Media academic and cultural commentator Andy Medhurst makes an appearance on a new BBC TV series this week, but it's all in the best possible taste. 

Rude Britannia looks at the history of 'rude culture' and humour in Britain from the 18th century to the present day. Andy, a Senior Lecturer in Media, Film and Cultural Studies, was invited to contribute after the producers had read his book, A National Joke. 

In the book, Andy focuses on some key comedians, comedic genres and gags of the 20th century (ranging from Ken Dodd to the Royle Family) in an attempt to unravel how comedy and Englishness are related. 

For Rude Britannia, he was interviewed about Victorian music hall and the tradition of 'vulgarity' in the British film industry (including film comedians George Formby and Frank Randle, and the Carry On films). Subjects also included the radio series Round The Horne and more contemporary exponents of British "smut" - the TV sketch series Little Britain and controversial comedian Roy 'Chubby Brown'. 

Andy appears on programmes two and three of the series (to be screened on Monday 14, Tuesday 15 and Wednesday 16 June at 9pm on BBC Four). 

But what is it about rudeness in humour that makes it peculiarly British? 

Andy says: "Historically I think British hang-ups about sex led to a particular strain of rude humour, based on innuendo and turning cultural anxieties into comedy. 

"More recently, guilt and angst about what is 'politically correct' has led to a new set of concerns over what we are supposed, or allowed, to laugh at." 

But surely, in this post-permissive age, the taste for smutty humour is on the wane? Andy disagrees: "There is a newer 'shock tactic' kind of rudeness, exemplified by the likes of Frankie Boyle and Jimmy Carr, but the taste for old-school innuendo has never gone away, however 'liberated' we think we are."