Difference

In the Guardian, Toby Young evaluates the success of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.

Part of his problem is that Americans don’t take kindly to being reproached, particularly by one of their former colonial masters. They are quick to take offence, detecting traces of snobbery and condescension in almost any critical remark, however well intentioned. In Britain, Jamie’s high-minded didacticism is softened by his cockney accent – he can get away with criticising dinner ladies because, socially, they’re not a million miles apart. Not so in Huntingdon, where his accent is just thought of as “British” and he’s assumed to live in a castle and have a butler. “Who made you king?” asks an angry local in the first episode.

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