Plastic beer glasses with wasps in

The smell of cut grass

Leather on willow.

The sound of a Merlin engine

The smell of linseed oil

The smell of bacon sandwiches.

The hot dog vans outside White Hart Lane (you must never eat the hot-dogs but the frying onions is a nice smell on a cold winters night)

Bovril

Brass band music (but not the oompah kind)

Cider (possibly in a plastic glass with a wasp in it).

Darts

Morris Dancing (foreigners: Don’t ask)

Men dressed as women for comic effect

People not taking themselves too seriously

It's actually about icons as in images
see
http://www.icons.org.uk/
so smells don't count.

It's also not an invitation for lazy Americans to send in tired cliches about the UK

oldie, can americans who are not lazy send in active cliches about the UK?

Actually that thread about the rules of english behaviour pretty much covered all the relevant ground.

Wasn't there an American film producer who was told that a script was full of old cliches.

"Ok", he said. "Go out and get me some new cliches"

As a Canadian,
1. watching the Queen accept flowers from a little girl,
2. a proper butcher wearing the proper hat,
3. warmish beer,
4. women who wear hats in Church.

gardens

Scones with a huge blob of clotted cream.

I like the goofy answers that people have given that presumably they must think about in order to think of England (". . .real ale&quot OR they are actually in England and they see them (". . . the Scenery&quot

-- Music to the Brit-coms on public television and the theme from Thames Productions

-- Two-lane blacktops in wooded areas

-- Bentleys

-- Older men walking small dogs

-- Crooked yellow teeth (it may make some of you FEEL better to think that this is a 'tired cliche about the UK')

-- long-sleeved soccer (yes, I know) jerseys

-- a plain, pint glass of beer without a head

-- BP gas stations

-- cloudy, cool, wet days

red telephone boxes

I thought, when I heard this, this morning, it wasn't so much "what makes you think of England?" as "what does England make you think of?"

And I'd better not answer that

Top of the pops! (we have a pale copy in france called the same)

"Lazy American" reporting here....


monarchy
common law
Shakespeare
many many novels
much poetry
precise language
books, in general
the "accent"
flowers
well loved dogs
appreciation for pets, in general (I read too much J. Herriot many yrs ago?)
cottage gardens
good tea
bad food
Magna Carta
good manners
restraint, or stereotype of restraint in speech
excess alcohol drinking
humor (but clashes with another stereotype of stuffiness)
stereotype of appreciation for eccentricity (clashing with stereotype of conformity)
orderliness (lines, etc.)
mystery movies with rain scenes
traditional Christmas
sweet bucolic scenes
wartime courage of residents

When I lived away from the UK, the one thing that made me think of England more than any other, was Test Match Special.

This is a rather eccentric program that provides commentry on Cricket test matches , but combines the cricketing theme with a great number of eccentric characters.

Otherwise I would agree with most of David's list - Except to put Fox hunting in the negative section (But if you see a picture of a hunt, where else most people associate such an activity but England- and I do know they hunt in Celtic regions as well).

Jose Mourinho

Watching my "Secret Agent" and "Prisoner" DVD's!

Yes, I know Patrick McGoohan is a Scot. Nevertheless, these shows remind me of those crazy 60's when anything British (esp. London or Liverpool) was exceptionally groovy!

>>>>
to send in tired cliches about the UK
>>>>

isn't an "icon" a cliche by definition?
"tired cliche" is redundant.

>"tired cliche" is redundant.<

Hmmmmmm. When does a fresh, new turn of phrase become a cliche', and when does a cliche' become tired?

If a cliche' is still in constant use, is it tired?

- Roundabouts
- Pay and Display (in the Lake District we did not "Pay" enough, "Displayed" too long and it ended up costing us 30 pounds!)