BROADCASTS.com

b'

Kirsty Wark explores national stories and myths \\u2013 from both inside and outside a country\\u2019s borders.

Neil MacGregor discusses how Dickens, Monty Python and the Suez Crisis have influenced the way Britain is perceived abroad. He visits five different countries to find out which historical events, cultural influences and objects have shaped the way how others see us. The answers may well surprise people back home.

Sweden has a strong sense of its own national identity: it boasts the world\\u2019s oldest free press and prides itself on its special brand of social democracy. But the journalist Kajsa Norman looks beyond this utopian myth to expose the darkness in the Swedish soul. She reveals what happens to those who dare to dissent from consensus.

Japan\\u2019s national image abroad is one of staid tradition mixed with bizarre pop culture, and the samurai warrior alongside the grey mass of \\u2018salarymen\\u2019. But the academic Christopher Harding argues there is far more to Japanese society than these enduring clich\\xe9s. He looks at how Japan has been reinventing itself over the last century and a half, and the often radical and outspoken resistance to conformity.

Producer: Katy Hickman