Rain

A study of rain in Britain. The British are getting used to a new kind of rain. There is more of it - the year 2000 was the wettest since accurate records began in the middle of the 18th century. But also it is fiercer: drizzle, your traditional kind of British wetness, has been replaced by autumnal monsoons. Large parts of Britain are flooding, under threat from the weather as never before. In this work, Brian Cathcart explores: rainfall statistics collector, George James Symons, an unsung hero with his thousands of volunteers; the invention of galoshes and other attractive rainwear; how the wet sock experiment proves that you can't catch your death of cold; and Samuel Johnson's real opinion of weather-inspired small-talk. He also asks what rain has done for the British landscape and British character.