England in 1978

England is one of the countries that comprise the United Kingdom along with Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. In 1978, the year of Plenty's debut, Prime Minister James Callaghan and Queen Elizabeth U presided over the United Kingdom, whose population at the time was approximately 55,780,000 people.

British Arts and Literature in the 1970s

According to Arthur Marwick in British Society since 1945, "British art merged anonymously into the major international trends" and thus did not necessarily advance a "distinctively national or personal genius." Marwick identified "super realism" as one of the international trends with which British art blended. He included political works that emphasize feminism and homosexuality in this group. For dramatists, poets, and musicians, he noted that "innovation tended to be at the unspectacular." Despite such derogatory comments, Marwick did— contrarily—suggest that in the 1970s "the National Theatre at last entered into its magnificent...