History UsefulNotes / TheChannelIslands

Between 2002 and 2008 the Barclay Brothers[[note]]Reclusive billionaires, owners of one of Britain's largest catalogue companies and the ''[[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers Daily Telegraph]]''.[[/note]] attempted to take over the island of Sark and rule it as their Fortress of Solitude, as covered in ''PrivateEye''. They did this by getting the old feudal system abolished and thus bringing democracy to the island for the first time. However, the islanders promptly voted (in 2008) for whoever the Barclays didn't want.

* Lillie Langtry, the "Jersey Lily". an actor who was also a mistress of the later Edward VII,

* The 2008 historical fiction novel ''The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society'' by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (the latter finished the book's revision after [[AuthorExistenceFailure Shaffer passed away]]), which is [[EpistolaryNovel made up of correspondence between a London author and the natives of the island of Guernsey]], who started a book club to boost morale during the German occupation.

Most of the fiction (and indeed non-fiction) involving the Channel Islands also involves the Second World War. There have been several documentaries on how people coped during the occupation, and several books dealing with the factual details of the occupation or stories of peoples' experiences of that time. An exception to this is the 1980s crime series ''Series/{{Bergerac}}'', set on Jersey. Also, the British writer Creator/JohnChristopher seems to have a fondness for the islands; at least two of his CosyCatastrophe novels (''Wrinkle in the Skin'' and ''The World in Winter'') have some of their action centered there.

The Channel Isles: Jersey (no, not UsefulNotes/NewJersey - think of it as this island's [[MorePopularSpinoff More Populous Spinoff]]), Guernsey, Alderney and Sark. [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg Also, Herm,]] which is small enough to be lumped in with Guernsey. These are British "Crown Dependencies", despite the fact that they are much closer to France.

The Channel Islands also have the smallest {{ITV}} franchise, Channel Television. Until 2011, Channel was the only ITV franchisee not otherwise folded into a bigger media group (ITV plc, UTV or STV), since having been folded into ITV plc. Historically it occupied an odd place, being borderline unsustainable due to the ridiculously tiny viewership, and often escaping many of the worst strikes to hit the ITV network on the basis that any withdrawal of labour would cause the station to go under. In recent years it has been used mainly as a contractor for the other ITV companies to check through their programmes to ensure they comply with Ofcom regulations (and, handily, receive the blame if they don't do a thorough enough job.)

You see, this dates from back in the days when the Kingdom of England was just one small part of a large Empire ruled by an ambitious French family, the Plantagenets (a.k.a. the Angevins).[[note]]Besides being the King of England, the head of the family was [[TryToFitThatOnABusinessCard Lord of Ireland, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Anjou, Count of Poitou, Count of Maine, Count of Touraine, Count of Saintonge, Count of Marche, Count of Perigord, Count of Limousin, Count of Nantes, and Count of Quercy]], and had influence over the Duke of Brittany, the Duke of Cornwall, the King of Scotland, and the various petty principalities of Wales.[[/note]] The French king didn't like the fact that one of his vassals owned more land than he did, so they went to war (UsefulNotes/TheHundredYearsWar... and several other wars). Eventually, the rulers of England lost all of their French territories except for the Channel Islands. [[BlatantLies And after that, the French and the English lived happily ever after and never quarrelled over anything ever again]].

Between 2002 and 2008 the Barclay Brothers[[note]]Reclusive billionaires, owners of one of Britain's largest catalogue companies and [[BritishNewspapers the Daily Telegraph.]][[/note]] attempted to take over the island of Sark and rule it as their Fortress of Solitude, as covered in ''PrivateEye''. They did this by getting the old feudal system abolished and thus bringing democracy to the island for the first time. However, the islanders promptly voted (in 2008) for whoever the Barclays didn't want.

* ''Series/{{Bergerac}}'' of course.

The Channel Islands were occupied by the Germans during the Second World War. They were so heavily fortified that the Allies never attempted to recapture them; they were only liberated days after VE day. The occupation was harsh, but probably no worse than many other places under Nazi occupation, there was a small-scale resistance movement, and there was a daring British commando raid on Sark. The islands were ecstatically pleased to be liberated and that their evacuees could finally come home, and Liberation Day (or Homecoming Day) is a national holiday[[note]]Oddly, the official German stance was that the Islands were merely under German administration in the name of King George VI. After the liberation, some of the men jailed by the Germans under the occupation were sent to Winchester prison to complete their sentences.[[/note]].

Today the islands are still littered with the remains of German fortifications, and there's at least one very good War Museum if you are into that sort of thing. The islands are also popular with tourists who like to hog the beaches (although a lot less than they used to be) and popular with anyone who wants to avoid paying taxes. The islands don't pay any value-added tax on cheap items (under £20) imported or exported there either, so online CD and DVD retailers have made a killing by locating their offices there. However, this looks set to change with the closure of the UK VAT loophole from 1st April 2012, in order to provide a level playing field for UK-based retailers. In addition, Jersey also contains a Nigel Mansell museum... above the Mitsubishi dealership rn by his son.

The Channel Islands were occupied by the Germans during the Second World War. They were so heavily fortified that the allies never attempted to recapture them; they were only liberated days after VE day. The occupation was harsh, but probably no worse than many other places under Nazi occupation, there was a small-scale resistance movement, and there was a daring British commando raid on Sark. The islands were ecstatically pleased to be liberated and that their evacuees could finally come home, and Liberation Day (or Homecoming Day) is a national holiday[[note]]Oddly, the official German stance was that the Islands were merely under German administration in the name of King George VI. After the liberation, some of the men jailed by the Germans under the occupation were sent to Winchester prison to complete their sentences.[[/note]].

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Today the islands are still littered with the remains of German fortifications, and there's at least one very good War Museum if you are into that sort of thing. The islands are also popular with tourists who like to hog the beaches, and popular with anyone who wants to avoid paying taxes. The islands don't pay any value-added tax on cheap items (under £20) imported or exported there either, so online CD and DVD retailers have made a killing by locating their offices there. However, this looks set to change with the closure of the UK VAT loophole from 1st April 2012, in order to provide a level playing field for UK-based retailers.

The Channel Islands also have the smallest {{ITV}} franchise, Channel Television.

You see, this dates from back in the days when the Kingdom of England was just one small part of a large Empire ruled by an ambitious French family, the Plantagenets (a.k.a. the Angevins).[[note]]Besides being the King of England, the head of the family was [[TryToFitThatOnABusinessCard Lord of Ireland, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Anjou, Count of Poitou, Count of Maine, Count of Touraine, Count of Saintonge, Count of Marche, Count of Perigord, Count of Limousin, Count of Nantes, and Count of Quercy]], and had influence over the Duke of Brittany, the Duke of Cornwall, the King of Scotland, and the various petty principalities of Wales.[[/note]] The French king didn't like the fact that one of his vassals owned more land than he did, so they went to war (the HundredYearsWar... and several other wars). Eventually, the rulers of England lost all of their French territories except for the Channel Islands. [[BlatantLies And after that, the French and the English lived happily ever after and never quarrelled over anything ever again]].

* ''TheOthers'' is set on a remote mansion on Jersey, a few months after VE-Day. She mentions sucessfully keeping the German occupants off her premises, after her husband went MIA during the Battle Of France.
* Both the book and film version of ''TheEagleHasLanded'' features Jersey as the base of operations of the Nazi protagonists. Features the Irish turncoat collaborator getting into a bar brawl with some very disgruntled islanders (for four obvious reasons[[note]]for being Irish, being a turncoat, collaborating with the Germans, and being a weird condescending bastard to the other pub patrons[[/note]]).

The Channel Islands were occupied by the Germans during the Second World War. They were so heavily fortified that the allies never attempted to recapture them; they were only liberated days after VE day. The occupation was harsh, but probably no worse than many other places under Nazi occupation, there was a small-scale resistance movement, and there was a daring British commando raid on Sark. The islands were ecstatically pleased to be liberated and that their evacuees could finally come home, and Liberation Day (or Homecoming Day) is a national holiday.

Most of the fiction (and indeed non-fiction) involving the Channel Islands also involves the Second World War. There have been several documentaries on how people coped during the occupation, and several books dealing with the factual details of the occupation or stories of peoples' experiences of that time. An exception to this is the 1980s crime series ''{{Bergerac}}'', set on Jersey. Also, the British writer JohnChristopher seems to have a fondness for the islands; at least two of his CosyCatastrophe novels (''Wrinkle in the Skin'' and ''The World in Winter'') have some of their action centered there.

* Both the book and film version of ''TheEagleHasLanded'' features Jersey as the base of operations of the Nazi protagonists. Features the Irish turncoat collaborator getting into a bar brawl with some very disgrungtled islanders (for four obvious reasons[[hottip:*:for being Irish, being a turncoat, collaborating with the Germans, and being a weird condescending bastard to the other pub patrons]]).

* Both the book and film version of ''TheEagleHasLanded'' features Jersey as the base of operations of the Nazi protagonists. Features the Irish turncoat collaborator getting into a bar brawl with some very disgrungtled islanders (for four obvious reasons[[hottip:*:for being Irish, being a turncoat, collaborating with the Germans, and being a weird condescending bastard to the other pub patrons).

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The Channel Isles: Jersey (no, not [[{{Joisey}} that Jersey]] - think of it as this island's [[MorePopularSpinoff More Populous Spinoff]]), Guernsey, Alderney and Sark. [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg Also, Herm,]] which is small enough to be lumped in with Guernsey. These are British "Crown Dependencies", despite the fact that they are much closer to France.

The Channel Isles: Jersey (no, not [[{{Joisey}} that Jersey]], although it is named after this island), Guernsey, Alderney and Sark. [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg Also, Herm,]] which is small enough to be lumped in with Guernsey. These are British "Crown Dependencies", despite the fact that they are much closer to France.

You see, this dates from back in the days when the Kingdom of England was just one small part of a large Empire ruled by an ambitious French family, the Plantagenets (a.k.a. the Angevins).[[note]]Besides being the King of England, the head of the family was [[TryToFitThatOnABusinessCard Lord of Ireland, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Anjou, Count of Poitou, Count of Maine, Count of Touraine, Count of Saintonge, Count of Marche, Count of Perigord, Count of Limousin, Count of Nantes, and Count of Quercy, and had influence over the Duke of Brittany, the Duke of Cornwall, the King of Scotland, and the various petty principalities of Wales.[[/note]] The French king didn't like the fact that one of his vassals owned more land than he did, so they went to war (the HundredYearsWar... and several other wars). Eventually, the rulers of England lost all of their French territories except for the Channel Islands. [[BlatantLies And after that, the French and the English lived happily ever after and never quarrelled over anything ever again]].

Between 2002 and 2008 the Barclay Brothers[[hottip:*:Reclusive billionaires, owners of one of Britain's largest catalogue companies and [[BritishNewspapers the Daily Telegraph.]] attempted to take over the island of Sark and rule it as their Fortress of Solitude, as covered in ''PrivateEye''. They did this by getting the old feudal system abolished and thus bringing democracy to the island for the first time. However, the islanders promptly voted (in 2008) for whoever the Barclays didn't want.