- 36 minutes ago
Historian Michael Wood Michael uncovers the extraordinary tale of the Industrial Revolution which turned Britain into the world's first industrial society. Exploring the deep roots of British industry, Michael visits the Free Miners of the Forest of Dean, the flax mills of Northern Ireland, the Cornish tin mines, the Potteries and the world's first centre of copper production in South Wales.
迈克尔·伍德（Michael Wood）揭示了工业革命那段非凡的历史，正是这场革命将英国转变为世界上第一个工业化社会。为了探寻英国工业的深厚根基，迈克尔走访了英格兰和威尔士的矿工。在利物浦，他展示了奴隶制如何支撑起英国的财富与贸易——当时英国的贸易版图正向印度扩展。随着城市社会的兴起，以及圈地运动和人口清退导致农村人口流失，迈克尔呈现了农村劳动力对此作出的反应。与此同时，启蒙运动的理念也在深刻地改变着社会。
迈克尔·伍德（Michael Wood）揭示了工业革命那段非凡的历史，正是这场革命将英国转变为世界上第一个工业化社会。为了探寻英国工业的深厚根基，迈克尔走访了英格兰和威尔士的矿工。在利物浦，他展示了奴隶制如何支撑起英国的财富与贸易——当时英国的贸易版图正向印度扩展。随着城市社会的兴起，以及圈地运动和人口清退导致农村人口流失，迈克尔呈现了农村劳动力对此作出的反应。与此同时，启蒙运动的理念也在深刻地改变着社会。
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00:06in the story of the British people we've reached the 20th century our time through
00:14civil wars and foreign invasions the British forged the roots of their democracy in the
00:21Industrial Revolution they invented the modern world creative and adaptable they
00:28built the first industrial society but the British would go through few more testing
00:36times than the 20th century the last hundred years have seen the greatest
00:42changes to our society and even to our character as a nation through two world wars we've become
00:53a multi-racial country and a post-industrial nation but the British people have remained hugely creative
01:01and inventive pioneers in technology arts and sciences it's the last chapter of the great
01:26British story as we look at it now the Edwardian age before the First World War was the high noon
01:33British self-confidence during the previous century we'd become an industrial urbanized nation now the
01:44power of the people was growing horizons were opening up for the first time the cinema showed us our own
01:55image but that imperial industrial heyday was inevitably brief as it appears now an almost
02:07incredible adventure by the people of this small island off the shore of Europe the big story for
02:13the 20th century through two world wars was the loss of Empire and the dramatic collapse of the heavy
02:21industries on which our wealth depended just as the British people were the first nation in history to become an
02:30industrial country so they were the first to go through that and come out the other side forced now to
02:37reshape their
02:38identities once more in their history as workers as citizens and indeed as Britons
02:49the Edwardians ruled a maritime Empire at its heart was shipbuilding and nowhere was that more clear than
02:57Glasgow to arrive in Edwardian Glasgow was to see the achievements of the age but its powerhouse was the
03:06teeming shipyards of govern whose population had grown 30 times in three generations it was something of
03:16gold rush proportions what took place here 1864 I think and probably a population of about two and a half
03:23thousand it was an idyllic village on the river Clyde where people come to do watercolors and things
03:33by 1912 there was 90,000 people living in govern and beyond that there was people pouring in from outside
03:42of
03:42the garden from Glasgow to work here by 1914 there were 48 shipyards on the Clyde shipbuilding guaranteed the Empire
03:54and the Empire guaranteed the shipyards
04:08Glasgow really was prosperous when our trade was with America that's what built Glasgow right
04:16everybody had I worked in the shipyard or worked in an association industry like myself actually started off
04:24in an engine works building engines for the ships we probably thought it would always last but obviously it hasn't
04:33and what was made here was not only ships but an identity a solidarity in labor a pride in being
04:42a shipbuilder as
04:43in Belfast and on the Tyne in a few generations shipbuilding became part of the people's DNA
04:51a country folk mixed with traditional city dwellers but eventually they emerged to become a completely new
04:58tribe what were they the clay side of I mean they were they became clay say there for whatever
05:05government was before then they came there and they almost formed a different nation
05:16that is astounding isn't it that's it that's the first of the time and shipbuilding meant more than
05:21earning a living it was something heroic the sum of a community's creativity ships just been launched
05:32so it's it's gathering speed the drag chains that the sound is horrendous and it drags the ship right back
05:46that's it born she's born ready for the river
05:54it's a Russian adrenaline
05:57it's the apex of satisfaction yeah remember you built the ships you built yourself in a frenzy for
06:03the day of the launch it's gone in and it hits the water and you say damn it
06:11this was the time when the British defined themselves by their industry at Hales Owen in
06:19the black country in the workforce there were people whose ancestors had worked metal in Tudor times
06:28granddad did it and your dad if your brother works here he works here at the barbed fair so all
06:35his brothers have worked in the seal as well
06:37my dad's brothers so quite a few of them yeah
06:42my father worked here my grandfather worked here my uncles worked here I've also got a son here at the
06:50moment
06:50my great grandparents mother worked here during the war she used to drive the train
06:58the greatest expansion here was before the first world war
07:043,600 ton steam hydraulic press how about that the old folks in Hales Owen used to say that you
07:13could hear this wheezing
07:15thumping and feel it shaking the ground all the way through the night when they were on big jobs
07:34Britain's preeminence was reinforced by a sense of British identity
07:42the values of British society hard work deference patriotism were articulated in a myriad societies mechanics
07:51institutes sports teams boys brigades working men's clubs together at work and play the British knew who
08:04they were wearing from the time I didn't bring them today I didn't know exactly what we wanted wonderful archive
08:12of stuff
08:13a crucial social role was played by organized sport the British of course had invented the rules
08:19they actually won the Suffolk senior cup I think they also beat Ipswich town as well
08:33fabulous yeah yeah that's the gardening club the gardening club
08:39fantastic these amazing social documents actually oh yes yes yes
08:50I could name all those people
08:57but across Edwardian Britain there was still a huge gulf between rich and poor
09:01in 1910 the chain makers of the black country went on strike
09:05now pin back your ears and I'll sing you a song of a town that is dear to my heart
09:12the chain makers were a cottage industry unchanged since the industrial revolution
09:16and everyone's mad about dogs
09:20so take me back
09:22they worked in conditions almost impossible for us to imagine now
09:26and the most exploited
09:28were the women
09:28three wenches line all the park benches
09:31Crayley Heath needs home to me
09:37here's a train maker how would you have felt tonight
09:42you'd have felt as if you was a slave
09:45you worked twelve thirteen hours a day
09:49for next to nothing
09:53no wonder they was angry
09:56I get five shillin a week for what working from seven o'clock in the morning till seven o'clock
10:01at night
10:03they had to buy their coal and their metal from a fogger
10:09some foggers actually boasted that they could sell metal to the women and then buy the chain made chain back
10:16for cheaper than the constituent components
10:20and in edwardian britain women still didn't have the vote
10:24any one of you that goes out on strike
10:28you'll never work again
10:29the press called it white slavery in the black country
10:32i mean we won't talk about a living wage or a working wage they were on starvation situation
10:39the first strike to appear on cinema news in britain it was led by a young scott called mary macarthur
10:45this hopeless despairing struggle for survival will go on
10:51unless we gather our strength and our determination and we move as one
10:59make
11:00so please let us take to the streets and make our voices heard
11:06for freedom and the right
11:18so one side of life in edwardian britain was class struggle
11:28the first ten years of the century saw bitter strikes and unemployment marches
11:34the rise of trades unions
11:36and from 1900 a labor party
11:40all fighting to better the conditions of the people
11:47and in no area was that more important than women's rights
11:51the suffragettes who are battling against one of the worst injustices of british society
11:56that women still didn't have the vote
12:01women's franchise movements had a long history in britain
12:04but now they found a national voice
12:07despite at times brutal repression
12:12but democracy was put on hold by the first world war
12:22across the country the war had mass support even in ireland which was still then a part of britain
12:28it was working class patriotism that made the volunteer armies in the first total war
12:39from the riveters and platers of ulster tyneside and guvain
12:44to the miners and steel men of south wales
12:48britain lost nearly a million men
12:54no place in britain was untouched
13:01the first world war is still a mystery
13:04why a prosperous country at the height of its success
13:08the source and agent of wealth and civilization
13:11chose to risk all in such horrors
13:17and to create a lost generation
13:23in the industrial cities where unemployment was already high on the eve of war
13:28the government encouraged volunteers from the same towns
13:32the same streets
13:33so friends would fight together
13:35the other
13:41one of these pals battalions came from a small lancashire cotton town
13:46Accrington
13:48on the first day of the Somme
13:50out of 700 Accrington pals
13:53235 were killed and 350 wounded
13:57he's your granddad
13:59he's my grandfather
14:00and what happened to him
14:02he got killed on the Somme
14:04on the 2nd of July
14:071916
14:09they worked and played together
14:11and they died together
14:15do you know what actually happened to him?
14:18I can't tell
14:18I just said he er...
14:20no... no known grain
14:23his body was never found
14:25all I can say is he went missing on that day
14:28I mean there's a lot like that
14:32how it could have happened
14:34how it could have happened
14:34is still impossible for us to grasp
14:41you just see here
14:43on one panel
14:44on one wall
14:46sad
14:47yeah it is sad isn't it?
14:49very sad
14:54honestly
14:54honestly
14:54I'm a grown man
14:5576
14:56and he brings tears to my eyes
14:58and er...
14:59I know now
15:00I'm very proud of him
15:01and all those that served and died with him
15:02because if it hadn't been for him
15:04I might not be near talking to you now
15:06they were brave men they were
15:09loved brothers they were
15:12hurray
15:13stand out
15:15peace
15:17the first war was the great divide for modern Britain
15:21it also left its mark on daily life
15:23on our pub opening hours
15:26our love of allotments and cigarettes
15:28our universal mistrust of the honesty of the press
15:32but above all
15:33in the loss of a generation who would have been
15:35the future doctors, judges and teachers
15:39this is a community way of remembering things
15:42not just the ones who we lost
15:43but also the ones who came back as well
15:46people lost whole streets
15:48and they lost brothers, sons, cousins
15:54these remembrance ceremonies
15:57stir the memories like sediment rising in the glass
16:01memories of our common history shared by all of us as Britons
16:08are their memories shaped, conditioned by an imperial past
16:14by that astonishing arc of narrative
16:17which has taken our country over a couple of hundred years or so
16:23from being a small land on the fringe of Europe
16:26to world dominion
16:28and then back to being a small island on the fringe of Europe
16:36and ever since Britain's most solemn ritual is not Good Friday
16:40but Armistice Day
16:46in the aftermath of the great war came the first cracks in the British Empire
16:50and the first part to go was Ireland
16:55up here in the north the protestant majority gave unstinting support to the cause
17:01the Ulster volunteer force had actually formed before the war
17:04to block plans for home rule for Ireland
17:06which was still a British colony
17:11in Ulster it's never been forgotten that they gave their all
17:14for king and country
17:21but in the south though many Catholics had fought for Britain
17:24there were older loyalties
17:26here many saw the war as the chance for freedom
17:30the rising of 1916 had failed
17:33but in 1919 the Irish War of Independence
17:37or the Anglo-Irish War
17:39brought the end of British rule after more than three centuries
17:45at the time of the Anglo-Irish War
17:471919 to 21
17:49the British government in London would have been happy
17:53to see a united Ireland
17:55remaining within the British Empire
17:57but that idea was fiercely resisted
18:00up here in Ulster by the protestants
18:02who feared being the minority in a Catholic dominated Ireland
18:08and so Ireland was partitioned with an Irish free state to the south
18:13and Ulster up here remaining part of the UK
18:16with consequences that are still rumbling on today of course
18:24but in the 1920s storm clouds were rolling across the world
18:28as fascism rose in Europe
18:30Britain was swept by the Great Depression
18:36the Empire was now at its greatest extent
18:39but it hadn't recovered from the war
18:41with huge war debts industrial output declined
18:45and the old industries in the north
18:47coal, steel and ships were devastated
18:50especially up here on Tyneside
18:53at Jarrow
18:57here the bitter experience of the 1930s
19:00is still a part of people's memory
19:01as if it happened yesterday
19:08the boat to London is a protest
19:09just to try and raise the awareness
19:11when they shut the shipyard
19:14that's employed 80% of the population at Jarrow
19:17and when once that was shut that was the town finish
19:24well there is no work here since the shipyard's finished
19:29by 1936 unemployment in Jarrow reached 73%
19:34the worst in Britain
19:37but jobs for the youth of today
19:39that's why we're doing it
19:41try to make a change
19:43try to make a stand and make a change
19:45I'm for the alternative
19:47an alternative to no jobs and no education for ordinary people
19:54and that was what drove the marchers to make their protest
20:00not just for themselves but for their children and their grandchildren
20:07in October 1936 they walked from Tyneside down to London asking for the right to work
20:18the Britain they walked through was still the green and pleasant land
20:24but the nation was changing
20:25its heavy industries out of date
20:27overtaken by newer countries following in Britain's industrial path
20:36on the 22nd of October the marchers entered London watched with curiosity by the rich
20:45it's often said the Jarrow March achieved nothing
20:47the Prime Minister here in the Houses of Parliament refused to see them
20:52they got a minute or two at question time
20:55and each marcher was given a pound to get the train back home
20:58where unemployment stayed at the same horrendous level
21:02but it's not true to say that it achieved nothing
21:06it wasn't only a matter of the dignity and discipline of the marchers
21:10it was a visual demonstration of the huge disparities in
21:15work and health and housing and class
21:19that ran right through British society
21:23things had to change
21:24and they did
21:31as I write
21:32George Orwell said in 1940
21:34civilised human beings are flying overhead trying to kill me
21:39yet again the British people were to be tested
21:45where I live on the Leicester boundary the noise was horrendous
21:49so you couldn't get any sleep the bombers were falling then you'd hear another wave of bombers coming
21:56Britain's industrial heartlands were devastated
21:59her major ports like Liverpool systematically smashed
22:05we lived by edge hill station which was very dangerous
22:09so five of us were evacuated from our family
22:17we didn't know where we were going nobody knew where you were going to finish up
22:25three and a half million people mainly young children were evacuated from the most threatened cities and billeted with families
22:33in the countryside
22:35it was an internal migration unprecedented in British history
22:43we finished up in North Wales Snowdonia
22:50it's a part of Britain's war experience still imprinted on the generation that lived it
22:58we couldn't find the youngest of the family
23:01she hadn't had her sixth birthday
23:04and she was taken off with the infants
23:08and my brother he was taken away with the boys
23:12because boys and girls didn't mix in those days
23:15he was about 14 miles away
23:18three of us were together
23:20and when we were taken to a billet
23:23they only wanted two
23:25she only had a little cottage with three rooms
23:28she said well
23:28if you prepared to three of you to sleep in a double bed
23:33because I've got a guest
23:35she said you can come here
23:38so we went in there
23:41they were genuine and really did give us a lot of love
23:48so while nearly six million British men and women fought in the armed forces
23:53their children were also learning what they were fighting for
23:58by the Christmas most of the children and all our friends had returned
24:06my sister had a friend round about who had gone from Liverpool
24:09she was one of our neighbours
24:11she said Edith I'm going back to Liverpool
24:14and Edith said oh you can't go back to Liverpool
24:18she said because you're my friend
24:21and well she did come back to Liverpool
24:23and unfortunately she was killed that very month
24:34One of the many extraordinary things about what our country did in the Second World War
24:39and there were many extraordinary things and most of them were really quite remarkable and absolutely essential
24:44One of the greatest industrial powers in the world
24:50The great economist Cain said in 1941 we threw good housekeeping to the winds
24:55and in so doing we saved ourselves and helped save the world
24:58never has a superpower put in its last throw to greater effect than we did in the year we stood
25:04alone
25:07For 20 months from spring 1940 to December 1941 Britain stood alone
25:14along with the Greeks don't forget
25:20Then came help from across the Atlantic
25:22a former English colony founded in the 17th century
25:26and now the new powerhouse of the world
25:32But the victory wouldn't have happened without the support of the Empire too
25:36People from the Caribbean, Africa and Asia also fought against fascism
25:41India alone provided 200,000 troops of whom 35,000 were killed
25:52Together in the end they brought victory
25:59The Strand was already filling up with crowds
26:01lots of people arm in arm right across the street
26:04there was a lovely effervescent atmosphere
26:10I remember lying on my back and hearing all the cheering going on
26:15my head on the silken lap
26:18of a charming young woman who was gently pouring champagne
26:22from the bottle into my open mouth
26:26to the north
26:27Victory over fascism crystallised the ideals the British people had nursed for over 300 years
26:33from Bunyan and Blake to the Toll Puddle martyrs
26:37The Labour Party's victory in the election of 1945
26:41put in hand a visionary project by Sir William Beveridge
26:45commissioned by the wartime coalition government of Winston Churchill
26:50Sir William Beveridge came out with a manifesto for the post-war world
26:56and he said, adapting Bunyan's language, there are five giants on the road to reconstruction
27:02ignorance, idleness, squalor, disease, want
27:11and he said, a revolutionary era is a time for revolutions, not for patching
27:17we'd lost a third of our wealth in the war, irretrievably
27:19gone up in smoke
27:22and yet, they put in place
27:25a full employment policy
27:27universal benefits
27:29the health service came into being
27:38never again the interwar era of deprivation and slump
27:43the British New Deal
27:45at that moment it seemed that Jerusalem could be built in our green and pleasant land
27:52and in the Commonwealth Conference of 1947
27:55they asked what it meant now to be British
27:59were we still only the people of a small island?
28:02the British Nationality Act is another product of that extraordinary time of the post-war settlement
28:08the British New Deal
28:10it was nothing less than a redefinition of what it meant to be a British citizen
28:15you were either a citizen of the UK
28:17or of the colonies
28:19or of the independent Commonwealth countries like Australia, New Zealand and Canada
28:24and astonishingly, the moment that they were drafting it here in 1947
28:29that could have amounted to 800 million people
28:33a third of the population of the planet
28:36it's ecumenical, cosmopolitan, liberal
28:41an astounding vision of the future
28:44it was a silent night
28:48and on June the 22nd 1948
28:50the Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury
28:54holy night
28:56holy night
28:58the new arrivals from the Caribbean were mainly war veterans seeking work
29:04holy night
29:06holy night
29:12holy night
29:14they'd come as British citizens
29:16to meet the chronic shortage of jobs
29:19in hospitals, transport
29:20and in the factories
29:25there are jobs in Birmingham
29:28there are more jobs than there are men to fill them
29:32we were young
29:34and we have the word news that come over
29:37every morning
29:40and all you would hear
29:41your mother country needs you
29:44and they would encourage us to come to England
29:47to help rebuild the country after the war
29:50it was a silent night
29:54your future lies in England
29:57and they would tell you it's a better life over here
30:00and you want a better life for yourself
30:03your mother and your father want a better life for their children also
30:06and that's part of it coming to England we had to come
30:13without them a war battered country would have ground to a halt
30:17you expected a smooth path
30:22you're coming to a better country
30:24a better place
30:26so things are going to be better for you
30:28oh no it wasn't
30:33look at now
30:34it was another testing of the nation
30:38black and white
30:42it's hard to say which is more bitter
30:44the cold street or the cold shoulder
30:48how would one like to be going out in the evenings after work
30:52and find yourself going into places where you'll not be accepted
30:58well I don't think anyone would like having experiences like that
31:02and the most that we can do is to stay at home
31:06in the city's dance halls
31:08nobody is barred
31:09but coloured men are not encouraged
31:16he'll be asked to get out if he does much of this
31:19I am married to a coloured man
31:21and I am proud of him
31:23he helps me with all my work
31:26he helps me to do the washing
31:27he's very good to me and my baby
31:29and when we walk around in town
31:31they have cut off
31:32black this, black that
31:34why should they be married to an English woman
31:36and where you come in this country for
31:38all that they're telling us
31:40and that's why I keep out of trouble
31:44Over that time about half a million people came from the Caribbean and Africa
31:48to work on the buses and the railways
31:52and especially in the overstretched health service
31:55when I went into nursing
31:58even the patients
32:00that you had just given a bath to
32:02and did everything for them
32:05they'll call you a black bastard
32:11because of my beautiful skin
32:19we couldn't forget anywhere decent to live
32:21when you would look on the host community doors and ask for a room
32:26they would say no blacks, no dogs
32:30and no Irish
32:35we learned how to survive
32:38and the survival was your determination
32:41your pride
32:42sense of achievement at the end
32:49what you'd set out to do
32:51what you'd set out to do
32:58The Commonwealth immigration of the 50s
33:01had been a new experience for the British people
33:05and yet
33:06in a way it mirrors every tale of migration into these islands
33:12Jews, Flemings, Huguenots
33:14they'd all suffered racism in the beginning
33:18Whenever a black person
33:20bought a house
33:22we would always descend on this person for a room
33:27and a room became a house
33:29that one room
33:32you cooked here
33:34you bathed there
33:35you sleep there
33:38we could not go on like that
33:40so we had to meet together
33:43as citizens
33:44that want a better life
33:48and now 60 years on
33:50the black community is an integral part of our society and culture
33:54we're merging together
33:55as did all those previous migrations in history
33:59and black or white is the empire that made us who we are
34:03and now as the legislators of 1948 had wished
34:07each of us can say
34:09as the Romans did
34:11Quivis Britannicus
34:13Sum
34:22Princess Campbell's friends and neighbours in Bristol
34:25are celebrating her work in forming a housing association
34:28providing affordable housing for all
34:30thank you, thank you
34:33thank you
34:36we did not discriminate
34:38we provided affordable homes
34:41at affordable price
34:43for everybody
34:44black, white, blue, pink
34:45because everybody needs somewhere to live decently
34:49and that's how we kept going
34:51oh happy day
34:55oh happy day
35:04to me, I was very proud that we were able to do that
35:07because
35:08they stigmatise black people
35:11as lazy
35:13and don't do anything for themselves
35:15but we proved different
35:18we got up
35:19we did it
35:21we achieved it
35:22and that's something to talk about
35:27and some would say those are British virtues
35:35the 1950s was also the time when Britain became a consumer society
35:40we're all going on a summer holiday
35:43from fridges and cars to the summer holiday
35:46after the austerities of war
35:48it was a heady time
35:49summer holiday
35:51no more worries for me
35:53we were the best provided for generation ever
35:56a week or two
35:58we're going where the sun shines
36:00I've never forgotten the first time
36:02I tasted my first piece of real steak
36:04I mean it sounds absurd now
36:06but when I ate my first steak in a Bernie Inn in Bristol
36:10it was remarkable
36:14everybody has a summer holiday
36:16the sun's famous phrase having it so good resonated
36:20but it also came with a warning
36:24the one element that people forget is the dissolution of the British Empire
36:29what became India and Pakistan went
36:3247 as did Burma
36:34and not till 1957 did the next lot of imperial disposal start with
36:40Gold Coast which became Ghana
36:43Nigeria in 1960
36:45and then the huge rush to dispose of the British Empire
36:48this huge territorial empire
36:51the magnitude of which the world had never seen
36:54was disposed of pretty well
36:56apart from the Indian subcontinent
36:59in
37:01eight to ten years
37:05but once the empire had gone
37:07Britain's industrial decline was inevitable
37:15the very existence of the British Empire and its commercial supremacy
37:20depended on ships
37:22and when the empire went
37:24so to a large extent
37:26the shipyards went too
37:28Harland and Wolfe
37:30the builders of the Titanic
37:31the greatest single shipyard in the world
37:34were among the hardest hit
37:36when I came into the shipyard in 1948
37:39there was 21,000 men worked in here
37:42previously that was the second world war
37:44was 40,000 men working
37:48here was a place for outfitting them
37:50for dry dopping them
37:52making sure the ship's bottoms weren't damaged during the launch
37:57this was a great place pumping the dock dry
37:59the men came down here
38:01just when there was about eight inches or six inches of water left in the dock
38:05and all headed up to where the pump
38:07where the water pumps out of
38:09and they were off the fish
38:13the people here depended on Harland Woods
38:15they thought Harland Woods would have lasted forever
38:17and they couldn't believe it when Harland's went the way it did do
38:20they just derelict
38:22the first yard to close down was the Abercorn yard
38:25and they were still launching ships in the Queen's yard
38:28but the Victoria yard went next
38:29the women at home were wondering what was happening with their husbands
38:33on the Beru as they called it
38:35they were all paid off, sacked
38:36there was 21,000 men in here when I came into the place
38:40but that went downhill very quick too
38:43went downhill very quick
38:44so a tremendous effect on the life of the city
38:46yes
38:48you take the wages out
38:50each man was earning here
38:51there were 20,000 men gone out with wages
38:54and all of a sudden no money at all
38:56depending on the dole of the Beru as they call it them
39:05so the tide of history comes in and it goes out
39:16these are moments in a nation's story as great as any war
39:21the decline from such a height was a bitter and troubling time for Britain
39:33from the steel workers of Corby and Sheffield to the cotton mills of Lancashire the world was doing it cheaper
39:39and more efficiently than we were
39:44in the 60s and 70s we lived through strikes and winters of discontent
39:51but what we didn't see then perhaps was that the British people with their resilience their basic tolerance and humor
39:58were already creating a new society as they have before in their history
40:07they were becoming the first post-industrial nation and in the process they were transforming themselves
40:14the loss of our heavy industries and of the British working class identity that went with them has caused huge
40:22bouts of introspection about British identity
40:27about the success of the citizenship project on which we all embarked in 1948
40:36back then you could hear politicians of all persuasions arguing over what one can only call the soul of the
40:43nation
40:46take Enoch Powell for example a politician now remembered above all for his ill-considered and inflammatory remarks about immigration
40:56but Powell asked what is the clue that binds us all together that we may in our time know how
41:06to hold on to it fast
41:09well as so often in life the answer seems to be not to hold on fast but to let go
41:17what the British people have learned over this last phase of their history is that identity is a lot more
41:23fluid than they might have thought
41:25and that in many places in the world multiple identities are the norm and that you can choose them
41:41and those different identities are now coming home
41:48one of the things that is important in all of the arrival here is the difference in music
41:57this is Manchester the first city of the industrial revolution
42:06here at peace radio in moss side the Friday phone-in has a panel of moss ciders past and present
42:12looking back at what's already history and then coming to my side
42:17I belong to one of the oldest African families in the city
42:20my dad came as a seaman he didn't come with any kind of
42:24fantasy island vision of where he was coming to
42:26okay he came he arrived in Liverpool Liverpool was the place
42:30and and then after a period of time they moved and settled in
42:35because they joined the war effort
42:37I appreciate my side I was born and brought up in my side and I still live in my side
42:40and I think my side is a great place
42:42but you know what I'm allowed to come out of my side
42:44yeah you can do and you can be whatever it is you want to do and whatever you want to
42:49be
42:49the only person that stops you is yourself and ourselves
42:52we belong here you know we're here we're not going anywhere anywhere quick
42:56we may go on holiday you know but we belong here
43:01when I grew up here the people were mainly of Scots Welsh and Irish descent
43:06later they were Caribbean Indian and Bangladeshi it's always changing
43:12we've got quite a large Somali population just to the right of us over in part of moss side
43:20to the left of us we've got the old Victoria Park area which is some traditional white British residents
43:26we've got quite a large Pakistani population and it's really very well integrated
43:31you know we have very little hate crime reported
43:36in just a few years we Britons have changed our culture and our music
43:40whoa Manchester weather
43:43I know
43:44and of course our food
43:47we've got a mile of curry houses here where's the best one to go
43:50I have to say there are some real favourites from our local policing team here and
43:54you know they can be regularly seen getting their
43:58their chicken kebab in a naan bread
44:06this area is so well known for its festivals
44:09we've got Diwali coming up this weekend
44:11we have the Caribbean Carnival over in Alexandra Park
44:14we have Megamela
44:17we had the Eid celebrations towards the end of August
44:20and the next Eid
44:23Eid al-Adha I believe is coming up at the start of November
44:26which is going to be really interesting
44:28because that coincides with
44:31bonfire nights
44:32so of course you know we'll have some sort of firework celebrations around Eid
44:37it's all part of the legacy of Empire
44:39but isn't that what makes our times so dynamic and so interesting
44:48what we're seeing now is another radical reshaping of our identities national and tribal
44:59and that goes for the old British too
45:02under the Empire the Scots and Welsh shared with the English a common identity as Britons
45:08but now with the Empire gone older allegiances are resurfacing
45:14independence could be on the way soon
45:29here in Govan one of many regeneration projects is exploring Glasgow's Scots Gaelic roots
45:38this was one of the biggest shipbuilding areas in the world
45:40but it had been almost wiped out by the shipyards closing down
45:46but when people are poor they seem to be stuck within a couple of streets and that's the world
45:51they don't have the money to get out of it and they don't have a transport sometimes
45:56so by reconnecting people with a cultural natural heritage we open up the world a wee bit to people
46:03and that works on their identity, their self esteem, how they feel about themselves and what they're connected with
46:11and after all as we've seen in this series the Scottish past goes back before the coming of the English
46:20after a visit to the Govan Old Parish you know and obviously I'd seen all the crosses the hog back
46:25stones and I was so impressed with it
46:28and I thought why not have a go
46:29see what kind of job I could make of it
46:34Why not?
46:35it's very important
46:35like I can see
46:39I think
46:40I think
46:41I think
46:42I think
46:43we are
47:06My father was a light plater and stayed in an area just across the road from the shipyard.
47:12My grandfather, he was a cocker, again stayed within 200 yards of the shipyard's front door.
47:23There's enough in the city telling the stories of the industrialists, you know, the tobacco trade, the grandmasters.
47:33We wanted the people's story.
47:37The industrial past too still has the power to inspire.
47:42Above all, perhaps in places like Govan.
47:45And in a new cycle of growth, the giant Fairfield's shipyard's regeneration project is beginning to draw a new population
47:53to Govan, despite the ravages of its recent history.
48:01People are moving into the old shipbuilding heartland again.
48:07And it was all wasteland, where it used to be streets and houses.
48:11Just all, a mile, say a rubble, thousands of people gone.
48:16Nae jobs, nae nothing.
48:21Govan's like a phoenix, it's beginning to rise again.
48:25You talk about another four, five thousand people moving on to Govan.
48:29It's incredible.
48:32We're thinking of starting a fish farm with salmon.
48:37That was originally an industry in Govan, salmon fishing.
48:42Possibly, you might get done for salmon poaching in Govan.
48:47Very soon, in the future.
48:51Great.
48:52Ha ha ha!
49:03And back in the black country, the tradition of chain making and metal working that we've traced in this story
49:09from the 13th century has never been broken.
49:15Our great, great, great grand-uncle, he's part of a group called the Titanic Chain Gang, and they made really
49:23big chains.
49:25Wow, and this is one of, this is a photograph of those, yeah.
49:29That's three and three eight on there, and then when I worked at different chain places, you've got, you had
49:36a few links lying around, which went up to nearly as big as six inch.
49:40And how old were you when you first started doing this?
49:44Well, when I started making chain when I left school at 15, but I used to go to work with
49:48me daddy at five, and they'd burn me on a fire.
49:52At five, did you say?
49:53At five years old.
49:54Five years old?
49:55Yeah.
49:56I used to do jobs for me, for a grandmother or great-grandmother.
50:00You met before?
50:02No.
50:02No.
50:02And now Lucy Woodo.
50:03We know her son.
50:04We know, it's like, we're like a little chain community.
50:08It's amazing, isn't it?
50:09You think of it as old history, but it's quite close, isn't it, in some ways.
50:14Jo, what did you find out?
50:18My great-great-grandmother called Matilda Taylor, she's a chainmaker incredibly, and I got a picture of her, all the
50:27chainmaker family.
50:29This is a wonderful photograph, isn't it?
50:31Look at this.
50:32They've got their Sunday best on, don't they?
50:35They're not wearing chainmaker's clothes.
50:39And you've looked at the census as well.
50:42God, I'm really impressed, Jo.
50:45It's a great piece of research, Jo.
50:47I'm really impressed by what everybody has done.
50:50Let's just ask Ben, finally, may we?
50:52Yeah.
50:53It's my dad, and he does chainmaking for a living.
50:58What?
50:59Still?
51:00Yeah.
51:00I know Ben's dad.
51:02I work with him for a bit.
51:03Sometimes in the school holidays, because my mum died a couple of years ago, and sometimes there's nowhere for me
51:11to go, so I go with my dad, and sometimes I make some links and stuff.
51:17So, any thoughts on what you might do when you leave school as a job?
51:22Make the chain for the navy ships and stuff.
51:28What, seriously, you might do that as a career?
51:30Yeah.
51:31Well, good for you.
51:32Well, if you do, we'll have to come back with a camera and find out what happens.
51:47And let's not forget, through this latest testing time, the British people remained phenomenally inventive and creative.
51:54From atomic theory to the pill, the Beatles, the jet and the computer, television and the iPod, DNA and the
52:02World Wide Web, we still help make the modern world, as we did in the Industrial Revolution.
52:11And meanwhile, the ancient Britons, with whom this story began, are finding their voice again.
52:25The Cornish language died out after the Civil Wars, but it's coming back.
52:32Gaver is crawfish, a small swimming crab, which is called a velvet crab now, who they'd call gullyark.
52:42Ozzel.
52:43Ozzel.
52:43Ozzel.
52:44Ozzel.
52:44That's a good word.
52:46Shakespearean.
52:47Ozzel can be used for everything.
52:49I think.
52:49It's a piece of twine.
52:52Yeah.
52:53Something like that.
52:54Years ago, it had been cotton or hemp, and then nylon.
52:58And it's the bit of twine between the conguerook and the main back line.
53:04And Ozzel's have been used for tying everything up from time in the memorial, including the front door.
53:10Well, language is a funny thing.
53:11I was thinking about it last night.
53:12I just wonder if, over the years, there's probably 50 languages gone before we've got this far.
53:20And I wonder now if there's a new one being rebuilt.
53:24Because the youngsters sort of do tend to grunt at each other and make funny noises, don't they?
53:29But they obviously know what they're talking about.
53:31And you can't knock them through. It's just the way the world is.
53:35Everybody needs Ozzel.
53:39In the British story, nothing is ever quite lost.
53:43Especially with what Bede, back in the 8th century, called the original Britons.
53:49Welsh language poetry has continued to be the most social of cultural media.
53:54A media of the people, because it's about the people.
54:03Telling simple stories and celebrating simple but significant events.
54:08The birth of children.
54:10Marriages.
54:11Someone coming of age, for instance.
54:16And, of course, not just celebrating, but also lamenting.
54:19There are poems in condolence.
54:22So poetry always has a very practical application.
54:25Almost utilitarian.
54:26It becomes a service.
54:31And it's still as current now as it was when Maneirin was writing back there in the 6th century.
54:41It's in the memory.
54:42It's in the nation's memory, really.
54:48Official policy from London that Welsh should not be spoken in school.
54:54In fact, what they did was they sent inspectors round the school.
54:58And if the marks were low, if the standard was low, the headmaster lost his salary.
55:03There was a deduction in his salary.
55:05So the easy way out was not to teach two languages, concentrate on English.
55:09And therefore he had more money in his pocket.
55:12And that came from London.
55:13It was official policy as it was in Ireland.
55:16So no wonder we feel we must fight for our language.
55:20The language is far more focused than just a cultural medium.
55:25It defines us in many ways.
55:28It's almost a political expression.
55:41It's Royal Wedding Day in Birmingham.
55:52To prosperity as well as they should have children, grandchildren and be happy.
55:58And yes, they should live more than 100 years.
56:03Nothing ever stands still, George Orwell wrote in the dark days of 1940.
56:08We must add to our heritage or lose it.
56:11We must go forward or we go backward.
56:15I felt that their mother is not there.
56:18So we all mothers will pray for them.
56:21This is not only a royal wedding, it is a festival of UK.
56:26We've eaten their salt.
56:28So we have to contribute to them, isn't it?
56:31Yeah. That's lovely.
56:32I feel that.
56:37We can still shock the world.
56:40Not in terms of territory, military kit, but in terms of our education, our science and technology.
56:48The quality of our democracy.
56:50All sorts of things.
56:51We can still be an exceptional nation if we want to be.
56:55Far greater than the sum of our parts.
56:58So there you are, a swift snapshot of our story, taken between the royal wedding of 2011 and the jubilee
57:06of 2012.
57:09If you view British history, not from the point of view of the kings and queens, from the palaces of
57:16the rich and powerful, but from the street, the Govan Road in Glasgow, from Liverpool, from the potteries and the
57:24black country and the Rhonda.
57:25Then you start to see the common experiences that bind us as Britons.
57:31The civil wars of the 17th century, industrialisation, empire, world wars, the post-industrial decline that we, first of all
57:42in world history, have had to negotiate.
57:44Then you see, our history, our tribal identities as Britons in the 21st century may still seem obstinately distinct, but
57:56our destinies are inextricably bound together.
58:02I'm a Midlander.
58:03We're from London.
58:07I'm English.
58:08I'm Irish.
58:10We're English and Irish.
58:12We're from Northern Ireland, but our grandfather's from Brazil.
58:17I will always be Scottish, and proud to be Scottish. I love a Podlian from Britain.
58:21I am British, but I'm a Kent girl at heart.
58:23I'm a Geordia, living in Leicestershire.
58:26And I'm a Yorkshireman, living in Leicestershire.
58:28English. Definitely London English, yep.
58:32I love the Irish heritage of my family.
58:36It's Glasgow where I want to be.
58:38I'm a British Indian.
58:40British.
58:40English, African, and almost adopted Scouser.
58:45English, a Mancunian, and a huge Huddersfield town fan.
58:49English, African, and a Mancunian.
58:51English, Asian, and a Mancunian.
58:59In
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