As promised, I am returning to those redoubtable coves, Charters and Caldicott aka Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne. They are a metaphor for Englishness if ever there was one. The characters appeared in dozens of films, either as Charters and Caldicott or, for contractual reasons, as Charters and Caldicott types.
We English refer to major disasters as "a bit off" and insist on fairness and cordiality, even if the stiff upper lip trembles at behaviour that is beyond the pale. Yes its a stereotype, but think about the way we are in a crisis. We tend ... to keep our heads when all about are losing theirs. I am a white, English,middle class, heterosexual male, and although I am not particularly proud of the fact, I was born like this and refuse to feel that all the troubles in the world can be laid at the door of my sort....because so can most of the triumphs.
C and C turned up first in Hitcock's "The Lady Vanishes" and next in "Night Train to Munich", both with the lovely Margaret Lockwood. (see below). That's how they fit in.
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