Neil MacGregor Explores How Five Major Countries See Britain

At the start of 2019 Neil MacGregor explores how five major countries see Britain through the prism of historical events, cultural influences and objects.

Across five programmes in the first week of January, MacGregor visits different countries - Germany, India, Egypt, Nigeria and Canada - and talks to leading political, business and cultural figures to find out how they, as individuals and as members of their broader communities, see Britain. MacGregor asks whether the essence of their relationship with Britain can be traced back to key events or cultural influences and explores what impact those events still have on the nature of relationships today.

The contributors discuss what they learnt about Britain at school, their first encounters with British cities and culture and key historical moments and objects which have shaped their perception of Britain now. Whether it is reading Dickens, watching Monty Python, the Suez Crisis or the 1966 World Cup Final, these are a few examples of what influences the way that Britain is perceived abroad and may inform how these countries approach diplomatic and commercial conversations in the future.

Contributors include the Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamid Sanusi; Nigerian writer and the first African Nobel Laureate for Literature Wole Soyinka; German President of the Bundestag, Wolfgang Schäuble; German TV host, writer and cultural commentator Thea Dorn; French-Canadian film director Denys Arcand; Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland; Egyptian writer Ahdaf Soueif; Ram Narasimhan, publisher of the Hindu Newspaper and Shobana Kamineni, first female president of the Confederation of Indian Industries.