
Author Michael Smith is an old friend from my college days in Hartlepool.
Now based in London, Michael takes on the guise of a contemporary Citizen Smith, scouring England in search of a modern day definition of nationality. Beginning in his home town of Hartlepool, he says: "The industrial revolution was born and got killed off, and the old working men's world of the docks have been cannibalized into shiny new marinas, replaced with drive-in retail villages and family-orientated heritage centres."
Michael, who wrote The Giro Playboy, says he is "unfashionably patriotic" but adds: "Whenever I try to untangle what being English actually means, it tends to unravel and disappear before my eyes."
For those who missed the first episode and are interested in checking it out, here is the link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008py02