0:00:10 > 0:00:12On the morning of 23th January 1901,
0:00:12 > 0:00:16Britain woke up to hear that the old queen,
0:00:16 > 0:00:21the queen empress, Queen Victoria was dead.
0:00:22 > 0:00:27Victoria had reigned for nearly 64 years.
0:00:27 > 0:00:30She was the most famous woman in the world.
0:00:30 > 0:00:34And it felt like the world was over.
0:00:39 > 0:00:42Victoria died in bed, surrounded by her family.
0:00:42 > 0:00:45She was clasping a crucifix.
0:00:45 > 0:00:50If it was there to ward off evil spirits, it didn't work,
0:00:50 > 0:00:53because she died in the arms of her grandson,
0:00:53 > 0:00:56the German Kaiser, Wilhelm II,
0:00:56 > 0:01:00a man who would do his bit to ensure that the new century
0:01:00 > 0:01:03was the bloodiest in human history,
0:01:03 > 0:01:06with Victoria's British in the thick of it.
0:01:19 > 0:01:23From the death of Queen Victoria to the end of the Second World War
0:01:23 > 0:01:25is a paltry space of time...
0:01:25 > 0:01:27just 44 years.
0:01:27 > 0:01:31And yet during it, this country was shaken from top to toe.
0:01:32 > 0:01:36The Empire tottered...
0:01:36 > 0:01:38women won the vote...
0:01:39 > 0:01:42...democracy came of age...
0:01:44 > 0:01:51...and we fought two apocalyptic world wars to defend it.
0:01:57 > 0:02:03Dark, funny, surprising, and not so long ago.
0:02:03 > 0:02:09These are the years when modern Britain was born.
0:02:47 > 0:02:53These people were our grandparents and great-grandparents.
0:02:53 > 0:02:56But if we could travel through time to meet them,
0:02:56 > 0:02:59would we feel at home in their Britain?
0:02:59 > 0:03:05Fabulous wealth was spilling from roaring, belching cities...
0:03:05 > 0:03:07But millions went hungry...
0:03:07 > 0:03:11really hungry, gaunt hungry.
0:03:11 > 0:03:16Shoeless children could be seen on the streets of every town.
0:03:18 > 0:03:20We weren't a democracy.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23Only a quarter of the adult population had the right to vote.
0:03:23 > 0:03:25All of them men.
0:03:30 > 0:03:33Government brimmed with aristocrats.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38The Tory Prime Minister Lord Salisbury was a very clever
0:03:38 > 0:03:41but darkly pessimistic reactionary
0:03:41 > 0:03:45who privately referred to voters as "vermin".
0:03:46 > 0:03:51Like Queen Victoria, he was above all a figure of empire.
0:03:51 > 0:03:55Britain still ruled a quarter of the world's people after all.
0:03:56 > 0:03:59But for how long?
0:04:09 > 0:04:13In 1901, British troops were fighting a brutal war
0:04:13 > 0:04:15over the gold-rich territories of South Africa.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21The Boer War was fought
0:04:21 > 0:04:24between the largest empire in the history of the world
0:04:24 > 0:04:28and a small force of untrained Dutch farmers...
0:04:28 > 0:04:29or "Boers".
0:04:32 > 0:04:36The British Army arrived here supremely convinced
0:04:36 > 0:04:40they were going to give the Boers a damned good thrashing.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44They were dressed in their latest cunning uniform,
0:04:44 > 0:04:48coloured dust, or to use the Indian word, "khaki".
0:04:48 > 0:04:51They had their sabres and their lances
0:04:51 > 0:04:52and rather old-fashioned rifles.
0:04:52 > 0:04:57The Boers, on the other hand, had the latest German rifles,
0:04:57 > 0:04:59they knew how to dig trenches
0:04:59 > 0:05:03and they understood the terrain intimately.
0:05:03 > 0:05:0719th-century cavalry warfare
0:05:07 > 0:05:12was about to meet 20th-century guerrilla fighters...
0:05:12 > 0:05:16and somebody was about to get a thrashing.
0:05:20 > 0:05:22Running the show was Joseph Chamberlain,
0:05:22 > 0:05:28a man bestriding British politics, a master rabble-rouser
0:05:28 > 0:05:33and the most fervent imperialist in the high noon of empire.
0:05:35 > 0:05:39Chamberlain had built his political power base in Birmingham
0:05:39 > 0:05:43as a radical liberal, before moving sharply to the right.
0:05:43 > 0:05:48He'd split his own party and joined the Tories.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52Joe Chamberlain was a self-made man.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55He'd made his millions manufacturing screws in Birmingham.
0:05:55 > 0:05:59But he was also self-made for the new media age
0:05:59 > 0:06:02with his swish velvet coat,
0:06:02 > 0:06:06white orchid in the lapel and his monocle...
0:06:06 > 0:06:10as famous in its day as Margaret Thatcher's handbag
0:06:10 > 0:06:13or Winston Churchill's cigar.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19Chamberlain believed that the new century could be British,
0:06:19 > 0:06:23with the Empire expanding and dominating the whole world.
0:06:23 > 0:06:28In 1901, for most British people, this seemed perfectly possible,
0:06:28 > 0:06:31and they looked to Joe to lead them.
0:06:32 > 0:06:36Chamberlain was a political whirlwind.
0:06:36 > 0:06:40In Churchill's phrase, "the man who made the weather".
0:06:40 > 0:06:44And now he was conjuring up a storm
0:06:44 > 0:06:51meant to expand Empire abroad and overturn the old politics at home.
0:06:51 > 0:06:55The Boer War was known as "Joe's War"
0:06:55 > 0:06:58and Chamberlain was confident of victory.
0:06:59 > 0:07:02But the Boers were outmanoeuvring the British -
0:07:02 > 0:07:06ambushing the Army and then disappearing into the hills.
0:07:09 > 0:07:14The conflict was turning into Imperial Britain's very own Vietnam.
0:07:16 > 0:07:18Joe called for drastic measures.
0:07:18 > 0:07:23And Commander-in-Chief Lord Kitchener was the man to take them.
0:07:34 > 0:07:36In order to flush out the guerrillas,
0:07:36 > 0:07:41Kitchener created a vast barbed-wire net,
0:07:41 > 0:07:44spreading right across the country,
0:07:44 > 0:07:46with 8,000 defensive blockhouses,
0:07:46 > 0:07:49like this one, at every corner.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52British forces swept through the countryside,
0:07:52 > 0:07:57killing cattle and sheep, burning crops.
0:07:57 > 0:08:02There were 30,000 undefended Boer farmhouses.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06Every single one of them was burned to the ground.
0:08:11 > 0:08:14This destruction left thousands of Boer civilians,
0:08:14 > 0:08:17mostly women and children, homeless.
0:08:20 > 0:08:24But Lord Kitchener had a plan for them as well.
0:08:27 > 0:08:31The British army rounded up around 160,000 women and children,
0:08:31 > 0:08:34crammed them into wagons or railway trucks,
0:08:34 > 0:08:40and transported them to hastily improvised refugee camps,
0:08:40 > 0:08:46which, guarded by the Army, quickly became outdoor prisons
0:08:46 > 0:08:49and then, thanks to military incompetence,
0:08:49 > 0:08:53not by design, they became places of horror.
0:08:53 > 0:08:58Kitchener's policy gave the world a new phrase -
0:08:58 > 0:09:01"concentration camps".
0:09:12 > 0:09:18In December 1900, a young Cornish woman called Emily Hobhouse
0:09:18 > 0:09:22came to South Africa to deliver food and clothing to the camps.
0:09:22 > 0:09:27She found women and children living in tents under the relentless sun,
0:09:27 > 0:09:28starvation rations,
0:09:28 > 0:09:32terrible sanitation, swarms of flies everywhere.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41Stepping into one tent.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44Hobhouse came across an eight-year-old girl called Lizzie van Zyl.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50On the verge of starvation, she was dying of typhoid.
0:09:55 > 0:10:00Emily Hobhouse decided it was her duty to tell the people of Britain
0:10:00 > 0:10:03exactly what was being done out here in their name.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06And she spoke plainly.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09She talked of "wholesale cruelty",
0:10:09 > 0:10:14"murder to the children" and "a war of extermination".
0:10:14 > 0:10:18And Emily Hobhouse was proved horribly right.
0:10:18 > 0:10:2526,000 Boer women and children died in British concentration camps,
0:10:25 > 0:10:2980% of them under the age of 16.
0:10:56 > 0:11:01Back in Britain, a powerful anti-war movement was mobilising.
0:11:01 > 0:11:07It was led by the Liberal Party's rising star, David Lloyd George,
0:11:07 > 0:11:11the first British politician to be the subject of a biopic.
0:11:13 > 0:11:17In December 1901, he was invited to address
0:11:17 > 0:11:20an anti-war meeting in Birmingham's Town Hall.
0:11:20 > 0:11:25This was the heart of Joe Chamberlain's political power
0:11:25 > 0:11:29and Lloyd George had the Liberal turncoat in his sights.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36This was too good an opportunity to miss,
0:11:36 > 0:11:40but the police told Lloyd George on no account to go to Birmingham.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43His appearance here would cause a riot.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46There were people in Birmingham who wanted to kill him.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50Joe Chamberlain was rubbing his hands with glee.
0:11:50 > 0:11:56"If Lloyd George wants his life, he'd better stay away," he said.
0:11:56 > 0:11:59And then he twisted the political knife.
0:11:59 > 0:12:05"If he doesn't come, I'll see that everyone knows he's afraid.
0:12:05 > 0:12:10"If he does, he deserves all he gets."
0:12:14 > 0:12:16But Lloyd George didn't flinch.
0:12:16 > 0:12:20On December 18 1901,
0:12:20 > 0:12:23he boldly stepped onto the stage of the Birmingham Town Hall.
0:12:23 > 0:12:29But before he could open his mouth, an angry pro-war mob, 30,000 strong,
0:12:29 > 0:12:32smashed all the Town Hall windows,
0:12:32 > 0:12:35broke down the door and stormed in.
0:12:35 > 0:12:37Two men were killed in the crush.
0:12:37 > 0:12:39Many more were injured.
0:12:45 > 0:12:48Lloyd George only managed to escape the mob
0:12:48 > 0:12:51by disguising himself as a policeman, helmet and all,
0:12:51 > 0:12:53and sneaking out of a side entrance.
0:12:53 > 0:12:58Back down in London, a vengeful Joe Chamberlain was lurking in his club,
0:12:58 > 0:13:01waiting for news. When he heard that Lloyd George had escaped,
0:13:01 > 0:13:03he was bitterly disappointed.
0:13:07 > 0:13:12The Boers finally surrendered in May 1902.
0:13:13 > 0:13:19It had taken two-and-a-half years, the equivalent of £20 billion,
0:13:19 > 0:13:22and an army of a quarter of a million British soldiers
0:13:22 > 0:13:26to defeat 60,000 Boer farmers.
0:13:28 > 0:13:32And so David had given Goliath one heck of a kicking
0:13:32 > 0:13:35and there was a massive national crisis of confidence.
0:13:35 > 0:13:40Then it was revealed that almost half of the men who'd volunteered
0:13:40 > 0:13:45for South Africa were unfit to fight - they were sick or too weak.
0:13:45 > 0:13:51Pamphlets began to appear, asking, "Can England survive the century?"
0:13:51 > 0:13:54or "What Should England Do To Be Saved?"
0:13:54 > 0:13:57The British Empire still stood as tall,
0:13:57 > 0:14:01but perhaps now wobbling a bit on feet of clay.
0:14:03 > 0:14:07Perhaps to save ourselves, we'd have to go back to nature.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11The scientist Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin's,
0:14:11 > 0:14:15believed we could breed better Britons.
0:14:15 > 0:14:17Galton found his inspiration
0:14:17 > 0:14:21in The Bassett Hound Club Rules And Studbook.
0:14:21 > 0:14:23Come on!
0:14:23 > 0:14:25He read that each individual puppy
0:14:25 > 0:14:30inherited its unique set of splodges and colours from its parents.
0:14:32 > 0:14:36Galton came to the conclusion that our genetic inheritance
0:14:36 > 0:14:38also dictated our fate
0:14:38 > 0:14:41and that nothing could alter it...
0:14:41 > 0:14:45not upbringing, not education.
0:14:48 > 0:14:49According to Galton,
0:14:49 > 0:14:55the poorest classes had little or no civic worth or value
0:14:55 > 0:14:56and no chance of getting better,
0:14:56 > 0:15:01so they should be discouraged from breeding.
0:15:01 > 0:15:06Criminals should be segregated and forbidden from reproducing.
0:15:06 > 0:15:08But the upper and middle classes,
0:15:08 > 0:15:12brimming with vigour and intelligence and virtue,
0:15:12 > 0:15:15should be encouraged to have as many children as possible.
0:15:15 > 0:15:20For Galton, human equality was meaningless.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25The ravings of a lone eccentric?
0:15:25 > 0:15:28Absolutely not.
0:15:28 > 0:15:30This was an age of science,
0:15:30 > 0:15:33and Galton was a scientific superstar.
0:15:33 > 0:15:37Cabinet ministers, bishops, and influential writers,
0:15:37 > 0:15:39many of them on the left,
0:15:39 > 0:15:42thought he was the man who could save Britain
0:15:42 > 0:15:48with his new science of human advancement - eugenics.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51George Bernard Shaw, the playwright
0:15:51 > 0:15:53and Britain's leading public intellectual of the time,
0:15:53 > 0:15:56said that nothing short of a eugenic religion
0:15:56 > 0:15:59would save Britain from moral decline.
0:15:59 > 0:16:05"We must never hesitate," he went on, "to carry out the negative aspect
0:16:05 > 0:16:08"of eugenics with considerable zest,
0:16:08 > 0:16:11"both on the scaffold and on the battlefield."
0:16:11 > 0:16:15And these ideas went international.
0:16:15 > 0:16:19Scandinavians and Americans carried Galton's ideas back with them.
0:16:19 > 0:16:25So did Germans, who formed the Racial Hygiene Society.
0:16:25 > 0:16:31From the basset hound studbook to Auschwitz in not many bounds...
0:16:31 > 0:16:34Francis Galton's eugenics
0:16:34 > 0:16:38was among modern Britain's more doubtful exports.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46Thankfully, at just the same moment, there were other thinkers at work.
0:16:47 > 0:16:50Saturday, 7 July 1900
0:16:50 > 0:16:55was a hot, sticky day in the narrow back streets of York.
0:16:55 > 0:16:58At first light, a shadowy figure stood holding a notebook,
0:16:58 > 0:17:03watching the door of a small, dirty pub.
0:17:07 > 0:17:13By 6am, people were already rattling the door of the public house.
0:17:13 > 0:17:17Everybody who went in, everyone who came out
0:17:17 > 0:17:19was duly noted down in the little book.
0:17:19 > 0:17:26In all, 550 people went in, 113 of them children.
0:17:26 > 0:17:31"Children simply abound here," the investigator wrote.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34"I count no less than 13
0:17:34 > 0:17:38"sitting on the public house steps and the pavement."
0:17:40 > 0:17:44The observer was one of a team of private inspectors
0:17:44 > 0:17:48in an investigation into the living conditions of the poor.
0:17:48 > 0:17:52The project was the brainchild of a wealthy Quaker
0:17:52 > 0:17:56called Seebohm Rowntree - a member of the sweets and chocolate family.
0:17:58 > 0:18:03As the inspectors delved deeper and deeper into the backstreets of York,
0:18:03 > 0:18:07their anger and nausea began to smoke from the statistics
0:18:07 > 0:18:09and the dry notes.
0:18:09 > 0:18:14"Dirty flock bedding in living room placed on box and two chairs."
0:18:14 > 0:18:19"Smell of room from dirt and bad air unbearable."
0:18:19 > 0:18:25"Nearby, 16 families were sharing one water tap.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28"The grating under the water tap
0:18:28 > 0:18:31"is used for the disposal of human excreta
0:18:31 > 0:18:37"and was partially blocked with it when inspected."
0:18:40 > 0:18:45The rich had always blamed the poor for bringing poverty upon themselves
0:18:45 > 0:18:48by being idle or feckless.
0:18:48 > 0:18:52But Rowntree's study demonstrated in cold, statistical fact
0:18:52 > 0:18:56that people slipped into poverty for many different reasons.
0:19:02 > 0:19:04The poor were victims.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07They weren't genetic failures. They were women without an income
0:19:07 > 0:19:10who'd been widowed or deserted,
0:19:10 > 0:19:14they were people broken by ill health or old age, unable to work,
0:19:14 > 0:19:17or they were in work but simply weren't being paid enough
0:19:17 > 0:19:20to keep themselves and their families decently.
0:19:20 > 0:19:26Rowntree's book, published in 1901 and called simply Poverty,
0:19:26 > 0:19:29is among the most important things written by a British person
0:19:29 > 0:19:31in the 20th century.
0:19:31 > 0:19:33It set thinking Britain alight.
0:19:33 > 0:19:36It convinced a generation of Liberal politicians
0:19:36 > 0:19:40they needed to deliver welfare and social reform,
0:19:40 > 0:19:43which is perhaps why we've never had
0:19:43 > 0:19:46a successful revolutionary movement in this country.
0:19:46 > 0:19:50So Seebohm Rowntree didn't only trump Galton,
0:19:50 > 0:19:54he trumped the Communist Manifesto as well.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57(UP-BEAT MELODY PLAYS)
0:20:01 > 0:20:06But it wasn't all pubs and poverty for the Edwardian poor.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09# ..Any old iron Any, any, any old iron
0:20:09 > 0:20:12# You look neat Talk about a treat
0:20:12 > 0:20:15# You look a dapper from your napper to your feet... #
0:20:15 > 0:20:21At just this moment, a raucous form of working-class entertainment
0:20:21 > 0:20:25was forcing its way into the heart of Britain's cities.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33It's hard to imagine
0:20:33 > 0:20:35the sights and sounds and smells of the old music hall,
0:20:35 > 0:20:40the stench of unwashed bodies and dirty clothes,
0:20:40 > 0:20:44the air thick with tobacco smoke from the pipes and the cigars
0:20:44 > 0:20:46that all the men would be smoking.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49A lot of the audience would be drinking, quite heavily,
0:20:49 > 0:20:50and eating during the acts,
0:20:50 > 0:20:53so the performers had only a few seconds
0:20:53 > 0:20:55to grab the attention of the audience.
0:20:55 > 0:21:00And for those who failed, every town had a different tradition.
0:21:00 > 0:21:04At Glasgow and Newcastle, for instance, they threw steel rivets.
0:21:04 > 0:21:08In the East End of London, it was vegetables and trotter bones.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12You'd get dead cats and even dead dogs flying onto the stage,
0:21:12 > 0:21:17so it kind of paid to hold a note and tell a good joke.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26But Britain had talent.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29Music hall was the popular telly of its day -
0:21:29 > 0:21:34its songs, the chart toppers, its acts, the pop stars.
0:21:35 > 0:21:40And the biggest star of all was Marie Lloyd.
0:21:40 > 0:21:42MARIE LLOYD: # I never was a one to go and think meself
0:21:42 > 0:21:46# If I liked a thing, I liked it And that's enough
0:21:46 > 0:21:48# But there's lots of people say... #
0:21:48 > 0:21:51Born in poverty in London's East End,
0:21:51 > 0:21:56Marie Lloyd was loved for her working-class cheek and wit.
0:21:56 > 0:21:58# Everything if you fancy it
0:21:58 > 0:22:01# Get on with it Don't waste no time... #
0:22:01 > 0:22:03Her act was mostly sentimental songs
0:22:03 > 0:22:07but her bawdy delivery was her trademark.
0:22:07 > 0:22:09# ...A little of what you fancy does you good! #
0:22:12 > 0:22:15When the London County Council launched a major investigation
0:22:15 > 0:22:18into smut in the variety theatre,
0:22:18 > 0:22:22Marie Lloyd was summoned to explain herself.
0:22:22 > 0:22:24And she stood in front of the committee
0:22:24 > 0:22:27and sang three of her most notorious songs,
0:22:27 > 0:22:31but with a completely straight, butter-wouldn't-melt innocence
0:22:31 > 0:22:33that had them totally confused. Didn't see anything wrong at all.
0:22:33 > 0:22:37And then she chose a song their daughters would have known,
0:22:37 > 0:22:40Tennyson's Come Into The Garden, Maud -
0:22:40 > 0:22:42about as proper as you could get.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46But she sang it with such filthy suggestiveness
0:22:46 > 0:22:49that they were soon pink and squirming with embarrassment.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52And it's said she just looked them in the eye
0:22:52 > 0:22:56and laughed and walked off.
0:22:56 > 0:22:59MAN: # Come into the garden, Maud
0:22:59 > 0:23:04# For the black bat, Night, has flown... #
0:23:05 > 0:23:08But this rip-roaring, working-class entertainment
0:23:08 > 0:23:12was now finding a new, upmarket audience.
0:23:14 > 0:23:19Lavish new music halls were being built all over Britain.
0:23:19 > 0:23:21And on Christmas Eve 1904,
0:23:21 > 0:23:24the grandest music hall of all was opened.
0:23:24 > 0:23:29This was the most magnificent theatre in London,
0:23:29 > 0:23:32complete with restaurants, writing-rooms, lounges,
0:23:32 > 0:23:37free telephones, and the first lifts to appear in any European theatre.
0:23:37 > 0:23:44A train ran from the lobby to the royal box.
0:23:44 > 0:23:47And an electric globe topped the building,
0:23:47 > 0:23:51spinning in the night sky.
0:23:54 > 0:23:59The Coliseum was the brainchild of a showman called Oswald Stoll,
0:23:59 > 0:24:03who'd been managing music halls from the age of 14.
0:24:05 > 0:24:07From humble beginnings in Liverpool,
0:24:07 > 0:24:11Stoll had built up a music hall empire.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14The Coliseum was his crowning glory.
0:24:15 > 0:24:18Oswald Stoll was a shrewd businessman
0:24:18 > 0:24:20who wanted the middle classes
0:24:20 > 0:24:24to visit the Coliseum without fear of offence.
0:24:24 > 0:24:29So, he decided to tame music hall, censoring the songs
0:24:29 > 0:24:32and the patter of the performers before they got on stage.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35He put up signs in the Coliseum dressing rooms saying,
0:24:35 > 0:24:39"Please do not use any strong language here."
0:24:39 > 0:24:42One disgruntled artiste said to him,
0:24:42 > 0:24:46"Mr Stoll, you shouldn't be manager of a music hall,
0:24:46 > 0:24:48"you should be a bishop."
0:24:50 > 0:24:53Stuffy old Stoll was invited
0:24:53 > 0:24:57to stage the first ever Royal Command Performance.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04This would be his finest hour.
0:25:06 > 0:25:12Stoll flooded the auditorium with three million roses.
0:25:12 > 0:25:17And a flock of royals, aristocrats and starchy hangers-on
0:25:17 > 0:25:20descended on the theatre for the social event of the season,
0:25:20 > 0:25:22the performance of the century...
0:25:24 > 0:25:26And yet, when it came to it,
0:25:26 > 0:25:29the whole evening was curiously flat.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32Something to do, perhaps, with the non-appearance
0:25:32 > 0:25:36of the only real superstar of music hall, Marie Lloyd.
0:25:36 > 0:25:41Stoll had decided that she was a bit vulgar for monarchy
0:25:41 > 0:25:43and he'd kept her off the bill.
0:25:43 > 0:25:49Marie Lloyd was livid. Did she get her revenge?
0:25:49 > 0:25:52Ladies and gentlemen, she got her revenge.
0:25:52 > 0:25:54She hired another theatre just down the road
0:25:54 > 0:25:57and filled it all for herself
0:25:57 > 0:26:02and belted out and sashayed her way through one hit after another
0:26:02 > 0:26:06until the audience was roaring and stomping for more.
0:26:07 > 0:26:11And on the placards outside her theatre it read,
0:26:11 > 0:26:13"Every performance by Marie Lloyd
0:26:13 > 0:26:18"is a command performance - by order of the British public."
0:26:18 > 0:26:23Now that was the spirit of music hall!
0:26:23 > 0:26:28# Cos a little of what you fancy does you good! #
0:26:39 > 0:26:42All over Britain, salty little waves of democracy
0:26:42 > 0:26:46were beginning to wash around the old order.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49But the aristocracy carried on regardless
0:26:49 > 0:26:53at its most expansively self-indulgent.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56At the centre of the party was the most decadent monarch
0:26:56 > 0:26:59of the 20th century, Edward VII,
0:26:59 > 0:27:03a sleepy-eyed, avocado-shaped man known as Bertie.
0:27:06 > 0:27:10His mother had believed in a life of duty and propriety.
0:27:10 > 0:27:16Edward was more interested in indulgence of all kinds.
0:27:16 > 0:27:19For the King and his court,
0:27:19 > 0:27:23the Edwardian menu involved an astonishing amount of food.
0:27:23 > 0:27:25Breakfast was a light meal -
0:27:25 > 0:27:30bacon, eggs, sausage, kippers, kedgeree, porridge.
0:27:30 > 0:27:32And then, for Edward,
0:27:32 > 0:27:38lobster salad or a cold chicken would be a mere snack
0:27:38 > 0:27:40to prepare him for lunch.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44Never fewer than eight courses.
0:27:45 > 0:27:48Welcome respite then until tea -
0:27:48 > 0:27:51cold meat, sandwiches, macaroons,
0:27:51 > 0:27:56scones, cakes of all kinds.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59A welcome respite then before the main event -
0:27:59 > 0:28:04dinner, even without guests, the court would expect...
0:28:04 > 0:28:0712 courses.
0:28:07 > 0:28:13Before a final manful waddle to supper -
0:28:13 > 0:28:18cold meat, sandwiches, more cakes and cheese.
0:28:20 > 0:28:24And another day of remarkable achievement.
0:28:35 > 0:28:38Despite their excesses, royalty and the aristocracy
0:28:38 > 0:28:42were still treated with automatic deference and respect.
0:28:42 > 0:28:47And the power of heredity still ruled in government.
0:28:49 > 0:28:54When Robert, Lord Salisbury, retired as Prime Minister in 1902,
0:28:54 > 0:28:58his fellow aristocrats in government selected his nephew,
0:28:58 > 0:29:03Arthur Balfour, as the new leader of the Tory party...
0:29:03 > 0:29:05and Prime Minister.
0:29:05 > 0:29:08Even then, there was serious muttering
0:29:08 > 0:29:12about an act of such gross patronage.
0:29:12 > 0:29:15It's said that's where we get the phrase "Bob's your uncle" from.
0:29:15 > 0:29:20And certainly, Arthur Balfour wasn't an obvious national leader.
0:29:20 > 0:29:25He was known for his high intellect, his delicate appearance,
0:29:25 > 0:29:29his love of velvet and blue china.
0:29:29 > 0:29:30From university days
0:29:30 > 0:29:36he'd been nick-named "Miss Balfour", "Tiger Lily" or "Pretty Fanny".
0:29:36 > 0:29:41And there were plenty who thought him simply too delicate
0:29:41 > 0:29:44for the hurly-burly of imperial politics.
0:29:48 > 0:29:53This was the great age of country-house politics.
0:29:53 > 0:29:57There were a grand total of two working-class MPs
0:29:57 > 0:29:59in the House of Commons.
0:29:59 > 0:30:02And Arthur Balfour is said to have remarked once
0:30:02 > 0:30:06that he had no idea what a trade union actually was.
0:30:06 > 0:30:12Probably a joke but, by then, no longer a very funny one.
0:30:30 > 0:30:32At the turn of the century,
0:30:32 > 0:30:36trade unions weren't a significant political force.
0:30:36 > 0:30:38Industrial unrest was rare.
0:30:38 > 0:30:40But in the summer of 1900,
0:30:40 > 0:30:43events in South Wales were about to change this.
0:30:45 > 0:30:48In the second week of August,
0:30:48 > 0:30:51a signalman by the name of John Ewington,
0:30:51 > 0:30:55who worked for the Taff Vale Railway Company,
0:30:55 > 0:30:59was told he was going to be moved away from his village of Abercynon
0:30:59 > 0:31:01to a district 16 miles away.
0:31:01 > 0:31:06He had a sick wife and ten children, and he didn't want to go.
0:31:06 > 0:31:09But when he protested, he was told that this was really
0:31:09 > 0:31:14a punishment for his repeated requests for higher pay.
0:31:14 > 0:31:18Now, this is one man's story, nothing much,
0:31:18 > 0:31:23but just sometimes a pebble can begin an avalanche.
0:31:27 > 0:31:31The union retaliated by calling an all-out strike.
0:31:32 > 0:31:36Train services in South Wales came to a stand-still.
0:31:38 > 0:31:41Coal was left in heaps at the pitheads.
0:31:44 > 0:31:47As the strike entered its second week,
0:31:47 > 0:31:4916,000 miners were laid off.
0:31:52 > 0:31:55Now, the railway's general manager,
0:31:55 > 0:31:58Ammon Beasley, was a rabid anti-trade unionist.
0:31:58 > 0:32:01And he brought in blackleg, outside labour,
0:32:01 > 0:32:03to keep the line running.
0:32:03 > 0:32:06So how did the strikers respond?
0:32:06 > 0:32:09Sabotage! They greased the railway lines
0:32:09 > 0:32:12so that when the carriages came along,
0:32:12 > 0:32:15the wheels started to spin, and the train stopped.
0:32:15 > 0:32:19And at that point, the strikers leapt out from these bushes
0:32:19 > 0:32:21and un-coupled the carriages.
0:32:21 > 0:32:25This was extremely irresponsible and dangerous,
0:32:25 > 0:32:27and it worked brilliantly.
0:32:27 > 0:32:32Beasley decided that he was going to discuss wages after all
0:32:32 > 0:32:35and the strike was called off.
0:32:41 > 0:32:43But the battle was far from over.
0:32:47 > 0:32:50Beasley took the Railway Workers' Union to court,
0:32:50 > 0:32:54where the judge ruled that the union was accountable for the strike,
0:32:54 > 0:32:56and should pay all damages and costs,
0:32:56 > 0:33:01£23,000, over £2 million today.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04Overnight, the unions were crippled.
0:33:08 > 0:33:12Striking was now financially impossible.
0:33:12 > 0:33:15The Taff Vale Ruling would transform
0:33:15 > 0:33:18the trade union movement and British politics.
0:33:18 > 0:33:23The union leaders began to realise that if they wanted to change the law,
0:33:23 > 0:33:27if they wanted to protect themselves, they had to get their people
0:33:27 > 0:33:33inside the aristocrat-barnacled club called Parliament.
0:33:33 > 0:33:35They needed MPs.
0:33:35 > 0:33:40It didn't happen overnight, but slowly, awkwardly,
0:33:40 > 0:33:46in ill-fitting suits, sometimes even in cloth caps, former railwaymen,
0:33:46 > 0:33:50former miners, boiler-makers, and lowly clerks,
0:33:50 > 0:33:57would start to win their place in the great gothic Palace of Westminster.
0:33:57 > 0:34:01Funny, the places a small, local railway can take you.
0:34:15 > 0:34:19But, for now, the biggest challenge facing Imperial Britain
0:34:19 > 0:34:21wasn't coming from the socialists,
0:34:21 > 0:34:24but from the growing industrial competition
0:34:24 > 0:34:27from Germany and the United States.
0:34:28 > 0:34:31And now, Joe Chamberlain, the great imperialist,
0:34:31 > 0:34:34had found a new magic potion
0:34:34 > 0:34:39to build a stronger, greater British Empire for the new century.
0:34:41 > 0:34:44He returned to his old stomping ground
0:34:44 > 0:34:47to make the speech of his life.
0:34:47 > 0:34:51On May 15 1903,
0:34:51 > 0:34:53Joseph Chamberlain stood on this platform
0:34:53 > 0:34:57in Birmingham Town Hall and fired the first shot
0:34:57 > 0:35:00in an extraordinary guerrilla campaign
0:35:00 > 0:35:02to change the course of British politics.
0:35:02 > 0:35:06Everything the Government thought was important
0:35:06 > 0:35:11would be swept to one side, he announced, for one issue.
0:35:11 > 0:35:14It was about the future of the British Empire.
0:35:14 > 0:35:17It was about where we stood in the world.
0:35:17 > 0:35:21It was about who would do well and who would go hungry.
0:35:21 > 0:35:25It had a very boring name - tariff reform.
0:35:25 > 0:35:29But it would tear this country in two.
0:35:39 > 0:35:44Victorian Britain had been built on international free trade.
0:35:44 > 0:35:47It was almost a national religion.
0:35:47 > 0:35:52But now, both Germany and America were using import taxes, or tariffs,
0:35:52 > 0:35:57as a defensive wall to protect their increasingly mighty markets
0:35:57 > 0:35:59from British competition.
0:36:02 > 0:36:06Chamberlain's response was beautifully simple.
0:36:06 > 0:36:10We should throw a similar wall around the British Empire.
0:36:10 > 0:36:16We'd tax all foreign manufactures and food coming from outside.
0:36:16 > 0:36:18Free trade inside.
0:36:18 > 0:36:21British industry would supply British colonies,
0:36:21 > 0:36:24the British colonies would feed the British people.
0:36:24 > 0:36:26And the clincher -
0:36:26 > 0:36:29the taxes on the foreign stuff
0:36:29 > 0:36:32would be spent at home on old-age pensions.
0:36:32 > 0:36:35Everybody wins.
0:36:35 > 0:36:38(APPLAUSE)
0:36:44 > 0:36:48Brilliant....except for this.
0:36:48 > 0:36:53Chamberlain's wall of taxes would have meant British industry becoming
0:36:53 > 0:36:58flabbier, less competitive compared to the Germans and the Americans.
0:36:58 > 0:37:01At the start of a new century,
0:37:01 > 0:37:03Britain would have been turning her back,
0:37:03 > 0:37:06flinching from the rest of the world.
0:37:06 > 0:37:11And most important, those taxes on foreign goods
0:37:11 > 0:37:14would make food at home more expensive,
0:37:14 > 0:37:18particularly harsh on the urban poor.
0:37:18 > 0:37:23Very soon, Chamberlain's critics were calling his tariffs "stomach taxes".
0:37:24 > 0:37:28MAN: # All the members but one In the House of Parliament
0:37:28 > 0:37:32# Of free trade and protection They were having an argument
0:37:32 > 0:37:36# Oh, what an argument...! #
0:37:38 > 0:37:41Chamberlain had already torn the Liberal Party apart.
0:37:41 > 0:37:45Now he was working his dark magic on the Tories.
0:37:45 > 0:37:50A podgy young Conservative MP called Winston Churchill was so appalled
0:37:50 > 0:37:52by Chamberlain's protectionist campaign
0:37:52 > 0:37:56that he crossed the floor of the House of Commons himself
0:37:56 > 0:37:57and joined the Liberals.
0:38:02 > 0:38:05Scenting blood, the Liberal Shadow Chancellor,
0:38:05 > 0:38:08Henry Herbert Asquith, went on the attack.
0:38:11 > 0:38:14Free trade or fortress empire?
0:38:14 > 0:38:17The argument raged for three whole years,
0:38:17 > 0:38:21on platforms, in Parliament, and on music hall stages.
0:38:21 > 0:38:25MAN: # ..Protection you desire Protects what you require
0:38:25 > 0:38:29# But let's have free trade among the girls. #
0:38:35 > 0:38:39Every week, millions followed the twists and turns of Joe's campaign
0:38:39 > 0:38:43by picking up copies of a recent invention -
0:38:43 > 0:38:47newspapers people actually wanted to read.
0:38:47 > 0:38:50Literacy had been on the rise in England and Wales
0:38:50 > 0:38:53ever since the Victorian education reforms.
0:38:54 > 0:38:58The Scots were able to read already, of course.
0:39:02 > 0:39:06The result was a revolution on Fleet Street.
0:39:08 > 0:39:10And the man leading the way
0:39:10 > 0:39:14was one of the "new men" of the more democratic 20th century.
0:39:14 > 0:39:17His name was Alfred Harmsworth.
0:39:19 > 0:39:22Alfred Harmsworth knew what poverty meant.
0:39:22 > 0:39:23At times, when he was young,
0:39:23 > 0:39:28his mother had to keep him warm by wrapping him in newspapers.
0:39:28 > 0:39:31And the family next door went bankrupt
0:39:31 > 0:39:34and all of them killed themselves.
0:39:34 > 0:39:35But Alfred grew up
0:39:35 > 0:39:39to be a golden-haired, strikingly handsome young man,
0:39:39 > 0:39:43almost unable to contain his energy and ambition.
0:39:43 > 0:39:47He was one of those determined not to know to his place.
0:39:52 > 0:39:55Harmsworth had an uncanny instinct
0:39:55 > 0:39:59for what the man and woman in the street was interested in.
0:39:59 > 0:40:02"Did they really want tens of thousands of words
0:40:02 > 0:40:04"of Parliamentary reports?
0:40:05 > 0:40:07"Long letters from bishops?
0:40:09 > 0:40:11"Boring reporting with no pictures?
0:40:12 > 0:40:15"No! They wanted sensation,
0:40:15 > 0:40:17"gossip, laughter."
0:40:21 > 0:40:25Among the phrases coined by Harmsworth is "tabloid newspaper".
0:40:25 > 0:40:29He also said, "When a dog bites a man, it isn't news.
0:40:29 > 0:40:32"When man bites dog, it is."
0:40:32 > 0:40:35And he told his journalists,
0:40:35 > 0:40:39"The three things which are always news things
0:40:39 > 0:40:42"are health things, sex things and money things..."
0:40:42 > 0:40:45which, broadly speaking, remains true.
0:40:50 > 0:40:53Harmsworth built up a powerful publishing empire,
0:40:53 > 0:40:54crowned by the Daily Mail.
0:40:59 > 0:41:04For the Edwardians, the Daily Mail was a really big, new thing.
0:41:04 > 0:41:06All the old ways of journalism,
0:41:06 > 0:41:10endless reporting of dull speeches junked.
0:41:10 > 0:41:15In its place, first person, "I was there" reporting.
0:41:15 > 0:41:17Short, dramatic stories.
0:41:17 > 0:41:19Big and early use of pictures.
0:41:19 > 0:41:21And above all, controversy.
0:41:21 > 0:41:24Get people angry, get them talking,
0:41:24 > 0:41:28get them stirred up today, and they'll be back for more tomorrow.
0:41:34 > 0:41:36Harmsworth followed the Mail with the Mirror,
0:41:36 > 0:41:39and in 1907 bought the Times.
0:41:39 > 0:41:43By then he was known as "the Napoleon of Fleet Street".
0:41:45 > 0:41:49Alfred Harmsworth represented a new force in Britain -
0:41:49 > 0:41:55crude, unpredictable, but brimming with energy.
0:41:55 > 0:41:59HG Wells accused him of "plastering the nation with rubbish"
0:41:59 > 0:42:03and Lord Salisbury huffily dismissed the Daily Mail as
0:42:03 > 0:42:07"a paper by office boys for office boys".
0:42:07 > 0:42:11But they were both completely missing the point.
0:42:11 > 0:42:16Harmsworth's readers were the rising force in Britain.
0:42:16 > 0:42:19Dismiss them at your peril.
0:42:19 > 0:42:23This was the voice of Britain's new democracy.
0:42:27 > 0:42:29(TOOTING)
0:42:35 > 0:42:40But not all the change-makers were targeting the masses.
0:42:40 > 0:42:45In March 1904, two men were about to bring new flash and swagger
0:42:45 > 0:42:48onto the roads of Britain.
0:42:48 > 0:42:49They were an odd couple,
0:42:49 > 0:42:54one, the wealthy son and heir of a titled landowner and a speed-freak.
0:42:56 > 0:42:58The other, a self-made man.
0:42:58 > 0:43:02He'd left school at nine and was now the proud owner
0:43:02 > 0:43:04of a tiny electrical engineering works in Manchester.
0:43:07 > 0:43:11Their names were Charles Rolls and Henry Royce.
0:43:19 > 0:43:24Unimpressed by foreign cars, Royce had taken one to pieces
0:43:24 > 0:43:26and rebuilt it from top to bottom,
0:43:26 > 0:43:30creating a vastly improved new model.
0:43:33 > 0:43:38When Charles Rolls heard about the new car, he was instantly intrigued.
0:43:38 > 0:43:42Perhaps Mr Royce might care to join him in London?
0:43:42 > 0:43:45No go. Mr Royce was far too busy.
0:43:45 > 0:43:46He wasn't budging.
0:43:50 > 0:43:54So Rolls the aristocrat had to get in the train
0:43:54 > 0:43:56and come north to Manchester
0:43:56 > 0:44:00to meet Royce, the self-made, working-class engineer.
0:44:00 > 0:44:02And that's part of the point.
0:44:02 > 0:44:04Power was shifting.
0:44:04 > 0:44:06Rolls had to go to see Royce.
0:44:06 > 0:44:08Not Royce to Rolls.
0:44:08 > 0:44:12At any rate, they met for lunch here in the dining room
0:44:12 > 0:44:15of the city's newly built Midland Hotel.
0:44:15 > 0:44:19And perhaps surprisingly, the meal was a great success.
0:44:19 > 0:44:22And after it they went for a spin in Royce's new car.
0:44:22 > 0:44:25When he got back home to London,
0:44:25 > 0:44:28Rolls dragged his business partner out of bed and told him,
0:44:28 > 0:44:33"I've just met the greatest motor engineer in the world."
0:44:33 > 0:44:35Rolls-Royce was born.
0:44:40 > 0:44:44Before Rolls-Royce, cars were derided
0:44:44 > 0:44:46as entirely unreliable foreign toys.
0:44:57 > 0:45:01They were noisy, dirty, clunking machines.
0:45:08 > 0:45:10Charles Rolls' marketing skills,
0:45:10 > 0:45:16combined with Henry Royce's engineering genius would change this.
0:45:23 > 0:45:28But what really made Rolls-Royce's reputation was this glittering cracker.
0:45:28 > 0:45:31This is not a Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost,
0:45:31 > 0:45:34this is the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost.
0:45:34 > 0:45:39Unique. It's one of the most valuable cars on the planet,
0:45:39 > 0:45:43worth at least £25 million.
0:45:43 > 0:45:47But in 1907, what flabbergasted
0:45:47 > 0:45:51even the most hardened car fanatics was its performance.
0:45:51 > 0:45:57Fast, powerful, reliable and remarkably quiet.
0:45:57 > 0:45:59Not one of the best...
0:45:59 > 0:46:01the best in the world.
0:46:09 > 0:46:14Charles Rolls was soon moving on to conquer the next speed frontier -
0:46:14 > 0:46:16flight.
0:46:16 > 0:46:18He was eager to leave the road behind.
0:46:18 > 0:46:23"No dust, police traps or taxes," he explained.
0:46:26 > 0:46:28He became a national hero
0:46:28 > 0:46:33when he completed the first 90-minute flight to France and back.
0:46:35 > 0:46:38Then, on July the 12th 1910,
0:46:38 > 0:46:42Rolls came to Bournemouth to take part in an air show.
0:46:42 > 0:46:44It was a gusty day,
0:46:44 > 0:46:48bad weather for flying something made out of canvas and sticks.
0:46:48 > 0:46:51A French pilot had already been up and crashed.
0:46:51 > 0:46:56But he was unhurt, and he came to Rolls and said,
0:46:56 > 0:46:58"Look, don't do this."
0:46:58 > 0:47:02Rolls, celebrity daredevil, ignored him, took off,
0:47:02 > 0:47:04made a perfect circuit of the airfield,
0:47:04 > 0:47:08and then came in to land at a spot just opposite the judges' tent.
0:47:08 > 0:47:11People watching thought he was coming in a bit too fast.
0:47:11 > 0:47:15Then there was a sickening crack, part of the aircraft fell off,
0:47:15 > 0:47:17followed by the rest of the aircraft...
0:47:17 > 0:47:20and the Honourable Charles Rolls.
0:47:27 > 0:47:30Rolls was killed instantly,
0:47:30 > 0:47:35the first British casualty of the new age of flight.
0:47:35 > 0:47:38A photographer rushed forward to get a picture.
0:47:38 > 0:47:42But he was set upon and his camera smashed.
0:47:42 > 0:47:47And so ended one of the most successful marriages
0:47:47 > 0:47:51between marketing and industry in our history.
0:47:51 > 0:47:58Had aristocratic flair and elan worked a little more often,
0:47:58 > 0:48:03hand in hand, with northern engineering grit and genius,
0:48:03 > 0:48:08then our industrial history would have been a great deal more successful.
0:48:15 > 0:48:18In the north of England,
0:48:18 > 0:48:21another challenge to the old order was gaining momentum.
0:48:23 > 0:48:27In October 1903, a small group of women met
0:48:27 > 0:48:30in this terraced house in the centre of Manchester,
0:48:30 > 0:48:34the home of the widow and political activist Emmeline Pankhurst
0:48:34 > 0:48:39and her three daughters Christabel, Silvia and Adela.
0:48:40 > 0:48:43And at that meeting, in this parlour,
0:48:43 > 0:48:47they set up the Women's Social and Political Union.
0:48:47 > 0:48:51Now, this was an age of do-goodery and busybodies,
0:48:51 > 0:48:56organisations of all kinds, politely, deferentially lobbying politicians
0:48:56 > 0:49:00for reforms, including votes for women.
0:49:00 > 0:49:03But the WSPU was going to be very different.
0:49:03 > 0:49:07Little did the women gathered here know that before long,
0:49:07 > 0:49:09one of them wouldn't be sitting in the parlour,
0:49:09 > 0:49:11but in a prison cell.
0:49:15 > 0:49:20In 1903, more women than ever before were in work,
0:49:20 > 0:49:23but the limits were suffocating.
0:49:23 > 0:49:27There were only six women architects,
0:49:27 > 0:49:30three vets, two accountants.
0:49:30 > 0:49:34Women were allowed to study, but at Oxford and Cambridge,
0:49:34 > 0:49:36they weren't allowed to graduate.
0:49:38 > 0:49:40And women still weren't allowed to vote.
0:49:45 > 0:49:49On the morning of the 13th October 1905,
0:49:49 > 0:49:51Christabel Pankhurst was still respectable.
0:49:51 > 0:49:55She was a well-dressed, middle-class law student.
0:49:55 > 0:50:00But she was on her way to break just about every taboo she could think of.
0:50:00 > 0:50:05She was walking along here with her new friend, Annie Kenney,
0:50:05 > 0:50:10a working-class mill girl, known as "the blue-eyed beggar".
0:50:10 > 0:50:13But what they were planning was truly shocking.
0:50:13 > 0:50:16Because they were on their way to a huge political meeting
0:50:16 > 0:50:18at Manchester's Free Trade Hall,
0:50:18 > 0:50:23and they were determined, at all costs, to be arrested.
0:50:29 > 0:50:35The meeting was a Liberal rally attended by the MPs Sir Edward Grey
0:50:35 > 0:50:37and Winston Churchill.
0:50:37 > 0:50:41Christabel and Annie jumped up onto their seats and yelled,
0:50:41 > 0:50:44"Will the Liberals give women the vote?"
0:50:44 > 0:50:46They refused to answer.
0:50:46 > 0:50:51So the women unfurled a banner emblazoned with the words
0:50:51 > 0:50:52"votes for women".
0:50:52 > 0:50:55Some people in the hall told them to, "Shut up!"
0:50:55 > 0:50:57Others cried, "Let the women speak!"
0:50:57 > 0:51:02The police ordered them to act like ladies.
0:51:02 > 0:51:06In response, Christabel spat at the policemen and started to hit them.
0:51:06 > 0:51:11Exasperated, the police bundled both of them outside onto the street.
0:51:11 > 0:51:13It was proving a little harder
0:51:13 > 0:51:16to get arrested than Christabel had imagined,
0:51:16 > 0:51:20so again, she spat at the officers and hit them.
0:51:20 > 0:51:23And this time, they were arrested.
0:51:23 > 0:51:27"Never mind," said Annie Kenney, "we've got what we wanted."
0:51:27 > 0:51:31"Yes," said Christabel, "I wanted to assault a policeman."
0:51:31 > 0:51:35They were convicted and offered the choice of prison or a fine.
0:51:35 > 0:51:36And they chose prison.
0:51:38 > 0:51:40WOMEN: # Shout, shout!
0:51:40 > 0:51:43# Up with your song!
0:51:43 > 0:51:48# Cry with the wind For the dawn is breaking... #
0:51:48 > 0:51:53Annie Kenney went to Manchester's Strangeways Prison for three days.
0:51:53 > 0:51:55Christabel Pankhurst for six.
0:51:58 > 0:52:02And their short imprisonment was an inspiration to women all over Britain.
0:52:05 > 0:52:08When Annie and Christabel emerged from Strangeways,
0:52:08 > 0:52:11there was a great crowd cheering them.
0:52:11 > 0:52:14And then, on the 19th October,
0:52:14 > 0:52:16thousands of people went back to the scene of the crime,
0:52:16 > 0:52:21the Free Trade Hall, to welcome the women on their return from prison.
0:52:21 > 0:52:26Here, in Manchester, the suffragette movement had taken a decisive step
0:52:26 > 0:52:29and there would be no going back.
0:52:45 > 0:52:47But at the end of 1905,
0:52:47 > 0:52:51Joe Chamberlain was still making the political weather,
0:52:51 > 0:52:54still dominating the headlines.
0:52:54 > 0:52:58For two-and-a-half years he'd been campaigning for a fortress empire,
0:52:58 > 0:53:00defended by protectionist tariffs.
0:53:02 > 0:53:07In the process, he'd split his own party - the Conservatives - in two.
0:53:10 > 0:53:14The Prime Minister, poor "Pretty Fanny", sat uneasily on the fence
0:53:14 > 0:53:17while his government descended into civil war
0:53:17 > 0:53:21and the free-trade Liberals were winning ground.
0:53:21 > 0:53:24Because Britain was never going to accept a policy
0:53:24 > 0:53:27that would increase the price of food.
0:53:27 > 0:53:32Quite simply, Joe Chamberlain, the man who'd offered the British
0:53:32 > 0:53:36an alternative 20th century, had lost the argument.
0:53:36 > 0:53:41But he was going to draw blood and bring the Prime Minister down with him,
0:53:41 > 0:53:44and publicly he attacked Arthur Balfour as
0:53:44 > 0:53:48the "lamest man ever to govern the march of an army".
0:53:48 > 0:53:50Last straw.
0:53:50 > 0:53:52In December 1905,
0:53:52 > 0:53:57Balfour called a general election, for one thing was certain -
0:53:57 > 0:53:59the Liberals couldn't win it.
0:53:59 > 0:54:01Could they not?
0:54:06 > 0:54:08Balfour couldn't have been more wrong.
0:54:08 > 0:54:13The Liberals successfully positioned themselves as the party of the people.
0:54:13 > 0:54:15They campaigned on a manifesto
0:54:15 > 0:54:18of social welfare, free trade and reform.
0:54:18 > 0:54:21And they won a landslide victory.
0:54:21 > 0:54:23The Tories were annihilated.
0:54:23 > 0:54:26Even Arthur Balfour lost his seat.
0:54:31 > 0:54:35"What a smash!" declared Chamberlain,
0:54:35 > 0:54:38who seemed rather chuffed that he'd now managed to destroy
0:54:38 > 0:54:43two political parties in the course of his extraordinary career.
0:54:43 > 0:54:47But his political failure over tariff reform
0:54:47 > 0:54:51was soon followed by personal disaster.
0:54:51 > 0:54:53Six months after the general election,
0:54:53 > 0:54:57Chamberlain failed to turn up for a dinner appointment.
0:54:57 > 0:55:03And his wife found him lying helpless on the bathroom floor,
0:55:03 > 0:55:06struck down by a devastating stroke.
0:55:10 > 0:55:16Joe Chamberlain never fully regained his extraordinary powers of speech.
0:55:16 > 0:55:19But through a miraculous effort of iron Victorian will,
0:55:19 > 0:55:22he did return to the Commons benches.
0:55:23 > 0:55:25And the man who'd set out
0:55:25 > 0:55:29to transform Britain in so many different ways,
0:55:29 > 0:55:32now found Parliament radically changed.
0:55:33 > 0:55:38And more change, much greater change, was on the way.
0:55:40 > 0:55:4529 new MPs dedicated to defending the interests of the working class
0:55:45 > 0:55:47were now sitting in Parliament.
0:55:48 > 0:55:52They would soon take on a new name, the Labour Party.
0:55:54 > 0:55:59That 1906 election was a big blow for country-house government.
0:55:59 > 0:56:02A new generation was coming in...
0:56:02 > 0:56:05Asquith, Lloyd George, Winston Churchill.
0:56:05 > 0:56:08And as for Joe Chamberlain,
0:56:08 > 0:56:11who'd done so much to shake the old order,
0:56:11 > 0:56:15he was condemned to a pitiful Parliamentary afterlife,
0:56:15 > 0:56:20left lolling voiceless on the benches he had once commanded.
0:56:20 > 0:56:25The last great Victorian radical could only watch
0:56:25 > 0:56:29as the young century's first great age of reform
0:56:29 > 0:56:32flared into life all around him.
0:56:32 > 0:56:36A new dawn, was it not?
0:56:54 > 0:56:58In the next programme, a German invasion...
0:56:59 > 0:57:01...magnificent men...
0:57:01 > 0:57:03fighting women...
0:57:03 > 0:57:06and Charlie Chaplin.
0:57:15 > 0:57:18Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:57:18 > 0:57:21E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk