The Road in Popular Culture
Kula Shaker performed their first impromptu gig at the Glastonbury Festival, which can be reached via the A303. They used this as the title of their song 303 on the album K. It was also mentioned in the Levellers' song Battle of the Beanfield, about the attack by police on travellers celebrating the Solstice at Stonehenge (1 June 1985): "Down the '303 at the end of the road, Flashing lights, exclusion zones".
In an episode of the popular BBC comedy panel show Mock the Week, comedian John Oliver responded to the prompt "Things A Frenchman would never say" with "My favourite road? Now that's got to be the A303. In many ways it's quicker than the M4, and you get to go past Stonehenge. If you're going along to the West Country it's the A303 for me every time. What a road, what a road!". Oliver mentions the A303 with some frequency on The Bugle, a satirical podcast he co-hosts with Andy Zaltzman, where Zaltzman has also referred to the A303 calling it "Britain's greatest trunk road."
Prior to the broadcast of Series 15 of Top Gear, the cast of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May were spotted and recorded driving along the A303 in what appeared to be house cars. The video was recorded and put on YouTube. The show was broadcast in the summer of 2010 as the first episode of season 15. The road was also used to test the Bentley Continental GT by Jeremy Clarkson in 2003, and also to test the Jaguar XJ in 2011.
The BBC broadcast a documentary about the A303 on 19 May 2011 on BBC Four, called "A303 Highway to the Sun". The writer Tom Fort drove the length of the A303 in a Morris Traveller, making various stops.
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Famous quotes containing the words road, popular and/or culture:
“... we have every reason to rejoice when there are so many gains and when favorable conditions abound on every hand. The end is not yet in sight, but it can not be far away. The road before us is shorter than the road behind.”
—Lucy Stone (1818–1893)
“The man of large and conspicuous public service in civil life must be content without the Presidency. Still more, the availability of a popular man in a doubtful State will secure him the prize in a close contest against the first statesman of the country whose State is safe.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“He was one whose glory was an inner glory, one who placed culture above prosperity, fairness above profit, generosity above possessions, hospitality above comfort, courtesy above triumph, courage above safety, kindness above personal welfare, honor above success.”
—Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 1, ch. 1 (1962)