0:00:02 > 0:00:05'There will be rain, but it should be drier and brighter to follow.'
0:00:05 > 0:00:09'Radio 4 with Evan Davis and James Naughtie, 27 minutes to nine
0:00:09 > 0:00:13- 'is the time, and here's Rory with the news.'- This is awful.
0:00:13 > 0:00:20I hate traffic, I hate commuting and I hate other drivers,
0:00:20 > 0:00:23but I love cars, I love driving,
0:00:23 > 0:00:26and I love what motoring was first supposed to be -
0:00:26 > 0:00:30freedom, speed and the allure of the open road.
0:00:39 > 0:00:42This film is the story of what's gone wrong with motoring,
0:00:42 > 0:00:46an all too human tale of how individual desire
0:00:46 > 0:00:49has been transformed into mass misery.
0:00:49 > 0:00:55How we go from heaven to hell in 100 years behind the wheel.
0:00:55 > 0:00:58The liberation for all promised by the motorcar
0:00:58 > 0:01:00ends up with traffic jams for everyone.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05We go from the thrill, the excitement,
0:01:05 > 0:01:07the wonder of the journey...
0:01:09 > 0:01:14to the awful, miserable grind of the daily commute and school run.
0:01:21 > 0:01:27As a historian, I'm fascinated by the social history of motoring.
0:01:27 > 0:01:31How, in the 20th century, it transformed our lives.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38But I'm also intrigued by the car, an obsession that goes back
0:01:38 > 0:01:41to my earliest memories of sitting in the back
0:01:41 > 0:01:45on the shiny hot rubber seats of my parents' Renault 12,
0:01:45 > 0:01:49and then to my first car - an Escort, naturally.
0:01:51 > 0:01:53So, in making this film,
0:01:53 > 0:01:57I've seized the chance to drive some truly classic cars.
0:01:57 > 0:02:00A mighty Daimler,
0:02:00 > 0:02:02a couple of Bullnose Morrises...
0:02:04 > 0:02:08a heaving Ford Zodiac...
0:02:08 > 0:02:12..and a sleek Austin Healey. In order to explore
0:02:12 > 0:02:15how the cars which promised us so much pleasure
0:02:15 > 0:02:19have driven us instead into gridlock.
0:02:33 > 0:02:34The story of British motoring
0:02:34 > 0:02:39begins, in fact, with a French car - the 1904 De Dion Model Q.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44It has a single-cylinder six horsepower engine
0:02:44 > 0:02:48and was one of the most popular cars when the history of motoring began.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52It's easy to start, there's a technique to it.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55You've got to be careful with it.
0:02:55 > 0:02:57When you grab the starting handle,
0:02:57 > 0:03:02you make sure your thumb is on that side of the handle, OK?
0:03:02 > 0:03:04Cos if you've got it on that side, if it does backfire,
0:03:04 > 0:03:08- there's a chance that it would break your thumb.- Ah!
0:03:08 > 0:03:11If you're lucky, OK? If you're unlucky,
0:03:11 > 0:03:14it'll take the handle right out of your hand, bring it back
0:03:14 > 0:03:16and smack you on the back of the wrist.
0:03:16 > 0:03:18That'll probably break your arm.
0:03:18 > 0:03:20This car has claimed seven people's arms
0:03:20 > 0:03:24- since I've been looking after it. - Right, that's quite a tally.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27Yeah, it is. So you've got to treat it with a bit of respect.
0:03:27 > 0:03:29- Respect, yeah. - Don't be frightened of it.- No.
0:03:29 > 0:03:33- So long as everything's in the right position...- It should be all right.
0:03:41 > 0:03:43It's easy to forget what a novelty the car was
0:03:43 > 0:03:46when it was first introduced,
0:03:46 > 0:03:48and what a privilege it was to own what was,
0:03:48 > 0:03:51at first, little more than a sophisticated toy.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00The first age of motoring really
0:04:00 > 0:04:03kicks off in the late 1890s, up to the First World War.
0:04:03 > 0:04:08The car in this period was in many ways an extension
0:04:08 > 0:04:12of the class hierarchy of Victorian Edwardian Britain.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15It was limited to the wealthy, the aristocrats
0:04:15 > 0:04:18and royalty, both in Britain and abroad. King Edward
0:04:18 > 0:04:23was a great motorist who apparently absolutely hated being overtaken.
0:04:23 > 0:04:27He was introduced to the car by the leading motoring aristocrat
0:04:27 > 0:04:29of the period, Lord Montagu of Beaulieu.
0:04:29 > 0:04:33So this was a vehicle of leisure, of exclusiveness,
0:04:33 > 0:04:36which came with all the attributes of class in many ways.
0:04:36 > 0:04:40You'd have to have an engineer with you to help drive it.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43You'd later have chauffeurs, people to polish it.
0:04:43 > 0:04:47So the car was not yet this symbol of access, of democracy.
0:04:47 > 0:04:52It was particular to the upper echelons of British society.
0:05:04 > 0:05:08There are these excitable accounts in 1905 of bright young things
0:05:08 > 0:05:11heading out of Oxford to explore the countryside
0:05:11 > 0:05:14around them in open top motorcars.
0:05:20 > 0:05:22Roaring through the Cotswolds
0:05:22 > 0:05:25and over the South Downs, dominating the roads
0:05:25 > 0:05:28with scant regard for anyone who might fall in their way.
0:05:34 > 0:05:39"The upland air was exhilarating, the sensation of those who travelled
0:05:39 > 0:05:41"was of gliding through space,
0:05:41 > 0:05:45"and it was impossible to resist the instinctive tendency
0:05:45 > 0:05:48"to sing inarticulate songs
0:05:48 > 0:05:53"as an expression of the sheer joy of living in such surroundings.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59"The more one thinks of that afternoon's drive
0:05:59 > 0:06:02"and of the innocent pleasure resulting from it,
0:06:02 > 0:06:05"the more plain it is - what a boon the motorcar,
0:06:05 > 0:06:08"used intelligently, is capable of being."
0:06:15 > 0:06:18The car's takeover of the countryside
0:06:18 > 0:06:22soon found its way into literature, most famously in
0:06:22 > 0:06:26Kenneth Grahame's children's story, the Wind In The Willows.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29First published in 1908,
0:06:29 > 0:06:32the same year Henry Ford produced his popular Model T Ford,
0:06:32 > 0:06:36the principal character, Toad of Toad Hall,
0:06:36 > 0:06:40"neglects all gentlemanly etiquette and good manners,
0:06:40 > 0:06:42"so obsessed is he with the novelty,
0:06:42 > 0:06:47"the glamour and above all the speed of early motoring."
0:06:47 > 0:06:52Toad is, on the face of it, a very unattractive figure.
0:06:52 > 0:06:56Incredibly selfish, self-regarding,
0:06:56 > 0:07:00drives through the countryside without any care for anyone,
0:07:00 > 0:07:06steals cars, jumps on passions, enthusiasms, and then jumps off.
0:07:06 > 0:07:11Yet we're strangely attracted to this figure,
0:07:11 > 0:07:14as are all his friends, and they don't quite know why.
0:07:14 > 0:07:17Even at his most self-regarding and self-pitying,
0:07:17 > 0:07:21poor Toad, we love him in a strange sense.
0:07:25 > 0:07:27"It was on them.
0:07:27 > 0:07:31"The poop-poop rang with a brazen shout in their ears
0:07:31 > 0:07:33"and the magnificent motor-car,
0:07:33 > 0:07:36"immense, breath-snatching, passionate,
0:07:36 > 0:07:38"with its pilot tense and hugging his wheel,
0:07:38 > 0:07:43"possessed all the speed of earth and air for the fraction of a second,
0:07:43 > 0:07:46"flung an enveloping cloud of dust that blinded and enwrapped
0:07:46 > 0:07:51"them utterly and then dwindled to a speck in the far distance."
0:07:51 > 0:07:54If you think right back to the 1830s and these concerns
0:07:54 > 0:07:58about people's heads flying off if they took a railway,
0:07:58 > 0:08:01and then you think of the 1900s, of the individual speed
0:08:01 > 0:08:04at which people could go in their own cars,
0:08:04 > 0:08:07and they weren't limited by any railways.
0:08:07 > 0:08:10They could go where they liked in their own car,
0:08:10 > 0:08:12as fast as the car could carry them.
0:08:12 > 0:08:14There was no traffic to get in the way.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17There was the old cart and horse, the odd caravan
0:08:17 > 0:08:20which could be shunted off to the side with a poop-poop.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23It was the individual liberation,
0:08:23 > 0:08:27the hedonism of speed which Toad symbolised.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38But Toad wasn't the only driver on the road.
0:08:44 > 0:08:49The 100,000 drivers of 1919 had risen to two million by 1939.
0:08:52 > 0:08:56And most of them were using their cars to explore
0:08:56 > 0:08:59the towns and villages of England that couldn't be reached by rail.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15The most popular work of travel literature in the 1930s
0:09:15 > 0:09:18was HV Morton's In Search Of England.
0:09:18 > 0:09:23Morton was a travel writer, journalist,
0:09:23 > 0:09:27an author with an abiding love of England.
0:09:27 > 0:09:31And if in the 19th century the working classes had discovered
0:09:31 > 0:09:35the English seaside through the railway, in the inter-war years,
0:09:35 > 0:09:39the middle classes discovered the hidden heart of England
0:09:39 > 0:09:43through the motorcar, and Morton was their guide.
0:09:43 > 0:09:47His work celebrated the civic fabric, the churches,
0:09:47 > 0:09:50the village greens, the pubs, the architecture of England.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53In their tens of thousands, the middle classes
0:09:53 > 0:09:57came to places like this, Beaulieu Abbey in the south of England,
0:09:57 > 0:10:01to try and connect, in an age of modernity and change,
0:10:01 > 0:10:04with the essence of England.
0:10:14 > 0:10:19What Morton's books offered was more than simple tourism,
0:10:19 > 0:10:23it was the chance to discover a more historic sense of nationality.
0:10:32 > 0:10:37"Never before have so many people been searching for England.
0:10:37 > 0:10:40"The remarkable system of motor coach services
0:10:40 > 0:10:42"which now penetrate every part of the country
0:10:42 > 0:10:46"has thrown open to ordinary people regions,
0:10:46 > 0:10:48"which even after the coming of the railways,
0:10:48 > 0:10:51"were remote and inaccessible.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57"The popularity of the cheap motorcar
0:10:57 > 0:11:01"is also greatly responsible for this long overdue interest
0:11:01 > 0:11:05"in English history, antiquities and topography.
0:11:10 > 0:11:13"More people than in any previous generation
0:11:13 > 0:11:16"are seeing the real countryside for the first time."
0:11:25 > 0:11:30This is the Morris Cowley, more widely known as the Bullnose Morris,
0:11:30 > 0:11:34the most popular car in Britain in the 1920s and '30s.
0:11:37 > 0:11:42Deliberately aimed at the mass market, it cost around £200
0:11:42 > 0:11:46and came with its own ammeter, speedometer and electric horn.
0:11:46 > 0:11:49Top speed, 50 miles an hour.
0:11:51 > 0:11:54This drives a lot easier than the De Dion. It's very hot, though.
0:11:54 > 0:11:58You feel the heat from the engine really rising up,
0:11:58 > 0:12:00you think it's going to go on fire fairly soon,
0:12:00 > 0:12:04but the steering is not bad, if not quite power-steering.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07You do feel, certainly, more in control,
0:12:07 > 0:12:10but you are always fearful of it boiling over.
0:12:13 > 0:12:17HV Morton had his own Bullnose Morris
0:12:17 > 0:12:19which he gave the nickname, "Maude".
0:12:19 > 0:12:22There was this love affair between him and the car,
0:12:22 > 0:12:25and then beyond that, him and England,
0:12:25 > 0:12:28exploring England through the Bullnose Morris.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31This idea of England rushing through his hair,
0:12:31 > 0:12:34whilst seeing it all around him.
0:13:20 > 0:13:22There's a lovely moment in In Search Of England
0:13:22 > 0:13:26when HV Morton gets up early,
0:13:26 > 0:13:31roars up from Salisbury to Stonehenge, before dawn has broken.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34He gets out of his car and walks here to the inner circle,
0:13:34 > 0:13:37and tries to connect this historic icon
0:13:37 > 0:13:42with a renewed idea of national sensibility.
0:13:42 > 0:13:46What he found here amongst these stones lying here
0:13:46 > 0:13:51for thousands of years was an essential idea of Englishness.
0:13:59 > 0:14:04"The wind whistles mournfully between the monoliths,
0:14:04 > 0:14:07"and the sheep crop the grass on the ancient barrows
0:14:07 > 0:14:09"which lie in the shadow of the dead temple.
0:14:13 > 0:14:15"The sun rose.
0:14:15 > 0:14:19"A thin streamer of pink light lay across the East.
0:14:19 > 0:14:23"The stones were jet black against the sky.
0:14:23 > 0:14:28"The grey clouds that had so recently moved across the stars
0:14:28 > 0:14:32"now caught fire and became gold arrows in the heavens.
0:14:32 > 0:14:36"The light grew second by second.
0:14:36 > 0:14:40"The pink turned to a dull red, then to mauve,
0:14:40 > 0:14:44"a veritable furnace of light blazed up above it.
0:14:44 > 0:14:50"And in the midst of this, the sun came up over Salisbury Plain."
0:15:01 > 0:15:05In the early days, of course, you could just drive up to Stonehenge,
0:15:05 > 0:15:08park your car, get out, walk amongst the stones,
0:15:08 > 0:15:10even carve your initials onto some of them.
0:15:10 > 0:15:13But by the time HV Morton was writing about Stonehenge
0:15:13 > 0:15:16in the 1930s, there was an increasing fear
0:15:16 > 0:15:20about the effect of the motorcar on the historic fabric.
0:15:20 > 0:15:26With the car came cafes, kiosks, even a bungalow was built here.
0:15:26 > 0:15:29And you begin to get the origins of this fascinating debate
0:15:29 > 0:15:31about the car and heritage.
0:15:31 > 0:15:34On the one hand, opening it up for the people,
0:15:34 > 0:15:38allowing them to experience this past which only elites used to,
0:15:38 > 0:15:44and on the other hand, the effect of the car, undermining the mystery,
0:15:44 > 0:15:48the solitude of great spaces like this.
0:15:57 > 0:16:00The first car park was built in 1935.
0:16:02 > 0:16:07In 1963, the turf and topsoil had been so eroded by visitors
0:16:07 > 0:16:11that it was replaced by clinker from the Melksham gas works.
0:16:17 > 0:16:21New visitor facilities were built in 1968 and a tunnel
0:16:21 > 0:16:25was dug under the A344, because the ever-increasing
0:16:25 > 0:16:30volume of traffic made it dangerous for tourists even to cross the road.
0:16:33 > 0:16:37In finding England, motorists began to discover
0:16:37 > 0:16:40that they were also losing England at the same time.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46Today the issue of cars and Stonehenge
0:16:46 > 0:16:49remains horribly unresolved.
0:16:49 > 0:16:54Behind me is the busy A303, roaring down to the West Country.
0:16:54 > 0:16:56If people want to see Stonehenge now,
0:16:56 > 0:17:00they do it at 60 miles an hour without stopping.
0:17:00 > 0:17:02Those who do stop and gawp
0:17:02 > 0:17:06often come to a very sticky end on a busy A road.
0:17:06 > 0:17:11# The water is wide
0:17:11 > 0:17:15# I cannot get o'er... #
0:17:15 > 0:17:19But the allure of iconic landmarks such as Stonehenge remains
0:17:19 > 0:17:22at the heart of the motorist's exploration of England
0:17:22 > 0:17:24in the early 20th century.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27# O give me a boat
0:17:27 > 0:17:32# That will carry two
0:17:33 > 0:17:36# And both shall row
0:17:39 > 0:17:42# My love and I. #
0:17:42 > 0:17:48What developed in the 1930s through the middle-class motoring culture
0:17:48 > 0:17:50was a romantic gaze of the English countryside.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54Those weekend touring parties' trips to ruined abbeys,
0:17:54 > 0:17:58stately homes and picturesque villages
0:17:58 > 0:18:00produced an idea of deep England,
0:18:00 > 0:18:03of southern England which proved enormously influential.
0:18:03 > 0:18:10# O down in the meadows the other day
0:18:10 > 0:18:17# A-gathering flowers both fine and gay. #
0:18:20 > 0:18:26The extraordinary thing about the 1930s' self-exploration
0:18:26 > 0:18:29of Britain was what a very divided country it threw up.
0:18:29 > 0:18:32On the one hand you had George Orwell,
0:18:32 > 0:18:33searching for Wigan Pier
0:18:33 > 0:18:37and charting the collapse of the industrial North
0:18:37 > 0:18:39during the Depression, and on the other hand,
0:18:39 > 0:18:43you had the motoring middle classes in their Bullnose Morris,
0:18:43 > 0:18:46scooting around Dorset, Hampshire, Wiltshire,
0:18:46 > 0:18:48enjoying Stonehenge, Beaulieu.
0:18:50 > 0:18:53They were scared of the industrial revolution,
0:18:53 > 0:18:57places like Manchester, Liverpool, the Black Country.
0:18:57 > 0:19:01They sought in these villages a pre-industrial past.
0:19:01 > 0:19:05They sold themselves an idea of modern England
0:19:05 > 0:19:09based upon a very green and very pleasant land.
0:19:11 > 0:19:13It was this idea of England
0:19:13 > 0:19:16that became fixed in the national consciousness.
0:19:18 > 0:19:21An idea inspired by the motorcar
0:19:21 > 0:19:25that would be able to withstand any attack.
0:19:26 > 0:19:28When, during the early 1940s,
0:19:28 > 0:19:31in the midst of World War Two, Whitehall officials
0:19:31 > 0:19:35and defence propagandists tried to build
0:19:35 > 0:19:37a sense of national morale, to generate
0:19:37 > 0:19:41an idea of what Britain was fighting for.
0:19:41 > 0:19:43The images they chose
0:19:43 > 0:19:46were not those areas that were actually delivering the war effort -
0:19:46 > 0:19:50Clyde side, the Liverpool docks, the Manchester factories.
0:19:50 > 0:19:55No, the image of England they chose was something like this -
0:19:55 > 0:19:58a Cotswold village with a river running through it.
0:19:59 > 0:20:03"Filling the air, peace broods above our fields,
0:20:03 > 0:20:06"tempers the wind that stirs the frightened elm,
0:20:06 > 0:20:10"fashions the landscape, mellows while it shields
0:20:10 > 0:20:14"Its native genius shapes this ordered realm,
0:20:14 > 0:20:17"Then done, draw peace of purpose from the earth,
0:20:17 > 0:20:20"Look up, and lo, peace from the sky descending
0:20:20 > 0:20:23"And think to prove how much this bounty's worth,
0:20:23 > 0:20:27"How nearly came the state of peace to ending."
0:20:30 > 0:20:34The writer who really teased out this idea of two Englands,
0:20:34 > 0:20:37north and south, was JB Priestley.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40Better known today probably as a playwright,
0:20:40 > 0:20:43in the 1930s he was an author, a polemicist, a journalist.
0:20:43 > 0:20:48In 1933, he set out on what he called his English Journey.
0:20:48 > 0:20:52He hired himself a Daimler, not dissimilar to this one,
0:20:52 > 0:20:54and headed out on the open road.
0:20:58 > 0:21:02What Priestley unpicked was what he called the three Englands.
0:21:02 > 0:21:06The first England was the real, enduring England,
0:21:06 > 0:21:08the England of the southern countryside,
0:21:08 > 0:21:11which went back into the mists of time.
0:21:11 > 0:21:14The second England was the England of the industrial revolution,
0:21:14 > 0:21:18which had made his home town of Bradford.
0:21:18 > 0:21:23But the third England was the most interesting one.
0:21:23 > 0:21:27The England he saw growing up around him in the 1930s,
0:21:27 > 0:21:31an England based on America, of by-passes,
0:21:31 > 0:21:36of Woolworths, of vulgarity, and of democracy in many ways.
0:21:36 > 0:21:40And Priestley both admired the energy of this England,
0:21:40 > 0:21:43and was upset by the ugliness of it.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48# A people are just like an automobile
0:21:48 > 0:21:53# They'll run fine when everything's right... #
0:21:53 > 0:21:56Priestley's journey through England took him up from Southampton
0:21:56 > 0:21:58via Bristol and Swindon,
0:21:58 > 0:21:59and up through the Cotswolds,
0:21:59 > 0:22:03until he reached a town that seemed to prove his point exactly.
0:22:08 > 0:22:12# And maybe a break in the testing will prove
0:22:12 > 0:22:15# They never were built to endure... #
0:22:15 > 0:22:18In Coventry, Priestley thought he'd found his three Englands
0:22:18 > 0:22:20in one city.
0:22:20 > 0:22:25First of all, the real, enduring England of medieval Coventry,
0:22:25 > 0:22:28of Lady Godiva, and Tudor-beamed houses.
0:22:28 > 0:22:33Secondly, the industrial revolution Coventry of the 19th century,
0:22:33 > 0:22:36of sewing machines and bicycle firms.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39Then finally, the Coventry of the 1930s,
0:22:39 > 0:22:43the Coventry of the motorcar and of modern life.
0:22:46 > 0:22:50One city, three Englands.
0:22:51 > 0:22:56But it was the modern England that most intrigued Priestley,
0:22:56 > 0:23:00a writer who in 1933 didn't even need to take a driving test.
0:23:02 > 0:23:05HORN BLARES
0:23:06 > 0:23:07You're undertaking me, you...!
0:23:16 > 0:23:18Priestley saw this New England
0:23:18 > 0:23:21as being fast-changing and unpredictable.
0:23:22 > 0:23:25It was more American than European
0:23:25 > 0:23:29and the production of the automobile was at its heart.
0:23:34 > 0:23:39When Priestley came to Coventry in the 1930s, this was motor city,
0:23:39 > 0:23:41the hub of motor manufacturing in the Midlands.
0:23:41 > 0:23:46After the delights of the Cotswolds, Priestley took the opportunity
0:23:46 > 0:23:50to see where his own beloved Daimler was made.
0:23:50 > 0:23:53He visited here, the Daimler works in the middle of Coventry.
0:23:55 > 0:24:01"The modern motorcar represents an astonishing feat of human ingenuity.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04"Consider the number of them out on the roads
0:24:04 > 0:24:07"and the extraordinarily few accidents due
0:24:07 > 0:24:10"to any fault in the vehicle itself.
0:24:15 > 0:24:20"If we were one half so clever in the matters that lie far above machinery
0:24:20 > 0:24:22"as we are about machinery itself,
0:24:22 > 0:24:27"what people we should be and what a world we should leave our children.
0:24:28 > 0:24:33"If life were only an internal combustion engine."
0:24:43 > 0:24:46But during the Second World War,
0:24:46 > 0:24:50the centre of Coventry was changed beyond recognition.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01On the night of 14th November, 1940,
0:25:01 > 0:25:05the ancient heart of Coventry was put to the torch.
0:25:05 > 0:25:08A German bombing raid of over 400 bombers
0:25:08 > 0:25:13dropped 30,000 bombs and over 500 tons of high explosives.
0:25:13 > 0:25:17The real, enduring Coventry was destroyed for ever.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34It would be easy to blame the Luftwaffe
0:25:34 > 0:25:37for making Coventry such a vision of tomorrow.
0:25:37 > 0:25:39But even before World War Two broke out,
0:25:39 > 0:25:42the local authority and city planners
0:25:42 > 0:25:46were ripping out the medieval heart of Coventry for new roads.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49The city architect, Donald Gibson,
0:25:49 > 0:25:52even called the bombing raid a blessing in disguise.
0:25:52 > 0:25:57"The Jerries have cleared out the core of the city, a chaotic mess,
0:25:57 > 0:26:00"and now we can start anew," he said.
0:26:04 > 0:26:08Coventry could see an opportunity to reconstruct
0:26:08 > 0:26:12with ideas that planners and architects had had beforehand.
0:26:12 > 0:26:17And within 10 weeks we were in London presenting to the minister
0:26:17 > 0:26:21the proposals for rebuilding the city
0:26:21 > 0:26:24on modern and visionary lines.
0:26:32 > 0:26:37This was to be a city in which the car now came first.
0:26:37 > 0:26:41Ancient, higgledy-piggledy streets were ripped out.
0:26:43 > 0:26:47Ring roads led to A roads, which eventually led to motorways,
0:26:47 > 0:26:52and the entire city became a monument to modernist architecture
0:26:52 > 0:26:54and the demands of the automobile.
0:26:54 > 0:26:58It was a brave new world for a brave new Britain,
0:26:58 > 0:27:01and optimism was almost everywhere.
0:27:01 > 0:27:04I think that they've made a very good job of rebuilding the city
0:27:04 > 0:27:08and I think it will be very good when it's completed.
0:27:08 > 0:27:10Now there's new shops opening every day
0:27:10 > 0:27:12and it's rather exciting to walk round.
0:27:12 > 0:27:13I've seen all the changes
0:27:13 > 0:27:16and I don't think you can find a better city in the country.
0:27:16 > 0:27:18When it's all completed it will be a marvellous place.
0:27:18 > 0:27:22The mess it was in, they'd got to do something, hadn't they?
0:27:22 > 0:27:25Of course this is what's happened.
0:27:25 > 0:27:29All square walls, no architecture,
0:27:29 > 0:27:33just square walls, square windows.
0:27:33 > 0:27:35Everything square.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51While the people of Coventry were celebrating their shopping centres,
0:27:51 > 0:27:55others began to worry about the devastating physical cost
0:27:55 > 0:27:59of the car, not only on our cities and town centres,
0:27:59 > 0:28:03but also on the newly-beloved English countryside.
0:28:17 > 0:28:22What the car opened up was the epic postwar battle
0:28:22 > 0:28:26between individualism and the state, freedom and control.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29Increasingly, it was felt that landscapes like this
0:28:29 > 0:28:33needed to be protected from the ravages of car culture,
0:28:33 > 0:28:36the by-passes, garages, bungalows.
0:28:36 > 0:28:40Whereas once the car opened up the countryside,
0:28:40 > 0:28:44now conservationists tried to protect it.
0:28:44 > 0:28:47The Town and Country Planning Act of 1947
0:28:47 > 0:28:49and 1955 Green Belt Circular
0:28:49 > 0:28:54was a concerted attempt to protect England's country
0:28:54 > 0:28:56from the ravages of the car.
0:28:56 > 0:28:58When you're standing in the sound of water,
0:28:58 > 0:29:02you get a sense you are in a place secluded from the outer world,
0:29:02 > 0:29:05so that the place becomes a sort of shrine.
0:29:05 > 0:29:08At the same time, popular rural tourist sites -
0:29:08 > 0:29:12places like the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales,
0:29:12 > 0:29:14were turned into National Parks.
0:29:15 > 0:29:20The 1945 Attlee Government, packed with ramblers, cyclists and hikers,
0:29:20 > 0:29:23handed over the countryside to the people.
0:29:25 > 0:29:29Tourists were encouraged to leave their vehicles behind.
0:29:29 > 0:29:34As a result, car parks sprang up all over the country
0:29:34 > 0:29:37on the perimeter of beauty spots.
0:29:39 > 0:29:41This is Bourton-on-the-Water,
0:29:41 > 0:29:46revered as an undiscovered part of England by JB Priestley...
0:29:50 > 0:29:55..now dominated by an enormous coach and car park.
0:29:59 > 0:30:03In fact, the only place in Bourton without a car is the model village.
0:30:09 > 0:30:17# Moonshine, waiting for a love that never comes... #
0:30:17 > 0:30:20The rise of the car proved unstoppable.
0:30:20 > 0:30:24Having your own motor became as much of an Englishman's right
0:30:24 > 0:30:25as owning a home.
0:30:25 > 0:30:29Previously, the car had been the province of the elite,
0:30:29 > 0:30:31a fashion accessory.
0:30:31 > 0:30:34Now it became a democratic necessity.
0:30:34 > 0:30:39By 1960, almost one in three households had a car.
0:30:44 > 0:30:46With mass production came mass ownership.
0:30:46 > 0:30:51In the postwar prosperity, as new designs, styles and makes
0:30:51 > 0:30:53came off the production line,
0:30:53 > 0:30:57alongside the growth of TV advertising
0:30:57 > 0:30:59and, crucially, hire purchase agreements,
0:30:59 > 0:31:02ownership of a car became the ultimate status symbol.
0:31:05 > 0:31:09'This is a closer look at the superbly-styled new Zodiac.
0:31:09 > 0:31:13'Long, low, elegant.'
0:31:18 > 0:31:23Vehicles like this, the Ford Zodiac, designed and built at Dagenham,
0:31:23 > 0:31:25became moving symbols of modernity,
0:31:25 > 0:31:27bridging the gap between jazz and rock'n'roll.
0:31:27 > 0:31:29# All of my love All of my kissing
0:31:29 > 0:31:32# You don't know what you've been a-missing
0:31:32 > 0:31:33- # Oh, boy - Oh, boy
0:31:33 > 0:31:35- # When you're with me, oh, boy - Oh, boy
0:31:35 > 0:31:37# The world can see... #
0:31:37 > 0:31:41It looks like a big, American car, trundling along.
0:31:41 > 0:31:43Very wide.
0:31:44 > 0:31:46But it's very smooth.
0:31:46 > 0:31:49Once you're going it really just pelts along.
0:31:52 > 0:31:54You don't want to do three-point turns in her.
0:31:57 > 0:31:59And it's not best suited to country lanes, either.
0:32:00 > 0:32:05But it does let you feel a bit like Mr Toad when you're driving.
0:32:05 > 0:32:07# I'm gonna meet my baby tonight
0:32:07 > 0:32:11# All my life, I've been a-waiting, Tonight there'll be no hesitating
0:32:12 > 0:32:14# Oh, boy When you're with me, oh, boy
0:32:14 > 0:32:19# Oh, boy, I want the world to see That you were meant for me... #
0:32:19 > 0:32:22'The Zodiac was one of the most popular cars
0:32:22 > 0:32:25'in the newly-affluent postwar Britain'
0:32:25 > 0:32:29whose Prime Minister told his people they had never had it so good -
0:32:29 > 0:32:31Harold Macmillan.
0:32:33 > 0:32:36'A large crowd, of course, waited in Downing Street.
0:32:36 > 0:32:38'Who would be the new occupant of Number 10?'
0:32:38 > 0:32:42Macmillan was delighted with the effects of car ownership.
0:32:42 > 0:32:47He said, "I usually drive down to Sussex on Saturday mornings,
0:32:47 > 0:32:50"but I find my car in a line of family cars
0:32:50 > 0:32:53"filled with fathers, mothers, children, uncles, aunts,
0:32:53 > 0:32:55"all making their way to the seaside."
0:32:57 > 0:33:01"From Whitechapel and Poplar, from Tottenham and Clapton,
0:33:01 > 0:33:05"they pour down Eastern Avenue, 2,800 cars going by every hour."
0:33:05 > 0:33:08"10 years ago most of them would not have had cars.
0:33:08 > 0:33:11"They would have spent their weekends in their back streets
0:33:11 > 0:33:14"and would have seen the seaside, if at all, only once a year.
0:33:14 > 0:33:17"Now I look forward to the time, not far away,
0:33:17 > 0:33:20"when those cars will be a little larger,
0:33:20 > 0:33:22"a little more comfortable,
0:33:22 > 0:33:25"and all of them will be carrying on their roofs, boats,
0:33:25 > 0:33:26"the main joy at the seaside."
0:33:28 > 0:33:33# Val-de ra-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha Val-de-ree, Val-de-ra
0:33:33 > 0:33:37# My knapsack on my back
0:33:37 > 0:33:43# I love to wander by the stream that dances in the sun... #
0:33:43 > 0:33:46Mass ownership of the motorcar
0:33:46 > 0:33:49transformed the British holiday experience.
0:33:49 > 0:33:51Liberated from the railway,
0:33:51 > 0:33:54car owners could go anywhere at any time.
0:33:54 > 0:33:57But the greatest symbol of this freedom,
0:33:57 > 0:34:01the ultimate white good of the 1960s, was the caravan.
0:34:01 > 0:34:06# If you go down in the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise
0:34:06 > 0:34:12# If you go down in the woods today, you'd better go in disguise
0:34:12 > 0:34:14# For every bear that ever there was... #
0:34:14 > 0:34:16Just for adults!
0:34:18 > 0:34:19Love it.
0:34:19 > 0:34:23# Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic... #
0:34:38 > 0:34:43In 1955, 2 million Britons took their holiday by caravan.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48By the late 1960s, this had risen to 4.5 million.
0:34:59 > 0:35:04This is Somers Wood caravan park, between Birmingham and Coventry.
0:35:04 > 0:35:06I think that's a bit of a myth these days.
0:35:06 > 0:35:09Angela Fowler showed me round.
0:35:09 > 0:35:12- You've met a lot of caravanners. - Yes.
0:35:12 > 0:35:15What is the allure of caravanning for them?
0:35:15 > 0:35:18Is it the freedom, the sociability, as it was for you?
0:35:18 > 0:35:22I think it's literally them being able to travel away on holiday,
0:35:22 > 0:35:25but have everything around them that's theirs.
0:35:25 > 0:35:26Just giving them the freedom
0:35:26 > 0:35:29that if they do want to decide on a Friday evening
0:35:29 > 0:35:31to bob off somewhere at the weekend,
0:35:31 > 0:35:33everything's there on board. They can hook up and go.
0:35:33 > 0:35:35So it's a very easy way?
0:35:35 > 0:35:39A very easy way, really, of being on holiday.
0:35:48 > 0:35:50Of course, now I wanted to see
0:35:50 > 0:35:53what the caravanning life was really like,
0:35:53 > 0:35:56and Sue Watson let me have a quick look.
0:35:56 > 0:35:58That's right, we're well sealed in.
0:35:58 > 0:35:59Well-insulated. Do come in.
0:35:59 > 0:36:00Hey, here we are.
0:36:00 > 0:36:03Welcome to our home, which we're very proud of.
0:36:03 > 0:36:05It's got everything you could want.
0:36:05 > 0:36:07We don't rough it these days in caravanning.
0:36:07 > 0:36:10Look at this fridge! Amazing.
0:36:10 > 0:36:13Fridge, freezer, microwave on this side. A comfortable lounge.
0:36:13 > 0:36:16This makes up into an extra bed.
0:36:16 > 0:36:18- OK...- It all pulls out.
0:36:18 > 0:36:20Look at this entertainment complex.
0:36:20 > 0:36:25Yes, TV. The satellite ready so we can pick up BBC Four.
0:36:25 > 0:36:28This isn't getting back to nature, this is modernism.
0:36:28 > 0:36:31No, sometimes you just need to relax a bit.
0:36:31 > 0:36:35When your friends have gone home and you're trying to sober up, you can watch TV.
0:36:35 > 0:36:37And the cooking facilities?
0:36:37 > 0:36:41- Do you want to have a go?- The old days of the barbecue outside...
0:36:41 > 0:36:43We've got that too.
0:36:43 > 0:36:46If the weather's like this, it's good to have an option.
0:36:46 > 0:36:48We've got the three gas burners
0:36:48 > 0:36:51and I'll get the frying pan out for you in a minute.
0:36:58 > 0:37:01The other great advantage of the caravan
0:37:01 > 0:37:05was that now you could eat how, when and where you liked.
0:37:05 > 0:37:08The growth of motoring holidays in the 1960s and 1970s
0:37:08 > 0:37:12transformed the eating and leisure experience of millions.
0:37:12 > 0:37:15What the caravan holiday signalled
0:37:15 > 0:37:18was a death knell of the traditional B&B
0:37:18 > 0:37:23and the old meal structures of the boarding house.
0:37:27 > 0:37:31- # There's a tiny house - There's a tiny house
0:37:31 > 0:37:35- # By a tiny stream - By a tiny stream
0:37:35 > 0:37:39- # Where a lovely lass - Where a lovely lass
0:37:39 > 0:37:42- # Had a lovely dream - Had a lovely dream... #
0:37:42 > 0:37:45And if you wanted something more permanent than a caravan
0:37:45 > 0:37:49and you had the money, then a holiday home was the answer.
0:37:49 > 0:37:54Driving a car meant that the dream of owning your own
0:37:54 > 0:37:57stretch of the seaside, however small, could become a reality.
0:37:57 > 0:38:01- # She was out one day - She was out one day... #
0:38:01 > 0:38:06Where once the car sanctioned the hallowed idea of deep England,
0:38:06 > 0:38:09a conservative, unchanging landscape,
0:38:09 > 0:38:13now it gave rise to an exuberant, disordered,
0:38:13 > 0:38:17non-conformist landscape, of plot lands and prefabs.
0:38:17 > 0:38:20- # She was out one day - She was out one day... #
0:38:20 > 0:38:23Here in Jayworth on the east coast of England,
0:38:23 > 0:38:28the London and Essex working class began to build hundreds of shacks
0:38:28 > 0:38:31and cottages, and the street names bear witness
0:38:31 > 0:38:33to the importance of the cars that brought them here.
0:38:33 > 0:38:37The Hillman Imp, the Talbot Tourer...
0:38:39 > 0:38:41..The Morris Minor.
0:38:41 > 0:38:46# In Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen Bogen By The Sea... #
0:38:48 > 0:38:52One of the many attractions of motoring was its sociability.
0:38:52 > 0:38:56And just as caravanners got together and enjoyed group family holidays,
0:38:56 > 0:39:00so motoring enthusiasts formed car clubs where they could meet
0:39:00 > 0:39:06and exchange tips and information about their vehicles.
0:39:06 > 0:39:08Mark is a member of a club
0:39:08 > 0:39:14devoted to a car that was first produced in 1963 - the Rover P6.
0:39:14 > 0:39:16The club is a family-oriented thing.
0:39:16 > 0:39:21Children get their hands on spanners. We promote children getting involved.
0:39:21 > 0:39:23A bit of oil never hurt anybody.
0:39:23 > 0:39:27A bit of knowledge definitely didn't hurt anybody.
0:39:27 > 0:39:30Do you think that's been lost in the young generation,
0:39:30 > 0:39:36the sort of...mechanical knowledge or willingness to get involved?
0:39:36 > 0:39:39Yeah, I mean, the mechanical knowledge is disappearing.
0:39:39 > 0:39:44But at the same time, modern cars don't allow you to play with them.
0:39:44 > 0:39:48You've got to plug it into a computer to find out what's wrong with it.
0:39:48 > 0:39:50Most of the parts are throwaway,
0:39:50 > 0:39:53so you just take them off and replace them with a new part.
0:39:53 > 0:39:56These older cars, especially this,
0:39:56 > 0:39:59every panel on the outside unbolts and you can replace it.
0:39:59 > 0:40:03- Customisable, as well. - You can customise them, yes!
0:40:03 > 0:40:09Within the club, if you wanted to customise your P6 - fine, we love it.
0:40:09 > 0:40:11Everybody to their own. The P6,
0:40:11 > 0:40:16when it was being produced, you could actually have a bespoke one.
0:40:16 > 0:40:17You could specify the colour,
0:40:17 > 0:40:22non-standard colours, have the trim how you wanted it colour-wise.
0:40:22 > 0:40:26So if it was good enough for Rover to do that,
0:40:26 > 0:40:29we feel that if you choose to do that later in life with it
0:40:29 > 0:40:32when you restore one, then fine.
0:40:32 > 0:40:36If you want flames up the side and side pipes on it, fine.
0:40:36 > 0:40:37Do it!
0:40:37 > 0:40:40- But you wouldn't? - Um, yeah, I would, actually!
0:40:41 > 0:40:45# The happy pair were married... #
0:40:45 > 0:40:48This was a decade of full employment and good holidays.
0:40:48 > 0:40:55The Holidays With Pay Act allowed 11 million workers in the UK
0:40:55 > 0:40:57not to worry about earning money
0:40:57 > 0:41:00when they were enjoying the delights of the British seaside.
0:41:00 > 0:41:04- # By a tiny stream - By a tiny stream... #
0:41:04 > 0:41:07It was the age when motoring was still a treat.
0:41:07 > 0:41:09The traditional taking a spin on a Sunday,
0:41:09 > 0:41:13Dad driving, Mum with the picnic, and kids playing I Spy
0:41:13 > 0:41:15on the bench seat in the back,
0:41:15 > 0:41:20each one hoping that they would be the first to see the sea.
0:41:20 > 0:41:25# In Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen Bogen By The Sea...! #
0:41:34 > 0:41:37The popularity of the car even extended to the pier and fairground.
0:41:37 > 0:41:40As soon as you got out of the vehicle you had come in,
0:41:40 > 0:41:42you got straight on the dodgems,
0:41:42 > 0:41:46the advantage being that now the kids could do the driving.
0:41:46 > 0:41:49# You are my theme for a dream
0:41:49 > 0:41:52# Yes, you are A rare and lovely theme
0:41:52 > 0:41:54# You're a theme for a dream... #
0:41:54 > 0:41:59Between 1950 and 1970, the proportion of holidaymakers
0:41:59 > 0:42:03travelling by car grew from 30% to 70%.
0:42:03 > 0:42:09Those going by train fell from 47% down to 12%.
0:42:09 > 0:42:12A decline only accelerated by the Beeching cuts
0:42:12 > 0:42:14to the branch lines.
0:42:14 > 0:42:15# When I touch you
0:42:15 > 0:42:19# Each and every time A chime rings out
0:42:19 > 0:42:21# I love you... #
0:42:21 > 0:42:23This was the heyday of the British holiday,
0:42:23 > 0:42:26a 20-year period of fun and pleasure at the seaside
0:42:26 > 0:42:28before cheap air travel and the package holiday
0:42:28 > 0:42:30muscled in and took it all away.
0:42:30 > 0:42:33'Come on, get a move on. Mustn't waste a second.
0:42:33 > 0:42:36'We're off on our holiday and we've just got to fly.'
0:42:39 > 0:42:42# Do you know the way to San Jose?
0:42:42 > 0:42:44# I've been away so long
0:42:44 > 0:42:46# I may go wrong and lose my way... #
0:42:46 > 0:42:51But while British holidays went out of fashion, the car kept its appeal,
0:42:51 > 0:42:54reinventing itself for the next generation.
0:42:54 > 0:42:57# LA is a great big freeway
0:42:57 > 0:43:00# Put 100 down and buy a car... #
0:43:00 > 0:43:02For the young, free and carefree-of-kids,
0:43:02 > 0:43:07the car was much more than just a status symbol, it was a sex symbol.
0:43:09 > 0:43:12# ..And all those stars that never were
0:43:12 > 0:43:16# Are parking cars and pumping gas
0:43:16 > 0:43:20# You can really breathe In San Jose... #
0:43:20 > 0:43:25The landscape of youth was increasingly codified by the car.
0:43:25 > 0:43:28Sex, rock'n'roll and celebrity
0:43:28 > 0:43:33were all enveloped in the mushrooming 1960s car culture.
0:43:33 > 0:43:35# ..Fame and fortune is a magnet
0:43:35 > 0:43:39# It can pull you far away from home
0:43:39 > 0:43:43# With a dream in your heart You're never alone... #
0:43:43 > 0:43:46This was the age of the mini-skirt and the Motor Show,
0:43:46 > 0:43:48selling men the idea
0:43:48 > 0:43:51that if they bought the car, then the girl came free.
0:43:51 > 0:43:55# ..Pack your car and run away
0:43:55 > 0:43:57# I've got lots of friends In San Jose... #
0:43:59 > 0:44:04Part of the glamour and attraction of the car was the promise of speed.
0:44:04 > 0:44:08And now everyone wanted the open road.
0:44:08 > 0:44:11What the car had first promised -
0:44:11 > 0:44:16journeying into the past, serendipity, leisure -
0:44:16 > 0:44:20was abandoned for speed and convenience.
0:44:20 > 0:44:22The motorway was the answer.
0:44:22 > 0:44:24And the M1 led the way.
0:44:26 > 0:44:29# Get your motor running
0:44:29 > 0:44:32# Head out on the highway
0:44:32 > 0:44:35# Looking for adventure
0:44:35 > 0:44:38# In whatever comes our way
0:44:38 > 0:44:42# Yeah, darling Go, make it happen... #
0:44:42 > 0:44:46We had a two-tone Vauxhall Velux. It sticks in my memory
0:44:46 > 0:44:49even though I was very young, doing 100 miles an hour
0:44:49 > 0:44:52in that Vauxhall Velux, looking over a bench seat,
0:44:52 > 0:44:54and no seat belts, no child seats
0:44:54 > 0:44:56to hold you back, stood up in the back
0:44:56 > 0:45:01looking over the bench seat at the speedo showing 100 mph.
0:45:01 > 0:45:03I can picture it vividly.
0:45:03 > 0:45:06It's one of those things that sets you up for life, I think.
0:45:08 > 0:45:14The speed and efficiencies of the motorway came at a terrible price.
0:45:14 > 0:45:16They scythed through our countryside
0:45:16 > 0:45:19and started to hollow out our cities.
0:45:19 > 0:45:21They brought with them pile-ups, pollution
0:45:21 > 0:45:24and the unending roar of commuter traffic.
0:45:29 > 0:45:33However many motorways were built, traffic soon filled them up.
0:45:33 > 0:45:38And a new word was added to the English language - gridlock.
0:45:40 > 0:45:43In the process, a new vision of Britain
0:45:43 > 0:45:46was forged from the middle lane.
0:45:46 > 0:45:50A narrower, rougher, uglier sense of nationhood.
0:45:50 > 0:45:53# Motorway food Is the worst in the world
0:45:53 > 0:45:55# You've never eaten food like you've eaten on the motorway
0:45:55 > 0:45:57# Motorway food Is the worst in the world
0:46:00 > 0:46:02# Oh, that motorway living
0:46:02 > 0:46:07# Ain't it a thrill To be so free, yeah?
0:46:07 > 0:46:12# Riding down the motorway Got to charge up my battery
0:46:12 > 0:46:17# Rest my seat, rest my eyes So tired, tired of living... #
0:46:17 > 0:46:20With the motorway came all the dreary,
0:46:20 > 0:46:24functional accoutrements of modern motoring.
0:46:24 > 0:46:26Whereas Priestley and Morton
0:46:26 > 0:46:29had enjoyed nothing more than an undiscovered church
0:46:29 > 0:46:33and a good pub lunch, now we have the service station.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37# Oh, that motorway living... #
0:46:37 > 0:46:41This is Heston services on the M4, opened by Miss Jennifer Lewis,
0:46:41 > 0:46:46better known as Miss United Kingdom, 1968.
0:46:48 > 0:46:52Supposing you're a motorist and you want petrol.
0:46:52 > 0:46:55You come along here,
0:46:55 > 0:46:59along this slip-road which has an upward gradient
0:46:59 > 0:47:02and allows ample time to stop at the filling station, which is here.
0:47:02 > 0:47:04# Motorway tea is warm and wet
0:47:04 > 0:47:07# The rain is a pouring And it's four in the morning
0:47:07 > 0:47:09# And it's all I can get... #
0:47:09 > 0:47:12Leisure, family time and pottering through England
0:47:12 > 0:47:14were replaced by the speed and convenience
0:47:14 > 0:47:17of a souped-up works canteen.
0:47:19 > 0:47:23The eating, the drinking, the mingling with fellow motorists
0:47:23 > 0:47:28fell away for a pit stop, refuelling yourself and your car.
0:47:28 > 0:47:32The joy of motoring was beginning to slip from our fingers.
0:47:34 > 0:47:37SIREN BLARES
0:47:40 > 0:47:42'On the motorway east of Birmingham,
0:47:42 > 0:47:45'Sergeant Bickley is called to another accident -
0:47:45 > 0:47:47'a vehicle reported to have somersaulted.'
0:47:47 > 0:47:50With the increase in speed and passenger numbers
0:47:50 > 0:47:52came an increase in accidents.
0:47:52 > 0:47:53Come on, move it!
0:47:53 > 0:47:58By the 1960s, impatience, bad driving and drunkenness
0:47:58 > 0:48:01meant that motoring had become a dangerous business.
0:48:01 > 0:48:04Joyriding took on altogether darker connotations.
0:48:04 > 0:48:08There were too many accidents, too many people were dying.
0:48:09 > 0:48:11The freedom the motorist had previously enjoyed
0:48:11 > 0:48:15now had to be tempered by social responsibility.
0:48:15 > 0:48:20Transport minister Barbara Castle's 1967 Road Safety Act
0:48:20 > 0:48:23made it compulsory for new cars to have seatbelts.
0:48:23 > 0:48:26Clunk the car door, click the seatbelt.
0:48:26 > 0:48:29Even if you are just going round the corner, clunk-click, every trip.
0:48:29 > 0:48:32And celebrities like Jimmy Savile were brought in
0:48:32 > 0:48:36to make people more aware of the dangers of driving.
0:48:36 > 0:48:43# And the double-decker bus Crashes into us... #
0:48:43 > 0:48:46What had previously been seen as a hobby and a joy
0:48:46 > 0:48:49had now become a life-threatening menace.
0:48:49 > 0:48:52And motoring was subjected to increasing legislation.
0:48:52 > 0:48:55The 70 mph speed limit was extended
0:48:55 > 0:49:00and the breathalyser was brought in to combat drink-driving.
0:49:00 > 0:49:02'Next week, do-it-yourself breathalyser kits
0:49:02 > 0:49:05'will be on sale all over the country.
0:49:05 > 0:49:09'When you blow through the yellow crystals of potassium dichromate,
0:49:09 > 0:49:13'they turn green above a white line if you've had too much to drink.'
0:49:13 > 0:49:16# To die by your side is such a heavenly way to die... #
0:49:16 > 0:49:21Motoring also came to be seen as a new source of government income,
0:49:21 > 0:49:25with motor tax increases, toll roads and parking fines.
0:49:25 > 0:49:30And for some, this legislation was the product of a busybody state,
0:49:30 > 0:49:32interfering with the rights
0:49:32 > 0:49:36and freedoms to drive whenever, wherever and however they liked.
0:49:36 > 0:49:41Even the great historian, AJP Taylor, got in on the act.
0:49:41 > 0:49:46Taylor used his column in the Sunday Express,
0:49:46 > 0:49:50week in, week out, as a veritable motorist's rant,
0:49:50 > 0:49:53decrying the introduction of the breathalyser,
0:49:53 > 0:49:56speed limits and a nannying state.
0:49:56 > 0:49:58The editor says to me,
0:49:58 > 0:50:01"It's a good idea to say we ought not to have bank holidays."
0:50:01 > 0:50:04"Oh," I say. "All right. I'll do it." INTERVIEWER CHUCKLES
0:50:04 > 0:50:06That's how I write my pieces.
0:50:06 > 0:50:11Whereas once, writers had used the car as a vehicle of discovery
0:50:11 > 0:50:14for unearthing the heritage and history of England,
0:50:14 > 0:50:19now a historian, of all people, urged ever more speed,
0:50:19 > 0:50:21ever more motorways,
0:50:21 > 0:50:25and ever less interference with the rights of the motorist.
0:50:25 > 0:50:27Here's a classic example.
0:50:27 > 0:50:32"Why not ban these dawdling drivers?"
0:50:32 > 0:50:36With a cartoon of a couple in a caravan holding all the cars back.
0:50:36 > 0:50:39What Taylor urges is not just a maximum speed limit,
0:50:39 > 0:50:43but a minimum speed limit of 40 miles an hour,
0:50:43 > 0:50:46which would be right on dual carriageways and motorways.
0:50:46 > 0:50:49"The man who drives too fast
0:50:49 > 0:50:51"can have his licence taken away from him.
0:50:51 > 0:50:53"Why not the same punishment
0:50:53 > 0:50:57"for the man who persistently drives too slowly?"
0:50:59 > 0:51:05What AJP Taylor spoke to was a new philistinism in car culture,
0:51:05 > 0:51:06and with it,
0:51:06 > 0:51:09a growing sense of anger amongst the motorist community,
0:51:09 > 0:51:12that despite all the road-building and subsidies,
0:51:12 > 0:51:16that the British motorist's right to drive wherever,
0:51:16 > 0:51:18however, and whenever they like,
0:51:18 > 0:51:22was being undermined by a nannying, socialist state,
0:51:22 > 0:51:25with its policemen and traffic wardens,
0:51:25 > 0:51:27its speed limits and breathalysers -
0:51:27 > 0:51:29the things which Taylor raged against.
0:51:29 > 0:51:35The roots of today's petrol protesters, and speed-camera evaders
0:51:35 > 0:51:40were set, and first given validity, by a tweedy Oxford don.
0:51:46 > 0:51:50By 1970, there were 12 million cars on the road -
0:51:50 > 0:51:54six times as many as there had been only 20 years before.
0:51:54 > 0:51:58Their demands began to have a dramatic effect
0:51:59 > 0:52:01on the fabric and design of our towns.
0:52:01 > 0:52:04But the lessons of Coventry had been learned.
0:52:06 > 0:52:11Instead of trying to convert a medieval city into a modern city,
0:52:11 > 0:52:13why not build a new town from scratch?
0:52:18 > 0:52:22This is the original vision of Milton Keynes.
0:52:25 > 0:52:26A village green.
0:52:28 > 0:52:29A church.
0:52:30 > 0:52:31And a pub.
0:52:38 > 0:52:39And this...
0:52:39 > 0:52:41is Milton Keynes today.
0:52:46 > 0:52:51A shopping centre, an A road or two, and a series of car parks.
0:52:54 > 0:52:58This little Los Angeles in Buckinghamshire
0:52:58 > 0:53:02lacks any of the informal associations,
0:53:02 > 0:53:06the chaos, the individuality of the traditional English town.
0:53:09 > 0:53:10Instead, it is a conurbation
0:53:10 > 0:53:14designed entirely around the internal combustion engine.
0:53:14 > 0:53:17# Don't you be a traffic light
0:53:18 > 0:53:22# Don't you be a traffic light
0:53:22 > 0:53:24# With all things said
0:53:24 > 0:53:26# You turn to red
0:53:26 > 0:53:30# Don't you be a traffic light... #
0:53:30 > 0:53:32Community without propinquity
0:53:32 > 0:53:36was the clumsy watchword of the Californian designer, Melvin Webber,
0:53:36 > 0:53:40as he laid out Milton Keynes.
0:53:40 > 0:53:44The result was this vast, low-density,
0:53:44 > 0:53:49low-build, sprawling exurbia in the Buckinghamshire fields -
0:53:49 > 0:53:53the polar opposite of the tight, Cotswold villages,
0:53:53 > 0:53:58and narrow country lanes, which Priestley and Morton had so revered.
0:54:12 > 0:54:17One of the minor problems with Webber's master plan
0:54:17 > 0:54:21for Milton Keynes was that it was based on the Californian highways,
0:54:21 > 0:54:24and the freedom of the roads, but in Milton Keynes,
0:54:24 > 0:54:28all you seem to have are roundabouts and red lights.
0:54:30 > 0:54:33It's an unsettling mixture.
0:54:33 > 0:54:38Modernist architecture, built on top of ancient plans and ley lines.
0:54:40 > 0:54:45Even as the planners laid out this modernist wonderland,
0:54:45 > 0:54:49they couldn't help but make a fetish of the past,
0:54:49 > 0:54:51with a series of street names and place names,
0:54:51 > 0:54:57evoking a lost pastoral idyll of Olde England.
0:54:57 > 0:55:01In fact, the England which Milton Keynes had concreted over.
0:55:01 > 0:55:04# Don't it always seemed to go
0:55:04 > 0:55:08# That you don't know what you've got till it's gone?
0:55:08 > 0:55:09# You pave paradise
0:55:09 > 0:55:11# Put up a parking lot
0:55:11 > 0:55:14# Oooh, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba
0:55:14 > 0:55:15# Pave paradise
0:55:15 > 0:55:17# Put up a parking lot. #
0:55:19 > 0:55:24When it was first built, parking lots in Milton Keynes were free.
0:55:24 > 0:55:26Now you have to pay for them.
0:55:28 > 0:55:31The world's biggest congestion-charging scheme begins in London.
0:55:31 > 0:55:36In fact, motoring has now become a source of revenue,
0:55:36 > 0:55:37rather than pleasure.
0:55:39 > 0:55:426.45 this morning - a steady flow into central London,
0:55:42 > 0:55:43but little sign
0:55:43 > 0:55:46of the expected rush to beat the moment
0:55:46 > 0:55:49when the biggest congestion-charging scheme in the world goes live.
0:55:49 > 0:55:54250,000 vehicles a day enter the charge area.
0:55:54 > 0:55:57The set-up cost of congestion charging, £200 million.
0:55:57 > 0:56:01But the truth is, we only have ourselves to blame.
0:56:01 > 0:56:04As each of us has sought the open road,
0:56:04 > 0:56:08the speed cameras and traffic jams have multiplied.
0:56:08 > 0:56:12The old, heroic individualism of the great age of motoring
0:56:12 > 0:56:16is simply incompatible with an era of mass ownership.
0:56:22 > 0:56:24Since AJP Taylor's rants,
0:56:24 > 0:56:28the car as a symbol of the free-born Englishman's rights
0:56:28 > 0:56:30has only intensified.
0:56:30 > 0:56:33Despite all its roads and motorways
0:56:33 > 0:56:36destroying much of what once constituted Britain -
0:56:36 > 0:56:40the countryside, the cities, the coasts -
0:56:40 > 0:56:44the car has embodied a new sense of national identity,
0:56:44 > 0:56:47in which the individual is under the cosh of the state.
0:56:47 > 0:56:53And now the car is in the front line of a new war against Whitehall,
0:56:53 > 0:56:59with its CCTV cameras, its ID cards, and its police surveillance.
0:57:04 > 0:57:09What we're meant to do now, is drive a car like this.
0:57:09 > 0:57:12Goodbye, Daimler, Bullnose Morris,
0:57:12 > 0:57:14and Austin Healey.
0:57:14 > 0:57:16Hello, Smart car.
0:57:16 > 0:57:20The pleasure of motoring has all but disappeared.
0:57:24 > 0:57:26So why do we do it?
0:57:26 > 0:57:30We sit here in these traffic jams, clogging up the city,
0:57:30 > 0:57:33spewing out greenhouse gas,
0:57:33 > 0:57:36getting parking tickets and speeding tickets,
0:57:36 > 0:57:39and increasingly angry.
0:57:39 > 0:57:42Perhaps because, as the advertisers know,
0:57:42 > 0:57:47there still lurks within us, the allure of speed,
0:57:47 > 0:57:52the wonder of the car, and a desire for the open road.
0:57:55 > 0:57:57# We know a place
0:57:57 > 0:57:59# Where no planes go
0:58:02 > 0:58:04# We know a place
0:58:04 > 0:58:07# Where no ships go
0:58:10 > 0:58:11# Hey!
0:58:11 > 0:58:14# No cars go
0:58:17 > 0:58:19# Hey!
0:58:19 > 0:58:21# No cars go
0:58:22 > 0:58:24# Where we know... #
0:58:34 > 0:58:38Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:38 > 0:58:41E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk.