak," NAO comptroller and auditor-general, Tim Burr, said.
"Unless the government acts soon, our children will grow up in a world of popular culture where a British actor or English accent no longer signifies evil."
Tennis elbow
Britain's heyday for baddie exports was the 1980s and 1990s when it supplied 95 per cent of all film villains. Yet by 2007 this rate fell to a mere 30 per cent.
Tory culture spokesman Jeremy Hunt said: "The government is clearly failing to support our role as providers of cliched bad guys, it's yet another sign of Labour's anti-Britishness that they aren't willing to go the distance to make Britons evil again."
Pointing to the high number of Russian, swarthy Arabs and even Americans, Mr Hunt said these all came from countries keen to commit evil deeds to support their exports.
Golden balls
"Russia has made big strides in exporting itself as a nation of corrupt, sadistic bullies, while the Middle East revels in its mediaeval attitudes and suicide bombs. Now thanks to Guantanmo Bay, Iraqi rapes and a moment of unprecedented self-awareness, even Americans realise that they too can be the bad guys."
However, culture secretary Andy Burnham said that the fall in proportion of British baddies merely reflected the increase in films being made.
Knobbly knees
"They also fail to account for the amount of 'bad Brits' in computer games and adverts and the vast increase in television programmes," he added.
"When you look at blockbusters we also still lead – this summer with Ray Winstone in that pointless Indiana Jones sequel, Tim Roth in The Incredible Hulk, for instance – so it'd be wrong to say that British baddies are a dying breed."
Mr Burnham added that his department had just launched it's "if it's British, it's bad" campaign in Hollywood to boost awareness.
Bad ass
"Put bluntly, roles for British baddies are drying up and our future prospects look bleak," NAO comptroller and auditor-general, Tim Burr, said.
"Unless the government acts soon, our children will grow up in a world of popular culture where a British actor or English accent no longer signifies evil."
Tennis elbow
Britain's heyday for baddie exports was the 1980s and 1990s when it supplied 95 per cent of all film villains. Yet by 2007 this rate fell to a mere 30 per cent.
Tory culture spokesman Jeremy Hunt said: "The government is clearly failing to support our role as providers of cliched bad guys, it's yet another sign of Labour's anti-Britishness that they aren't willing to go the distance to make Britons evil again."
Pointing to the high number of Russian, swarthy Arabs and even Americans, Mr Hunt said these all came from countries keen to commit evil deeds to support their exports.
Golden balls
"Russia has made big strides in exporting itself as a nation of corrupt, sadistic bullies, while the Middle East revels in its mediaeval attitudes and suicide bombs. Now thanks to Guantanmo Bay, Iraqi rapes and a moment of unprecedented self-awareness, even Americans realise that they too can be the bad guys."
However, culture secretary Andy Burnham said that the fall in proportion of British baddies merely reflected the increase in films being made.
Knobbly knees
"They also fail to account for the amount of 'bad Brits' in computer games and adverts and the vast increase in television programmes," he added.
"When you look at blockbusters we also still lead – this summer with Ray Winstone in that pointless Indiana Jones sequel, Tim Roth in The Incredible Hulk, for instance – so it'd be wrong to say that British baddies are a dying breed."
Mr Burnham added that his department had just launched it's "if it's British, it's bad" campaign in Hollywood to boost awareness.
