0:00:04 > 0:00:07Looking down on our industrial landscape today,
0:00:07 > 0:00:09we see the remains of a vanished age.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14There are still some pockets of thriving industry,
0:00:14 > 0:00:17but these are faint echoes of something much greater -
0:00:17 > 0:00:22of the time when Britain was the greatest industrial power on the planet,
0:00:22 > 0:00:23and it wasn't so long ago.
0:00:25 > 0:00:30This is the story of how our industrial heartlands
0:00:30 > 0:00:33have been transformed in the space of a single lifetime.
0:00:36 > 0:00:41By comparing aerial images taken 60 years ago with those from today,
0:00:41 > 0:00:44we can see the sheer scale and speed of change.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47Where there were factories,
0:00:47 > 0:00:49there are now fields.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54Mining villages no longer have mines.
0:00:54 > 0:00:58Docks have become offices and waterside apartments.
0:00:58 > 0:01:03Seen from above, it's clear that no other aspect of our nation
0:01:03 > 0:01:06has changed so quickly or so profoundly.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09This is a story of evolution,
0:01:09 > 0:01:12adaptation
0:01:12 > 0:01:14and, in many places, extinction
0:01:32 > 0:01:331939.
0:01:33 > 0:01:38War is still six months away, and yet in the skies above Britain,
0:01:38 > 0:01:40the Germans are already at work
0:01:42 > 0:01:46Secretly, the Luftwaffe photograph British industry,
0:01:46 > 0:01:48the backbone of the economy.
0:01:51 > 0:01:54Over the valleys of South Wales
0:01:54 > 0:01:57they see the great coalfields that power the nation,
0:01:57 > 0:02:00employing 200,000 miners.
0:02:02 > 0:02:06Over Swindon, they look down on the heart of Britain's rail network,
0:02:06 > 0:02:10where 14,000 people build steam engines for the world.
0:02:12 > 0:02:14Over Manchester,
0:02:14 > 0:02:16they see the great port at Salford,
0:02:16 > 0:02:20and the world's largest industrial estate, Trafford Park,
0:02:20 > 0:02:24where 50,000 people work in manufacturing.
0:02:25 > 0:02:27And how do we know this?
0:02:27 > 0:02:29Because we have the photographs
0:02:29 > 0:02:32This remarkable collection of images
0:02:32 > 0:02:35is helping archaeologists like Chris Going
0:02:35 > 0:02:38to rediscover Britain's industrial past.
0:02:38 > 0:02:42OK, well, what we've got here is a whole collection
0:02:42 > 0:02:44of German target documents.
0:02:44 > 0:02:46These were captured at the end of the war
0:02:46 > 0:02:49and classified by British Intelligence.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52This photograph, taken over Manchester,
0:02:52 > 0:02:55shows the targets that the Germans were interested in.
0:02:55 > 0:02:57The actual target is Salford Quays,
0:02:57 > 0:03:00and these are the docks here, outlined in red.
0:03:00 > 0:03:04You've got, to the south, the industrial heartland of Manchester,
0:03:04 > 0:03:06but the interesting thing is,
0:03:06 > 0:03:09all these target documents concern themselves
0:03:09 > 0:03:11with just the industrial areas
0:03:11 > 0:03:15If we look over here, you can see this really quite graphically.
0:03:15 > 0:03:17This rather wacky thing is a night map.
0:03:17 > 0:03:21The colouring is designed to be viewed under cockpit lights at night.
0:03:21 > 0:03:26The yellow, outlined in red, are the designated targets,
0:03:26 > 0:03:28of which there's Salford Quays
0:03:28 > 0:03:31And you can see, it's this little industrial zone here,
0:03:31 > 0:03:34in the west of Manchester, which interested them most.
0:03:34 > 0:03:39So, basically, Britain's industrial strength, if you like,
0:03:39 > 0:03:42is caught in these dossiers.
0:03:46 > 0:03:5170 years on, the industrial landscape of Britain
0:03:51 > 0:03:54is once again being photographed from the air.
0:04:03 > 0:04:07Dr Toby Driver is an archaeologist who uses aerial photography
0:04:07 > 0:04:12to investigate and document the impact of human activity on the land.
0:04:12 > 0:04:17We get into the air to look down at patterns,
0:04:17 > 0:04:19shapes that we can see,
0:04:19 > 0:04:22and look for those that have been made by people.
0:04:22 > 0:04:26Very often, these are invisible at ground level.
0:04:26 > 0:04:29The aerial perspective is the only way
0:04:29 > 0:04:32to get an overview of what's there.
0:04:34 > 0:04:37Today, Toby's flying over the South Wales valleys,
0:04:37 > 0:04:41the region where geography and geology has shaped the economy
0:04:41 > 0:04:43and the lives of the people who live here.
0:04:45 > 0:04:49We're approaching the South Wales valleys from the north here,
0:04:49 > 0:04:53over a stunningly beautiful natural landscape -
0:04:53 > 0:04:56the eastern part of the Brecon Beacons National Park -
0:04:56 > 0:04:59but we'll see the contrast with these beautiful hills
0:04:59 > 0:05:01and green fields
0:05:01 > 0:05:05with the industrial landscapes we're about to come to,
0:05:05 > 0:05:08which many people still find difficult to love, I think.
0:05:11 > 0:05:16150 years ago, this pastoral landscape was transformed.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22Abandoning its agricultural economy, the valleys of South Wales
0:05:22 > 0:05:26were swept into Britain's Industrial Revolution -
0:05:26 > 0:05:29a revolution fuelled by the black mineral
0:05:29 > 0:05:32buried deep beneath its green hills.
0:05:35 > 0:05:39Coal was THE great commodity, the great export,
0:05:39 > 0:05:41from this part of Wales.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44Parts of South Wales rose very quickly
0:05:44 > 0:05:46from being farming landscapes
0:05:46 > 0:05:51to this massive explosion of people moving in,
0:05:51 > 0:05:54new buildings, fast new transport networks,
0:05:54 > 0:05:59and it's the legacy of that explosion of activity
0:05:59 > 0:06:02that we're really seeing in the landscape today.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08Workers from all over the country
0:06:08 > 0:06:11moved to South Wales in search of jobs.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14These new miners not only dug coal,
0:06:14 > 0:06:17but also created their own unique way of life.
0:06:17 > 0:06:19The communities were tight knit
0:06:19 > 0:06:23cut off in their own valleys, surrounded by steep hills.
0:06:26 > 0:06:30These were the valleys of chapels, socialism,
0:06:30 > 0:06:32rugby and male voice choirs.
0:06:35 > 0:06:37More than anywhere else in Britain,
0:06:37 > 0:06:41we see, from above, communities defined by the landscape.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50This is the Rhondda -
0:06:50 > 0:06:53two valleys snaking south towards the sea.
0:06:55 > 0:07:00In between the hills of coal, people, roads, railways and houses
0:07:00 > 0:07:04are crammed into the narrow, deep-winding valleys.
0:07:04 > 0:07:08This place has evolved for one purpose.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12Every coal pit had its supporting town,
0:07:12 > 0:07:16and all the transport infrastructure to get that coal from the valleys,
0:07:16 > 0:07:21down to the great ports at Cardiff and Newport and elsewhere,
0:07:21 > 0:07:24shipping that coal out around the world.
0:07:27 > 0:07:29Based on a single natural resource,
0:07:29 > 0:07:32the Rhondda's prosperity was vulnerable.
0:07:34 > 0:07:39Falling demand, politics and global competition
0:07:39 > 0:07:42have brought the coal industry to its knees.
0:07:44 > 0:07:48In 2008, the last pit in South Wales closed.
0:07:48 > 0:07:55What we see today are the mortal remains of a mighty industry.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00Train graveyards with tracks leading nowhere.
0:08:03 > 0:08:07Black spoil tips slowly turning green.
0:08:10 > 0:08:13Rusted mining machinery at the mercy of the weather.
0:08:19 > 0:08:24Toby Driver has been comparing modern aerial photographs
0:08:24 > 0:08:27with RAF images taken just after the Second World War
0:08:27 > 0:08:30These pictures tell a devastating story.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33The key thing with the industrial landscapes
0:08:33 > 0:08:35is that what we see today
0:08:35 > 0:08:37is not necessarily what was there 60 years ago.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40Step back in time
0:08:40 > 0:08:43and we see collieries rise from the green hillsides.
0:08:43 > 0:08:48This is a snapshot of the coal industry in its final flourish
0:08:48 > 0:08:51a world that has now gone.
0:08:52 > 0:08:54It's hard for people to understand
0:08:54 > 0:08:57how transient some parts of the modern world can be.
0:08:57 > 0:09:00Sometimes landscapes are the way they are for centuries.
0:09:00 > 0:09:03But as we've seen in the South Wales valleys,
0:09:03 > 0:09:06factories, towns, landscapes
0:09:06 > 0:09:10can vanish in a matter of months or years
0:09:10 > 0:09:13Since the loss of its main industry,
0:09:13 > 0:09:15unemployment in the Rhondda has soared.
0:09:15 > 0:09:19Almost a third of working-age people are without jobs,
0:09:19 > 0:09:25and almost two-thirds of families survive on an annual income of less than ?10,000.
0:09:27 > 0:09:31Wherever communities relied on the pits for work, the story's the same.
0:09:33 > 0:09:38The only colliery still operating is Big Pit, at Blaenavon.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41But it no longer produces coal
0:09:41 > 0:09:44Instead, it's a museum.
0:09:49 > 0:09:52For 30 years, John took coal out of the mine
0:09:52 > 0:09:56Now he takes school children down to see it.
0:09:56 > 0:09:59Some of the children you take underground, especially the girls,
0:09:59 > 0:10:03you tell them about Victorian times and pushing drams a tonne in weight.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06You ask them if they want to do it and they say no.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09Then you say to them, if you want to eat, would you do it?
0:10:09 > 0:10:10It makes them think.
0:10:12 > 0:10:16John has seen a whole way of life disappear.
0:10:16 > 0:10:20Most of the workforce have gone into different jobs, light industry.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23Some of the people have moved away, as well.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27Back in the '60s, there were about 8,000 people living in Blaenavon.
0:10:27 > 0:10:30We're now down to about 3,500 to 4,000.
0:10:30 > 0:10:32So we've practically halved.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44The irony is that there's still plenty of coal left in South Wales,
0:10:44 > 0:10:49but the only way to make a profit from it is with a far smaller workforce
0:10:51 > 0:10:55At this vast opencast mine, massive machinery has removed
0:10:55 > 0:11:00over 20 million cubic yards of rock and coal
0:11:00 > 0:11:02to leave a crater 100 yards deep.
0:11:02 > 0:11:06Like this hillside, once the whole region
0:11:06 > 0:11:09would have been black with the spoils of mining.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12Today, the landscape is re-greening.
0:11:14 > 0:11:18Sculpted from the slag heap is Sultan the pit pony,
0:11:18 > 0:11:22a symbol of this transformation and the end of a great industry
0:11:25 > 0:11:29The very geography which once made this landscape work
0:11:29 > 0:11:33now restricts its ability to escape the past.
0:11:38 > 0:11:42Not every centre of Victorian industry has suffered the same fate.
0:11:45 > 0:11:46This is Swindon,
0:11:46 > 0:11:51a town that, like the Rhondda, rose from green fields 150 years ago
0:11:51 > 0:11:54a product of the first industrial age.
0:11:54 > 0:11:57But unlike the valleys of South Wales,
0:11:57 > 0:12:00Swindon has no natural resources.
0:12:00 > 0:12:04Instead, it exists entirely because of its location.
0:12:04 > 0:12:09Swindon sits at a good sort of crossroads for trade in Britain
0:12:09 > 0:12:12and that's enabled it to develop.
0:12:12 > 0:12:16When Brunel and the directors of the Great Western Railway came here
0:12:16 > 0:12:18at the end of the 1830s,
0:12:18 > 0:12:22they looked at the site and they thought, "OK, 1840 onwards
0:12:22 > 0:12:26"Swindon will become the epicentre of the Great Western Railway."
0:12:26 > 0:12:28They built their great works here,
0:12:28 > 0:12:30brought in labourers, and the trains arrived,
0:12:30 > 0:12:36whizzing at a tremendous high speed from Paddington to Bristol and back.
0:12:38 > 0:12:44At Swindon, Brunel not only created one of the largest engineering complexes in the world,
0:12:44 > 0:12:48but pioneered a new age of mass transportation.
0:12:48 > 0:12:51The railway changed Britain fundamentally.
0:12:51 > 0:12:55It not only created this extraordinary engineering enterprise
0:12:55 > 0:12:59and these craft skills, and changed the face, physically, of Britain -
0:12:59 > 0:13:02the whole landscape changed with this network of railway lines
0:13:02 > 0:13:05but it also created a totally new economy.
0:13:05 > 0:13:09From now on, Britain was able to trade internally, as well as externally,
0:13:09 > 0:13:11very successfully indeed.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14Purely as a result of its location,
0:13:14 > 0:13:20the small market town of Swindon became a thriving centre for this new world-beating economy
0:13:22 > 0:13:25People poured into the town from all over the country
0:13:25 > 0:13:29to make up the 14,000 staff of the Great Western Railway.
0:13:32 > 0:13:37Brunel designed planned housing estates to accommodate the newcomers.
0:13:43 > 0:13:47From above, we see an ordered, Victorian world,
0:13:47 > 0:13:52reflecting a time when a whole community could work for one company,
0:13:52 > 0:13:54generation after generation.
0:13:54 > 0:13:59But this Victorian way of life couldn't last for ever.
0:14:00 > 0:14:04Imagine if you were born in Swindon just after the Second World War
0:14:04 > 0:14:07You'd have been brought up in the last, dying days of the steam age.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11In fact, the last steam locomotive built for British Railways
0:14:11 > 0:14:15was built here at Swindon Works and called Evening Star,
0:14:15 > 0:14:19suggesting the end, very much the end, of an era.
0:14:19 > 0:14:23That same person then lived on through the consumer boom of the late ' 0s
0:14:23 > 0:14:27and then right on through into the world of information superhighway,
0:14:27 > 0:14:30internet, mobile phones, fridges, cheap mortgages,
0:14:30 > 0:14:34shopping, shopping, shopping, and no-frills flights all around the world.
0:14:34 > 0:14:39That would be the very same person living in the steam age as is living today.
0:14:39 > 0:14:42That's an extraordinary compression of time.
0:14:44 > 0:14:47The closure of Swindon's sole industry
0:14:47 > 0:14:50could have spelt disaster for the town.
0:14:50 > 0:14:53But instead, what we see from above is a new Swindon
0:14:53 > 0:14:55expanding beyond its railway past.
0:14:57 > 0:15:01Today, it's one of the fastest-growing towns in Europe
0:15:01 > 0:15:03with the lowest unemployment in Britain.
0:15:03 > 0:15:05Unlike the Rhondda,
0:15:05 > 0:15:09Swindon has not been constricted by its geography.
0:15:09 > 0:15:13In fact, its location has enabled it to evolve.
0:15:13 > 0:15:18After the canals came the railways, and after the railways came the motorways.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21The M4 motorway whizzes through here, and the M4 Corridor
0:15:21 > 0:15:24is well known today for the hi-tech industry,
0:15:24 > 0:15:28so Swindon's always been a great transport route hub and centre
0:15:28 > 0:15:30and, I guess, it always will be
0:15:33 > 0:15:36When one of the world's largest car-makers looked for a site
0:15:36 > 0:15:40for their European factory, they came to Swindon.
0:15:40 > 0:15:46Here, 4,000 people work for the town's largest employer - Honda
0:16:02 > 0:16:08On average, a completed car leaves the factory floor every 80 seconds.
0:16:08 > 0:16:11After getting the all-clear on the test track,
0:16:11 > 0:16:14the car is ready for distribution.
0:16:22 > 0:16:27Just as Swindon used to make trains but now makes cars,
0:16:27 > 0:16:30so what used to be distributed by rail
0:16:30 > 0:16:34is now distributed on the motorway network.
0:16:35 > 0:16:37And where the steam engine
0:16:37 > 0:16:40transformed Britain's landscape in the 19th century...
0:16:42 > 0:16:46..in the 20th century, it was the combustion engine.
0:16:49 > 0:16:54Stewart Ainsworth has been studying the evolving industrial landscape.
0:16:54 > 0:16:56When you look down over the landscape today,
0:16:56 > 0:16:59I think the most dramatic change you see
0:16:59 > 0:17:02is motorways.
0:17:03 > 0:17:05The sheer scale, the sheer...
0:17:05 > 0:17:08almost beauty of those curving interchanges,
0:17:08 > 0:17:11wide lanes, traffic moving along them...
0:17:12 > 0:17:16It's like the red and white cells in the blood
0:17:16 > 0:17:18being delivered from the heart
0:17:18 > 0:17:21out to all the organs and the extremities of the body
0:17:21 > 0:17:27And the more important the organ, the more circulation is needed
0:17:29 > 0:17:32At the epicentre of six motorways is the city of Manchester.
0:17:32 > 0:17:36Nowhere illustrates better this change from old industry..
0:17:38 > 0:17:39..to new.
0:17:39 > 0:17:42What we see from above
0:17:42 > 0:17:47is a city shaped by three centuries of industrial endeavour.
0:17:47 > 0:17:49It's a three-dimensional landscape
0:17:49 > 0:17:51that you see down below you,
0:17:51 > 0:17:53and each level of that landscape
0:17:53 > 0:17:58is another tier in that industrialisation process.
0:17:59 > 0:18:03In many ways the birthplace of the industrial age,
0:18:03 > 0:18:07Manchester owes its existence to its damp climate.
0:18:07 > 0:18:11In the 18th century, it was the perfect place to spin cotton
0:18:11 > 0:18:12without it snapping.
0:18:15 > 0:18:19As a result, Manchester became the global centre of the textile industry
0:18:19 > 0:18:25and has consistently pioneered ground-breaking ways to trade with the outside world.
0:18:25 > 0:18:30The first entirely artificial waterway, the Bridgewater Canal
0:18:30 > 0:18:32was opened in 1761.
0:18:34 > 0:18:40In 1830, the world's first passenger train arrived in Manchester.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46But perhaps its greatest single feat
0:18:46 > 0:18:49was the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal.
0:18:49 > 0:18:55This is one of the most important waterways in Britain in its day
0:18:55 > 0:18:58It was opened in 1894,
0:18:58 > 0:19:01after an awful lot of dispute and debate,
0:19:01 > 0:19:04basically to bring the sea into Manchester.
0:19:04 > 0:19:09The Ship Canal was large enough to allow ocean-going vessels
0:19:09 > 0:19:11to come right into the heart of the city.
0:19:11 > 0:19:15Despite being 36 miles inland,
0:19:15 > 0:19:18Manchester became the fourth-largest port in Britain.
0:19:18 > 0:19:23At the same time, the Ship Canal brought about a complete transformation
0:19:23 > 0:19:28of what was a deer park into the world's first planned industrial estate.
0:19:28 > 0:19:34Where we're flying at the moment is over Trafford Park,
0:19:34 > 0:19:35a real industrial Mecca.
0:19:35 > 0:19:38It became the home of engineering,
0:19:38 > 0:19:42it became the home of car manufacturing.
0:19:42 > 0:19:46Henry Ford moved from America to put manufacturing plants in here
0:19:46 > 0:19:48for his Model T Ford.
0:19:48 > 0:19:51It became such an important global centre
0:19:51 > 0:19:54that America came to Manchester
0:19:57 > 0:19:59NEWSREEL: Trafford Park,
0:19:59 > 0:20:03where deer once roamed, is now a planned dockside estate
0:20:03 > 0:20:08where 200 firms employ nearly 50,000 people.
0:20:10 > 0:20:14The goods from Trafford Park were distributed through the Ship Canal
0:20:14 > 0:20:16to the four corners of the globe.
0:20:17 > 0:20:20The ships carry manufactured goods, textiles,
0:20:20 > 0:20:24pottery, cars, chemicals,
0:20:24 > 0:20:28machinery, iron and steel - all those products
0:20:28 > 0:20:32on which the prosperity of Great Britain depends.
0:20:32 > 0:20:37Aerial photographs taken by the German Luftwaffe
0:20:37 > 0:20:39show the port in its heyday.
0:20:39 > 0:20:43Well, if we look at the photography of 1939-40,
0:20:43 > 0:20:46taken courtesy of the German Air Force,
0:20:46 > 0:20:48it's a busy scene.
0:20:48 > 0:20:53You can see shipping on all of these wharfs and docks.
0:20:53 > 0:20:54We've got about 18 or 19 ships
0:20:54 > 0:20:59and the warehousing and busy marshalling yards.
0:20:59 > 0:21:01If we go forwards in time,
0:21:01 > 0:21:04you can see...suddenly...
0:21:04 > 0:21:07the shipping has all gone.
0:21:13 > 0:21:17Where Trafford Park once relied on its Ship Canal for trade,
0:21:17 > 0:21:20today it's the M62 motorway.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27And where factories once manufactured,
0:21:27 > 0:21:33now giant sheds store the goods that the roads bring to us.
0:21:33 > 0:21:37100 years ago, Trafford Park was considered the future.
0:21:37 > 0:21:41In this short space of time, this vision has vanished.
0:21:43 > 0:21:47And what we see today is the rise of a different kind of economy
0:21:50 > 0:21:55Alongside the M62 motorway, what little remained of the old deer park
0:21:55 > 0:22:00has been transformed into one of Europe's largest shopping centres.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09Linked to the country via the motorway network,
0:22:09 > 0:22:12a quarter of the entire British population
0:22:12 > 0:22:16is within a 90-minute drive of Manchester's Trafford Centre
0:22:18 > 0:22:2232 million shoppers visit the centre each year,
0:22:22 > 0:22:27with receipts adding up to almost ?1.5 billion.
0:22:27 > 0:22:31We've got this huge, great Trafford Centre down there,
0:22:31 > 0:22:34which is a cathedral of consumerism.
0:22:34 > 0:22:40It's sucking people in. It's become a leisure activity it's become recreation.
0:22:40 > 0:22:43It's become fun to go shopping
0:22:50 > 0:22:56While Trafford Park has transformed itself beyond recognition in the last 70 years,
0:22:56 > 0:23:02one piece of grass, measuring 105 x 68 metres,
0:23:02 > 0:23:04has survived the enormous changes.
0:23:04 > 0:23:10The local ground and the teams drew their support from the people who worked in the local industries.
0:23:10 > 0:23:15If we change to what it looks like now, it's a world away.
0:23:15 > 0:23:17The football ground has expanded,
0:23:17 > 0:23:20although the pitch hasn't grown bigger,
0:23:20 > 0:23:25but the area around's been bought up, because this is Old Trafford.
0:23:25 > 0:23:29In the photo of 1939, we see the home of Manchester United
0:23:29 > 0:23:33surrounded by factories and warehouses.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36Now they've gone, replaced by car parks
0:23:36 > 0:23:40for visitors who travel from further afield to watch the games.
0:23:41 > 0:23:46In this stadium now, there are 76,312 seats.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49This is the largest club stadium in the United Kingdom...
0:23:49 > 0:23:52David Howard gives guided tours of Old Trafford
0:23:52 > 0:23:57to fans who travel from around the world to see the club's famous ground
0:23:57 > 0:24:00These are the most expensive behind you here.
0:24:00 > 0:24:06For these boxes, you close your eyes, you sign your cheque for ?66,90 .
0:24:07 > 0:24:13It's a far cry from the days when Manchester United was the local club
0:24:13 > 0:24:14for the workers in Trafford Park.
0:24:14 > 0:24:19Please don't touch the grass! Thank you. This way, please, folks.
0:24:19 > 0:24:22David has lived the change.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26In the 1960s, he worked for a local engineering firm.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29If you were in Trafford Park, you came to Manchester United.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33All the factories here were within walking distance. I'd come here
0:24:33 > 0:24:36with my father and my brother. In those days, of course,
0:24:36 > 0:24:38we'd all stand to watch the football match.
0:24:41 > 0:24:43Manchester United, over the years,
0:24:43 > 0:24:46has changed dramatically in terms of its fan base.
0:24:46 > 0:24:52We've not got the historic fan base that we had. We've got a massive new fan base, all over the world.
0:24:52 > 0:24:57Manchester United is now the richest football club on the planet.
0:24:57 > 0:25:03They estimate that they have over 100 million supporters worldwide...
0:25:04 > 0:25:09..and today, Old Trafford is exporting a global brand.
0:25:09 > 0:25:12Wherever you go in the world, it'd be a big surprise
0:25:12 > 0:25:16if you didn't see a Manchester United shirt in a shop somewhere.
0:25:16 > 0:25:21People know who Bobby Charlton was, people know who Ronaldo is.
0:25:21 > 0:25:23They know he plays in Manchester.
0:25:23 > 0:25:25Do they know he plays at a football ground
0:25:25 > 0:25:30on the edge of an industrial estate in Manchester, I wonder?
0:25:32 > 0:25:35Manchester is now better known around the world
0:25:35 > 0:25:37for its football than its manufacturing.
0:25:37 > 0:25:41Self-consciously, the city has reinvented itself
0:25:41 > 0:25:44leaving its industrial past behind.
0:25:46 > 0:25:50Factories have been replaced by leisure and culture.
0:25:53 > 0:25:56The working-class way of life in Victorian terraced housing
0:25:56 > 0:25:59has been turned into a primetime soap opera.
0:26:06 > 0:26:10But perhaps the biggest - certainly the tallest - statement
0:26:10 > 0:26:14of Manchester's new aspirations is the Beetham Tower,
0:26:14 > 0:26:18rising 48 storeys into the sky over the city centre.
0:26:22 > 0:26:29With its 220 bijou flats and 274 luxury hotel rooms,
0:26:29 > 0:26:33the tower is Europe's highest residential skyscraper
0:26:33 > 0:26:39Its architect, Ian Simpson, has reserved the top floors for himself.
0:26:40 > 0:26:45He's in the middle of constructing a two-storey luxury penthouse.
0:26:45 > 0:26:49Most architects design these brutalist and modern things
0:26:49 > 0:26:51and live in a Georgian terrace
0:26:51 > 0:26:54I've never believed in that.
0:26:54 > 0:26:58I believe in trying to experience the buildings we design.
0:26:58 > 0:27:02This is the formal reception space -
0:27:02 > 0:27:05this is the main living area for the apartment.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08Through here, we have the olive grove,
0:27:08 > 0:27:14which, obviously, at level 48 is quite unique, certainly in this country.
0:27:14 > 0:27:16They will actually grow olives
0:27:19 > 0:27:23This city now... I mean, a few years ago, it was black and dirty.
0:27:23 > 0:27:24There was nobody living here.
0:27:24 > 0:27:27Clearly, it had to change, otherwise it would die.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30People were leaving the city if they had any money.
0:27:30 > 0:27:33The only people left were those who couldn't get out
0:27:33 > 0:27:37And we're trying to reverse that now, make it an attractive place.
0:27:37 > 0:27:41And a building like this is all about signalling that ambition
0:27:41 > 0:27:44and changing the perception of the city internationally.
0:27:48 > 0:27:5270 years ago, the Luftwaffe photographed Manchester from the air.
0:27:54 > 0:27:58But the city's rebirth came about not as a result of German bombs
0:27:58 > 0:28:02but its own evolution.
0:28:03 > 0:28:05In one human lifetime,
0:28:05 > 0:28:09our industrial landscape has changed beyond recognition
0:28:09 > 0:28:13And although the effects are felt most strongly on the ground,
0:28:13 > 0:28:18it's only from above that you can really appreciate Britain's amazing transformation.
0:28:20 > 0:28:24The industrial landscapes of Great Britain, in their prime,
0:28:24 > 0:28:28were just caught in the 1940s and '50s.
0:28:28 > 0:28:31And they've completely disappeared since then.
0:28:31 > 0:28:35The photography chronicles its disappearance quite clearly
0:28:35 > 0:28:39It's an amazing change. It's half a century,
0:28:39 > 0:28:43and yet it's as remote in some areas as...
0:28:43 > 0:28:47as the Roman period, as the Stone Age. It's gone.
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