The diary of a national museum director
Part 25
People ask why, after two years, we still have not announced our plans for the National Museum of British History. Great ideas take time, and next week we will launch our funding campaign for phase one of the museum.
Located under the huge all-weather dome of one of the former Olympic venues, Little England will transport tourists back to a typical reconstructed village from Surrey in 1984, a key date in our nation’s history.
Inspired by Colonial Williamsburg and John Major, the village will have a pond and a village green where, all day and every day, under perpetual artificial sunshine, the “villagers” (actors in period costume) will play cricket against rivals from another village.
Old ladies dressed in black will cycle to services at the village church, conducted by a heterosexual clergyman. There are 27 pubs, all serving lemonade, warm beer and pork scratchings.
But visitors are reminded that England and its way of life are under threat. Every hour the kindly village bobby makes an arrest – an IRA bomber in a pub, a Russian spy in hiding, a striking miner or a juvenile delinquent.
In the morning, to raise morale, the Queen (played by a Helen Mirren look-alike, wearing no knickers for authenticity) makes a royal visit. In the afternoon, Margaret Thatcher (played by a Meryl Streep look-alike) arrives with her friend, the former Chilean dictator General Pinochet.
The village shop sells copies of the Daily Mail, and in the pubs the “locals” tell visitors of their support for the Conservative government.
But there will be no post office. Ed doesn’t want to remind people of what they have lost.
Located under the huge all-weather dome of one of the former Olympic venues, Little England will transport tourists back to a typical reconstructed village from Surrey in 1984, a key date in our nation’s history.
Inspired by Colonial Williamsburg and John Major, the village will have a pond and a village green where, all day and every day, under perpetual artificial sunshine, the “villagers” (actors in period costume) will play cricket against rivals from another village.
Old ladies dressed in black will cycle to services at the village church, conducted by a heterosexual clergyman. There are 27 pubs, all serving lemonade, warm beer and pork scratchings.
But visitors are reminded that England and its way of life are under threat. Every hour the kindly village bobby makes an arrest – an IRA bomber in a pub, a Russian spy in hiding, a striking miner or a juvenile delinquent.
In the morning, to raise morale, the Queen (played by a Helen Mirren look-alike, wearing no knickers for authenticity) makes a royal visit. In the afternoon, Margaret Thatcher (played by a Meryl Streep look-alike) arrives with her friend, the former Chilean dictator General Pinochet.
The village shop sells copies of the Daily Mail, and in the pubs the “locals” tell visitors of their support for the Conservative government.
But there will be no post office. Ed doesn’t want to remind people of what they have lost.