Awesome England

At the 2022 Mountbatten Festival of Music. The Bands of HM Royal Marines performed an epic medley of music by The Prodigy. Arranged by Band Corporal Aaron Pitman, the set included Out of Space, Breathe, Omen, No Good (Start the Dance), The Day is My Enemy, and Voodoo People, but sadly no Smack My Bitch Up or Firestarter.

Here in the US, SUVs and pickup trucks are wildly popular. But in the UK and much of Europe, small cars are the norm. Mat from carwow took to the streets of the UK with a Hennessey Mammoth – an upgraded Ram TRX – to see how hard it is to fit the beast down narrow streets, keep it fueled up, and order food from a drive-thru.

The Llangollen Canal is a UK waterway that links Denbighshire, Wales with Hurleston, Cheshire. Machine Thinking takes us on a journey through this 18th-century marvel that incorporates more than 20 locks as well as a pair of impressive aqueducts. It’s no longer used to transport goods and now offers leisurely boat tours.

This unusual helmet was gifted to King Henry VIII by Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I in 1514. The headgear has curly horns like a Kudu antelope, and a pair of spectacles. Atlas Obscura checked in with Henry Yallop from the Royal Armouries to learn about the theories surrounding this strange ceremonial garb.

Filmmaker Arthur Cauty takes us inside Bristol, UK shop 20th Century Flicks, one of the last remaining video stores on the planet. After the shop nearly closed, a handful of dedicated film buffs tossed in their own money to keep the store alive in the face of streaming content, maintaining more social approach to renting movies.

England’s new Five Pound notes are made from a durable plastic polymer that makes them impossible to crumple, resistant to water and burning, harder to counterfeit, and as an added bonus, capable of playing records, as shown in this brief video clip.

During the ceremonial changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, the Queen’s Guard played the theme from Game of Thrones, making us wonder if Danaerys has plans to invade London with her dragons and reclaim the throne.

This year, the annual sand sculpture festival has gone with the theme “HOLLYWOOD,” filling the beaches of North Somerset England with incredible sculptures paying tribute to movie magic. Runs through 9/2013. Hi-res pics here.

If you didn’t have the 3 hours or the patience to watch The Royal Wedding, here’s an amusing, overdubbed version to bring you up to speed, conveniently abbreviated to 1:30. (Thanks Maffin!)

NSFW: Proof positive that the UK gets all the funny shows before we remake and ruin them, BBC 3’s Mongrels features potty-mouthed animal puppets in adult situations. (Ok, we had TV Funhouse first).