0:00:06 > 0:00:10When Britain's first stretch of motorway opened in 1958
0:00:10 > 0:00:14it was greeted with huge enthusiasm and optimism.
0:00:14 > 0:00:20Away with smoke-filled railways, away with villages and cart-horses and ploughs,
0:00:20 > 0:00:24this was the scientific, a white-hot technological age.
0:00:24 > 0:00:27This is something entirely new in this country.
0:00:27 > 0:00:34Motorways seemed to promise a world of prosperity and freedom, and we've flocked to them ever since.
0:00:34 > 0:00:41The typical toilet on a motorway service area probably cops for 40,000 flushes a year.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44Do you remember those little tins called travel sweets?
0:00:44 > 0:00:49I used to think in what way is a travel sweet different?
0:00:49 > 0:00:54But in our rush down the slip-roads, just where have motorways actually taken us?
0:01:14 > 0:01:21From the 1960s onwards, we checked our tyres, crossed our fingers for the fan-belt and loaded up the boot.
0:01:27 > 0:01:32Like so many love affairs, our relationship with motorways began on a holiday.
0:01:32 > 0:01:34We set off on a voyage of discovery.
0:01:38 > 0:01:42We drove onto this virtually trafficless motorway.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45My father hadn't a clue how to negotiate a road like this,
0:01:45 > 0:01:50but we somehow made it and it was literally a breathtaking experience.
0:01:50 > 0:01:58It was like the beginning of a new world such as we'd never known and never hoped even to experience.
0:01:58 > 0:02:03What I mainly remember from childhood motorway journeys is the deep feeling of excitement,
0:02:03 > 0:02:07and you wanted that excitement to last for as long as possible.
0:02:07 > 0:02:11So I think the journey bit was much more important.
0:02:11 > 0:02:17My mother made pockets which she put on the back of the front seats
0:02:17 > 0:02:22and they were filled with our kind of toys and books and stuff.
0:02:22 > 0:02:27It was all part of this incredibly elaborate preparation for this epic journey, when really you were
0:02:27 > 0:02:29probably only going to the Lake District.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35Part of the excitement of travelling on a motorway, was the geography was different.
0:02:35 > 0:02:40So you suddenly saw hills or very flat areas of land.
0:02:40 > 0:02:42You saw bits of seaside
0:02:42 > 0:02:46that you'd only seen on your school atlas before.
0:02:46 > 0:02:53You heard these regional accents which made something about the foreign-ness, but also
0:02:53 > 0:03:00the availability of travelling to these bits of the country and seeing people in those environments.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03So things I had read about,
0:03:03 > 0:03:04suddenly were there.
0:03:04 > 0:03:06I could experience them.
0:03:06 > 0:03:10I was suddenly aware that people were on the move, as was I.
0:03:11 > 0:03:16And the new roads were opening up a whole new world of possibilities.
0:03:23 > 0:03:25Before the motorways, the average Briton
0:03:25 > 0:03:29holidayed in one of just 200 seaside resorts at the end of a train ride.
0:03:30 > 0:03:36Rising car ownership and the improved road network was to revolutionise that.
0:03:39 > 0:03:43Every AA route section includes sketch maps of this kind.
0:03:43 > 0:03:47There is a Routes Production Department in every AA office.
0:03:48 > 0:03:54One impact of the motorways was a huge change in the way we spent our leisure.
0:03:54 > 0:03:59Essentially, we chose to make many more short leisure trips,
0:03:59 > 0:04:03day trips and weekend trips than we ever had before.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06That was partly because we could, because we had the cars, because
0:04:06 > 0:04:10we had the motorways, but partly also because we had the disposable income.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19Many more people are going to the places where fewer people are.
0:04:19 > 0:04:20It's still possible in 1964
0:04:20 > 0:04:24to find places where there are relatively few people.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27But then by the time you double up the number of cars, all those places where fewer people are will be
0:04:27 > 0:04:31the places where lots of people are, so this defeats itself in the end, doesn't it?
0:04:31 > 0:04:33I think that we can get out of this one by discovering
0:04:33 > 0:04:38more places for people to go and telling more people about them.
0:04:38 > 0:04:39Hmm.
0:04:39 > 0:04:42The guidebook industry took off,
0:04:42 > 0:04:48capitalising on people's new ability to travel and desire to learn all about Britain,
0:04:48 > 0:04:50even down to the lampposts.
0:04:51 > 0:04:57The best selling children's book "I Spy" launched an edition just for motorways.
0:04:59 > 0:05:03Enjoying the motorway, think of your car as a magic carpet
0:05:03 > 0:05:07taking you to explore new country which you would not otherwise see.
0:05:07 > 0:05:13Make sure you are comfortable, wear the right clothes, give yourself plenty of room.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17Certainly "I Spy" books did encourage the notion that going on a journey could be something that was
0:05:17 > 0:05:21pleasurable, because we were passing through places where there were lots
0:05:21 > 0:05:25of identifiable features that you had to tick off in the "I Spy" book.
0:05:25 > 0:05:30So we could record those very mundane features
0:05:30 > 0:05:31that are very distinctive to national identity.
0:05:31 > 0:05:33So, for instance, a British "I Spy" book
0:05:33 > 0:05:36book would be useless on the road to France, nothing would fit.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42Even as a very small child you would talk quite authoritatively
0:05:42 > 0:05:45about, you know, oh, yeah, he's pulling into the fast lane.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49Even though you couldn't drive, I couldn't even ride a bicycle without stabilisers.
0:05:51 > 0:05:56Any journey on the motorway provides dozens of things to look out for.
0:05:56 > 0:06:03Continental lorries, police cars, cattle browsing in the fields and country houses.
0:06:03 > 0:06:08We were quite lucky, because where we lived, there were lots of short motorway journeys you could make
0:06:08 > 0:06:11that would take you to very big and rather impressive stately homes
0:06:11 > 0:06:16which my mother was completely devoted to, and of course we hated.
0:06:16 > 0:06:20All over Britain the castle gates, once so firmly closed, are being
0:06:20 > 0:06:24thrown wide open to the world and his wife and their children as well.
0:06:24 > 0:06:30If you take motorways and day trips and combine them with what was happening to aristocratic families,
0:06:30 > 0:06:35which was that they were unable to carry on running their homes, the two things coming together,
0:06:35 > 0:06:39I do think that is part of the democratisation of Britain.
0:06:42 > 0:06:48And the motorways literally and metaphorically link those two things.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57As soon as motorways released this demand and the ability to
0:06:57 > 0:06:59travel inland, then a huge shift,
0:06:59 > 0:07:05essentially, to self-catering types of accommodation took place.
0:07:06 > 0:07:14So caravans, B&Bs making it possible for people to travel when they wanted, how they wanted,
0:07:14 > 0:07:19to take their luggage, to have entirely their own convenience choice of times.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23It changed a very old-fashioned model of holidays into something
0:07:23 > 0:07:26that fitted with the way people see their needs in the present day.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32In less than 20 years, caravanning has established itself
0:07:32 > 0:07:36as one of the most popular ways of spending a holiday in this country.
0:07:36 > 0:07:40The Caravan Club, which was started in 1907 with 11 members,
0:07:40 > 0:07:44today has nearly 50,000, all with touring caravans.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49I started caravanning approximately 35 years ago,
0:07:49 > 0:07:52just after my fourth baby was born,
0:07:52 > 0:07:57and holidaying became very expensive with four small children.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00And so we bought a touring caravan.
0:08:00 > 0:08:05I loved the freedom of it, to be able to come and go wherever we liked.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11The opening of motorways did make caravanning so much easier.
0:08:11 > 0:08:16You could get onto a motorway, you knew that the other traffic would pull away from you.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19You feel a lot more relaxed because you're not on edge
0:08:19 > 0:08:22the whole time that you're building a tailback behind you.
0:08:25 > 0:08:30We would look, and particularly if a new piece of motorway opened, you'd think, ooh, yes,
0:08:30 > 0:08:34we could take the caravan up and take the kids to the Blackpool lights.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39Now Britain's ever-increasing tourist attractions
0:08:39 > 0:08:42are branded according to their proximity to the motorway.
0:08:49 > 0:08:54But there is one destination with unparalleled motorway access.
0:08:56 > 0:09:02Because once the British are on the move, what they really want is a cup of tea.
0:09:07 > 0:09:11It's the start of the holiday and it's the first stop
0:09:11 > 0:09:12and they're all excited and,
0:09:12 > 0:09:15they run in and see the shop and they see all the toys
0:09:15 > 0:09:18and the cash machines and all the pretty lights.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25Gordano, Knutsford, Charnock Richard, Hamilton.
0:09:27 > 0:09:34..Sandbach, Leicester Forest East services - don't know if there is a Leicester Forest West.
0:09:34 > 0:09:35Newport Pagnell,
0:09:35 > 0:09:36Scratchwood,
0:09:38 > 0:09:39Heston.
0:09:40 > 0:09:44There was one particular service station that all us children were particularly enthralled by,
0:09:44 > 0:09:49and that was Forton Service Station near Lancaster which has the most fabulous viewing platform.
0:09:49 > 0:09:55It was almost like a kind of science fiction building, it seemed to herald a kind of future utopia.
0:09:55 > 0:09:59We would always demand to stop at that point and have a look round.
0:10:03 > 0:10:07This is something entirely new in this country.
0:10:07 > 0:10:14You will notice that there are two identical stations opposite to each other on the motorway, here.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19In fact, the novelty of going to a service station was such
0:10:19 > 0:10:26that the British motorist commemorated the event in style, with a postcard.
0:10:26 > 0:10:33"Here we have arrived and have stopped off for an ice and a stretch. Lovely day.
0:10:33 > 0:10:37"Having some ankle trouble as I'm travelling without shoes. Lovely!
0:10:37 > 0:10:42"Janet and family were disappointed - they wanted to see Derek.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45"Love to all, PG."
0:10:46 > 0:10:50That would have been part of the whole treat of going onto the motorway is to stop.
0:10:50 > 0:10:54That's part of the charm of actually having these cards
0:10:54 > 0:10:56as a memento of this time
0:10:56 > 0:10:58when these places meant so much more to us.
0:10:58 > 0:11:06They're being met personally by your greeter at Watford Gap Service Station, or wherever it is.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09Here we are at Keele, Staffs, so there's literally always a welcome at Forte,
0:11:09 > 0:11:13and there's someone actually out there meeting the people as you go in.
0:11:13 > 0:11:16So that's something that's quite remarkable. Can you imagine that now?
0:11:16 > 0:11:22You'd be laughed at, cos it's really to do with the aspirational notion of the '50s, '60s, '70s
0:11:22 > 0:11:26in Britain when it was trying to modernise itself.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29So far behind Europe, of course, but still getting there eventually.
0:11:31 > 0:11:34In the 1950s, the Government sent representatives
0:11:34 > 0:11:38on research trips to motorway service stations across the world.
0:11:38 > 0:11:42To Italy, to the Servizios with their fabulous food.
0:11:44 > 0:11:48To America, the home of service culture.
0:11:52 > 0:11:58They came to the conclusion, however, that the needs of Britain's motorists were rather more modest.
0:11:58 > 0:12:02Now, supposing you were a motorist and you want petrol.
0:12:03 > 0:12:09They decided that we didn't need Pollo Arrosto, and as it turned out when Watford Gap opened,
0:12:09 > 0:12:12even a fry-up was out of the question.
0:12:12 > 0:12:13The opening of Watford Gap
0:12:13 > 0:12:15was in fact a disaster
0:12:15 > 0:12:17because it was not ready for the opening of the M1.
0:12:17 > 0:12:20The operators, Blue Boar, had to buy some garden sheds,
0:12:20 > 0:12:27paint them bright colours and have sandwiches made which they then sold to motorists from these garden sheds.
0:12:27 > 0:12:30Its name wasn't its best feature either.
0:12:30 > 0:12:32Watford Gap.
0:12:32 > 0:12:38People got confused with that because they thought they was about ten miles from London, you see.
0:12:38 > 0:12:41They used to say, "Ooh, we haven't got that far to go."
0:12:41 > 0:12:46When you'd tell them it's 74 miles or 75 miles, they'd go mad.
0:12:48 > 0:12:54The Italian emigre and catering entrepreneur, Charles Forte, wanted something altogether
0:12:54 > 0:12:57more sophisticated for the site he was to run.
0:12:57 > 0:12:59Newport Pagnell.
0:13:01 > 0:13:04The Government had instructed that the buildings should be dull
0:13:04 > 0:13:09in colour and surrounded by trees so as not to distract the driver.
0:13:09 > 0:13:14However, Fortes felt that they might lose some custom by doing that.
0:13:14 > 0:13:18So when the Government arrived for its final inspection, the Ministry of Transport officials
0:13:18 > 0:13:21drove up the motorway to visit Newport Pagnell prior to opening,
0:13:21 > 0:13:24they discovered that the trees had been cut down,
0:13:24 > 0:13:27no new trees had been planted and the building was, in fact,
0:13:27 > 0:13:31a bright yellow rather than the dull grey which had been requested.
0:13:33 > 0:13:37The kind of glamour only available in Britain in a few Soho coffee bars
0:13:37 > 0:13:41was now there for the taking on the M1.
0:13:41 > 0:13:48There was, like, a central aisle, a bit like an American diner where they had seats up at a counter.
0:13:48 > 0:13:50The kids just loved it.
0:13:50 > 0:13:56It was all about thrills, excitement and something that was just so incredibly new.
0:13:56 > 0:13:58It was about glamour.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01Yeah, about glamour.
0:14:01 > 0:14:06You know, I'd never eaten anywhere where you sat at a bar counter on these high stools drinking
0:14:06 > 0:14:11your coffee from these wonderful, big Italian machines, and all the time
0:14:11 > 0:14:15as you sat there, you sort of were waiting for something to happen.
0:14:16 > 0:14:21And, of course, there was no 70 mile an hour speed limit then.
0:14:21 > 0:14:28No crash hat, you just clung on for dear life and you watched the needle on the speedometer go up.
0:14:28 > 0:14:34Then this guy in front would say to me, "Right, are you ready? We're going for the ton."
0:14:34 > 0:14:39And you watched and you saw the needle go over, over a hundred and keep going over.
0:14:39 > 0:14:42Well, well, I slowed down a lot because I could see you coming up,
0:14:42 > 0:14:44and I thought, well, I'll let him catch me, see what happens.
0:14:44 > 0:14:50And, er, no, I slowed down to about 80, something like that, and you, I'd started accelerating,
0:14:50 > 0:14:54a long time before you came past, I must say, you still did some catching up.
0:14:54 > 0:14:57- I was, I was amazed at that thing of yours.- I know.
0:15:03 > 0:15:11The services were one of the few places that were open all night, so it was also people-watching.
0:15:11 > 0:15:15Tom Jones, The Beatles, Barbara Windsor.
0:15:15 > 0:15:20Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers, two of the Beatles...
0:15:20 > 0:15:25..and they would arrive and go to this haven of delight called the Grill and Griddle,
0:15:25 > 0:15:30and you knew as you were sipping your coffee downstairs that they were upstairs and
0:15:30 > 0:15:36that there were waitresses with their black skirts and their, you know, their frilly aprons but
0:15:36 > 0:15:41they were tucking into steaks, and that was, and that was a luxury item.
0:15:46 > 0:15:50Fine dining, previously found in London's West End, spread across the country
0:15:50 > 0:15:54as fabulous restaurants opened up over the expanding network.
0:15:55 > 0:16:00Some of them even offered the thrill of eating above the motorway itself.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03And already there's a motorway vogue in leisure pursuits
0:16:03 > 0:16:07among those who like to dine out while watching the cars go by.
0:16:08 > 0:16:14The pinnacle of sophistication was the Terence Conran-designed Bridge Restaurant,
0:16:14 > 0:16:16at Leicester Forest East.
0:16:16 > 0:16:21A lot of people came for evening out, some folk to Sunday lunch.
0:16:21 > 0:16:26Quite a lot of people had their Christmas meals here, they booked it in advance.
0:16:26 > 0:16:33People thought it was posh because not many places you'd get waitress service,
0:16:33 > 0:16:36place-set china.
0:16:37 > 0:16:41The piano stood more or less
0:16:41 > 0:16:47over there, triangular in that corner over there,
0:16:47 > 0:16:51and the gentleman had quite a repertoire of music, but mostly
0:16:51 > 0:16:56they liked quiet music, you know, a little bit of Chopin or whatever.
0:17:02 > 0:17:06As the network grew, a new generation began to regard
0:17:06 > 0:17:09travelling not as a treat, but a right.
0:17:21 > 0:17:27Anyone could enjoy the mobility the motorways had to offer with a little bit of help from their thumb.
0:17:32 > 0:17:36Even if we had a bit of money we wouldn't think of getting a bus or a train,
0:17:36 > 0:17:38we would go to a service station and we would stick our thumb out.
0:17:38 > 0:17:40And very often you'd go to a service station
0:17:40 > 0:17:42and you'd have to join a queue.
0:17:42 > 0:17:45There might be four or five people there with their thumbs stuck out.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49There was a kind of an etiquette so you would have to join the queue and wait your turn.
0:17:49 > 0:17:55But sure enough, usually, after about an hour you could pretty much expect to get a lift.
0:17:55 > 0:17:59Motorways made hitchhiking come of age.
0:17:59 > 0:18:04Suddenly hitchhiking moved from a very elementary thing where you stuck your thumb out and walked
0:18:04 > 0:18:06down the road and either a car stopped or it didn't,
0:18:06 > 0:18:09to somewhere where you actually had to apply
0:18:09 > 0:18:13mathematical theories, probability, geography,
0:18:13 > 0:18:17velocity, all these concepts suddenly came into play.
0:18:17 > 0:18:24If you were somewhere like Hendon where people traditionally began to try to hitch onto the M1,
0:18:24 > 0:18:30you would find that you didn't actually want to take that lift to Hemel Hempstead or to Tring
0:18:30 > 0:18:34because, quite honestly, that would only take you a few junctions along.
0:18:34 > 0:18:37You wanted the big one, you wanted to go to Watford Gap.
0:18:41 > 0:18:46But I remember getting picked up by an enormous plethora of people, old hippies, famous footballers,
0:18:46 > 0:18:50Irish priests who asked me to do naughty things to them.
0:18:50 > 0:18:55There was a whole range of people who you would get picked up by and I think one of the most...
0:18:55 > 0:19:00delightful things about hitchhiking was the fact that you would meet this enormous range of people.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03By the end of the '70s you could tell that something had happened.
0:19:03 > 0:19:07There were fewer people around at the junctions.
0:19:07 > 0:19:11I'd sum up Thatcherism as, "I'm all right Jack",
0:19:11 > 0:19:16and that whole idea which pervaded all the way through the '80s,
0:19:16 > 0:19:21really, did a lot of damage to hitchhiking because people were
0:19:21 > 0:19:25driving around in bigger, grander, faster cars but they were thinking,
0:19:25 > 0:19:31hmm, well, I'm not stopping for them, why don't they get on their bike and look for work or whatever?
0:19:40 > 0:19:43The spirit of the motorways had changed.
0:19:43 > 0:19:47Cars had become not just status symbols but sanctums.
0:19:47 > 0:19:51The ultimate expression of personal freedom and individuality
0:19:51 > 0:19:55into which you invited a stranger at your peril.
0:19:56 > 0:20:00The Rutger Hauer film "The Hitcher" hasn't helped matters, but it's certainly the case...
0:20:00 > 0:20:04I think people are far more suspicious of people who hitchhike now.
0:20:04 > 0:20:07And I don't know why that is - have we become more selfish?
0:20:07 > 0:20:09Have we just become more fearful?
0:20:09 > 0:20:13I don't think the motorways are any more or less dangerous
0:20:13 > 0:20:16than they were, I don't think there's any more maniacs around.
0:20:16 > 0:20:20And I can think of no activity today where you have the opportunity to sit
0:20:20 > 0:20:22in a car with somebody you've never met before
0:20:22 > 0:20:26and somebody you're never gonna see again and chew the fat and chat about a whole range of different things.
0:20:31 > 0:20:32Your hitchhiker of today
0:20:32 > 0:20:38has nine times out of ten got a dog with him, is a New Age traveller
0:20:38 > 0:20:42looking to get a lift to the next place of demonstration.
0:20:44 > 0:20:49It used to break the monotony of the journey of years ago,
0:20:49 > 0:20:54before radios and CDs and CBs become
0:20:54 > 0:20:56standard fitment in lorries.
0:20:58 > 0:21:02Can you imagine sitting 300 mile on the motorway with no radio and no music?
0:21:05 > 0:21:08I got my whistling down to a fine art in them days.
0:21:13 > 0:21:18Today, a motorway journey is unthinkable without some form of soundtrack.
0:21:18 > 0:21:20But in the early days of the network,
0:21:20 > 0:21:24in-car entertainment was still only available to the privileged few.
0:21:25 > 0:21:29I have been keeping my most precious car possession to the last.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32Here it is.
0:21:32 > 0:21:39A radio set, with which to while away long waits in traffic jams or to relieve the monotony of a long drive.
0:21:39 > 0:21:47See how nicely it fits into the instrument panel of the Ford G8 in place of the ashtray. Neat, isn't it?
0:21:50 > 0:21:52Neat, but not cheap.
0:21:52 > 0:21:58The first factory-fitted radios appeared in the early '30s and they were expensive,
0:21:58 > 0:22:03around £35, the equivalent of adding about £2,500 to a VW Golf today.
0:22:05 > 0:22:07At the beginning of the '60s,
0:22:07 > 0:22:10only 4% of British cars had radios installed.
0:22:13 > 0:22:20One of the great revolutions in radio reception was the creation of the transistor.
0:22:20 > 0:22:25And it's perhaps very significant that the first stretch of the M1
0:22:25 > 0:22:32opens in 1959 and the first transistor radio in this country becomes available in 1960.
0:22:33 > 0:22:40So we'd take our little trannies with us, little Bush radios with the batteries and that sort of thing.
0:22:41 > 0:22:44So that was quite a thrill to drive along the blackness,
0:22:44 > 0:22:49you are in your little cocoon and this music coming through.
0:22:49 > 0:22:55As new technology drove down the price, in-car radios flourished.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58A significant audience was created that needed to be catered for.
0:23:00 > 0:23:03Here is the 8 o'clock news for today, Thursday the 14th.
0:23:09 > 0:23:13There are two places where you have a really intimate relation with the listener.
0:23:13 > 0:23:15First of all, there is that relationship
0:23:15 > 0:23:20with the listener who's in the car because they're a captive audience, the second one is anybody in prison.
0:23:23 > 0:23:27The '60s and '70s were very important for the establishment, really, of...
0:23:27 > 0:23:31drive time as a key part of the schedule.
0:23:34 > 0:23:36People are in their cars - what do you need every day?
0:23:36 > 0:23:42You need the weather, you need whether the trains are on time, you need the traffic information.
0:23:42 > 0:23:45Radio 1 is here. And what are we here with, you might ask?
0:23:45 > 0:23:47With your traffic news.
0:23:47 > 0:23:51In order to draw people in to your radio station in the '70s with the added competition,
0:23:51 > 0:23:56the programming's got to be right, the music's got to be right and the travel bulletins as well.
0:23:56 > 0:23:58You've got to be in touch with your audience.
0:23:58 > 0:24:03M25 looked really dire around the M26, you know that junction there if you use it regularly,
0:24:03 > 0:24:05if you're a regular there, very slow indeed.
0:24:05 > 0:24:09QE2 Bridge absolutely ram-jam, covered in traffic,
0:24:09 > 0:24:12big jams yesterday, big jams again today.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15And it's screwing up the traffic on the M11 as you come south as well.
0:24:15 > 0:24:16There we go, the Flying Eye with O2.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20For up to 500 free text messages visit O2.
0:24:20 > 0:24:24Well, you know, we're going over to as it was in London with Capital, Russ Kane in the Flying Eye,
0:24:24 > 0:24:28and he'd be flying over the thing and he could see probably the best of the lot.
0:24:28 > 0:24:34Actually, you could see a certain amount, sometimes you couldn't see a damn thing up there.
0:24:34 > 0:24:37I remember going up there once and he was still reporting back
0:24:37 > 0:24:41and the information was coming from the ground because it was very foggy up there.
0:24:41 > 0:24:45But there was that... it's all theatre of the mind in radio, and
0:24:45 > 0:24:49if you can create that atmosphere that there's somebody there hovering
0:24:49 > 0:24:53above you keeping an eye on the traffic, it's quite a good ploy to get people to listen in.
0:24:58 > 0:25:02The Flying Eye's last daily traffic report was in 2005.
0:25:02 > 0:25:04Thank you. How long do you reckon they'll be?
0:25:04 > 0:25:10Today it's a network of cameras and control centres that feed travel information to radio stations.
0:25:10 > 0:25:16Well, should go northbound, Junction Nine and the police car has just gone down.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19Listeners phone and text in the information themselves.
0:25:19 > 0:25:23And the M18 is queuing southbound from about three miles down towards the M1.
0:25:23 > 0:25:27Thank you Texas Ranger for all your information.
0:25:27 > 0:25:34Radio is a community event and increasingly today with the mobile phone and so forth,
0:25:34 > 0:25:37the listener is contributing to the programme.
0:25:37 > 0:25:39Robert's on the mobile - morning, Robert.
0:25:39 > 0:25:42- Morning.- Morning sir, how are you? - Yeah, not too bad.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45Trapped in this traffic since Junction 11 at the moment.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48You'd get a genuine sense of almost a club, so that sense
0:25:48 > 0:25:52of community is very real for people driving on their own.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55I've come on at Junction 11, what I'm ringing up about is...
0:25:55 > 0:25:59I'm between junctions 11 and 10, I've just past that big sign.
0:25:59 > 0:26:01...caused because of the closure of the M1 southbound.
0:26:01 > 0:26:05- Where do you need to be, David?- Oh, I'm only going to Hemel Hempstead.
0:26:08 > 0:26:14In this current era when there seems to be so much confusion about what Britishness is, I think
0:26:14 > 0:26:17the British are the people who use the British motorways.
0:26:17 > 0:26:21Quite clearly, you could define us solely as a motorway race
0:26:21 > 0:26:23rather than an island race.
0:26:33 > 0:26:38I'm on the road, I'm kind of in an engineering sort of sales situation where I'll
0:26:38 > 0:26:44spend long periods in the car, so if I don't basically come into a place where it's busy it gets a bit...
0:26:44 > 0:26:46life gets lonely.
0:26:53 > 0:26:57We normally come to this service station about, ooh, two or three times a month.
0:26:57 > 0:27:02We like coming here because the staff make a fuss of us,
0:27:02 > 0:27:09there's a disabled loo which I can use, Lucy has a bit of exercise through the shop and through here,
0:27:09 > 0:27:15the food's good and the general ambience is nice, they are pleased to see us.
0:27:15 > 0:27:18And Lucy why - why do you like coming here?
0:27:18 > 0:27:21I don't, particularly.
0:27:24 > 0:27:27We've met some famous personalities while we've been here.
0:27:27 > 0:27:31I had a chat with Andrew Flintoff at the beginning of the year,
0:27:31 > 0:27:35I've met the owner of the British and Indian Museum here.
0:27:35 > 0:27:41I've met people from Malaya here where I did my army service and I found I could still speak Malay,
0:27:41 > 0:27:47I've met a Zulu who worked here, and generally speaking it's a nice little outing for us.
0:27:52 > 0:27:56Good places to meet, not always for the best reasons.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59Some quite sad things go on on our site, you know, I mean, it's not
0:27:59 > 0:28:03uncommon actually for people to die on our sites.
0:28:03 > 0:28:08They keel over with a heart attack from the stress of the journey, and that's, no, but it's a fact.
0:28:08 > 0:28:10But you don't really want to get into that, do you?
0:28:10 > 0:28:12Do you?
0:28:14 > 0:28:23When you finally step out of your car and un-gum your nether garments from your sweaty limbs and walk into
0:28:23 > 0:28:29the motorway service centres, you see a kind of unforced, collective lack of intimacy,
0:28:29 > 0:28:34a mixing of social classes while nevertheless retaining their distance.
0:28:34 > 0:28:39You're really witnessing a kind of microcosm of Britishness.
0:28:41 > 0:28:45People always say, "Oh, if only our service stations could be like they are in France,"
0:28:45 > 0:28:48where you get poached guinea fowl or boeuf bourguignonne -
0:28:48 > 0:28:52it's delicious because the French would not eat the crap we eat.
0:28:52 > 0:28:54And, and you think, well, yeah, that would be lovely,
0:28:54 > 0:29:00but then you actually wonder if actually when it came down to it and you got to the Little Chef
0:29:00 > 0:29:02and the man said, "Would you like the Duck a L'Orange?"
0:29:02 > 0:29:05You'd actually feel a bit, no, actually I'd like the fried bread!
0:29:07 > 0:29:10For us, it's part of being British.
0:29:10 > 0:29:13It's pathetic but we'll never be able to shake that off.
0:29:18 > 0:29:21I've been inspecting loos for the last seven years.
0:29:21 > 0:29:26And I've been inspecting loos and assisting John for the past two years.
0:29:32 > 0:29:35The marking system usually is on a one-to-five basis.
0:29:35 > 0:29:42A three, four and five star is a pass, a one and two is a failure.
0:29:42 > 0:29:44A three is a basic, does it work?
0:29:44 > 0:29:46Is it providing a service?
0:29:46 > 0:29:52Yes, it is. And then we go up, for instance, the old-fashioned pull chain, it functions.
0:29:52 > 0:29:56A lever was an advancement on that, that would be a four star.
0:29:56 > 0:30:04And this is a hands-free electronic sensor, this is the five star that we would be using now, it's top.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15The atmosphere in the service station was absolutely amazing.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18Even the toilet queue was a great social place those days, you know.
0:30:18 > 0:30:23And God help some poor person who was caught short and wanted to get to the toilet quickly, because
0:30:23 > 0:30:28there was kind of like 200 girls waiting in the loo queue to adjust their make-up and have a chat.
0:30:29 > 0:30:35In the late '80s, the motorways enabled the explosion of a new sub-culture, rave.
0:30:35 > 0:30:41Young people met in makeshift venues and danced wildly to music, described by the government
0:30:41 > 0:30:48as "wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats."
0:30:48 > 0:30:521989 was a time of just fantastic parties.
0:30:55 > 0:30:59Without the M25, the southern parties couldn't really have happened,
0:30:59 > 0:31:03because a lot of them were called Orbital parties because they were on the Orbital Road.
0:31:04 > 0:31:07The rave parties were borderline legal gatherings
0:31:07 > 0:31:11of thousands of people determined to have a good time.
0:31:14 > 0:31:16The police were determined to stop them.
0:31:16 > 0:31:20A police officer monitors pirate radio stations to get
0:31:20 > 0:31:24details of acid house parties being held this weekend.
0:31:25 > 0:31:28To avoid detection, the party's secret location
0:31:28 > 0:31:33would only be revealed at the last minute on telephone lines.
0:31:33 > 0:31:36Would-be ravers gathered at service station pay phones,
0:31:36 > 0:31:40ready to bomb down the motorway as soon as there was any news.
0:31:40 > 0:31:47There would often be this crowd in the lobby, people queuing up to buy very cheap cups of hot chocolate.
0:31:47 > 0:31:52Then going back to their cars, and every so often someone would come running out and shout a
0:31:52 > 0:31:56message across the car park, or would simply come running out, drive off.
0:31:56 > 0:32:01And, of course, as soon as a cluster of people got in cars, you'd just follow them.
0:32:01 > 0:32:04I think it's Heston Services, we all followed someone back to a
0:32:04 > 0:32:08nearby village and she was actually going back to change her jumper.
0:32:08 > 0:32:12The party organisers relied on the motorways to deliver them thousands of ravers
0:32:12 > 0:32:16before the police could arrive to stop the event happening.
0:32:16 > 0:32:20And that was very much the cat and mouse game between the police and the party organisers.
0:32:20 > 0:32:23Because if you're a 20-strong police force and you're trying
0:32:23 > 0:32:28to get rid of, say, 5,000 kids who don't want to go, you're not going to be able to do it.
0:32:28 > 0:32:33You're just gonna give up, do what you can about keeping the perimeter safe and let the party carry on.
0:32:33 > 0:32:35Go and have your party, now be off, go on.
0:32:35 > 0:32:37Yeah!
0:32:50 > 0:32:56And eventually, what the police and the authorities decided to do was legalise all-night clubbing.
0:32:56 > 0:33:01It took us that long to decide that, actually, it was OK to enjoy yourself in Britain after midnight.
0:33:01 > 0:33:06So by then, the motorways had become very much a part of people travelling for a night out.
0:33:06 > 0:33:08People travelling the sort of distance if you were used to
0:33:08 > 0:33:14travelling in Spain or Italy or in America for a night out, but which we'd never done in Britain.
0:33:14 > 0:33:17In Britain, like, before that you were restricted to whatever the night bus went.
0:33:19 > 0:33:23As motorways lengthened the distance you could comfortably travel,
0:33:23 > 0:33:27they had a profound effect on much of modern Britain.
0:33:27 > 0:33:32You no longer had to live in a city just because you worked in one.
0:33:32 > 0:33:37I'm tired of these surroundings. We're cooped up in this London flat all the days of our lives.
0:33:37 > 0:33:39Well, then, let's go out into the country.
0:33:41 > 0:33:48The English, historically, have never had a very strong attachment to the city or the town.
0:33:48 > 0:33:52They've always had a yen for getting out to the country.
0:33:52 > 0:33:59And once the motorways came, it was possible to go the whole hog and do what social surveys showed
0:33:59 > 0:34:06people really wanted to do, even in the suburbs, and that is get out altogether into the open countryside.
0:34:08 > 0:34:15And the paradigm for a motorway journey, I think, is to start in a large city, to access the motorway,
0:34:15 > 0:34:22to come off the motorway onto an A road and then onto a B road and then onto an unlisted road, and finally
0:34:22 > 0:34:31onto a rutted track that leads us to an adorable bosky little cottage in the dell with roses round the door.
0:34:31 > 0:34:37And there is a sense of yearning for bucolia even in the heart of our motorway culture.
0:34:40 > 0:34:44Kington Langley is a very pretty village indeed,
0:34:44 > 0:34:50a most attractive environment, yet only a few minutes, four or five,
0:34:50 > 0:34:55along the way from excellent road communications, via the M4 motorway.
0:34:59 > 0:35:03Kington Langley was once a secluded village on the edge of the Cotswolds.
0:35:03 > 0:35:10That all changed when Junction 17 of the M4 opened, a mere 1.8 miles away.
0:35:12 > 0:35:18Invariably, people are coming down on the M4 motorway looking for a different pace of life,
0:35:18 > 0:35:21I guess, and a village like this will very definitely fit the bill.
0:35:21 > 0:35:27Equally, you're not cutting yourself off entirely, in as much as the accessibility via the motorway makes
0:35:27 > 0:35:33employment to those areas that people have moved from still very, very feasible.
0:35:33 > 0:35:37So they certainly come to live the dream here, without a shadow of a doubt.
0:35:37 > 0:35:42House prices here probably average out at around about £500 - £600,000
0:35:42 > 0:35:48and the marketplace here is very, very healthy.
0:35:48 > 0:35:52It's altered the whole nature of Kington Langley.
0:35:52 > 0:35:54Working-class people,
0:35:54 > 0:36:01they just cannot afford the prices of the bigger houses in the village.
0:36:03 > 0:36:09They've definitely been out-priced, because people living in the village now,
0:36:09 > 0:36:17they use the motorway mostly to work at Bristol, Bath, Swindon
0:36:17 > 0:36:21and also commute to London.
0:36:23 > 0:36:26When we didn't have a motorway,
0:36:26 > 0:36:30we had a very, very close community.
0:36:30 > 0:36:40But since that has been for many years, I think it's altered and it's not the same,
0:36:40 > 0:36:45it's not the same, especially during the week, those going out to London, etc,
0:36:45 > 0:36:52well, they just eat, sleep and they just can't come in with the village during the week.
0:36:53 > 0:36:57But this is a self-sufficient, closely-knit community.
0:36:57 > 0:37:01Apples are grown, eggs laid, bread made, honey collected,
0:37:01 > 0:37:04all with the belief that Worcester's farmers are second to none.
0:37:07 > 0:37:10There's only one farm in the village now and
0:37:10 > 0:37:14there's no work there, it's only just for two or three labourers.
0:37:17 > 0:37:21But the commuter invasion wasn't all bad news for villages.
0:37:23 > 0:37:28Many of them had been struggling to survive since the late 19th century.
0:37:28 > 0:37:32Rural depression and the increasing mechanisation of farming had driven
0:37:32 > 0:37:36people away from the country and into the cities in search of work.
0:37:38 > 0:37:43All the rural counties were losing people to the cities, and what was
0:37:43 > 0:37:48already happening even by the early 1960s that these same farmhouses and
0:37:48 > 0:37:54little cottages that had been abandoned by the rural labouring poor were repopulated by the middle class
0:37:54 > 0:38:01seeking either second homes or homes from which they could commute by the motorway system.
0:38:01 > 0:38:06As far as surviving without motorways, no.
0:38:06 > 0:38:09This village would be a dead village.
0:38:14 > 0:38:18But motorways would also play a key role in sorting out
0:38:18 > 0:38:21the problem of the urban poor trapped in crowded cities.
0:38:23 > 0:38:26The post-war government had a plan for them.
0:38:26 > 0:38:31After all, a vision of the future with superhighways had no place for slum housing.
0:38:34 > 0:38:38The motorway era promised this, you know, drive out into Technicolor,
0:38:38 > 0:38:43this drive out into a world of that kind of wonderful 1950s glamour,
0:38:43 > 0:38:46but it was bright and colourful and cheerful,
0:38:46 > 0:38:48and that's what it promised.
0:38:48 > 0:38:56Britain was to be rebuilt, a new Jerusalem constructed, or at the very least, a few new towns.
0:38:56 > 0:38:59Continuing his tour of the new towns, the Prime Minister
0:38:59 > 0:39:04visited Stevenage and Harlow, in both of which the people live and work in the town.
0:39:09 > 0:39:12The drudgery of commuting would be abolished.
0:39:12 > 0:39:16Millions could leave the slums to experience the delights of
0:39:16 > 0:39:19contemporary sculpture amongst other things,
0:39:19 > 0:39:23and, crucially, every new town would be on a motorway.
0:39:25 > 0:39:32Motorways and new towns were part of the same planning concept.
0:39:32 > 0:39:38The motorways were needed to serve the new towns, because they were seen as industrial centres.
0:39:38 > 0:39:41The motorways were therefore necessary
0:39:41 > 0:39:47to supply the factories where most of these workers were supposed to work.
0:39:47 > 0:39:51But, importantly, these towns were to be seen as self-contained.
0:39:51 > 0:39:55People would live and work in them, they wouldn't need to commute, and
0:39:55 > 0:39:58that was a very important part of the thinking.
0:39:58 > 0:40:05The good people of Milton Keynes, Cumbernauld and Stevenage were all meant to stay firmly put.
0:40:05 > 0:40:07But, of course, that didn't work.
0:40:07 > 0:40:11The moment you've got a road, people use it, and we know that in Britain,
0:40:11 > 0:40:14every time any road's built people flood onto it.
0:40:14 > 0:40:19When you build a motorway it gets busy quickly, as if by force of nature.
0:40:19 > 0:40:26So the new towns were always in a way undermined by their proximity to the motorway.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29While many of the residents were happy to live in the new towns,
0:40:29 > 0:40:33many of them were happy to work elsewhere.
0:40:33 > 0:40:40There is, in planning, a law of unintended consequences, things never turn out as they were planned.
0:40:44 > 0:40:49Today, the new town of Warrington in Cheshire has become commuter heaven.
0:40:50 > 0:40:54Situated on the intersection of three motorways, almost a
0:40:54 > 0:40:58third of Warrington's working population heads out every morning.
0:41:16 > 0:41:20I live in Warrington and work in Manchester,
0:41:20 > 0:41:23and use the M62 every morning to and from work.
0:41:23 > 0:41:27If you asked me to go to some of the places around where I live,
0:41:27 > 0:41:32I probably wouldn't be able to do it, but ask me to take you to Oxford
0:41:32 > 0:41:34and you'd be fine.
0:41:34 > 0:41:38Warrington's ideal, it's right in the middle of the motorway network, we've got the M62.
0:41:38 > 0:41:40- The M56.- The M6 to the east.
0:41:40 > 0:41:43Which is one of the routes that I take on a regular basis.
0:41:43 > 0:41:47So we can be in London within sort of three hours.
0:41:47 > 0:41:50Brighton, which can be up to six hours journey.
0:41:50 > 0:41:53We can get up to Glasgow within about three to three-and-a-half hours,
0:41:53 > 0:41:55we go up there quite regularly.
0:41:55 > 0:41:58I do quite enjoy the commute, I like the time on my own.
0:41:58 > 0:42:03But I'm really starting to develop a bit of a weakness for teenage dance music at the moment.
0:42:03 > 0:42:07I don't like other people using my car and that much.
0:42:07 > 0:42:11It's very much a space for me to have my bits and bobs.
0:42:11 > 0:42:17I'll buy chocolate and hide it in the glove compartment until my daughter gets in and tries to find it.
0:42:20 > 0:42:25I love Italy, I love Italian food, I love Italian cars,
0:42:25 > 0:42:28so I thought the next thing is gonna be I'll have to learn Italian.
0:42:28 > 0:42:30And it's quite amusing when I'm driving along in the car,
0:42:30 > 0:42:34particularly on a long journey, and there's people sat next to me and I'm giving it this, I'm
0:42:34 > 0:42:38gesticulating as I'm driving along, and people think you're completely insane. But who cares?
0:42:38 > 0:42:40It's my space, it's my car.
0:42:40 > 0:42:43ITALIAN LANGUAGE TAPE PLAYS
0:42:45 > 0:42:49I started trying to write stories in my head.
0:42:49 > 0:42:55I actually started it when I was having a really bad day, and I was travelling up the motorway
0:42:55 > 0:42:58and I just thought, "I don't want to go home, I just want to keep going."
0:42:58 > 0:43:01And then it started to get me thinking, where would I go, what would happen?
0:43:01 > 0:43:07And I started writing this story in my head about a fictional character that just continued on the motorway.
0:43:12 > 0:43:19In my reverie, I saw the M40 as it will be some 20,000 years from now,
0:43:19 > 0:43:23when the second Neolithic Age has dawned over Europe.
0:43:23 > 0:43:26Still no services.
0:43:26 > 0:43:31All six carriageways and the hard shoulder are grassed over.
0:43:33 > 0:43:38Every single one of the distance markers, Birmingham 86, has been
0:43:38 > 0:43:43crudely tipped to the horizontal, forming a series of steel byres.
0:43:43 > 0:43:49On top of them are the decomposing corpses of motorway chieftains,
0:43:49 > 0:43:54lain out for excarnation prior to interment.
0:43:56 > 0:44:01You know, what the story proposes, in a way, is that motorways may be
0:44:01 > 0:44:06our civilisation's greatest earthworks.
0:44:06 > 0:44:12You know, that they may be what's left behind, what's most visible of our culture when it is declined.
0:44:14 > 0:44:22Seems to me that our entire culture, if you like, is frozen, driving on the motorway of history,
0:44:22 > 0:44:29believing fervently in its own destination that some kind of cosmic and spiritual service centre,
0:44:29 > 0:44:33where the meals will turn out to be fantastic and the Travelodge will have great beds.
0:44:33 > 0:44:37But the reality is, of course, that, like any other civilisation,
0:44:37 > 0:44:41we're almost certainly doomed to some form of extinction.
0:44:43 > 0:44:48The business parks and their relationship to the motorways
0:44:48 > 0:44:54is where ideals of futurity of the late 20th century have finally crashed.
0:44:57 > 0:45:04Since the 1970s and '80s, motorway junctions have been colonised by business parks.
0:45:04 > 0:45:07The post-war search for the perfect living environment
0:45:07 > 0:45:11has now become a search for the ideal work environment.
0:45:12 > 0:45:15180 acres of supreme opportunity.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18It's highly accessible by the motorway network,
0:45:18 > 0:45:20so please come to Green Park.
0:45:21 > 0:45:25The vision is simply to give people a stunning place to work
0:45:25 > 0:45:29where people will be inspired by the architecture around them
0:45:29 > 0:45:33and the environment outside the buildings as well as inside.
0:45:33 > 0:45:36Bottom line is about maximising productivity, because there's an awful lot of
0:45:36 > 0:45:43research that shows that productivity in corporates is maximised through people being happy where they work.
0:45:43 > 0:45:47And we're trying to play our part in delivering that kind of development.
0:45:47 > 0:45:56Just metres from the M4, Green Park is set to provide a working environment for 10,000 people.
0:45:56 > 0:46:03As was once the vision for the new towns, the dream is for this to be a place you never have to leave.
0:46:03 > 0:46:09It is ultimately our aim to absolutely deliver a state-of-the- art sustainable community here.
0:46:09 > 0:46:14We're currently just about to submit plans for a community of just over 700 homes.
0:46:14 > 0:46:18So what we've tried to do is bring on board all the other facilities
0:46:18 > 0:46:20that we would normally find in a town centre.
0:46:22 > 0:46:29So it's about creating choices, but it's always a challenge to influence people's behaviour through planning.
0:46:32 > 0:46:36These fantasies of futuristic motorway communities
0:46:36 > 0:46:39are the product of business rather than state planning.
0:46:42 > 0:46:46In fact, business has always gone hand in hand with motorways.
0:46:51 > 0:46:56These roads weren't built for leisure, but to serve manufacturing.
0:47:22 > 0:47:27In Britain, the purpose of the motorways was to move traffic quickly, to create great trunk
0:47:27 > 0:47:32routes for the movement of goods, primarily, between major cities.
0:47:32 > 0:47:35The distribution of goods is key to the motorway network.
0:47:35 > 0:47:39They were economic drivers and engines for the British economy,
0:47:39 > 0:47:46and today you see that - they are the home of the gigantic lorry, the great truck that carries goods around.
0:47:46 > 0:47:49- Thank you very much.- Hello, mate.
0:47:49 > 0:47:51How are you getting on? Have you been in a bit of traffic?
0:47:51 > 0:47:54I'm stuck in the traffic on the M1 at the moment. So...
0:47:54 > 0:47:56Are you? Right. Go on with it, mate.
0:47:56 > 0:47:58If you can advise the customer.
0:47:58 > 0:48:01Cool. Keep me informed. You have a caseload as well on the back of you, yeah?
0:48:01 > 0:48:04Will do. If I get any other delays I'll give you a ring.
0:48:04 > 0:48:06No worries, mate. I'll speak to you then.
0:48:06 > 0:48:09- Aye, see you, Gaz. - See you buddy. Ta-ta then.- Ta-ta.
0:48:12 > 0:48:20Everything you see round about you and everything you buy in the supermarkets is
0:48:20 > 0:48:22brought to you on the lorry.
0:48:22 > 0:48:25They are the lifeline of Britain.
0:48:25 > 0:48:27I don't think...
0:48:27 > 0:48:32people do realise how important the lorries are.
0:48:33 > 0:48:37If all the lorries stopped in the yard for a week, Britain would come to a standstill.
0:48:43 > 0:48:49Because there is now so little stock in the system, because products are moved long distances by road,
0:48:49 > 0:48:51without road transport the shelves run bare,
0:48:51 > 0:48:54the NHS is severely disrupted, manufacturing grinds to a halt.
0:48:54 > 0:48:58Soon half the country's cars are off the road because they can't get fuel.
0:48:58 > 0:49:02So, altogether life comes to an end within three or four days.
0:49:05 > 0:49:12Best part of my working day is spent up and down the motorways all over the UK.
0:49:12 > 0:49:14The cab is your home for the week and it's...
0:49:14 > 0:49:18We're spending so much time away from home, Monday to Friday,
0:49:18 > 0:49:22being a tramper means that you're spending all your life on the road.
0:49:22 > 0:49:27You leave home on the Monday morning two o'clock, you could head up to Scotland and then reload Scotland,
0:49:27 > 0:49:29back down to Cornwall, Cornwall across to Kent,
0:49:29 > 0:49:33Kent back up to Scotland, Scotland back down to your base.
0:49:33 > 0:49:35This is my three-pedals hotel.
0:49:38 > 0:49:42A quarter of the trucks you pass on the road are carrying food and drink.
0:49:46 > 0:49:50The supermarket has grown in tandem with the motorway network.
0:49:50 > 0:49:56Now, one pound in every three spent on consumer goods in the UK goes into their tills.
0:49:58 > 0:50:01In the '60s, what we would now see as
0:50:01 > 0:50:05almost no choice at all would have seemed liked an awful lot of choice.
0:50:05 > 0:50:09The rate of expansion has just gone on and on mushrooming,
0:50:09 > 0:50:13for want of a better metaphor, and we don't know where it will end.
0:50:18 > 0:50:24The typical superstore will now carry 20 to 25,000 product lines.
0:50:29 > 0:50:33This would not be possible without the motorways constantly providing
0:50:33 > 0:50:37fast and reliable deliveries from the distribution centres alongside them.
0:50:41 > 0:50:47If you drive up British motorways today, you'll find at virtually every intersection these strange worlds.
0:50:47 > 0:50:51These are the worlds of the distribution of goods,
0:50:51 > 0:50:56the world of gigantic warehouses, the world of enormous great lorries.
0:51:01 > 0:51:09Magna Park is the biggest in the UK, sited in a golden motorway triangle of the M1, M6 and M69.
0:51:12 > 0:51:16It was developed in the late '80s by a venture partnership between Asda
0:51:16 > 0:51:19and the Church of England's Pension Fund.
0:51:24 > 0:51:28By investing quite heavily in distribution centres, the large retail chains have been
0:51:28 > 0:51:36able to shift the stock from the shop into the warehouse, thereby releasing space in the shop for sales purposes.
0:51:36 > 0:51:40It's also allowed the retailers to extend the range of products that they hold.
0:51:40 > 0:51:45It's allowed them to channel the product through the system so much more rapidly, allowing them
0:51:45 > 0:51:50to sell the goods to the public and get the public's cash before they have to pay their suppliers.
0:51:50 > 0:51:54So there are a whole series of benefits, really, that have accrued
0:51:54 > 0:52:00from centralising in distribution centres rather than having the suppliers deliver direct to the shop.
0:52:03 > 0:52:05But there are pros and cons.
0:52:05 > 0:52:10The average distance food travels in the UK has more than doubled since 1962.
0:52:14 > 0:52:17This rise isn't just down to the HGV.
0:52:17 > 0:52:20We're also travelling more to shop ourselves.
0:52:24 > 0:52:30And the ultimate shopping experience, of course, is right next to a motorway.
0:52:31 > 0:52:39After driving all them miles all week, I do tend to drive another 150 miles on a Saturday
0:52:39 > 0:52:43to treat the wife to her shopping day out.
0:52:43 > 0:52:50We travel mainly all over the country, could go anywhere to the main shopping centres.
0:52:50 > 0:52:58Trafford Park in Manchester, Lakeside down near London, Bluewater, Cribbs Causeway.
0:52:58 > 0:53:05It's something that my wife gets a lot of enjoyment out of, shopping, and I find it quite relaxing.
0:53:05 > 0:53:09Plonk myself down outside Next with my magazine
0:53:09 > 0:53:12and leave her to shop happily.
0:53:16 > 0:53:19All roads lead today to Bluewater.
0:53:19 > 0:53:22Bluewater is the biggest shopping mall in Britain at the moment
0:53:22 > 0:53:24and of course in a few years it'll probably be one of the smallest.
0:53:24 > 0:53:27Britain is a nation not of shopkeepers as such but of shoppers.
0:53:27 > 0:53:32I mean, it's become a national disease, and I'm sure that many...
0:53:32 > 0:53:35people in Britain love shopping and they live to shop.
0:53:35 > 0:53:38But what's it done to the country?
0:53:38 > 0:53:41Physically, certainly in terms of its architecture and its planning,
0:53:41 > 0:53:43it's littered the landscape with
0:53:43 > 0:53:48these enormous great gas-guzzling, air-conditioned stores, American-style or
0:53:48 > 0:53:53Chinese-style warehouses which suck up masses of energy and they blast out lots of heat.
0:53:53 > 0:53:57They're destroying the planet as much as the cars that use them.
0:54:00 > 0:54:04Bluewater has 27 million visitors a year.
0:54:07 > 0:54:12The product of a survey of over 20,000 people's shopping fantasies,
0:54:12 > 0:54:17it is designed to exacting consumer requirements, and it aims to fulfil all of them.
0:54:23 > 0:54:28I come to Bluewater at least twice a week, probably three times, but at least twice,
0:54:28 > 0:54:31and if I'm here on my own I'm here for shopping,
0:54:31 > 0:54:34generally speaking, or for a beauty treatment.
0:54:34 > 0:54:38I come with my other half at least once a week and generally we come here to eat.
0:54:38 > 0:54:44We've also been learning Spanish here at the Learning Centre, and then I would be here for...
0:54:44 > 0:54:49the cinema - I come with a friend to the cinema - or for lunch or just to meet someone for coffee.
0:54:49 > 0:54:52It's a relaxing place, an enjoyable place to be.
0:54:52 > 0:54:58I wouldn't come here as often without motorways because the local roads are very narrow and very twisty,
0:54:58 > 0:55:04and if the volume of people that use Bluewater were having to use the local roads it would be impossible.
0:55:07 > 0:55:11Bluewater is straddled by two main motorways, the M20 and the M25,
0:55:11 > 0:55:15so for Bluewater's success they're absolutely critical.
0:55:15 > 0:55:20If they do stop running then we notice a downturn in feet.
0:55:21 > 0:55:26We have people who will do a two-hour drive to get here who then may stay for 12 hours.
0:55:26 > 0:55:30They'll maybe have a massage in the spa, they'll have an evening meal
0:55:30 > 0:55:32and then they might take in a film at the cinema.
0:55:32 > 0:55:34So the motorways are critical for us.
0:55:34 > 0:55:37The catchment size is currently about ten-and-a-half million people.
0:55:39 > 0:55:42It's a much pleasanter place to shop than a town centre.
0:55:42 > 0:55:46It's definitely better - you're indoors, you can park under cover.
0:55:47 > 0:55:50From when you leave your house you don't actually have to step out into
0:55:50 > 0:55:53the elements, and while you're here shopping, I feel safer.
0:55:53 > 0:55:55There are security people walking around.
0:55:55 > 0:56:00The stores all have security systems in place and CCTV.
0:56:00 > 0:56:05We have our own on-site police station which is fully manned at all times.
0:56:05 > 0:56:11We have a full team of chaplains who are there very much to give pastoral care and help.
0:56:12 > 0:56:16I have withdrawal symptoms If I don't come shopping here at least once a week.
0:56:16 > 0:56:19Over the Christmas period, when it's so busy and we don't
0:56:19 > 0:56:23tend to come as often I'm very, very, very keen to get back again.
0:56:23 > 0:56:27I think I could be addicted to a lot worse things than Bluewater.
0:56:29 > 0:56:32Bluewater's also part of the National Curriculum for geography,
0:56:32 > 0:56:36so you regularly see very big groups of school children being
0:56:36 > 0:56:42taken around the centre and looking at everything from the architecture through to the individual stores.
0:56:42 > 0:56:45I think that the out-of-town shopping malls are a kind of logical
0:56:45 > 0:56:51conclusion of the way that the motorway system has developed here.
0:56:51 > 0:56:56The aspirational quality of the British motorways was built
0:56:56 > 0:57:02on a consumer vision of a future that was powered by consumption.
0:57:02 > 0:57:08The out-of-town shopping malls have arisen to gratify that as an outgrowth of the roadway,
0:57:08 > 0:57:11and in all conscience that's where we should go.
0:57:20 > 0:57:27Our lives are now spent much more on the tarmac than they were 30 or 40 years ago.
0:57:27 > 0:57:31In a sense, the motorways form a kind of sticky network
0:57:31 > 0:57:36of connections linking those separate parts of our lives.
0:57:39 > 0:57:44Living without the motorways would be an absolute nightmare.
0:57:44 > 0:57:48Can you imagine all the traffic trying to get through London that comes round this M25?
0:57:48 > 0:57:51I certainly couldn't live without the motorways. I certainly couldn't work without the motorways.
0:57:51 > 0:57:55I might be able to live but it would be living like a hermit.
0:57:55 > 0:57:57Give me the motorways any day.
0:57:57 > 0:57:59I agree there.
0:58:00 > 0:58:04I suppose it's a form of democracy gone crazy.
0:58:04 > 0:58:07I mean, where democracy seizes up, when you've got too many people
0:58:07 > 0:58:09trying to do the same thing and to be democratic, as it were.
0:58:09 > 0:58:13Everyone wants to be democratic, everyone wants equal rights on the road and you end up, of course,
0:58:13 > 0:58:16with the 28 million cars which we have today all squashed up together.
0:58:16 > 0:58:22In 1959, when the M1 opened, there were 2.8 million cars, so things have changed a little bit.
0:58:30 > 0:58:35Next time we look at how we fell out of love with the motorway,
0:58:35 > 0:58:40charting the rise of the road protest movement and the passions that were aroused.
0:58:43 > 0:58:46Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:46 > 0:58:48E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk