Geography Now! UNITED KINGDOM 

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!

Jay Foreman was the best possible co-host for this video 😂

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.

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 :)

Having the UK and US back to back feels like the infinity war and endgame era of geography now episodes

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

How in the living hell did you guys forget about Portugal in your friendzone segment? They literally have the oldest alliance in the world!!!! 🇬🇧❤🇵🇹

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 🇿🇲❤🇬🇧

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.

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.

Ive been waiting 8 years to learn about my own country and the day has finally come

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.

As an American, I can safely say that Britain lives rent free in our heads. We are poking fun at Britain more than ever nowadays, but honestly, we will always love our pals from across the Atlantic. We hate you out of love is the best way I can describe it. Never stop being you, Britain! 🇺🇸❤️🇬🇧

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

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.

I have been living in UK since my birth and still do, it's a beautiful country, love it as a Polish 🇵🇱❤🇬🇧

only thing i think was missing is from music. the UK has a hudge number of dance music and electronic music from it. mostly thanks to caribbean diaspora we've produced a lot of jungle, garaje, house, techo and really the list just goes on. some are from the UK and some are very popular in the UK. and to the jamaicans that brought their sound systems in the 60s I just can't thank you enough for all the beautiful sounds and dances I've had the joy of having!

This is so exiting, time to learn about my own 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.

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

I think it is important not to reduce the debate over monarchy to tourism and tradition/identity vs modernity and pragmatism. In the UK the hereditary role of monarch is also intrinsically linked to religion, as well as many other institutions both public and private. The tabloid papers and gossip is the part foreigners see most, and those publications make most money on. Domestically, it is very entwined with the national fabric. Which, depending on your viewpoint, is either a lovely bonus or a great issue.

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

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.

Don’t know if this has been commented on , but the shin-kicking picture is actually taken at the Cotswold Olimpicks (correct spelling , it pre dates the modern Olympics it was first recorded in the 1600 ) on Dovers Hill above the Town of Chipping Campden . This year’s champion is Mike Newby from Cheltenham he won it on Friday 2nd June 2023

I've been waiting more than 8 years for this episode! Well done Barbs - you massively did it justice!

I’ve been waiting for this episode for years! So glad that Jay Foreman was this episode’s co-host! 🇬🇧🤝🇺🇸

Fun fact: The Welsh language was once referred to as the 'British language'

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!

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!

It was an honour to supply the music segment for this video!! (And yeah that is “honour” spelt with a “U” 😄)

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 😂

Seeing you mention The bailiwicks aren't in the UK made me proud. It's always a pain explaining where I'm from

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

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

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 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!

The impact of British influence on Cinema and TV ought to be emphasised

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

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.

Jay Foreman and David Bennett! My two favorite RU-vid brits in one video! Well done guys.

The one thing I don't get is how a lot of foreigners think British only means English because online they call English folks British(Brits) but don't call the Welsh, Scottish and even the Northern Irish British(Brits) but instead call them by their respective names.

Absolutely outrageous that you didn’t mention that Portugal is our best and oldest friend!

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

Im excited! I’m going to the UK next year and this is very informative!

been waiting for this episode! so well done, thank you

Lions were common in South Europe, but humans hunted them to extinction in antiquity.

You don’t know how long I’ve waited for this episode, I’m welsh and I’m glad my country got recognition.

Glad you're giving the small time countries coverage too

Love from the United States of America to the United Kingdom! 🇺🇸❤️🇬🇧

Thomas sounded so excited for being featured in the episode, he seemed genuinely happy throughout his segment, what a nice lad. Bless his soul.

As a Welsh person and someone from Llanelli. I really appreciiate the effort put into the pronunciations for the place names. Da Iawn

Brilliant episode guys - its one complicated country. Barbs - those clips from your roadtrip around UK look awesome! And Jay - more map men please!!!

Could have mentioned Rugby league (Union was mentioned) being played mostly in the North of England.

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.

so, the UK: the most overcomplicated geographical anomaly on earth. because even calling it a country is controversial

really loved this video. I only clicked the video because of Jay from mapmen and thought he was starting a new channel. Really loved the format, very informative. I just hit subscribe and look forward to binge watching the back catalogue. Thank you!

Fun fact, Judo was invented in England! The man responsible was Jigoro Kano, a Japanese man who had moved to London. He distilled the sport from Jiu-Jitsu, which also spawned Karate and Aikido via other people

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

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!

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).

11:40 I totally understand his distress as a brit with European parents who all couldn’t vote

As a brit living in Central Asia, this made me so homesick 🥹 never thought it was possible, lots of love ♥

I'm from England UK and you did an awesome job of explaining my country.

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 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!

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).

Beautiful episode!!!! Very well-done!

Oh..so happy you brought Jay. Love his channel

As a proud resident of Llanelli, I am super happy to see my town being mentioned on Geography Now!

Surprised no mention of New Zealand, Netherlands, or Portugal being friends.

Tourism isn't actually the reason why the royal family brings in more money than it spends, it's the crown estates. CGP Grey has a good video about this

i love that this video kind of resumed all of Jay's channel,, i love him❤❤

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. 🇲🇾❤🇬🇧

Jay is literally the perfect man for a documentary about Britain itself.

Glad you got Joe Foreman (Legend) to help you out 👍 Great to see the team bringing fun to geography. Good content at a great pace. Nice one,

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)

Love United Kingdom from Australia! Great allies. 🇦🇺 ❤🇬🇧

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).

Lovely to see a really good and accurate video about my home 😊

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. 😀

YIPPEEEEEEEE ITS HERE ITS HERE

Thank god, you got into Uk. I was waiting for still for almost 4 years, you took your time. Next do USA!!

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 RU-vidrs I learn from and repeat facts from constantly to all appear in the same video 😅

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.

I‘ve never laughed so much as in this episode 😂 very well done 👍 hannah congrats 🎉

Love your guest. Very spontaneous and charismatic.

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.

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

We love David! ❤ Big plus for this episode!

As I always read about the UK I read a lot of books about the history of this country of course the culture is something that makes this place amazing

Respect from Japan to the UK🇯🇵🇬🇧

I JUST ARRIVED HERE IN THE UK 3 DAYS AGO WTFFFF. I absolutely love this country and I'm glad I'm going to be living here for the next 5 years! Cheers to the UK!!! 🇺🇸🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇨🇴

Will you do an episode on the crown dependencies? Because they are so interesting

So many great moments in this video! As someone who lives in Plymouth, I love how you include our term "Janner" in there. Also love the recognition for niche sports and traditional music like Scottish folk 👏

As a Canadian the British and us have similar sayings like we both say “Sorry” (but Canadians do it more often), we say “Colour” with a “U” but we prefer to speak like more with the Americans (but different from the Americans) and we prefer the metric system instead of the imperial system also yes we do Boxing Day after Christmas

As a fun additional fact, Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi stated one of their main inspirations for music was Christopher Lee's Dracula.

Yay you covered the country I lived Which means I recognise a lot of what you said already, and I was a bit surprised to see how lots of stuff was specific to UK.

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.

Love the UK from Indonesia 🇮🇩❤️🇬🇧

Good work with the voiceless alveolar lateral fricative!