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<\/p>\nBaked beans, sarcasm, the lochs of Scotland and Emma Thompson. Each have been singled out as unmistakably British institutions that make people proud amid the political scandals and toxic controversies that can sometimes seem overwhelming.<\/p>\n
The glimmers of light were identified as the men\u2019s style magazine GQ gathered 15 celebrities \u2014 including the sportsmen Anthony Joshua and Ian Wright and the actors Brian Cox and Andrew Garfield \u2014 for a \u201csweet, nostalgic, silly, sublime and absurd\u201d What\u2019s So Great About Britain special September issue.<\/p>\n
The heavyweight boxer Joshua said Britain should be as proud as other nations of its storied history. \u201c[We] conquered the world,\u201d he said. \u201cYou come to Greece and they\u2019re like, \u2018Alexander the Great!\u2019 Be proud, innit? It\u2019s unbelievable. What an achievement. The whole bloody world speaks English or wants to learn English.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Pubs were held up as a key part of British culture by Anthony Joshua<\/p>\n
CHARLOTTE RUTHERFORD<\/p>\n
Joshua, 35, declared that there is \u201cnothing\u201d for Britons to be embarrassed about as he identified David Lloyd health clubs and The Badger pub in Watford as the things he missed most when abroad.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been going since I was a baby, and the same faces are still there,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is Britain. Pubs are a massive cornerstone of British culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joshua, who claimed Jobseeker\u2019s Allowance in his youth, argued that Britain is a fundamentally fair society. \u201cI\u2019ve got the council who come and take my bins. I\u2019ve got 24-hour electric. My son goes to a good school,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the NHS. I\u2019ve had family in there, and these people are lifesavers, and that\u2019s free.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Ian Wright, the football pundit and former England player<\/p>\n
CHARLOTTE RUTHERFORD<\/p>\n
Wright, the former England and Arsenal striker, agreed that he did not consider Britain to be unequal. \u201cIt\u2019s still very tough \u2014 it\u2019s not as fair as I\u2019m sure Britain would like to be \u2014 but I think that a lot has changed with respect to how people are treated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to be negative about our country that I\u2019ve grown up in and it\u2019s given me and my family a lot of opportunities. We could talk about the negative things that come with being a black person, but why? There\u2019s loads of things that can be done better for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Violent, lawless, broken Britain? The facts tell a different story<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Wright, 61, said he considered Emma Thompson \u2014 who also appears in the GQ edition \u2014 to be a national treasure, adding that Andy Murray and Lewis Hamilton \u201cneed to get more love\u201d. <\/p>\n Attenborough was a national treasure for Jade Thirwall of the girlband Little Mix, who added: \u201cProtect him at all costs.\u201d<\/p>\n The beloved naturalist Sir David Attenborough, 99, is held up as a national treasure<\/p>\n ALAMY<\/p>\n Ambika Mod, 29, who starred in the Netflix series One Day, proclaimed baked beans the best British food, while Cox, 79, declared a cooked breakfast, with two slices of black pudding, \u201cunbeatable\u201d.<\/p>\n The Succession star said other countries misjudged the way Britain was run. \u201cThe world doesn\u2019t see how democratic we are. We are regarded as a monarchy but that\u2019s mainly a kind of carapace, rather than who we are,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n And despite concerns about poverty in his native Dundee, the actor said society had transformed since his youth.<\/p>\n Brian Cox, the Dundee-born star of the stage and screen<\/p>\n CHARLOTTE RUTHERFORD<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a child of the sixties, and it\u2019s very hard to describe to people what it was like. We were virtually at war for 50 years. So when we came out of that war, our clothes had been taken off. We were slightly naked, but there was a wonderful thing about the freedom,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I went to London at 17, I was welcomed, and that was quite moving to me \u2014 that there was a concern about what kind of career I wanted, and how I could fulfil that career.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/\/8c0c314d-c813-4ce7-ae6f-d38e1ba80a6b.jpg\")
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