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Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the characteristics of the English identity. \u201cAn Englishman\u2019s word is his bond\u201d, \u201cAn Englishman\u2019s home is his castle\u201d. \u201cEngland is a nation of shopkeepers\u201d, but also \u201cthe most exclusive club there is\u201d. To Cecil Rhodes to be an Englishman was to have \u201cwon first prize in the lottery of life\u201d but to Jonathan Swift the English were \u201cthe most pernicious race of odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth\u201d. Organised, effete, cruel, brave, inventive, determined \u2026Who are the English? And when, how and in what heat was their English identity forged? Britain has now the highest percentage of inter-racial marriages in the world. Does that say as much about the English as their previously branded characteristics of gravity, sense of order, domesticity and propriety? What was Englishness and is it possible now to define it in anything more than the loosest and baggiest terms?With Paul Langford, Professor of Modern History, University of Oxford; Peter Mandler, Professor of Modern History at London Guildhall University; Professor Lola Young Director of the National Museum and Archives of Black History and Culture.