Dominic Sandbrook: Let Us Entertain You

Me, Myself and I (1x4)

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The final programme looks at the way in which postwar culture has seen the triumph of an idea that first took hold during the Victorian period: the rise of the individual. Industrialisation may have led to a growth in collective identity, with the emergence of large, unified workforces and powerful unions, but the Victorian period also gave rise to the concept of the individual identity and self-determination. This was, after all, the era of the novel with its first-person narrator and focus on the lives of individual protagonists. It was the age of Samuel Smiles and his emphasis on self-help - 'Every human being has a great mission to perform, noble faculties to cultivate, a vast destiny to accomplish'. These seeds were planted in the Victorian era but reached fruition in the postwar years. Culture, after all, is egalitarian - talent trumps social background or circumstance. For better or worse, postwar culture has seen the powerful emergence of the individual, from John Lennon to John Self, and from Kate Bush to the seemingly endless stream of TV talent show contestants.