British culture vultures often turn their noses up when Australia is mentioned. They imagine a land teeming with people who look and act like Crocodile Dundee, even the women.
There are, however, many highly cultured Australians.
Melbourne and Sydney in particular have plenty of culture, even for people who fashion their cultural tastes after the ever-so demanding (and snobbish) Frasier and Nials Crane in the Frasier TV series. I wouldn’t recommend acting like either of these brothers here though. You’d get some very odd looks.
I’ve never been an especially cultured person in terms of art, theatre or music – or appreciating things like National Trust buildings.
The little bit of British culture I value most is spoken-word radio and thanks to the Internet I can listen to almost anything I want to either live or using the listen again features.
Nothing in Australia comes close to British radio stations like Radio 4 and BBC7 for current affairs, drama and comedy.
I naughtily recorded a production of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe from BBC7 just after Christmas. My daughter loves listening to it.
Recently I’ve been listening to episodes of Poirot (John Moffat makes a fantastic job of playing the little Belgian detective) and Lord Peter Wimsey on BBC7. I also enjoyed listening to author George MacDonald Fraser a few days ago, talking about his Flashman books, in Bookclub on Radio 4.
This really is the best of British and I’m grateful that I can live in Australia without missing any of it.