Return to Cool Britannia

The UK seems to be experiencing a cultural renaissance. Helen Coffey looks at how Oasis, 'Adolescence' and 'Too Much' coalesced to thrust Blighty back into the zeitgeist

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If you're Gen Z or younger, you probably can't remember the last time the UK was cool. It was before your time, I'm afraid - a Nineties heyday embodied by Britpop bands such as Oasis and Blur, Richard Curtis romcoms, YBAs (Young British Artists) headed up by Damien Hirst and his provocative animals in formaldehyde, and Tony Blair’s Labour Party finally booting the Tories out of power in 1997 after an 18-year stronghold.

It marked a period of genuine optimism - a feeling epitomised by sexy smackhead Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor) “choosing life” at the end of Danny Boyle’s Nineties masterpiece, Trainspotting - when British fashion, music and culture were the envy of all. A time when the country felt progressive, thriving and relevant. A time when, in fact, one might feel the tiniest bit justified in being “proud to be British”. Ginger Spice was even able to wear a union jack mini-dress to the 1997 Brit Awards without the merest hint that she was making some kind of anti-immigration political statement. That same year, Katrina and the Waves won the Eurovision Song Contest on behalf of the United Kingdom with their uplifting ballad “Love Shine a Light”.

Since that golden era of Cool Britannia petered out, we’ve been sorely lacking in the trendy department. The Tories wrested power back from Labour again in 2010, introduced the chokehold of austerity, and clung on for the next 14 years. The flame of excitement prompted by the success of the 2012 London Olympics was comprehensively doused by the damp squib that was the Brexit referendum - and ensuing economic downturn - in 2016.