How The Brits Rocked America (From The Northern Echo)

How The Brits Rocked America

5:11pm Friday 10th February 2012 in Tonight's TV By Steve Pratt

How the Brits Rocked America: Go West (BBC4, 9pm);
The World’s Toughest Trucker (Channel 5, 8pm)

THE series ends with a look at how Brit acts took the US by storm in the Eighties.

Okay, the Sex Pistols’ US tour may have ended in disaster, but the likes of Squeeze, Elvis Costello, and the Cure did rather well across the Pond, while the Police, right, went on to become one of the biggest bands in the world.

No study of Eighties music would be complete without a section featuring the effect of MTV on the industry, so there is the inevitable look at image-conscious bands such as Duran Duran, Culture Club, Adam Ant and Flock of Seagulls, who all scored major transatlantic hits.

In addition, we see how British and US acts found new inspiration in each other’s work, and discover why the US charts went on to be dominated by home-grown artists and genres.

Meanwhile, John Lydon and Robert Smith add their thoughts on the era of excess.

THE World’s Toughest Trucker has been tremendous fun and it’s hard not to have a particular favourite contestant or be swept along in the action.

This week the truckers arrive in the East Asian country of Mongolia, where they are challenged to transport goods along improvised and badly signed roads, and must rely on communication and teamwork to avoid taking a wrong turn.

Driving the hardy Russian Zil 131 vehicles, they haul loads of tents and furniture for 80 miles, but receive penalties for every item that they break along the way.