Saturday Night Takeaway 2018

Anyone else liked Phillip Schofield’s cameo in the End Of a The Show Show last night?

Whereas the term "Great Britain" is specifically the landmass of England, Scotland and Wales-- the usage "Britain" is a lot vaguer and doesn't seem to have an official defintion.

It's my observation that usually when politicians talk of "Britain", they are referring to all the territories under UK sovereignty: That is the UK, crown dependencies and BOT collectively-- rather than just the UK itself. This usage is understandable, given that people and products from these places are officially British (though I note NI residents may take up Irish passports, if they so wish).

Bearing in mind the Republic of Ireland has not been under UK sovereignty for almost a century, I can see why many there would object to "British Isles", given that the term British no longer refers to the anicent Celtic tribe that settled islands (and which ironically many Irish people would be descended from). However until an officially agreed replacement for "British Isles" is officially agreed ("British-Irish Islands"?)-- we're stuck with that description for the archipalego.

Back to "Britain": In terms of telly and radio here, "Britain" appears to be shorthand for the UK+Isle Man+Channel Islands (as they receive UK programmes, but are not part of the UK). There is a legal term "British Islands" for the UK and the three crown dependencies, but it appears to be seldom used. And there are purists that insist that "Britain" is merely England and Wales. Thus "Britain" is a nebulous term!

The full name of the current sovereign state is the "United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland"-- so A&D could just call it "Sofa Battle UK" or something like that-- if they are sticking to the consituent four nations. Alright it doesn't alliterate-- but at least its succinct and correct-- and it ought to placate the offendotrons

On a lighter note, yes it was great to hear Philip Schofield singing on the show.

It was the best bit. The rest was hardly inspired (so in that sense, at least, some would say it was a fitting tribute to Andrew Lloyd-Webber).

I miss Ant & Dec properly joining in, like with the drummers, or doing a proper bit, like this or this.

Watching [edit]Dec, not Ant,[/edit] vaguely pratting about around Alexandra Burke was cringeworthy.

For all the talk about the "Sofawatch: Battle of Britain" involving Northern Ireland, lest we forget that the actual Battle of Britain 78 years ago included plenty of Northern Irish airmen, many of whom gave their lives in defence of the Allies. I'm really quite certain that no-one is getting seriously riled by the geopolitical accuracy of an allusion to that on a Saturday night light entertainment show.

It was Dec.

Eh. I did know which one it was, in that nebuluous not-actually-putting-a-name-to-the-little-fella way, but then I pondered it for a few seconds and decided a random guess was as good as anything.

Britain may be "shorthand" for the UK, but it's incorrect. It's the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. For me, it doesn't matter whether you include the word "great" there or not.

But then I am a pedantic pain in the arse who complains whenever someone says Netherlands instead of Holland.

Can't wait for tomorrow's edition of Good Morning Britain and Northern Ireland.

Don't you mean Holland instead of the Netherlands?

Holland is a region of the Netherlands. The official country name is the Netherlands.

And of course the Netherlands is a sub part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands too.

This thread was better when it was just people complaining about Stephen Mulhern.

Don't forget the Republic of Ireland/Irish Free State Airmen who gave their lives in defence of the Allies as well as the Polish and various other Nationalities that came to the United Kingdoms Defence.

As for people getting seriously riled up, most people are not going to, but there are always a few that will get offended by anything.

Indeed. The geography talk is off-topic (and has been done to death before on this site), please keep the discussion to SNT.