What? Things I've realized I don't know about English society

Background:

John has been trying to get me to watch Doctor Who for over a year.  Last year for Halloween, he dressed up like the Tom Baker Doctor.  I had a conversation with my brother in France about this time last year about Doctor Who and I knew next to nothing about it, except that John really liked it and had gotten Emma hooked.  Mostly they were watching the olds 60's and 70's episodes.  I caught a few minutes here and there but found the cheap sound effects and silly aliens a little too much for me.

Last Christmas John and I made a deal that he would watch Babylon 5 with me if I would watch the new Doctor Whos with him.  So I half-heartedly starting watching them with him.  We started on Netflix with the first of the new Doctor Who episodes (Christopher Eccleston as the doctor). The first episode starts out with mannequins that come to life and chase this girl, then the doctor comes out of nowhere and saves her.  It is silly, scary and a little ridiculous all at the same time.  But I kept watching and eventually I came to like Doctor Who almost as much as John.  There's something about being terrified and laughing yourself silly all at the same time.

So it turns out that I have been watching quite a lot of Doctor Who recently.  It is the perfect show to exercise to because it is fast paced, has lots of chasing music, and is just the right length for an exercise session.

In all of this Doctor Who watching, quite a bit of other British TV and Jane Austen exposure, I've never felt very ignorant of their culture.  They speak English.  They have more class issues.  They call a flashlight a torch.  Big deal.

But over the past few weeks, I've realized how little I really know.  Going along with my Doctor Who interest (John would probably call it an obsession, I can be a little obsessive, I admit it), I found a cheap book on my Kindle entitled "Dalek, I Loved You".  It's a memoir about a guy growing up in England loving Doctor Who.  Mostly it's about this guy's life with Doctor Who thrown in.  About 2 pages into this book, I realized I had little to no idea about most of what he was talking about, things that he was throwing out there like they were common knowledge. I found the book fascinating, mostly because it showed me just how much I don't know. 

So here's some of the things I have no clue about:

• His parents saved up all their money to send him to, wait for it, "public" school.  Obviously doesn't mean the same as here.  I still have no idea exactly what it means.
• British children's television.  I had never heard of one show that he named.  No idea.
• Famous British actors.  I thought I knew.  I know Sean Connery, Patrick Stewart, Colin Firth.  Besides the actors associated with Doctor Who, I'd never heard of any of the people he talked about, people he'd dreamed all his life about meeting.
• British geography.  Seriously, I 'm going to have to find a map of England and figure it out, because I basically ignored all place names.  The only ones I'd heard of were things like London, Wales, and Scotland. I'm not afraid to admit my ignorance.
•  Modern British history.  He talked about some wars and massacres I had never heard of. Big, life-changing events and I hadn't the faintest idea.
• British music scene.  The only person he really liked that I knew was David Bowie and almost all the songs he named of his I'd never heard of. 
• What a big deal Doctor Who is.  I seriously had no idea it was so popular. Kind of like Star Trek in the US, with conventions and everything.

There's probably more.  I just kept reading and reading and realizing how uninformed I am about a place from which I spend a fair amount of time watching their TV shows and reading their literature.  It was eye-opening.  But I kind of like it.  It gives me something to learn more about. Realizing your ignorance is always the first step.