Description

As the BBC’s North America Editor, Jon Sopel has experienced ‘the Greatest Country on Earth’ from a perspective that most could only dream of: he has travelled aboard Air Force One, interviewed President Obama and seen first-hand the gaudy splendour of Donald Trump’s billion-dollar empire.

Jon has also witnessed the darker side of the United States today. He was on the ground in Ferguson, Missouri as the riots took hold he has visited gun shows, where lethal weapons are exhibited and sold like DIY tools and he has listened to would-be-presidents turn TV evangelists, as they place their judgements in the hands of a god in whom they believe unquestioningly.
What Jon has discovered, is that for all we think we know the USA, it is – now more than ever – a truly foreign land.

If Only They Didn’t Speak English is a fascinating, insightful, portrait of American life and politics seen through British eyes. With the combination of Jon’s political expertise as a BBC correspondent of more than 20 years and his own stories from on the ground, it sets out to answer our questions about a country that once stood for the grandest of dreams but which is now mired in a storm of political extremism, racial division, and increasingly perverse beliefs.