The Aristocracy - Survival of the Fittest: 1970-1997 1st part

The Aristocracy series was originally aired on the BBC. Each episode explores a period in the history of Britain's noble classes. Focusing on the changing status of this class in the modern world, each tape offers a glimpse into a world only the privileged are intimately familiar with. In this particular episode, viewers explore the present and future of the storied social class. Booming property values and the increase in value of many private art collections have led to a remarkable reversal of fortune for many members of Britain's monied elite. As this video shows, the nobility of England still exert remarkable influence throughout their nation. ~ Rob Ferrier, Rovi
BBC:
The last in a series looking at the dramatic changes in the fortunes of Britain's titled classes over the past 120 years examines how the aristocrats have fared since 1970.
First broadcast: 19 Feb 1997

[@springsogourne]

These old estates must be preserved at all costs, no matter what, as no one can afford to create anything even remotely comparable. The skills needed to build these structures are a lost art and will never be reproduced. Once they are gone, that’s it. It would be like loosing the Great Pyramids of Egypt.

[@georgel74]

Empire money 💰

[@modfus]

Sir Josslyn Gore-Booth is quite a piece of work ....... a real-life caricature -- straight out of a Monty Python act.

[@frankiesayrelax100]

He's AWESOME. Words cannot die him justice.

[@michelleduplooymalherbe2837]

😊😊 He is!!! love his accent...... it is so "upper class" it sounds nearly put on, I can listen to him for hours

[@rogerboltoncomposer]

Thanks you for posting this, it was a surprise to hear my music again after all these years. Nice.

[@barbaramahoney2468]

This guy is honest he said he is good at doing nothing. Not all would admit that.

[@frankfurlacker5219]

I sleep in a garbage can in the alley and do nothing.

[@simosc2]

Frank Furlacker...Is your wifi connection ok when your lid is on?

[@D_Marrenalv]

@@simosc2 LOL

[@yaasmiinn]

@@simosc2 hahahaha

[@sarahjones-jf4pr]

@@simosc2 Good comment to a dubious comment!

[@haroldchurchspengler4960]

Sir Josslyn Gore-Booth' sold Lissadel,. It is now completely restored and open to the public. W.B. Yeats stayed there and was friendly with the Gore -Booths. He immortalized it in one of his poems. Despite being an Anglo Irish family, they supported Irish Independence and Countess Markievich (a Gore Booth) became a Labour minister in the new Irish Free State.

[@paddyhalligan28]

In memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markivech

[@sierrasky2491]

What a lovely upload thank you so much for providing it!

[@samjoseph2244]

Great series thanks

[@peterbradshaw8018]

St Germain is a man after my own mind being alone away from everyone. When you want company then have them then ship them right out before they get familiar.

[@DSQueenie]

Familiar?

[@citizen1163]

@@DSQueenie Too friendly

[@sarahjones-jf4pr]

Peter Bradshaw Just use people for entertainment and ship them out when one has had enough.....What a charmer!

[@peterbradshaw8018]

Most people don't give a shit about anyone. Case in point an old lady who lives beside me whose children live within walking distance. Who has to make breakfast for her. Your little charmer. Lol Had to do it for another old lady who lived in the front room where I live. She adopted children who basically abandoned her. The people at the hospital thought the little charmer her son. Most people like you think me idiotic for being philanthropic. Maybe they are right. Charming isn't it.

[@arananation]

Amen

[@ebl36]

his life is the aim of all procrastinators

[@FrankieParadiso4evah]

11:00 Isn't that John Cleese impersonating the Upper Class Twit of the Year? Good job...

[@paololuckyluke2854]

Whatever one inherits, it is thanks to the enterprise of one’s ancestors and belongs as much to oneself as to one’s posterity; alongside it, one also inherits the duty to preserve and, by every effort, to develop the family fortune for the benefit not just at least of one’s own self esteem, but also for one’s descendants. Just sitting around on one’s ancestors’ laurels leaves one enervated, emasculated, flaccid, limp, etc, and will sooner or later inevitably draw to oneself a more rapacious kind of person who will leave one divested of everything.

[@jacksonhalliwell7621]

Beneath the veneer, you can see Sir Josslyn Gore-Booth's inner sadness, loneliness and lack of meaningful existence.

[@charlesvanderhoog7056]

The problem is and has always been only of how the inheritor will turn out. As his personality is a matter of chance, in the course of the decades there are good and bad ones. The good ones improve the estate, use it to contribute to society, and may even make a name for themselves; the bad ones run the estate down and evaporate in the mysteries of times gone by. Hereditary systems work best by appointment where one can pick the best suited child or nephew. Nobody had misgivings about Winston Churchill's inheritance. But people are asking questions when some idiot or some good-for-nothing inherits vast opportunities and squanders them or does not use them for the greater good. Sometimes, an idiot comes to his senses in the nick of time, after having inherited, as has happened at Blenheim. But that was an exception, I'm afraid.

[@slim555555]

Churchill did not inherit title.

[@davyroger3773]

@@slim555555 but he did inherit status

[@Austin8thGenTexan]

@@slim555555 My (distant cousin) Winston did not inherit Blenheim Palace. The current Duke of Marlborough pulled himself together just after his father died - and was about to disinherit him. Trustees and a management team carefully operate the Blenheim estate, keeping the current duke on a short leash. Winston was knighted a KG, but never received a life peerage.

[@PattyBio100]

Takes a lot of confidence for a man to wear yellow socks!

[@Thawolf16]

Something aristos are not renowned for lacking (confidence that is, not Yellow socks)

[@lesliesmith9299]

@@Thawolf16 Very colorful socks for men are in vogue in the USA, although mostly only younger men (younger than 50 wear them).

[@zdog1490]

I wonder how much longer the British aristocrats will have this persona .. I kind of like it, but it seems like accepting some decay is part of it . And "one" can only sell off so much land .. I watched another video about the last of the dukes, and some of them were just regular working people with titles .. is probably the future

[@mscott3918]

zdog1490 There is a definite decline in the number of aristocratic families. One hundred years ago there were 30 dukes, now just over 20. However, there are very wealthy dukes like Marlborough, Beaufort, Devonshire and the Scott family Duke of Buccleuch and Queensbury. Others are well off but not hugely wealthy like Manchester and Somerset. The real wealth now is with self made business people.

[@lesliesmith9299]

If you had property taxes as high as in many US states, counties, and cities, you'd soon be rid of the aristocracy as they wouldn't be able to pay tens of thousands in property taxes annually and would have to sell of their lands and/or turn them into income producing uses. You would also have to pay to inheritance taxes (death duties).

[@babci3861]

i love how the housecleaner just Pledges the hell out of everything... like tsss tssss tssssssss. hahaha

[@bunney3272]

The 20th century will be remembered as the worst we ever had

[@aladore1380]

The 21st century isn't much better, truth be told.

[@sunnyhill5119]

And for good reasons. World history wouldve been better off if we couldve just skipped the 20 th century. I mean look at all the tragedies that occurred during those 100 years....and the 2 world wars were just the tip of the cold iceberg.💯👍

[@mpr9036]

I don't like how new labour filled the House of Lords with cronies

[@DavidJGillCA]

That has been done many times thru the centuries.

[@citizen1163]

Lord John Prescott ffs!!

[@vcoonrod]

He is waiting for a lung transplant? He sounds sad. I hope he gets well and can be happy.

[@ingenuity168]

I perfectly understand him

[@TheFiown]

Gore Booth sold the house in 2003 and Peregrine Eliot died in 2016 and the house now belongs to his Young son ,,,,,

[@gratefulhank]

Lord Saint Germans: "I can just behave like the pig that I am ..I can just do whatever I like ( and as you know I like to do nothing) but I can do it really sloppy if I want to " sounds pretty awesome 😎 to me.

[@sarahjones-jf4pr]

Pledge on the antiques? Beeswax polish......

[@zwinbtwn365]

Birth is not simple nor an accident.

[@silenusut]

The Earl St Germans sounds rather likeable

[@Bernie1927]

Really? I just pity this poor sod. What a life! Living in this ramshackle home, spending all his time just sitting around and doing nothing, and trying to maintain this monstrosity. What a life. You can have it.

[@ronaldschultenover8137]

This is very sad.

[@bethbartlett5692]

Choice - everyone has a choice. There would no aristocracy if no one were envious of it. They would merely be other people with a variable amount of more - money or problems. One must be their true self. Heredity should prove option not assurance.

[@TheKlaustro]

Ohh how boring if everyone was equal, i am glad that there are original persons, so if everyone would be the same you wouldn't mind isaac newton being as every other man?

[@inkstersco]

Um, of course. This was 1997.

[@VeritySpott]

Does anyone know the name/composers name for the song at the start? Not the opening titles, that bat shit thing that comes after.

[@suzannesadiiqa]

The 'Stately Homes of England' by Noel Coward.

[@mikeottawa8158]

how many of these has actor SamueL Wst narrated

[@jakecavendish3470]

Most of the houses are utterly ghastly

[@patobrien6364]

If you can afford it, happy days If you cannot afford it,tough, move on to a 4 bed semi d like the rest of us. You cut your cloth, end of. Day for toffs is well and truly over.

[@citizen1163]

They're still out there!

[@bunney3272]

Only canada and Great Britain still have an appointed upper house

[@peggyt1243]

You are right, Canada has an appointed upper house but there are no hereditary seats. Each member is appointed by the elected government and must retire at age 75 or earlier. Most Canadians would like to get right of the upper house but it is a long bureaucratic process involving changes to the constitution.

[@RATCLIFFE-LISTENS]

Voice of Reason no

[@Grania52]

One would wish that Sir Jocelyn could find it in himself to provide a sunken pool for his clams rather than this frightfully plebeian arrangement. Ghastly. Why not raise eels, one wonders.... I could murder a jellied eel.

[@suzannereilman4516]

At 2:18, the CC is just atrocious....'but Aris de Kratz used to be...'...! ☮⚜

[@patobrien6364]

Good ol Sir Josslyn has returned HOME to mother England.Lisadell was sold,in spite, to people who cared

[@ThomasHarding1990]

The Earl of St Germans seems like a really decent, humble guy who's happy to mock himself. I admire his honesty tbh.

[@Movzhuru]

No, thank you. I think my own apartment of 28 sq.m. is just fine.

[@johnhetherington8830]

a very sad vocal why on earth?

[@bunney3272]

Aristocrats are cultured, civilized, and very British. While the commoner has took too much foreign influence

[@Fauntleroy.]

Sir George Severn You are a rare breed of troll, my friend.

[@critic123ify]

Sir George Severn what a ridiculous assumption. The current earl of st german's is nothing but a lazy, disgusting, and lazy excentric. The only British character in him is his language and snobbery.

[@critic123ify]

Sir George Severn dirty*

[@bunney3272]

It seems like Yankee propaganda has been too powerful.

[@critic123ify]

Sir George Severn I happen to be Spanish sir, and quite careless about what an American could say.

[@TheCarly80]

Survival of the most greediest.

[@mscott3918]

QuestionEverything Rubbish. Look how greedy people are who have, for example, tried to make money out of the Grenfell disaster. That is greed, not living on what you have.

[@mikeottawa8158]

u wana taLk about bankng-cLas ? caLL Baron Jacob RothchiLd

[@livelifegalaxy]

Born with a silver spoon.. we should get rid of such classs. everyone is born equal

[@robingale100]

melang164 yeah and some are"more equal than others"

[@piffpaff9674]

Sorry my dear British Isles people: Europe has the far better class system in comparison to yours... We too have aristocrats but that does not matter at all in our public life, they are hidden and private.... So be it. I do like the British people but your brutally splitten class system has always threatend and confused me. On the other hand: A divorced and older American acctress now in the Royal Family is not an equal social fit, too... If I were an Aristocratic British lady, that would have given me some sort of pain, not to mention the cruel inheritage system when it comes to getting the title/estate if you were born a daughter. No modern times in the UK, still?!

[@cerdic6867]

No we arent lol

[@mscott3918]

No they aren't, and certainly as we get older we become far less equal.

[@ericklynch6873]

No they certainly are not !!!!!!

[@thomassullivan6016]

So he doesn't work?,.... Got it.. ..🤡💩