0:00:02 > 0:00:04MUSIC: "Automatically Sunshine" by The Supremes
0:00:07 > 0:00:11# Ooh, baby Let's take life's highway
0:00:11 > 0:00:14# It's automatically yours and my way
0:00:14 > 0:00:18# No road is too rough to travel
0:00:18 > 0:00:20# We'll walk barefoot
0:00:20 > 0:00:22# On life's gravel
0:00:22 > 0:00:26# Together whatever we express now
0:00:26 > 0:00:30# Automatically means success now
0:00:30 > 0:00:33# Whatever mystery life's about
0:00:33 > 0:00:37# There's no doubt we'll work it out
0:00:37 > 0:00:41# I'm yours and you're mine
0:00:41 > 0:00:44# It's automatically sunshine
0:00:44 > 0:00:46# Ooh
0:00:48 > 0:00:50# Baby. #
0:00:51 > 0:00:55Maybe you were falling in love with music, or just falling in love.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59Perhaps you were sitting exams and getting serious,
0:00:59 > 0:01:02or out mucking around with your pals in the playground.
0:01:02 > 0:01:06Perhaps, like me, you were just being born.
0:01:06 > 0:01:08Or maybe you weren't even born at all.
0:01:11 > 0:01:13Whatever you got up to in the 1970s,
0:01:13 > 0:01:16it's passed from rose-tinted memories
0:01:16 > 0:01:19into our shared national history.
0:01:21 > 0:01:22In many ways, '70s Britain
0:01:22 > 0:01:25feels like a very strange and distant place.
0:01:25 > 0:01:27But it's time to look again
0:01:27 > 0:01:31at the years of Ted Heath, Marc Bolan and Mary Whitehouse,
0:01:31 > 0:01:33Because this was the decade
0:01:33 > 0:01:38in which 21st-century Britain, our Britain, was born.
0:01:38 > 0:01:42We often think that the 1960s gave us freedom
0:01:42 > 0:01:45and the 1980s gave us money.
0:01:45 > 0:01:48But, for most people, it was in the 1970s
0:01:48 > 0:01:52that those two thrills really arrived.
0:01:52 > 0:01:55These were years of tremendous change,
0:01:55 > 0:01:58shattering the cosy post-war consensus.
0:01:58 > 0:02:02And, for millions of ordinary families, a brave new world,
0:02:02 > 0:02:06at once exciting and terrifying, was at hand.
0:02:06 > 0:02:10The British people were impatient for more.
0:02:10 > 0:02:14More freedom, more opportunities, and more money.
0:02:14 > 0:02:19And, in the first years of the 1970s, they went out to get it.
0:02:35 > 0:02:37Britain, 1970.
0:02:37 > 0:02:43A nation basking in the sunshine of affluence and security,
0:02:43 > 0:02:48happy and self-confident after 25 years of the post-war boom.
0:02:53 > 0:02:55For most ordinary families,
0:02:55 > 0:02:59life in 1970 was quite simply better than it had ever been.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02This was a blessed generation.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11We had work, we had welfare,
0:03:11 > 0:03:12and we had wealth -
0:03:12 > 0:03:15on a scale people have never known before.
0:03:17 > 0:03:20But now, people were looking for something more.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23Something solid, something permanent,
0:03:23 > 0:03:27something that would confirm that they had arrived.
0:03:27 > 0:03:30By the dawn of the 1970s, the affluent society
0:03:30 > 0:03:32had become a fact of life.
0:03:32 > 0:03:35Even an ordinary family now had expectations
0:03:35 > 0:03:39that their forebears could barely have imagined.
0:03:39 > 0:03:42And at the heart of all their ambitions,
0:03:42 > 0:03:45was something we now take for granted - a home of their own.
0:03:50 > 0:03:55- It's our house. - I know, pet, our house.
0:03:55 > 0:03:56Chez nous.
0:03:56 > 0:04:01Oh, Bob, I can't wait to move in.
0:04:03 > 0:04:07In the '50s and '60s, many people had still grown up
0:04:07 > 0:04:11in overcrowded terraces and damp, sodden flats.
0:04:11 > 0:04:16Many still had shared bathrooms, or had no indoor bathrooms at all.
0:04:17 > 0:04:22But now, they were ready to escape the shadow of the past,
0:04:22 > 0:04:26to leave behind the soot and smoke and squalor
0:04:26 > 0:04:28and to strike out for pastures new.
0:04:38 > 0:04:40These were the Wimpey years,
0:04:40 > 0:04:43when brand-new estates of neat, little houses
0:04:43 > 0:04:47blossomed on the suburban fringes of the nation's cities.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50And this is the little bedroom.
0:04:50 > 0:04:52You can either use that for the nursery,
0:04:52 > 0:04:54or you can throw your mother-in-law in that one.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01And nothing better captured the spirit of change
0:05:01 > 0:05:04than Britain's new towns.
0:05:06 > 0:05:10Enough homes, opportunities, and facilities befitting
0:05:10 > 0:05:16a civilised way of life for an extra 100,000 people are to be built here.
0:05:19 > 0:05:21One of the biggest developments
0:05:21 > 0:05:24was the expansion of the old city of Peterborough,
0:05:24 > 0:05:27transformed by a government scheme
0:05:27 > 0:05:30to rehouse the people of London's slums.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37For the same rent they were paying in Lambeth,
0:05:37 > 0:05:40some £5 a week, inner-city tenants
0:05:40 > 0:05:43could move into a brand-new house in Peterborough.
0:05:43 > 0:05:45And what was more,
0:05:45 > 0:05:49they were encouraged to think about buying their houses outright.
0:05:51 > 0:05:53For years, people had been told
0:05:53 > 0:05:56that an Englishman's home was his castle.
0:05:56 > 0:05:58But for millions of people,
0:05:58 > 0:06:02it was only in the 1970s that that dream became a reality.
0:06:06 > 0:06:11As early as 1972, more than half of Peterborough's residents
0:06:11 > 0:06:13already owned their own houses.
0:06:16 > 0:06:19In this little corner of eastern England,
0:06:19 > 0:06:21a new world was taking shape.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28New towns had decent motorway links, good schools,
0:06:28 > 0:06:30brand-new supermarkets,
0:06:30 > 0:06:33even the first indoor shopping centres.
0:06:33 > 0:06:36Yes, they weren't terribly grand or picturesque,
0:06:36 > 0:06:39but they succeeded because they fulfilled the ambitions
0:06:39 > 0:06:42of hundreds of thousands of ordinary British families.
0:06:42 > 0:06:47A steady job, a safe neighbourhood, a neat suburban home,
0:06:47 > 0:06:50a back garden, even central heating.
0:06:50 > 0:06:51And for people who had grown up
0:06:51 > 0:06:53in damp and dilapidated inner cities,
0:06:53 > 0:06:56places like Peterborough were the future.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59# I'll light the fire...
0:06:59 > 0:07:01For young couples, born after the Second World War,
0:07:01 > 0:07:05and now in their 20s and 30s, here was the chance
0:07:05 > 0:07:08to not only have their own space and do their own thing,
0:07:08 > 0:07:10but to join the swelling ranks
0:07:10 > 0:07:13of the property-owning middle classes.
0:07:13 > 0:07:15# Staring at the fire...
0:07:15 > 0:07:18When you do tell people you've got your own house,
0:07:18 > 0:07:20then it's a status symbol.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23You know, you just feel nice, you know.
0:07:23 > 0:07:28You pay rent, you pay it for the rest of your life
0:07:28 > 0:07:31and at the end of it, you've nothing to show.
0:07:31 > 0:07:34Whereas, with this, we sincerely hope, anyway,
0:07:34 > 0:07:37that at the end we shall have a saleable property.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40If somebody was to describe how you were getting on in life,
0:07:40 > 0:07:45say a relation, you'd say, "He's got a car." They'd say, "He's got his own house."
0:07:45 > 0:07:47They wouldn't just say, "He's got a house."
0:07:47 > 0:07:49So it must mean something, you've got your own house.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52# Our house
0:07:52 > 0:07:55# Is a very, very, very fine house
0:07:55 > 0:07:59# With two cats in the yard... #
0:07:59 > 0:08:03Until September 1971, most ordinary house buyers
0:08:03 > 0:08:07could only get a mortgage from their local building society.
0:08:07 > 0:08:10But then, in one of those tiny decisions
0:08:10 > 0:08:13that have incalculable long-term consequences,
0:08:13 > 0:08:16the Bank of England relaxed its lending rules.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19Now, high-street banks were free to compete in the mortgage market
0:08:19 > 0:08:22and as The Times put it,
0:08:22 > 0:08:25it was as though the Bank of England had changed the traffic lights
0:08:25 > 0:08:30from red to green, and the great property race was on.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39But not everyone wanted the fresh air
0:08:39 > 0:08:42and fresh paint of the new towns.
0:08:42 > 0:08:46There was another housing make-over going on in Britain in the early '70s,
0:08:46 > 0:08:49one that would have an enduring impact on our city life.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58For young, left-leaning hippyish professionals,
0:08:58 > 0:09:04the old slums of inner-city London represented a rare opportunity.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06Streets like this one in Islington
0:09:06 > 0:09:08were transformed by middle-class couples,
0:09:08 > 0:09:10driven by their bohemian ideals
0:09:10 > 0:09:14and their desire to escape from the shadow of their parents.
0:09:18 > 0:09:20The new residents of areas like Islington
0:09:20 > 0:09:23thought of themselves as pioneers,
0:09:23 > 0:09:26building a self-consciously progressive enclave
0:09:26 > 0:09:28in the heart of the city.
0:09:28 > 0:09:32They send their children to the new state primary school
0:09:32 > 0:09:33just down the street.
0:09:33 > 0:09:37And they waxed lyrical about the multi-cultural diversity
0:09:37 > 0:09:39of their new domains.
0:09:40 > 0:09:45We like living in an area which has all sorts of people
0:09:45 > 0:09:49from different occupations and all sorts of different land uses.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53For example, there are three factories in this square.
0:09:54 > 0:09:58But for these high-minded Guardian-reading gentrifiers,
0:09:58 > 0:10:02there were canny financial motives behind all the liberal gloss.
0:10:04 > 0:10:08The third one along there is owned by some cousins of mine
0:10:08 > 0:10:14and the last one is divided into flats.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17The cousins actually told us about this house
0:10:17 > 0:10:22and we bought the house together, and I eventually bought them out
0:10:22 > 0:10:25before we moved into this house.
0:10:29 > 0:10:34The irony was that as middle-class couples moved into the area,
0:10:34 > 0:10:38they drove property prices up and working-class residents out.
0:10:38 > 0:10:42And as landlords cashed in by selling to the middle-class newcomers,
0:10:42 > 0:10:44everyone got rich.
0:10:44 > 0:10:46Property today is big money
0:10:46 > 0:10:49and that's what's attracting the speculators large and small.
0:10:49 > 0:10:53Yet, however huge the profits, however keen competition,
0:10:53 > 0:10:55this isn't simply a game of stocks and shares,
0:10:55 > 0:10:58because property also means people's homes.
0:11:00 > 0:11:04Today, we call this gentrification.
0:11:04 > 0:11:07And inner-city Britain would never be the same again.
0:11:07 > 0:11:13All those overheated dinner party conversations about property,
0:11:13 > 0:11:16they started in this first flush of the 1970s.
0:11:17 > 0:11:21Make it 30,000, madam. Is it the mortgage you worried about?
0:11:21 > 0:11:23LAUGHTER
0:11:23 > 0:11:24Come on, dear.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26- £30,000.- At £30,000. That's more like it.
0:11:26 > 0:11:28At £30,000 I'm selling.
0:11:28 > 0:11:32I warn you, by next year, it's going to be worth 35.
0:11:32 > 0:11:34Yours at £30,000, sir.
0:11:38 > 0:11:43In 1972 and '73, house prices went up the biggest margin in history,
0:11:43 > 0:11:47a staggering 70% in two years.
0:11:49 > 0:11:51- Hey, look at that!- What?
0:11:51 > 0:11:53CASH TILL SOUND EFFECT
0:11:53 > 0:11:58Good grief. Prices are going up fast.
0:11:58 > 0:12:00Look, we can't afford anything.
0:12:00 > 0:12:02Why don't we just pack it in, go back?
0:12:02 > 0:12:06- No, here's something in our price range. £5,000.- What's that?
0:12:06 > 0:12:07A dog kennel.
0:12:09 > 0:12:15And by 1980, the average house was worth ten times its value in 1970.
0:12:17 > 0:12:24This was a new landscape of shiny kitchens in trim, tidy houses.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27We often think that Margaret Thatcher created this,
0:12:27 > 0:12:29but she didn't.
0:12:29 > 0:12:30It created her.
0:12:30 > 0:12:34But they were the foundation stone of a new suburban society,
0:12:34 > 0:12:39marking the transition from an old, class-based collective culture
0:12:39 > 0:12:43to a new domesticated, individualistic one.
0:12:43 > 0:12:48- AD JINGLE: - # Oh what a lovely surprise
0:12:48 > 0:12:50# Furniture to dream about
0:12:50 > 0:12:53# Talk about, scheme about
0:12:53 > 0:12:55# Furniture for you. #
0:12:55 > 0:13:01Eventually, as so often, this housing boom would turn to bust.
0:13:01 > 0:13:02But in the long run,
0:13:02 > 0:13:08property had become the central pillar of the new affluent society.
0:13:12 > 0:13:17Among those moving into new houses in the summer of 1970,
0:13:17 > 0:13:19one man, in London SW1,
0:13:19 > 0:13:23faced a particularly daunting redecorating job.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28Like the gentrifiers of Islington,
0:13:28 > 0:13:32he had just moved into a rundown, 18th-century town house.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35And he was determined to drag it into the 1970s,
0:13:35 > 0:13:39bringing in his black-leather armchairs, his marble tables,
0:13:39 > 0:13:45his gleaming new stereo and the love of his life, his Steinway piano.
0:13:45 > 0:13:47His name was Edward Heath.
0:13:47 > 0:13:51And his address was 10 Downing Street.
0:13:54 > 0:13:58This Government will be at the service
0:13:58 > 0:14:02of all the people, the whole nation.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11Keen to banish every last taint of his hated rival,
0:14:11 > 0:14:12Labour's Harold Wilson,
0:14:12 > 0:14:15Heath ripped out the dark-red carpets
0:14:15 > 0:14:18and put in brand-new gold ones.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21In the Cabinet room, out went the battered leather armchairs
0:14:21 > 0:14:23and the tatty, green-felt table,
0:14:23 > 0:14:27and in came a symphony of beiges and browns.
0:14:27 > 0:14:31Heath's friends told him that it looked stylish and modern,
0:14:31 > 0:14:33like a cool bachelor pad.
0:14:33 > 0:14:36Most people thought it looked more like a boudoir.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41But Ted Heath was like no Tory leader before.
0:14:42 > 0:14:45He wasn't public school and silver spoon.
0:14:45 > 0:14:48He was the son of a jobbing builder from Kent.
0:14:50 > 0:14:52A self-made grammar-school boy,
0:14:52 > 0:14:55he seemed a very modern kind of Conservative.
0:14:56 > 0:15:00The ideal man to lead an affluent, meritocratic nation.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07Heath's victory had given him the chance
0:15:07 > 0:15:10to remake Britain on entirely modern lines.
0:15:10 > 0:15:12There was no time to lose,
0:15:12 > 0:15:15right from the start, he was all business.
0:15:19 > 0:15:21This was Ted Heath's kind of place.
0:15:24 > 0:15:29Work on the NatWest Tower, as it was called, began in 1971.
0:15:34 > 0:15:38At the time, it was the tallest building in Europe,
0:15:38 > 0:15:42a symbol of the blossoming power of the City of London.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47From his very first Cabinet meeting in June 1970,
0:15:47 > 0:15:50it was clear that Heath saw himself
0:15:50 > 0:15:55as the clipped and businesslike captain of a tight, but well-disciplined, ship.
0:15:55 > 0:15:59In his own mind, he was more than just another grubby politician.
0:15:59 > 0:16:02He was the dynamic modernising chief executive,
0:16:02 > 0:16:06who'd been hired to turn around the fortunes
0:16:06 > 0:16:09of a vast, but struggling, family business.
0:16:09 > 0:16:13We will have to embark on a change so radical,
0:16:13 > 0:16:16a revolution so quiet,
0:16:16 > 0:16:18and yet so total.
0:16:19 > 0:16:23At the top of Heath's modernising agenda was an ambition
0:16:23 > 0:16:29that was to become the single-most controversial political issue of our lifetimes.
0:16:29 > 0:16:32For what he wanted more than anything else
0:16:32 > 0:16:36was to get Britain into Europe.
0:16:36 > 0:16:39Heath had been committed to the European ideal
0:16:39 > 0:16:42since his student days in the 1930s.
0:16:42 > 0:16:44He'd visited Spain during the Civil War.
0:16:44 > 0:16:48He'd seen one of Hitler's Nuremberg Rallies at first hand.
0:16:48 > 0:16:51As an artillery officer in the Second World War,
0:16:51 > 0:16:54he had seen for himself the horrors of Nazism.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04In the aftermath of the war, Heath had travelled across West Germany,
0:17:04 > 0:17:09witnessing the extraordinary rebuilding of a shattered nation.
0:17:09 > 0:17:13The Germans might have lost the war,
0:17:13 > 0:17:15but they knew what was needed to win the peace -
0:17:15 > 0:17:19efficient industry run by clear-sighted business leaders.
0:17:21 > 0:17:26The world is shaped more by the head of a big company,
0:17:26 > 0:17:29the life of his compatriots is shaped more
0:17:29 > 0:17:33by the head of the big company than by an ambassador.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36This is a thing that has to be realised.
0:17:37 > 0:17:41For Heath, West Germany offered a glimpse
0:17:41 > 0:17:43of Britain's economic future.
0:17:43 > 0:17:45On the streets of German cities today,
0:17:45 > 0:17:48the working class seems to have disappeared.
0:17:48 > 0:17:50Everybody has a bank account.
0:17:50 > 0:17:53Year by year, balance sheet by balance sheet,
0:17:53 > 0:17:57all the Germans are turning into capitalists.
0:17:57 > 0:18:00By joining Europe's Common Market,
0:18:00 > 0:18:04Britain would stake its claim to this economic miracle.
0:18:10 > 0:18:12This vision of Europe
0:18:12 > 0:18:15wasn't just about burying the hatreds of the past,
0:18:15 > 0:18:18it was about building a new world,
0:18:18 > 0:18:20wealthier than ever before.
0:18:20 > 0:18:25It's a big decision and it's one that goes far beyond party politics.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28It's a decision that will affect us fundamentally,
0:18:28 > 0:18:30whether we go in or stay out.
0:18:30 > 0:18:34Let's be very clear about it, this is a moment of decision
0:18:34 > 0:18:38that will not occur again for a very long time, if ever.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41All the six now want us to join them.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47Britain's businessmen loved the idea
0:18:47 > 0:18:50of joining the world's most lucrative single market.
0:18:52 > 0:18:56I feel this country is in a dilemma, so we should go in.
0:18:56 > 0:18:59Certainly, nothing's happened since the war, has it?
0:18:59 > 0:19:01Which is before I was born.
0:19:01 > 0:19:03FRENCH ACCORDION MUSIC
0:19:06 > 0:19:09But were ordinary voters ready to embrace
0:19:09 > 0:19:12Edward Heath's European dream?
0:19:12 > 0:19:15Well, that was another story.
0:19:15 > 0:19:18The truth is that anti-European sentiment died hard.
0:19:18 > 0:19:21After all, it was only a quarter of a century
0:19:21 > 0:19:23since the end of the Second World War.
0:19:23 > 0:19:25And when many people thought of Europe,
0:19:25 > 0:19:28they remembered Agincourt and the Armada,
0:19:28 > 0:19:30Napoleon and the Kaiser.
0:19:30 > 0:19:33"BLESS THIS HOUSE" THEME TUNE
0:19:33 > 0:19:40Even prime-time sitcoms captured our suspicion of all things continental.
0:19:40 > 0:19:42After all, England's a civilised country.
0:19:42 > 0:19:45What do you think they are over there, head hunters?
0:19:45 > 0:19:47CANNED LAUGHTER
0:19:47 > 0:19:49You know what I mean, they're foreigners.
0:19:49 > 0:19:51Not to them, they're not.
0:19:51 > 0:19:53They're different.
0:19:53 > 0:19:57They haven't even got the Archbishop of Canterbury.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00Indeed, even in Heath's own party, there were plenty of people
0:20:00 > 0:20:03who recoiled from his European enthusiasm.
0:20:03 > 0:20:07"I'd rather live in a socialist Britain," said the Tory MP Alan Clark,
0:20:07 > 0:20:11"than one ruled by a lot of effing foreigners."
0:20:14 > 0:20:18Heath might want us to be like the Germans,
0:20:18 > 0:20:21but first, he had to persuade the French.
0:20:21 > 0:20:25Unconvinced by our European credentials,
0:20:25 > 0:20:29our wartime allies had twice blackballed British attempts
0:20:29 > 0:20:30to join their club.
0:20:35 > 0:20:40In May 1971, Heath went to Paris for face-to-face talks
0:20:40 > 0:20:42with the French president Georges Pompidou.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46In his eagerness to look European, Heath gave a speech
0:20:46 > 0:20:48that has gone down in political legend,
0:20:48 > 0:20:52although perhaps not quite for the right reasons.
0:20:52 > 0:20:55(SPEAKS FALTERINGLY) Je suis convaincu que nous vivons
0:20:55 > 0:20:58un moment historique,
0:20:58 > 0:21:02comparable a celui d'il y a vingt ans.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05Car il est certain
0:21:05 > 0:21:08que les decisions que nous prendrons tous
0:21:08 > 0:21:11dans les semaines a venir seront determinantes
0:21:11 > 0:21:15pour l'avenir politique de l'Europe.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20Perhaps never before had the language of Voltaire
0:21:20 > 0:21:23been subjected to such a battering.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26But while Heath was hardly one of history's great linguists,
0:21:26 > 0:21:29his speech had sent an unmistakable message.
0:21:30 > 0:21:34And that message was, "Can we join your gang, please?"
0:21:36 > 0:21:38Yes!
0:21:38 > 0:21:40With the French onside,
0:21:40 > 0:21:44Heath now had to get the legislation through Parliament.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48And with both main parties deeply divided,
0:21:48 > 0:21:52passions for and against were running high.
0:21:52 > 0:21:56I believe that Britain will be worse off in the Common Market.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59It's an opportunity that offers great benefits for us
0:21:59 > 0:22:02and great benefits for Europe as a whole.
0:22:02 > 0:22:05Will you turn away from the open seas
0:22:05 > 0:22:07and moor yourself to Europe?
0:22:07 > 0:22:10Mr Heath said yes. We say no.
0:22:13 > 0:22:17But in October 1971, the Commons backed Heath.
0:22:20 > 0:22:22On the cliffs of Dover,
0:22:22 > 0:22:27pro-European campaigners lit a gigantic beacon in celebration.
0:22:34 > 0:22:38This was one of the decisive moments in our modern history.
0:22:38 > 0:22:41British politics would never be the same again.
0:22:41 > 0:22:43Yet we never learned to love Europe,
0:22:43 > 0:22:45and even now, more than 40 years on,
0:22:45 > 0:22:50there are still people who think that Ted Heath was a traitor to his country.
0:22:50 > 0:22:54SCREAMING AND LAUGHTER
0:22:54 > 0:22:57- Yoo-hoo! - SHE CACKLES
0:23:00 > 0:23:04But the truth was that when you mentioned Europe in the early '70s,
0:23:04 > 0:23:08most people didn't think of a grand political project.
0:23:09 > 0:23:16Europe meant something much simpler and altogether more exciting.
0:23:17 > 0:23:18A week in the sun.
0:23:20 > 0:23:22Until the dawn of the 1970s,
0:23:22 > 0:23:25most British people only crossed the Channel
0:23:25 > 0:23:28if they were wearing a uniform and carrying a gun.
0:23:28 > 0:23:30But a foreign holiday was becoming
0:23:30 > 0:23:33one of those crucial little badges of status and affluence.
0:23:35 > 0:23:38An adventure abroad was now one of life's pleasures,
0:23:38 > 0:23:40an ambition to set beside the manicured lawn,
0:23:40 > 0:23:43the colour TV and the Ford Cortina.
0:23:43 > 0:23:47The more we spend from housekeeping the less we have the holiday fund.
0:23:47 > 0:23:48Oh, yes, the holidays.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51Ten days in torrid Torremolinos.
0:23:51 > 0:23:53Ten nights of madness in the Mediterranean.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56Ten evenings of ecstasy in the Costa Del Sol.
0:23:56 > 0:23:59Then back to the Merseyside and the "costa" living.
0:24:02 > 0:24:06By the early 1970s, a two-week package holiday to Spain
0:24:06 > 0:24:10in a one-star hotel would cost you around £20.
0:24:10 > 0:24:12That's about £240 today.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21But the amount of money you could take out of the country
0:24:21 > 0:24:23was tightly regulated.
0:24:23 > 0:24:29As late as 1969, you could only take £50 abroad in an entire year.
0:24:30 > 0:24:33Hi, can I have some euros, please?
0:24:35 > 0:24:38But in January 1970, the rules were relaxed.
0:24:38 > 0:24:40Now you could take £300 in foreign currency,
0:24:40 > 0:24:45and that's the equivalent of more than £3,000 today.
0:24:45 > 0:24:48It was a small, but seismic, shift.
0:24:48 > 0:24:52It was as though British families had been held prisoner in their own country.
0:24:52 > 0:24:54And now they'd been let out,
0:24:54 > 0:24:57they behaved like unruly kids on a spending spree.
0:24:57 > 0:24:58Thank you.
0:25:06 > 0:25:10Almost incredibly, Britain's biggest travel agents, Thomas Cook and Lunn Poly,
0:25:10 > 0:25:13were both state owned.
0:25:13 > 0:25:15Like the mines or the railways,
0:25:15 > 0:25:19package holidays were a nationalised industry.
0:25:19 > 0:25:24But by 1972, Ted Heath had sold them off to private buyers.
0:25:24 > 0:25:28They have changed your hotel. They've changed it to the Verit White.
0:25:28 > 0:25:29Has it been changed once before?
0:25:29 > 0:25:32- Yes.- Where were you originally?
0:25:33 > 0:25:36They've changed it to the Verimar.
0:25:37 > 0:25:43In 1970, about six million people were already going abroad on holiday.
0:25:43 > 0:25:46And by the time Heath left office, four years later,
0:25:46 > 0:25:48that figure had almost doubled.
0:25:51 > 0:25:54Even Britain's most famous comic brand
0:25:54 > 0:25:56had tired of the week in the caravan park,
0:25:56 > 0:25:58and was carrying on, on the Costa.
0:25:58 > 0:26:00It's very lovings, no?
0:26:00 > 0:26:03Yes, I beg your pardon, oh, you mean lovely, yes, it's nice.
0:26:05 > 0:26:09That first trip abroad was so often an unforgettable experience.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12The shock of the heat, the light,
0:26:12 > 0:26:14and the unfinished hotel.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20Dick, Dick! Look up there!
0:26:20 > 0:26:22DRILLING
0:26:22 > 0:26:24HE MOUTHS
0:26:32 > 0:26:34For Ted Heath, Europe meant fine wines,
0:26:34 > 0:26:36classical music and international brotherhood,
0:26:36 > 0:26:39but for most British holidaymakers,
0:26:39 > 0:26:41it meant sheer hedonism.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44Drunk with the heat, the excitement, and the local liquor,
0:26:44 > 0:26:46they threw off their inhibitions
0:26:46 > 0:26:50in a way that would have been simply unthinkable back home in Skegness.
0:26:50 > 0:26:54This was two weeks of sun, sea, sand,
0:26:54 > 0:26:57sangria and above all, sex.
0:26:57 > 0:27:00# If you want it, here it is
0:27:00 > 0:27:03# Come and get it
0:27:03 > 0:27:07# Make your mind up fast. #
0:27:07 > 0:27:08It's pretty promiscuous over here,
0:27:08 > 0:27:11well, it's promiscuous in a lot of places in Spain,
0:27:11 > 0:27:12but Majorca more than anywhere.
0:27:12 > 0:27:16I mean, everything you read in magazines, well, believe it.
0:27:19 > 0:27:21Did they approach you on the beach?
0:27:21 > 0:27:23No, they haven't, it's been all right.
0:27:23 > 0:27:25It's been in the daylight, one-and-a-half weeks to go yet.
0:27:30 > 0:27:37Back home, the sexual revolution was still something people read about in the newspapers.
0:27:37 > 0:27:40But now, all those buttoned up inhibitions melted away
0:27:40 > 0:27:41in the Mediterranean heat.
0:27:41 > 0:27:47# Because it may not last. #
0:27:47 > 0:27:52For girls who were more accustomed to fighting off Barry from Barnsley,
0:27:52 > 0:27:55sometimes it took just one look from a Spanish waiter
0:27:55 > 0:27:57and they went weak at the knees.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01But some girls, rightly, were rather more suspicious of the Latin Lotharios.
0:28:01 > 0:28:06Here's a letter to Jackie magazine's agony aunts, Cathy and Clare.
0:28:06 > 0:28:08This girl says she's going on holiday in a couple of weeks
0:28:08 > 0:28:10with five friends.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13"I'm a bit worried about it, I'm not very confident with boys,"
0:28:13 > 0:28:16she says, "I don't want to get involved in any wild schemes
0:28:16 > 0:28:17"for picking up Spaniards."
0:28:17 > 0:28:21Bizarrely, Cathy and Claire are worryingly enthusiastic.
0:28:21 > 0:28:24"Try not to get upset and look forward to your holiday," they say,
0:28:24 > 0:28:26"we're sure you'll have a great time,
0:28:26 > 0:28:29"and maybe even a holiday romance of your own."
0:28:35 > 0:28:38As much as people loved splashing about in the sun,
0:28:38 > 0:28:42they still wanted part of it to feel a bit more like home.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50Fish and chips, pint of English ale, and all the trimmings.
0:28:50 > 0:28:53Why go abroad when you can get all the comforts of home on holiday?
0:28:53 > 0:28:55But come to think of it, why not go abroad?
0:28:55 > 0:28:57Because it's all here in Benidorm.
0:29:16 > 0:29:20Most of these visitors weren't really interested in exploring Spanish culture,
0:29:20 > 0:29:25what they wanted was the traditional pleasures of the British seaside,
0:29:25 > 0:29:26only with added sunshine.
0:29:26 > 0:29:29That meant a full English breakfast, fish and chips,
0:29:29 > 0:29:34and steak and kidney pie, all washed down with a cup of PG tips,
0:29:34 > 0:29:36and a copy of the Daily Mirror.
0:29:41 > 0:29:46The educated upper and middle classes had long flocked to the Med
0:29:46 > 0:29:49for a dose of sunshine and high culture.
0:29:50 > 0:29:56And to them, the Costa package millions looked like a sun scorched Philistine mob.
0:29:56 > 0:29:59I'm fed up of going abroad and being treated like sheep,
0:29:59 > 0:30:01what's the point of being carted round in buses,
0:30:01 > 0:30:05surrounded by sweaty miners from Kettering and Coventry.
0:30:05 > 0:30:07With their cloth caps and their cardigans
0:30:07 > 0:30:09and their transistor radios,
0:30:09 > 0:30:11and their Sunday Mirrors, complaining about the tea,
0:30:11 > 0:30:14"Oh, they don't make it properly here, not like at home."
0:30:14 > 0:30:18Monty Python's Oxbridge comedians
0:30:18 > 0:30:21had wicked fun with the tour bus classes.
0:30:21 > 0:30:23Sitting in cotton sun frocks
0:30:23 > 0:30:27squirting Timothy White sun cream all over their puffy, raw, swollen flesh,
0:30:27 > 0:30:29because they overdid it on the first day.
0:30:34 > 0:30:37Of course, there was a fair bit of social snobbery in all this.
0:30:37 > 0:30:40Until the 70s, Europe had been a playground
0:30:40 > 0:30:44for a tiny elite of the rich and well-connected.
0:30:44 > 0:30:47But this new British tourist was less David Niven,
0:30:47 > 0:30:49and more David Essex.
0:30:49 > 0:30:56# Oh, is he more, too much more than a pretty face,
0:30:58 > 0:31:02# It's so strange the way he talks, it's a disgrace. #
0:31:02 > 0:31:07Shall I tell you something, Franco? Shall I tell you something?
0:31:07 > 0:31:10That is not an unpleasant little burgundy, that.
0:31:10 > 0:31:12That is not a bad little burgundy.
0:31:12 > 0:31:15But the pioneers of mass-market tourism
0:31:15 > 0:31:18also wanted a taste of Europe back home.
0:31:24 > 0:31:27Another sign of a nation impatient for new experiences.
0:31:31 > 0:31:36Until the 70s, wine was the drink of the refined,
0:31:36 > 0:31:40or at best, a tipple for special occasions.
0:31:40 > 0:31:43But with its hints of holiday good times,
0:31:43 > 0:31:45and its suggestions of sophistication,
0:31:45 > 0:31:48el vino had invaded the high street.
0:31:49 > 0:31:53People go abroad for holidays more, come back with ideas,
0:31:53 > 0:31:56it encourages them to experiment.
0:31:58 > 0:32:00Wine was becoming essential
0:32:00 > 0:32:03at even the most modest suburban dinner party.
0:32:04 > 0:32:09In just ten years, the average British wine intake doubled.
0:32:15 > 0:32:18They're so casual about it, you'd think you were in France.
0:32:18 > 0:32:22Indeed, one of the benefits of joining the common market
0:32:22 > 0:32:24was that it slashed duty on table wine.
0:32:29 > 0:32:31How often do you buy wine?
0:32:31 > 0:32:32Quite often.
0:32:32 > 0:32:34- Do any of your friends drink it?- Yes.
0:32:36 > 0:32:39Of course, it's easy to look back now and to laugh
0:32:39 > 0:32:41at all that Blue Nun and Mateus Rose,
0:32:41 > 0:32:45but the truth is, that people's tastes went inherently terrible,
0:32:45 > 0:32:47they were just untutored,
0:32:47 > 0:32:50because, of course, most people had never drunk wine before.
0:32:51 > 0:32:54And let's face it, without these trailblazers,
0:32:54 > 0:32:58you wouldn't be sipping that agreeable sauvignon blanc.
0:33:00 > 0:33:05And all these bottles of Black Tower were a powerful symbol of change,
0:33:05 > 0:33:08they represented affluence, ambition,
0:33:08 > 0:33:12a kind of sophistication, even modernity itself.
0:33:12 > 0:33:16The island nation, the land of the pie and the pint, was dying out.
0:33:16 > 0:33:21Darling, wine is my hobby. I'm not drinking, I'm learning about it.
0:33:21 > 0:33:23Oh.
0:33:23 > 0:33:26Not like some people, not like Terry Collier,
0:33:26 > 0:33:28he hasn't gotten beyond beer yet,
0:33:28 > 0:33:32his idea of sophistication is a pint of Newcastle Brown with a cherry in it.
0:33:36 > 0:33:38But in the early '70s,
0:33:38 > 0:33:41the days when real men looked, thought,
0:33:41 > 0:33:45and drank just like their dads were dying out.
0:33:45 > 0:33:51Even the straight back and sides was disappearing from pubs and schoolyards.
0:33:51 > 0:33:54Perfectly ordinary young men wanted something different,
0:33:54 > 0:33:57a bit more sparkle in their lives.
0:33:58 > 0:34:00And one pop star above all
0:34:00 > 0:34:05seemed to capture this new spirit of showing off.
0:34:05 > 0:34:07# What happened to the teenage dream? #
0:34:07 > 0:34:10Here is the only group to have two number ones last year,
0:34:10 > 0:34:13T Rex and Get It On.
0:34:24 > 0:34:28Ten minutes before T Rex's front man, Marc Bolan,
0:34:28 > 0:34:30was due to appear on this show,
0:34:30 > 0:34:33his personal assistant, Chelita,
0:34:33 > 0:34:36sprinkled some glitter on his cheeks.
0:34:36 > 0:34:39Now, Bolan and Lita claimed she had done it as a joke,
0:34:39 > 0:34:41but for thousands of thrill-starved youngsters,
0:34:41 > 0:34:43hunting for the next big thing,
0:34:43 > 0:34:46Bolan's new look was a revelation.
0:34:46 > 0:34:49And at T Rex's very next gig,
0:34:49 > 0:34:55Bolan was greeted by the sight of hundreds of be-glittered fans.
0:34:55 > 0:35:01# Get it on, bang a gong, get it on
0:35:04 > 0:35:10# Get it on, bang a gong, get it on. #
0:35:11 > 0:35:14In the first years of the '70s,
0:35:14 > 0:35:18nobody could match T Rex's appeal to British teenagers.
0:35:18 > 0:35:24Lennon and McCartney anointed T Rex as The Beatles' true successors.
0:35:24 > 0:35:28We play for the kids that never saw The Beatles,
0:35:28 > 0:35:30never saw Jimi Hendrix,
0:35:30 > 0:35:33they're seeing us as those sort of people, you know.
0:35:33 > 0:35:36# You're dirty sweet and you're my girl. #
0:35:36 > 0:35:39And Bolan himself seemed to be the ultimate pin-up.
0:35:39 > 0:35:43# Get it on, bang a gong, get it on. #
0:35:43 > 0:35:44Girls loved him,
0:35:44 > 0:35:50but what was really striking was the image he presented to teenage boys.
0:35:50 > 0:35:55Bolan wasn't just another middle class hippie with an Oxbridge third,
0:35:55 > 0:35:57he was a lorry driver's son from Hackney,
0:35:57 > 0:35:59with an eye for the ladies.
0:35:59 > 0:36:06And what he represented was the single biggest change in masculine identity for a generation.
0:36:06 > 0:36:08There's been a change in England in two years,
0:36:08 > 0:36:10and we are part of the change.
0:36:10 > 0:36:14I mean, guys now can wear make-up, they can shout and scream.
0:36:14 > 0:36:17# All the young dudes. #
0:36:17 > 0:36:22Bolan's dramatic look, all feathers, flares and hair, was a sensation.
0:36:24 > 0:36:27While not everyone could be quite as coiffed as Bolan,
0:36:27 > 0:36:29they could have a go.
0:36:29 > 0:36:33And before we knew it, blokes didn't have a haircut,
0:36:33 > 0:36:34they had a hairstyle.
0:36:36 > 0:36:40The only thing you study is your navel, you even shave lying down.
0:36:41 > 0:36:45To the dean of grumpy old men, Rigsby of Rising Damp,
0:36:45 > 0:36:49all the free-flowing locks were a national disgrace.
0:36:51 > 0:36:53Oh, so that's it, it's my hair, is it?
0:36:53 > 0:36:56Well, let me tell you, Jesus Christ had long hair.
0:36:56 > 0:36:57- Now, that's enough of that.- What?
0:36:57 > 0:37:01Don't you go comparing yourself with him, you show a bit of respect.
0:37:01 > 0:37:02But it's true, he did have long hair.
0:37:02 > 0:37:05He didn't have a hairdryer, though, did he? Eh?
0:37:05 > 0:37:06LAUGHING
0:37:06 > 0:37:08Didn't give himself blow waves.
0:37:10 > 0:37:13But the revolution wasn't confined to hair,
0:37:13 > 0:37:16young men were experimenting with their whole look,
0:37:16 > 0:37:18flirting with glamour and colour.
0:37:23 > 0:37:25Nobody symbolised this better
0:37:25 > 0:37:31than Britain's most vividly attired man of the early '70s, Peter Wyngarde,
0:37:31 > 0:37:36better known as TV's rakish adventurer, Jason King.
0:37:36 > 0:37:40Six feet and a half inches of steel, not tall by today's standards,
0:37:40 > 0:37:44but so slim and well proportioned that he gives the appearance of a lithe athlete.
0:37:45 > 0:37:50Disturbingly, all the explosive outfits he wore on screen
0:37:50 > 0:37:52were from his own personal collection.
0:37:56 > 0:37:59For people who could still remember the General Strike, the Blitz,
0:37:59 > 0:38:01and the Battle of Britain,
0:38:01 > 0:38:05for people whose memories were full of tin baths, short hair,
0:38:05 > 0:38:06and the stiff upper lip,
0:38:06 > 0:38:11the likes of Mark Bolan came as a terrible shock.
0:38:11 > 0:38:14# Oh, you pretty thing. #
0:38:14 > 0:38:17Of course, it was all just a silly and short lived phase,
0:38:17 > 0:38:21but it had substance, too.
0:38:21 > 0:38:27It was a lurid reminder that '70s Britain was a more expressive kind of country.
0:38:28 > 0:38:31We do have very much vaster fashion consciousness,
0:38:31 > 0:38:35right through every class and age of person than ever in previous history.
0:38:35 > 0:38:38Even in Britain's factories,
0:38:38 > 0:38:42the boots and boiler suit uniform was being updated.
0:38:42 > 0:38:45Have you be worried about the dangers of it?
0:38:45 > 0:38:48Well, up till now, I seen that poster.
0:38:48 > 0:38:49What do you think about the hairnet?
0:38:49 > 0:38:52I think it's a good idea, I think it'll catch on in other pits.
0:38:52 > 0:38:55- Are you worried about the dangers? - No.
0:38:55 > 0:38:57Well, I am, but I like my hair, don't I,
0:38:57 > 0:38:59and I don't want to have it cut.
0:38:59 > 0:39:00How do you feel about the hair nets?
0:39:00 > 0:39:02Think they're daft.
0:39:02 > 0:39:07# Don't you know you're driving your mamas and papas insane. #
0:39:09 > 0:39:11Still, let's not get carried away.
0:39:11 > 0:39:16All the hair in the world couldn't make up for the daily reality of hard grind,
0:39:16 > 0:39:20in tight knit, working-class communities,
0:39:20 > 0:39:24where the old rhythms of masculine tradition ran slow and deep.
0:39:33 > 0:39:36But the boundaries were to be pushed even further,
0:39:36 > 0:39:40when a strange creature landed in central London.
0:39:42 > 0:39:48Ziggy Stardust is the human manifestation of a creature from outer space,
0:39:48 > 0:39:52fallen to earth to bring a message of peace and love to all humanity.
0:39:52 > 0:39:55In reality, of course, Ziggy was merely the persona
0:39:55 > 0:39:58of the rock star, David Bowie,
0:39:58 > 0:40:02whose album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars,
0:40:02 > 0:40:04hit the charts in the summer of 1972.
0:40:05 > 0:40:09The key to Ziggy's appeal wasn't just that he was an alien,
0:40:09 > 0:40:12it was that he was an alien in a dress.
0:40:12 > 0:40:15# There's a starman
0:40:15 > 0:40:17# Waiting in the sky
0:40:17 > 0:40:20# He'd like to come and meet us
0:40:20 > 0:40:22# But he thinks he'd blow our minds
0:40:22 > 0:40:25# There's a starman waiting in the sky... #
0:40:25 > 0:40:28Ziggy Stardust turned David Bowie
0:40:28 > 0:40:31into an international superstar.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34# Let the children lose it
0:40:34 > 0:40:36# Let the children use it
0:40:36 > 0:40:38# Let all the children boogie. #
0:40:38 > 0:40:40Ziggy!
0:40:40 > 0:40:44I've been waiting for ages to see him.
0:40:44 > 0:40:46SHE SOBS
0:40:46 > 0:40:48Why are you so upset?
0:40:48 > 0:40:50He's smashing!
0:40:53 > 0:40:56What made Ziggy Stardust so successful wasn't just the music,
0:40:56 > 0:40:58it was the attitude.
0:40:58 > 0:41:00As a former art school student,
0:41:00 > 0:41:03Bowie saw gender bending as a kind of performance,
0:41:03 > 0:41:07as well as a remarkably successful marketing exercise.
0:41:07 > 0:41:09But for thousands of suburban teenagers,
0:41:09 > 0:41:13his androgynous persona was a glimpse of another world.
0:41:13 > 0:41:16A world in which you could change your clothes, your hair,
0:41:16 > 0:41:21even your name, and be whatever and whoever you wanted.
0:41:21 > 0:41:25# Didn't know what time it was and lights were low-oh-oh
0:41:25 > 0:41:30# I leaned back on my radio-oh-oh
0:41:30 > 0:41:34# Some cat was laying down some rock'n'roll
0:41:34 > 0:41:37# Lotta soul, he said...#
0:41:37 > 0:41:39If I've been at all responsible
0:41:39 > 0:41:41for people finding more characters in themselves
0:41:41 > 0:41:44than they originally thought they had, then I'm pleased
0:41:44 > 0:41:47because that's something I feel very strongly about,
0:41:47 > 0:41:50that one isn't totally what one has been conditioned to think.
0:41:50 > 0:41:53In 1972, David Bowie upped the ante
0:41:53 > 0:41:55when he declared himself bisexual.
0:41:55 > 0:42:01# John, I'm only dancing... #
0:42:01 > 0:42:05It was a bold statement at a time when in many parts of Britain,
0:42:05 > 0:42:09you still risked a kicking for looking a bit different.
0:42:09 > 0:42:13But it reflected how emphatically homosexuality was emerging
0:42:13 > 0:42:17from the outlaw fringes of our national life.
0:42:17 > 0:42:21Five years after the decriminalisation of homosexuality,
0:42:21 > 0:42:24the gay rights movement had hit the streets.
0:42:24 > 0:42:27Hand-in-hand with a new materialism
0:42:27 > 0:42:29was a new individualism.
0:42:29 > 0:42:34Young men and women wanted to say, "This is who I am,
0:42:34 > 0:42:39"this is my lifestyle, my identity.
0:42:39 > 0:42:43"And it's a lot more complicated than what class I come from."
0:42:54 > 0:42:57In the late summer of 1972,
0:42:57 > 0:43:01one group of British citizens were arriving from sunnier climes.
0:43:02 > 0:43:04But they weren't back from happy holidays.
0:43:04 > 0:43:07They were exiles from their native land.
0:43:11 > 0:43:15They said, "You Indians get out from here."
0:43:15 > 0:43:17Who did this?
0:43:17 > 0:43:18Military men.
0:43:18 > 0:43:21How much have you lost?
0:43:21 > 0:43:23It's about 2,000 shillings.
0:43:23 > 0:43:24- Quite a lot of money?- Yeah.
0:43:26 > 0:43:30Frightened Asian families from Uganda
0:43:30 > 0:43:32were seeking shelter in Britain.
0:43:32 > 0:43:36And they would test just how much attitudes had really changed.
0:43:38 > 0:43:41In Uganda, the Asian community
0:43:41 > 0:43:43had been wealthy, successful
0:43:43 > 0:43:45and influential,
0:43:45 > 0:43:48until the arrival of a man made in Britain,
0:43:48 > 0:43:51General Idi Amin.
0:43:52 > 0:43:57An African dictator who had been trained by the British Army
0:43:57 > 0:44:00and even played rugby for its East Africa XV.
0:44:00 > 0:44:05But when Idi Amin first seized power in Uganda in 1971,
0:44:05 > 0:44:10most people thought he'd still be loyal to the mother country.
0:44:10 > 0:44:15The British are my best friends.
0:44:15 > 0:44:19But Amin had turned into a cruel and capricious dictator.
0:44:19 > 0:44:21He saved much of his venom
0:44:21 > 0:44:24for the people he described as bloodsuckers -
0:44:24 > 0:44:27Uganda's 57,000 Asians.
0:44:27 > 0:44:29Thrifty and hard-working,
0:44:29 > 0:44:32they dominated the country's professional classes.
0:44:32 > 0:44:34Many of them still had British passports,
0:44:34 > 0:44:36a legacy of the last days of Empire.
0:44:36 > 0:44:40But now, Amin wanted them out.
0:44:45 > 0:44:51Asians have been milking the economy of the country.
0:44:51 > 0:44:54Go through and see one of the immigration officers. All right?
0:44:58 > 0:45:01And that meant many of them were headed for the Imperial Motherland.
0:45:01 > 0:45:05- Where are you going to live when you get to Britain?- London W12.
0:45:10 > 0:45:13The prospect of thousands of Asians arriving here
0:45:13 > 0:45:16provoked a spasm of rage.
0:45:18 > 0:45:22Send them back! Send them back! Send them back!
0:45:22 > 0:45:25Not everybody had learned to love the new realities
0:45:25 > 0:45:28of a post-imperial, multiracial society
0:45:28 > 0:45:32and anti-immigration feelings were running high.
0:45:34 > 0:45:37Many of the men on this demonstration
0:45:37 > 0:45:40were from one workplace in east London.
0:45:42 > 0:45:45Claiming that the Asians represented a threat to their livelihoods,
0:45:45 > 0:45:49the Smithfield meat porters marched on Westminster.
0:45:52 > 0:45:55Here was the authentic voice of white working-class anger.
0:45:55 > 0:45:59It's too simple for the sanctimonious humbugs
0:45:59 > 0:46:01in Westminster or Whitehall.
0:46:01 > 0:46:04The answer to the problem is this.
0:46:04 > 0:46:06End immigration immediately
0:46:06 > 0:46:09and start repatriation immediately!
0:46:12 > 0:46:16This storm of anger and anxiety came from a group of people
0:46:16 > 0:46:21for whom Britain was changing just a bit too fast.
0:46:25 > 0:46:28For Ted Heath, the plight of the Ugandan Asians
0:46:28 > 0:46:31left him facing a tricky dilemma.
0:46:31 > 0:46:36He had promised to limit immigration from Commonwealth countries.
0:46:36 > 0:46:42But the Asian refugees were legally entitled to come and live here.
0:46:43 > 0:46:50In the next few months, about 25,000 Ugandan Asians arrived in Britain.
0:46:52 > 0:46:56Most brought only what they could stuff into their battered suitcases.
0:46:56 > 0:46:58But it didn't matter.
0:46:58 > 0:47:02Because what they did bring was ambition, aspiration
0:47:02 > 0:47:05and a determination to succeed.
0:47:08 > 0:47:12They were quickly settled in towns and cities across Britain,
0:47:12 > 0:47:17including booming, property-rich Peterborough.
0:47:18 > 0:47:22The extraordinarily impressive thing is just how smoothly
0:47:22 > 0:47:26and successfully the Ugandan Asians settled into life in Peterborough.
0:47:26 > 0:47:29These were tremendously hard-working people.
0:47:29 > 0:47:34They had lost everything, but now they took any job they could find.
0:47:34 > 0:47:36All that mattered was to get a foothold,
0:47:36 > 0:47:38then you could work your way up.
0:47:40 > 0:47:43Six weeks after they first arrived in Britain,
0:47:43 > 0:47:47all three Osman brothers have jobs in Peterborough.
0:47:47 > 0:47:49It's tough and monotonous,
0:47:49 > 0:47:54but the basic wage is £21.75 with overtime on top.
0:47:55 > 0:47:59We are willing to work, to do any job we are offered.
0:48:03 > 0:48:08By 1973, less than a year after they'd arrived,
0:48:08 > 0:48:12almost all the refugees had found permanent homes.
0:48:15 > 0:48:19Don't forget that many of these refugees had left behind homes
0:48:19 > 0:48:21and businesses worth thousands of pounds.
0:48:21 > 0:48:26They came to Britain with nothing but the clothes on their backs
0:48:26 > 0:48:30and by dint of sheer hard graft, they dragged themselves up.
0:48:33 > 0:48:36These were Ted Heath's kind of people.
0:48:36 > 0:48:38And their devotion to self-improvement
0:48:38 > 0:48:43was a kind of super-charged version of the aspiration
0:48:43 > 0:48:45that was transforming Britain.
0:48:57 > 0:49:01The dream of a better life had even begun to penetrate
0:49:01 > 0:49:04some of the nation's most traditional communities.
0:49:08 > 0:49:12All around the country were our coal mining pits,
0:49:12 > 0:49:16where 300,000 men toiled deep underground,
0:49:16 > 0:49:20in dangerous and often almost primitive conditions.
0:49:23 > 0:49:26Most of Britain's miners worked six-hour shifts
0:49:26 > 0:49:30with just a 20-minute break to eat their sandwiches.
0:49:30 > 0:49:34At the Snowdown pit in Kent, eight out of ten miners worked completely naked,
0:49:34 > 0:49:37because it was so hot underground.
0:49:37 > 0:49:40During a shift, they lost so much fluid in sweat,
0:49:40 > 0:49:44that they had to drink eight pints of water laced with salt.
0:49:44 > 0:49:47Little wonder, then, that so many people saw them
0:49:47 > 0:49:49as working-class heroes.
0:49:52 > 0:49:56After the war, mining had become a nationalised industry,
0:49:56 > 0:49:59in recognition of the importance of coal to the country
0:49:59 > 0:50:01and of the sheer courage of the men.
0:50:04 > 0:50:07But since then, the miners had been neglected,
0:50:07 > 0:50:12their wages falling far behind those of other manual workers.
0:50:16 > 0:50:19Ten years since I was earning what I'm earning now...
0:50:19 > 0:50:22We have a basic wage of £28, take home of £22.
0:50:22 > 0:50:25Ten years since I was taking home £22.
0:50:25 > 0:50:28So, therefore, the cost of living has increased in ten year
0:50:28 > 0:50:32and our wages have fallen farther and farther down the wage scale.
0:50:39 > 0:50:42What made this so infuriating for Britain's miners
0:50:42 > 0:50:45was that they felt they were missing out
0:50:45 > 0:50:47on all the excitement of the affluent society.
0:50:47 > 0:50:50They might have been the salt of the earth,
0:50:50 > 0:50:53but they, too, wanted their own homes, a foreign holiday,
0:50:53 > 0:50:55central heating and a colour television.
0:50:55 > 0:50:58They didn't want to smash the system,
0:50:58 > 0:51:03they just wanted their fair share of Ted Heath's Brave New World.
0:51:07 > 0:51:10People want to have holidays,
0:51:10 > 0:51:12they want to run a car. Why should a man have to work
0:51:12 > 0:51:17and maybe have a few pints at weekend, and that be his lot in life?
0:51:17 > 0:51:21Workers now, they're getting a taste for better things now.
0:51:23 > 0:51:27The miners' ambitions were pure '70s materialism.
0:51:27 > 0:51:32But their industry had been built in the collectivist '40s.
0:51:32 > 0:51:34And the truth was that a gulf was opening up
0:51:34 > 0:51:37between what ordinary families wanted
0:51:37 > 0:51:42and what our old-fashioned heavy-industry-dominated economy could deliver.
0:51:49 > 0:51:52In the pit villages of South Yorkshire,
0:51:52 > 0:51:55one young man became the standard bearer
0:51:55 > 0:51:58for the miners' impatience for change.
0:51:58 > 0:52:00I don't believe that anybody in the trade-union movement
0:52:00 > 0:52:03wins anything at all, unless they're prepared to be militant.
0:52:12 > 0:52:14This is the headquarters of the Yorkshire NUM,
0:52:14 > 0:52:18for years the power base of one Arthur Scargill.
0:52:18 > 0:52:22We always think of Scargill as the incarnation of hard-left militancy,
0:52:22 > 0:52:25and the sworn opponent of Thatcherite materialism.
0:52:25 > 0:52:26But the truth is
0:52:26 > 0:52:29that his socialist rhetoric can be a bit misleading.
0:52:29 > 0:52:31What made Scargill so successful
0:52:31 > 0:52:35was that he told the miners what they wanted to hear.
0:52:35 > 0:52:37They loved his cheeky, flamboyant persona,
0:52:37 > 0:52:42but what they liked most of all was his promise to get them more money.
0:52:42 > 0:52:44I've never known the employer who gives you anything.
0:52:44 > 0:52:47You'll get as much as you are prepared to go out and take.
0:52:47 > 0:52:50MUSIC: "Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who
0:52:50 > 0:52:55"You get as much as you are prepared to go out and take."
0:52:55 > 0:52:57That's a young Arthur Scargill,
0:52:57 > 0:53:01expressing an almost Thatcherite ethos in 1970.
0:53:01 > 0:53:04# We'll be fighting in the streets
0:53:04 > 0:53:06# With our children at our feet... #
0:53:06 > 0:53:11The miners hadn't been out since the General Strike of 1926.
0:53:13 > 0:53:17But in early 1972, they woke from their slumber
0:53:17 > 0:53:20and voted to strike for a better deal.
0:53:24 > 0:53:26Inside the government,
0:53:26 > 0:53:29there was no great alarm at the prospect of a national coal strike.
0:53:29 > 0:53:32The winter had been mild and coal stocks were high.
0:53:33 > 0:53:38MEN SHOUTING
0:53:40 > 0:53:44But Ted Heath had fatally underestimated the miners.
0:53:44 > 0:53:47They had a new strategy up their sleeve.
0:53:47 > 0:53:51Across the country, cars, mini-buses and coaches were sent out,
0:53:51 > 0:53:56carrying flying pickets to docks, coke depots and power stations.
0:54:00 > 0:54:04In the early '70s, there were few laws restricting mass picketing.
0:54:05 > 0:54:10And it was soon apparent that the miners' mobile tactics were choking
0:54:10 > 0:54:12the supply of coal to Britain's power stations.
0:54:12 > 0:54:14# And pray
0:54:16 > 0:54:19# We don't get fooled again... #
0:54:19 > 0:54:23The dispute reached a melodramatic climax at Saltley, near Birmingham,
0:54:23 > 0:54:28when thousands of miners and fellow trade unionists,
0:54:28 > 0:54:32marshalled by Arthur Scargill, overwhelmed the police lines
0:54:32 > 0:54:36and forced the closure of the gates at the Midlands' biggest coke depot.
0:54:39 > 0:54:44As the gates of the gas works clanged shut at 10.45,
0:54:44 > 0:54:48a great shout of triumph went up from a crowd of about 7,000 people.
0:54:48 > 0:54:50CHEERING
0:54:56 > 0:55:00Saltley is a hugely symbolic event in our recent history -
0:55:00 > 0:55:02often seen as the moment
0:55:02 > 0:55:05when the miners forced the government to its knees.
0:55:05 > 0:55:08But the truth is that Saltley was just a sideshow,
0:55:08 > 0:55:12because most of the coke had already been shipped out.
0:55:12 > 0:55:15What really preoccupied the Cabinet that morning wasn't Saltley,
0:55:15 > 0:55:19it was the freezing weather, the blockade of the power stations
0:55:19 > 0:55:20and the looming shortages.
0:55:20 > 0:55:22With barely two weeks' power left
0:55:22 > 0:55:26before Britain sank into total darkness,
0:55:26 > 0:55:29Ted Heath knew that the game was up.
0:55:32 > 0:55:39Within the corridors of power, there was now a mood of abject panic.
0:55:39 > 0:55:42As Heath's right-hand man Willie Whitelaw put it,
0:55:42 > 0:55:46"We looked absolutely into the abyss."
0:55:58 > 0:56:01By now, power cuts were becoming a fact of life.
0:56:01 > 0:56:03Not only were power stations closing,
0:56:03 > 0:56:07but so were factories, offices and schools.
0:56:07 > 0:56:10On the high street, shops were running out of matches and candles,
0:56:10 > 0:56:14on the roads, there were long queues as the traffic lights failed.
0:56:17 > 0:56:21What the politicians feared most was the loss of control.
0:56:23 > 0:56:28Heath's grand plan of a united, managed and modernised Britain
0:56:28 > 0:56:32was unravelling in economic collapse and social disorder.
0:56:35 > 0:56:39On Friday, 18th February, the Cabinet met by candlelight
0:56:39 > 0:56:42and agreed that they had no choice but to surrender.
0:56:43 > 0:56:48Two hours later, Heath welcomed the miners' leaders to Number 10.
0:56:49 > 0:56:51As the night wore on,
0:56:51 > 0:56:56the miners extracted not just the 27% pay increase they wanted,
0:56:56 > 0:57:00but a whole raft of extra concessions.
0:57:00 > 0:57:02The strike was over.
0:57:02 > 0:57:06Heath hadn't just been beaten, he'd been annihilated.
0:57:09 > 0:57:13The miners' strike of 1972 wasn't just the biggest humiliation
0:57:13 > 0:57:17for a British government in living memory,
0:57:17 > 0:57:20it was a watershed in our modern history.
0:57:20 > 0:57:24What it represented wasn't the triumph of socialism,
0:57:24 > 0:57:27it was the victory of aspiration.
0:57:27 > 0:57:30The problem was that ordinary people's ambitions
0:57:30 > 0:57:34were outrunning the nation's ability to pay for them.
0:57:34 > 0:57:38For, behind all the brand-new homes and foreign holidays,
0:57:38 > 0:57:42the reality was that the British economy was in desperate trouble.
0:57:44 > 0:57:47Ted Heath had promised a new Britain,
0:57:47 > 0:57:51remade in the fires of global capitalism.
0:57:51 > 0:57:53But within just 12 months,
0:57:53 > 0:57:59global capitalism would have a terrible shock in store for Britain.
0:57:59 > 0:58:03And then, everything Ted Heath believed in
0:58:03 > 0:58:06would come crashing down.
0:58:07 > 0:58:11Next time, Royal weddings and spending sprees...
0:58:11 > 0:58:14MUSIC: "Help Me (I Think I'm Falling)" by Joni Mitchell
0:58:14 > 0:58:17# In love again
0:58:17 > 0:58:19..domestic debt...
0:58:19 > 0:58:21# When I get that crazy feeling... #
0:58:21 > 0:58:25..and global disaster rip through British life.
0:58:25 > 0:58:29- What can I say?- Might I suggest rolling the end captions and fade.
0:58:29 > 0:58:33# And you know your loving
0:58:35 > 0:58:39# Like you love your freedom... #
0:58:57 > 0:59:00Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd