Sometimes it takes a TV show to force you to really see something – or someone – who’s been right under your nose the whole time. If you, too, are hooked on Lena Dunham’s new Netflix series Too Much, you might have noticed our American sisters have a great appreciation for one of our most abundant natural resources: British men.
Jessica, heroine and narrator, leaves the US following a break-up, arriving in London hoping to meet a British gentleman who will overlook her ‘poor connections’ and fall for her charms. Jessica makes no secret of her passion for Jane Austen and her longing to meet a modern-day Mr Darcy.
Meanwhile, in And Just Like That, Carrie Bradshaw is flirting with her hot British neighbour Duncan, while Miranda is falling for British BBC news producer Joy. And if you’re an American looking for a bad boy,Oasis are heading to the US in August, to the giddy delight of my (happily married) American friend who secretly fancies Noel Gallagher. ‘I don’t know if it’s the accent or the eyebrows, but there’s something about him that no American man can ever compete with,’ she told me.
Brits haven’t been this hot since Four Weddings And A Funeral broke box-office records more than 30 years ago, when Hugh Grant’s Charles stuttered and charmed his way into the heart of Andie McDowell’s Carrie. Five years later, he wooed American audiences all over again by awkwardly falling for Julia Roberts in Notting Hill. So, is this just the latest phase of the ongoing ’90s nostalgia boom, or is there more to it?
I asked the American writer and author Jess Pan, who moved to the UK in 2012 and has been married to her British husband for 13 years. ‘My previous four boyfriends were British too,’ she says. ‘Like many American women, I’m obsessed with British romantic comedies where Hugh Grant falls in love with one of us. We love the way British men say “lovely” and all the fun slang. It makes everything more charming.’
Jess explains that while the accent is appealing, Brits have another advantage. ‘I genuinely think the appeal of British men is how funny and quick-witted they are. They are so much funnier than their American counterparts, who can be painfully earnest. And with their baseball caps and obsession with talking about money, I never had any luck with them.’
Too Much is the story of a woman leaving the US and coming to the UK to escape her problems and live happily ever after. The New Yorker recently published an essay by its creator, Lena Dunham, entitled ‘Why I broke up with New York’ – suggesting she’d ended a romantic relationship with the city itself.
Meanwhile, Britain is the home of Heathcliff and Darcy – and their 1995 counterparts, the Gallagher brothers. As viewed from across the pond, Brits can be cool and romantic, fun and enigmatic. We share a language, we’re up for a laugh and we have windswept moors at our disposal. We can’t promise that you’ll meet a lord with a castle. But we can find you someone with a hot accent and great eyebrows.