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9 Stereotypes About The British That Simply Aren't True

9 Stereotypes About The British That Simply Aren't True
Andrea Mann
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PA

Britain! Land of thatched cottages, red telephone boxes and Hugh Grant.

OR IS IT?

Not exactly, no. Whilst we hate to rain on anyone's parade, we don't mind doing it if they're foreigners (and we don't really mind rain in general). So, dear non-British readers, here's a myth-busting list of nine stereotypes about the British that simply aren't true. Sorry about that.

9 stereotypes about the British that aren't actually true
1. We're all English(01 of07)
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Not true. Some of us are Welsh or Scottish or Northern Irish. That's because 'the British' are 'nationals of the United Kingdom'. Trust us, it's true. We're British, we know these things (also, Wikipedia says so).
3. ...or in a thatched cottage in the country(02 of07)
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Sadly not. We're more likely to live in a flatshare with our mates or a semi-detached house with our family. It's only in Hollywood movies (and jigsaw puzzles) that we live in places like this.
4. Our accents are either 'Costume drama cut-glass' or 'Guy Ritchie Cockney'(03 of07)
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At one end of the spectrum, there's Eliza Doolittle after she met Henry Higgins, Julie Andrews in 'Mary Poppins' and Emma Thompson in anything. At the other: Eliza Doolittle before she met Henry Higgins, Dick Van Dyke in 'Mary Poppins' and every bloke in every Guy Ritchie movie. That's right: we're blaming Hollywood again. (And ourselves. Guy Ritchie is British, after all.)
7. Our country is littered with red telephone boxes...(04 of07)
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...black cabs...(05 of07)
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...and men in bowler hats(06 of07)
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No, no and no. The chances of seeing a man wearing a bowler hat emerging from a red telephone box and hopping in a black cab in Britain are slimmer than seeing Hugh Grant and Colin Firth fight in the street (unless filming on 'Bridget Jones 3' has started already).
8. We all have terrible teeth(07 of07)
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We don't. Honestly. Just look at Kate! And Pippa! And Simon Cowell! (Unfortunately, he wasn't in the VIP box at Wimbledon that day. But we know you know what his teeth look like.) We Brits have come a long way, dentistry-speaking: overcrowded snaggletooths are a thing of the past. Or at least the 1980s.

SEE ALSO: 11 British Stereotypes That Are Actually True

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