0:00:02 > 0:00:04# Oh, where have you been, my blue eyed sun?
0:00:04 > 0:00:09# Where have you been, my darling young one?
0:00:11 > 0:00:14# I've stumbled on the side of the twelve twisty mountains
0:00:14 > 0:00:18# I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways
0:00:18 > 0:00:22# I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
0:00:22 > 0:00:26# I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
0:00:26 > 0:00:29# I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
0:00:29 > 0:00:37# And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
0:00:37 > 0:00:41# It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall. #
0:00:47 > 0:00:50Maybe you were settling down and having kids,
0:00:50 > 0:00:52or moving into your first house,
0:00:52 > 0:00:56getting a car or getting into trouble.
0:00:56 > 0:01:00Or perhaps you were just a glint in your father's eye.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03Our intimate memories of the 1970s
0:01:03 > 0:01:06have become part of our national history.
0:01:06 > 0:01:10These were the years in which our last fantasies
0:01:10 > 0:01:14of imperial greatness were finally blown away.
0:01:14 > 0:01:16Amid the storms of global upheaval,
0:01:16 > 0:01:21splendid isolation had become a thing of the past.
0:01:21 > 0:01:23From the boardroom to the bedroom,
0:01:23 > 0:01:26we found ourselves at the mercy of change.
0:01:26 > 0:01:31For 200 years, Great Britain had been the world's dominant power.
0:01:31 > 0:01:36But by the mid 1970s, the winds of global change were gathering force.
0:01:36 > 0:01:39And when the storm broke,
0:01:39 > 0:01:43all our cosy little certainties would be swept away.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01Some places are timeless.
0:02:03 > 0:02:06# I lit my purest candle... #
0:02:06 > 0:02:12Places of quiet tranquillity, havens of quintessential Englishness.
0:02:14 > 0:02:19Places like Great Somerford, tucked away in the Wiltshire countryside.
0:02:22 > 0:02:26And here on BBC One, I think it is time to get out and about
0:02:26 > 0:02:29to what I think we must call the second capital of England,
0:02:29 > 0:02:34out there to Wiltshire, and Great Somerford.
0:02:34 > 0:02:37# As he neared, I felt the... #
0:02:37 > 0:02:40In 1973, this pretty little backwater
0:02:40 > 0:02:44was catapulted into the international limelight.
0:02:48 > 0:02:51A local boy had hit the big time.
0:02:51 > 0:02:56For by marrying 23-year-old Princess Anne, Captain Mark Phillips
0:02:56 > 0:02:59was joining the ranks of British royalty.
0:03:00 > 0:03:04# Stories of cold... #
0:03:04 > 0:03:07Great Somerford had marked royal occasions before,
0:03:07 > 0:03:09the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria,
0:03:09 > 0:03:14the Coronation of Edward VII, and in 1953 to mark the Coronation
0:03:14 > 0:03:18of the current Queen, the villagers had planted a ceremonial tree.
0:03:18 > 0:03:22Although later, sadly, it was eaten by a Billy goat.
0:03:22 > 0:03:27This picture postcard village was exactly the kind of place
0:03:27 > 0:03:31that a royal bridegroom ought to be riding out from.
0:03:31 > 0:03:33A blissful sanctuary
0:03:33 > 0:03:37from the unsettling new realities of the 1970s.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45'100 miles west of Westminster, and the four bells
0:03:45 > 0:03:48'in this small church towers will ring out a wedding peal.'
0:03:48 > 0:03:52They're going to ring 5,040 changes at Westminster Abbey.
0:03:52 > 0:03:57- How many are you going to get through?- You're going to have to hear it to believe it!
0:03:59 > 0:04:03'Pictures from these cameras will be seen in all five continents.
0:04:03 > 0:04:07'The wedding will be televised live to 16 countries.'
0:04:07 > 0:04:12# And we'll all live happy ever after
0:04:12 > 0:04:17# Yes, we'll all live happy ever after... #
0:04:17 > 0:04:19We do do a good royal wedding.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25And in 1973, Princess Anne's big day had it all.
0:04:27 > 0:04:29Crowds, pageantry,
0:04:29 > 0:04:32a radiant young couple.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38And a happy family.
0:04:41 > 0:04:46This was royalty still untouched by divorce and scandal.
0:04:53 > 0:04:58It was almost...almost possible to imagine that Britain was one nation,
0:04:58 > 0:05:04one happy family, united on a day of celebration.
0:05:07 > 0:05:11But not all the pomp and circumstance in the world
0:05:11 > 0:05:16could hide the stark truth of Britain's fall from grace.
0:05:16 > 0:05:20And even on the biggest day of the year, the chilling realities
0:05:20 > 0:05:23of globalisation were silently seeping in.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37A month before the wedding, the Middle East had erupted,
0:05:37 > 0:05:42as Israel's Arab neighbours launched a stunning surprise attack.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48Both sides consider they're fighting a battle they've got to win.
0:05:48 > 0:05:53And so that battle looks as though it could be a long one and a very bitter one.
0:05:55 > 0:05:59This wasn't some local scuffle.
0:05:59 > 0:06:03This was a conflict that would shake the world.
0:06:08 > 0:06:13The oil crisis was the single decisive moment of the 1970s.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16It was the tipping point, the catalyst that changed everything,
0:06:16 > 0:06:21including our sense of who we were and where we were going.
0:06:26 > 0:06:30Furious at the West's support for Israel,
0:06:30 > 0:06:34the Arab oil nations announced an eye-watering price rise of 70%.
0:06:34 > 0:06:38And in the storm that followed, no country was safe.
0:06:38 > 0:06:42They don't seem to know how soon they'll be literally scraping
0:06:42 > 0:06:46the bottom of the barrel and the tankers will stop coming in.
0:06:48 > 0:06:52Almost overnight, Britain's motorists faced the prospect
0:06:52 > 0:06:56of spiralling prices and crippling shortages.
0:06:56 > 0:07:01'The era of cheap petrol is over. Today, for £1, the petrol that goes into your tank
0:07:01 > 0:07:04'is little more than 1.5 gallons.'
0:07:04 > 0:07:08- How much did you buy?- Ten. - Ten gallons?- Yes.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12- Have you tried to get petrol anywhere else?- Yes. Very difficult.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19For people who'd grown up after the Second World War,
0:07:19 > 0:07:23rising living standards had been a fact of life.
0:07:23 > 0:07:27One of the cornerstones of this affluent society had been
0:07:27 > 0:07:31cheap motoring for all, and now that was gone.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39But this crisis wasn't just about petrol, it was about power.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43# You think you've got it all set up... #
0:07:44 > 0:07:50Britain had once been the imperial master of the Middle East.
0:07:50 > 0:07:54But now, economically speaking, the boot was on the other foot
0:07:54 > 0:07:58and it was the Arabs who were doing the kicking.
0:08:00 > 0:08:03# ..Hit you too hard
0:08:04 > 0:08:06# One of these days... #
0:08:06 > 0:08:09The new masters of the universe
0:08:09 > 0:08:15were men like the super slick Saudi petroleum minister, Sheikh Yamani.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21The era of a very cheap source of energy is gone.
0:08:21 > 0:08:23And this is a new era.
0:08:23 > 0:08:26Now don't expect the producers to accept something
0:08:26 > 0:08:32much below than what the market forces will indicate for their oil.
0:08:32 > 0:08:34Doesn't this new massive increase in the price of oil
0:08:34 > 0:08:38mean a change in the world balance of power between developing nations
0:08:38 > 0:08:43like you, the producers, and us, the developed industrialised nations?
0:08:43 > 0:08:45Yes, it will.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52'Oil has reshaped the money map of the world.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01'By the end of this year alone,
0:09:01 > 0:09:06'these countries will have earned £40 billion, £40,000,000,000.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10'The noughts dance away almost to infinity.'
0:09:10 > 0:09:13# Money, get away... #
0:09:13 > 0:09:17This was the moment when globalisation really caught up
0:09:17 > 0:09:20with the nation that had ruled the waves.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24Almost overnight, people realised that Great Britain was merely
0:09:24 > 0:09:30a small and frankly rather weak link in a vast economic chain.
0:09:30 > 0:09:34For people who'd grown up believing in an age of imperial glory,
0:09:34 > 0:09:38the reality of that impotence was a terribly psychological shock.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46'The Arab states in particular see the oil price increase as the end
0:09:46 > 0:09:49'of the West's superiority over the rest of the world.'
0:09:51 > 0:09:57Visible evidence of this great power shift could be found on the streets of London,
0:09:57 > 0:10:01a declining capital already turning into a playground
0:10:01 > 0:10:04for the international super rich.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11'This Sunday, the Sunday Times looks at the phenomenal wealth
0:10:11 > 0:10:15'of Britain's newest millionaires, the oil Sheikhs of Arabia.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18'They're buying our hotels, stately homes and flats in Mayfair,
0:10:18 > 0:10:23'antiques, jewellery and works of art. They're giving a new meaning to the phrase Buy British.'
0:10:23 > 0:10:27- What shall I do with the car, sir?- Keep it.
0:10:29 > 0:10:34'Oil rich customers from the Middle East are investing in chunks
0:10:34 > 0:10:38'of British real estate with a gay abandon most people only show
0:10:38 > 0:10:41'when they're playing Monopoly.
0:10:41 > 0:10:43'With the Arab invasion,
0:10:43 > 0:10:47'the old game has undergone a kind of Mecca-morphosis.'
0:10:47 > 0:10:50# Money, money, money money... #
0:10:52 > 0:10:56This new oil elite weren't just driving up London property prices.
0:10:56 > 0:11:01They were hitting Britain where it hurt, in the pocket.
0:11:01 > 0:11:03# Money, money, money, money. #
0:11:06 > 0:11:11Oil was the fuel on which the affluent society depended.
0:11:11 > 0:11:16So when the price went up, the economic effects were devastating.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19Anything made with a lot of oil, like say plastics
0:11:19 > 0:11:23or artificial fibres, automatically became a lot more expensive.
0:11:23 > 0:11:29That pushed up demand for the alternatives, for things like wool or wood or cotton.
0:11:29 > 0:11:35And that in turn pushed up the price of things like shoes or furnishings or clothes.
0:11:45 > 0:11:47After decades of endless growth,
0:11:47 > 0:11:50most people had never known anything like it.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53With household essentials soaring in price
0:11:53 > 0:11:58and inflation hitting double figures, in the autumn of 1973,
0:11:58 > 0:12:03even the ordinary family dinner was becoming a titanic challenge.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09'Frozen fish, a staple meal for many families,
0:12:09 > 0:12:11'has jumped in price by 15.3%.
0:12:12 > 0:12:16'Meat has gone up on average by nearly 22%
0:12:16 > 0:12:21'and eggs have jumped by more than 29% since last November.'
0:12:21 > 0:12:24It's price increases like these which make up
0:12:24 > 0:12:28the 11% rise in the cost of food in the last eight months.
0:12:30 > 0:12:34For people on low incomes, inflation was a silent menace.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39'Edna and Michael Hargreaves returning home
0:12:39 > 0:12:43'from their weekly shopping expedition in Oldham.
0:12:43 > 0:12:47'Michael's take home pay as a fireman is only £22 a week.
0:12:47 > 0:12:53'Tonight, the family's having tinned stewed steak, mashed potatoes and fresh Brussels sprouts.'
0:12:56 > 0:12:59Things just weren't supposed to work this way.
0:12:59 > 0:13:03Modern capitalism with a little bit of judicious tweaking of the laws
0:13:03 > 0:13:07of supply and demand were supposed to have the answer to everything.
0:13:07 > 0:13:11But thanks to what economists now call the Great Inflation of the 1970s,
0:13:11 > 0:13:15even the pound in your pocket was losing its value.
0:13:15 > 0:13:21And for people who'd just got used to full employment and rising living standards,
0:13:21 > 0:13:24the inflation of the 1970s came as a terrible shock,
0:13:24 > 0:13:29a cancer, eating away at everything they'd taken for granted.
0:13:29 > 0:13:35It looks as if we must now, learn to live with high food prices. How are we going to cope?
0:13:35 > 0:13:39Sum up your advice on how to deal with rising food prices.
0:13:39 > 0:13:43You can save money just by eating less of everything.
0:13:43 > 0:13:46And then you can proceed further and save money by giving up
0:13:46 > 0:13:51the idea you've got to have a roast at every meal and do some of these things,
0:13:51 > 0:13:54using cheaper foods that are just as good for you.
0:13:55 > 0:14:00After 25 years of wanting more, ordinary families were now
0:14:00 > 0:14:03tightening their belts and settling for less.
0:14:03 > 0:14:07But it was too easy to blame the Arabs because in many ways,
0:14:07 > 0:14:12the Great Inflation was also made in Britain.
0:14:13 > 0:14:17By the early 1970s, shopping habits had been transformed
0:14:17 > 0:14:23and at the heart of the change was a very simple idea - credit.
0:14:25 > 0:14:30'With an Access card, you can buy all kinds of things simply buy signing.
0:14:30 > 0:14:33'Suppose you buy a TV set for £79,
0:14:33 > 0:14:37'you can either pay the whole sum at the end of the month or you can pay
0:14:37 > 0:14:41'the minimum, in this case £3, and pay the rest when you want to.'
0:14:41 > 0:14:47There's something rather sweet about an advert that has to explain how to use a credit card.
0:14:53 > 0:14:56But we lost our innocence soon enough.
0:14:56 > 0:15:00And by 1973, the great plastic boom was on.
0:15:00 > 0:15:05Today, the 3.5 million people who received Access credit cards through the post
0:15:05 > 0:15:10can start off on a cash-less spending spree of up to £350 million.
0:15:14 > 0:15:19At the root of the credit explosion wasn't just profligate self indulgence.
0:15:19 > 0:15:24The truth is people's expectations had outrun their incomes.
0:15:24 > 0:15:29A great gulf was opening up between what you earned and what you wanted.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33And for people who'd got used to the idea of owning their own home,
0:15:33 > 0:15:36driving their own car, even going on their first foreign holiday,
0:15:36 > 0:15:41the answer was simple - borrow now, pay later.
0:15:41 > 0:15:47We've got in mind in the near future, a three-piece suite.
0:15:47 > 0:15:50The only way we can get one is on the HP.
0:15:50 > 0:15:55Every time you pick the paper up, or the television, something's rising.
0:15:55 > 0:16:00It's to get what you want now and let the future take care of itself, more or less.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03Just pay up and be happy.
0:16:05 > 0:16:11Pay up and be happy. This was the mantra of '70s consumerism.
0:16:13 > 0:16:19All right, Penny. You have 45 seconds to have a looking, starting from now.
0:16:19 > 0:16:24On the conveyor belt tonight, a rocking chair, a carving set...
0:16:25 > 0:16:27..a topical home-making candle set...
0:16:29 > 0:16:33..a crystal bowl, an electric drill...
0:16:33 > 0:16:35BUZZER
0:16:35 > 0:16:42There we are. You have 45 seconds to recount your thoughts, starting now.
0:16:42 > 0:16:46- A cassette recorder. - You wanted that, yes.- Chair.- A chair.
0:16:46 > 0:16:48The carving set, the electric drill...
0:16:48 > 0:16:54- A potty.- Yes, a potty. - A big tortoise.- A big tortoise, yes.
0:16:54 > 0:16:57- A food mixer... - BUZZER
0:16:57 > 0:16:59Didn't she do well? APPLAUSE
0:16:59 > 0:17:03The truth is that in the 1970s,
0:17:03 > 0:17:05everybody wanted all of these things.
0:17:05 > 0:17:10This was the era in which what you bought was beginning to define who you were.
0:17:10 > 0:17:14Britain was falling in love with mass consumerism.
0:17:14 > 0:17:20- This is what I'd really love. - What's that? Oh, the candelabra?
0:17:20 > 0:17:27- Is it real silver?- Yeah, silver plate, yeah.- Oh, it looks so lovely.
0:17:27 > 0:17:32The strained suburbanites of Abigail's Party are wicked caricatures,
0:17:32 > 0:17:36but in their spending on something special for the lounge,
0:17:36 > 0:17:40they were typical of ordinary families across the land.
0:17:40 > 0:17:43- Sue.- Thank you.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46'Access is the latest step that money has taken.'
0:17:46 > 0:17:49But like our illusions of empire,
0:17:49 > 0:17:53Britain's new spending power was a hollow sham.
0:17:58 > 0:18:00After unleashing the biggest boom in history,
0:18:00 > 0:18:05the Chancellor, Anthony Barber finally yielded to reason.
0:18:05 > 0:18:13Desperate to control inflation, he restricted credit and announced savage cuts in public spending.
0:18:16 > 0:18:21Britain was in an economic nightmare. But now came a generous offer of help,
0:18:21 > 0:18:25and a bracing dose of the truth from a rather surprising source.
0:18:29 > 0:18:36There is no food in Britain, there is no tea and they have no meat and milk.
0:18:37 > 0:18:41We are ready to give them banana. We have so many tonnes of bananas.
0:18:41 > 0:18:46For Idi Amin, Ugandan dictator and all round rabble-rouser,
0:18:46 > 0:18:53the plight of Africa's old colonial master was too good a chance to resist.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57British now is in chaos completely.
0:18:58 > 0:19:04So these are some of the telegrams that Idi Amin sent personally to Ted Heath.
0:19:04 > 0:19:06They make extraordinary reading.
0:19:06 > 0:19:11This is the first one, the 14th of December 1973.
0:19:11 > 0:19:14"In the past few months," Amin says, "the people of Uganda have been
0:19:14 > 0:19:18"following with sorrow the alarming economic crisis in Britain.
0:19:18 > 0:19:21"But there is a solution because I have decided
0:19:21 > 0:19:27"to contribute 10,000 Ugandan shillings from my personal savings.
0:19:27 > 0:19:32"And I'm convinced that many Ugandans will donate generously to this Save Britain Fund."
0:19:32 > 0:19:38And this is coming from somebody who is a former British colonial subject.
0:19:38 > 0:19:43Nothing could be more humiliating for Ted Heath or the British Government.
0:19:43 > 0:19:48No longer British is the master of Africa.
0:19:48 > 0:19:49Now, they must kneel down to us.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55For two centuries, Britain had been number one.
0:19:55 > 0:20:00Thanks to the Empire, British goods, British ideas British culture,
0:20:00 > 0:20:05even British sport, had penetrated every corner of the world.
0:20:05 > 0:20:09But now the Empire had gone and the world no longer cared.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26Once, perhaps, the nation would have pulled together
0:20:26 > 0:20:29in the face of the economic blizzard.
0:20:32 > 0:20:36But one group of workers saw the global tempest not as a threat,
0:20:36 > 0:20:40but as an opportunity. The miners.
0:20:44 > 0:20:48The trouble is, old friend, they've had coal too cheap in the past.
0:20:48 > 0:20:50Like we had oil too cheap in the past,
0:20:50 > 0:20:53the old Arabs are getting educated... We're getting educated.
0:21:03 > 0:21:07The oil crisis played right into the miners' hands.
0:21:07 > 0:21:12They knew that Britain's energy supplies were now under tremendous pressure.
0:21:12 > 0:21:18If they cut off coal production, then the whole country would come grinding to a halt.
0:21:18 > 0:21:22The miners had the whip hand and they proposed to use it.
0:21:22 > 0:21:25# They carry news that must get through... #
0:21:25 > 0:21:30Only two years earlier, the miners had walked out for more money,
0:21:30 > 0:21:33plunging Britain into darkness
0:21:33 > 0:21:38and forcing Ted Heath's Tory Government into abject retreat.
0:21:39 > 0:21:44But now that the oil shock that brought the economy to its knees,
0:21:44 > 0:21:46the miners saw their chance.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51In the dying days of 1973, they came back for more.
0:21:51 > 0:21:53Much more.
0:21:55 > 0:22:00They were led by a straight-talking rugby league fan from Wigan,
0:22:00 > 0:22:03a miner since his teens, Joe Gormley.
0:22:06 > 0:22:11What Joe Gormley wanted for his men was to get rid of the outside loo and the vegetable patch.
0:22:11 > 0:22:16What he wanted for them, he said was a Jag at the front of the house,
0:22:16 > 0:22:20good schools for the kids and a Mini for the wife to go shopping.
0:22:20 > 0:22:24We're out for what we can get and what we should get.
0:22:26 > 0:22:31Bristling with confidence, the miners wanted not a 10% deal,
0:22:31 > 0:22:36or even 20%, but an inflation busting 35%
0:22:36 > 0:22:39and they were in no mood to compromise.
0:22:39 > 0:22:44I've never been a militant. But I'm more bloody militant today than I've been in my life!
0:22:44 > 0:22:48It was a showdown that divided the nation.
0:22:50 > 0:22:54The miners could count on intergalactic backing.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57We've got 50 years now since joining the Galactic Federation,
0:22:57 > 0:23:00and what have the miners got to show for it?
0:23:00 > 0:23:03- Harder work for the same rewards. - It is a feudal society, Doctor.
0:23:03 > 0:23:09- The court is resistant to any change.- And we have got to step up the production of trisilicon.
0:23:11 > 0:23:16While Ted Heath had some rather earthier supporters.
0:23:19 > 0:23:25The reason your power workers, your coal miners are unhappy is because of Bolshy bastards like him!
0:23:27 > 0:23:31Look at it! Militant! I'll give 'em bloody militant!
0:23:33 > 0:23:40On the 12th of November 1973, the miners voted for an overtime ban
0:23:40 > 0:23:44that would slash coal production by more than half.
0:23:44 > 0:23:46# To Blockbuster... #
0:23:46 > 0:23:51The government declares a state of emergency because of the electricity and coal disputes.
0:23:51 > 0:23:56The first regulations announced take effect at midnight tomorrow.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01As Prime Minister, I want to speak to you simply
0:24:01 > 0:24:06and plainly about the grave emergency now facing our country.
0:24:06 > 0:24:09We are asking you to cut down to the absolute minimum
0:24:09 > 0:24:11the use of electricity in your homes.
0:24:16 > 0:24:19..right now!
0:24:19 > 0:24:24In terms of comfort, we shall have a harder Christmas than we have known since the War.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27Hello and a Merry Christmas. I am Santa Heath.
0:24:27 > 0:24:32LAUGHTER As you've just seen, I arrived on my sleigh,
0:24:32 > 0:24:35which proves that I am doing my bit to save petrol.
0:24:38 > 0:24:42It was a miserable Christmas.
0:24:42 > 0:24:45Shops shrouded in darkness, shortages of bread, candles
0:24:45 > 0:24:50and paraffin, and every night the television shutting down early.
0:24:52 > 0:24:57As TV is closing down at 10:30 at night. It could...
0:24:57 > 0:25:00It could come to this.
0:25:05 > 0:25:08Match Of The Day! LAUGHTER
0:25:10 > 0:25:17Even the Prime Minister was reduced to Christmas shopping by gaslight.
0:25:17 > 0:25:22At the top of the charts, Slade tried to rally a beleaguered nation.
0:25:22 > 0:25:26# Merry Christmas, everybody's having fun... #
0:25:28 > 0:25:32"So here it is, Merry Christmas. Everybody's having fun.
0:25:32 > 0:25:36"Look to the future now, it's only just begun."
0:25:36 > 0:25:39Not perhaps the most appropriate lyrics.
0:25:47 > 0:25:521974 began with shortages and blackouts.
0:25:52 > 0:25:57With Britain on a three-day week and the age of plenty a fading memory,
0:25:57 > 0:26:02it was as though ordinary families had been hurled back in time
0:26:05 > 0:26:07to days of scarcity and struggle,
0:26:07 > 0:26:13when food, heat and light were precious resources.
0:26:13 > 0:26:16There's something amiss. Something strangely amiss.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19Stop rolling your eyes and pull yourself together.
0:26:19 > 0:26:26Many people remembered the last age of austerity, during the Second World War.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29When these things, petrol ration books,
0:26:29 > 0:26:35were distributed to cope with the expected shortages, it must have seemed like a bad case of deja vu.
0:26:35 > 0:26:40But this time, one thing was missing, the Dunkirk spirit.
0:26:40 > 0:26:43This time, we couldn't blame the Germans.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46The only people we had to blame were ourselves.
0:26:46 > 0:26:51It's unconstitutional, it's undemocratic, it's against everything we're fighting for.
0:26:51 > 0:26:55- I intend to see my MP at once. - I wouldn't worry, sir.
0:26:55 > 0:27:01You'll just have to knuckle down. After all...it is for your own good.
0:27:08 > 0:27:1215 to 20% of production lost, gross pay down by 11%.
0:27:12 > 0:27:17This will be worse than the '30s if it were to continue for any long length of time.
0:27:27 > 0:27:33The sunny optimism of the affluent '60s had long since faded.
0:27:33 > 0:27:36The headlines were full of doom and gloom.
0:27:36 > 0:27:38There were black clouds overhead.
0:27:38 > 0:27:40The future seemed bleaker than ever.
0:27:40 > 0:27:43Not just for the economy, but for planet Earth itself.
0:27:48 > 0:27:53Just three years earlier, American astronauts had sent back
0:27:53 > 0:27:58the first pictures of Earth from space.
0:27:58 > 0:28:04These stunning images captured the fragile beauty of our common home,
0:28:04 > 0:28:09a precious crucible of life in the dead vastness of space.
0:28:09 > 0:28:14And around the world, these pictures came to symbolise an idea
0:28:14 > 0:28:18that would challenge the complacent assumptions of industrial society.
0:28:24 > 0:28:28Across the Western world, a new breed of intellectuals
0:28:28 > 0:28:32was advancing radical visions of a very different future.
0:28:32 > 0:28:36The critical thing is what you're doing to the planet's life support systems.
0:28:36 > 0:28:40If we rack them up, we won't get anywhere.
0:28:40 > 0:28:44So the picture is really a rather grim one.
0:28:44 > 0:28:47The coming economic apocalypse, they argued,
0:28:47 > 0:28:51was the least of our worries because what was at stake was nothing less
0:28:51 > 0:28:54than the future of the planet itself.
0:28:56 > 0:29:00'The city, greedy for growth, spreading upwards and outwards,
0:29:00 > 0:29:04'but every day less of nature.
0:29:04 > 0:29:07'Every day, more of Man.
0:29:08 > 0:29:12'This is the shadow of progress.'
0:29:14 > 0:29:19Through heavy industry and our heedless pursuit of consumer comforts,
0:29:19 > 0:29:23we were destroying the fragile ecology of Spaceship Earth.
0:29:28 > 0:29:33The plight of our own green and pleasant land told the story.
0:29:33 > 0:29:39For the last quarter of a century, great swathes of the British countryside
0:29:39 > 0:29:42had been smothered by concrete and tarmac.
0:29:42 > 0:29:47This was the heavy price we paid for progress.
0:29:59 > 0:30:02Nothing captured the anxieties of the emerging ecological movement
0:30:02 > 0:30:06better than the BBC series Doom Watch.
0:30:08 > 0:30:10Every week, a crack team of scientists
0:30:10 > 0:30:13battled man-made threats the natural world.
0:30:13 > 0:30:16From nuclear Armageddon to a plastic eating virus
0:30:16 > 0:30:20that could munch its way through an aircraft.
0:30:23 > 0:30:27Now the growth threat isn't constant, it's in decline, it shows...
0:30:27 > 0:30:28An exponential rise.
0:30:28 > 0:30:30If only 14 got out?
0:30:30 > 0:30:32It'd go through the city like a bush fire.
0:30:36 > 0:30:38'Doom Watch attracted 12 million viewers,
0:30:38 > 0:30:42'and even provoked calls for a Doom Watch Parliamentary committee
0:30:42 > 0:30:47'to investigate environmental affairs.'
0:31:00 > 0:31:03With Britain's major parties still committed to economic growth,
0:31:03 > 0:31:07perhaps it was time for a new political organisation.
0:31:12 > 0:31:14'And it was here, in industrial Coventry
0:31:14 > 0:31:18'that Britain's first Green party was born.'
0:31:22 > 0:31:24Founded by disgruntled Tory activists,
0:31:24 > 0:31:26and of all things, an estate agent,
0:31:26 > 0:31:31the People Party first came to prominence in early 1973.
0:31:32 > 0:31:35And this is a copy of its first advert,
0:31:35 > 0:31:38which was put in the classifieds section
0:31:38 > 0:31:40of the Coventry evening Telegraph.
0:31:40 > 0:31:44"Are you sincerely concerned about pollution, conservation,
0:31:44 > 0:31:49"population, survival, ecology, and environment generally?",
0:31:49 > 0:31:50it says.
0:31:50 > 0:31:52"People want positive action now,
0:31:52 > 0:31:55"in response to the doom watches forecasts."
0:31:57 > 0:32:01The people party were nothing if not radical,
0:32:01 > 0:32:04they were asking us to use less energy,
0:32:04 > 0:32:05spend less money,
0:32:05 > 0:32:08even have fewer children.
0:32:11 > 0:32:14They knew their policies weren't exactly crowd-pleasers,
0:32:14 > 0:32:18as one of them put it, it's a bit like asking people of Coventry
0:32:18 > 0:32:21to vote for a permanent recession.
0:32:21 > 0:32:23The candidate doesn't get his loudspeakers.
0:32:23 > 0:32:25With such doom laden message,
0:32:25 > 0:32:28perhaps it was not surprising that the people party
0:32:28 > 0:32:30didn't win much electoral support.
0:32:32 > 0:32:36But outside the political arena, a home-made revolution was underway.
0:32:39 > 0:32:42What we should be doing is working with the job of life itself.
0:32:42 > 0:32:44I quit work, and we become
0:32:44 > 0:32:47as damn near self-sufficient as possible.
0:32:47 > 0:32:48- Tom?- Yes.
0:32:48 > 0:32:52Did you wash your hands after messing about with those chickens?
0:32:52 > 0:32:56'The good life charts the process of Tom and Barbara Good,
0:32:56 > 0:32:59'a middle-class couple who leave the rat race
0:32:59 > 0:33:01'for a life of self-sufficiency,
0:33:01 > 0:33:05'with their neighbours watching in horror from over the garden fence.'
0:33:05 > 0:33:07Jerry?
0:33:08 > 0:33:10Jerry?
0:33:10 > 0:33:14Why is Barbara ruining a perfectly good greenhouse?
0:33:14 > 0:33:17- They're converting it, they're going to keep chickens.- Chickens?
0:33:17 > 0:33:19Does the residents' association know about this?
0:33:19 > 0:33:21I really don't know.
0:33:21 > 0:33:25Well, they should. This whole thing is getting entirely out of hand.
0:33:25 > 0:33:27It's like living next door to gypsies.
0:33:30 > 0:33:33Tom and Barbara's handknitted enthusiasm
0:33:33 > 0:33:37didn't arrive fresh from the writers imagination.
0:33:37 > 0:33:41It was based on the lifestyle choices of thousands of people
0:33:41 > 0:33:43up and down the country,
0:33:43 > 0:33:48who'd been inspired to embrace a life of self-sufficiency.
0:33:50 > 0:33:54We try to grow as many of our own vegetables as possible,
0:33:54 > 0:33:57and I do dressmaking, knitting,
0:33:57 > 0:33:59so I make most of the children's clothes.
0:34:01 > 0:34:05So, you might have planted your vegetable patch,
0:34:05 > 0:34:09but what about the messier aspects of the self-sufficient life?
0:34:09 > 0:34:10This book is unbelievable,
0:34:10 > 0:34:13the most humane way to castrate a goat is to use rubber rings.
0:34:15 > 0:34:16Put on with an elastrator
0:34:16 > 0:34:19that you can buy from any agricultural supplier.
0:34:20 > 0:34:24This illustrated handbook was a, sort of, Joy of Sex
0:34:24 > 0:34:27for the lentil mongering classes.
0:34:27 > 0:34:31John Seymour's book, the Complete Self-Sufficiency,
0:34:31 > 0:34:34was one of the more unlikely bestsellers of the 1970s.
0:34:34 > 0:34:37Probably not all readers religiously followed its advice,
0:34:37 > 0:34:40on how to train your land or slaughter your pigs.
0:34:40 > 0:34:43But it's true appeal lay elsewhere,
0:34:43 > 0:34:45at a time of enormous economic disarray,
0:34:45 > 0:34:47with food prices heading through the roof,
0:34:47 > 0:34:50this book was your insurance policy.
0:34:50 > 0:34:52And if things got really tough,
0:34:52 > 0:34:55it was your handbook for survival.
0:34:59 > 0:35:03Today, self-sufficiency sounds terribly woolly and well-meaning.
0:35:03 > 0:35:06But amid the turmoil of the 1970s,
0:35:06 > 0:35:10its advocates saw it as hard-headed preparation
0:35:10 > 0:35:13for an apocalyptic future,
0:35:13 > 0:35:17in which millions would have to flee the city's and fend for themselves.
0:35:19 > 0:35:23And yet the most enduring environmental message of the era
0:35:23 > 0:35:25was altogether more cuddly.
0:35:29 > 0:35:32Wandering across Wimbledon Common,
0:35:32 > 0:35:35making good use of the things that they found,
0:35:35 > 0:35:38the Wombles were pioneers of recycling.
0:35:38 > 0:35:4240 years on, we're all Wombles now.
0:35:42 > 0:35:44# Underground, overground, wombling free...#
0:35:44 > 0:35:47Put a little nailing, oh.
0:35:47 > 0:35:50That's the idea. That's the idea.
0:35:50 > 0:35:52Look at that, look at that.
0:35:52 > 0:35:56I think I should have the first sit down in the new rocking chair
0:35:56 > 0:36:01because, because I'm tired, and I was the Womble who was tired.
0:36:01 > 0:36:02Tyre-d.
0:36:02 > 0:36:05Ha ha, T-Y-R-E-D.
0:36:05 > 0:36:08# The Wombles of Wimbledon Common are we. #
0:36:16 > 0:36:19With the future of the planet at stake,
0:36:19 > 0:36:22it was little wonder that a deep sense of pessimism
0:36:22 > 0:36:24was seeping into British life.
0:36:25 > 0:36:29And for all those who worried about economic decline,
0:36:29 > 0:36:32there were many more terrified that morally,
0:36:32 > 0:36:34the country was going to the dogs.
0:36:41 > 0:36:44Do you believe in birth control?
0:36:44 > 0:36:45Yes.
0:36:45 > 0:36:47Premarital sex?
0:36:47 > 0:36:48Do I believe in it?
0:36:48 > 0:36:50- Yeah.- Yeah.
0:36:50 > 0:36:52Do you believe in birth control?
0:36:52 > 0:36:54Yes, I do.
0:36:54 > 0:36:56For both men and women, premarital sex?
0:36:58 > 0:37:01Yes, irrespective of religion.
0:37:02 > 0:37:06We often think of the 1960s as the high point of sexual liberation,
0:37:06 > 0:37:11and endless orgy in the summer sunshine of swinging London.
0:37:11 > 0:37:15But of course, the swinging 60s only actually happened to about 14 people
0:37:15 > 0:37:17in the few privileged enclaves.
0:37:17 > 0:37:20For ordinary men and women, it was only in the 1970s
0:37:20 > 0:37:24that the great tectonic plates of sexual liberation
0:37:24 > 0:37:25really began to shift.
0:37:29 > 0:37:34Sex, once banished beneath the bed clothes,
0:37:34 > 0:37:39by the early 1970s, it had burst out in to the open.
0:37:39 > 0:37:43And at the cutting edge of this cultural revolution
0:37:43 > 0:37:45was a brazen, booming business,
0:37:45 > 0:37:49imported from that notorious den of iniquity, continental Europe.
0:37:49 > 0:37:51Porn.
0:37:54 > 0:38:00The heart of the British sex industry, here in the seedy
0:38:00 > 0:38:04alleyways of Soho, boasted a total of 54 sex shops,
0:38:04 > 0:38:0839 cinema clubs, 16 strip and peep shows,
0:38:08 > 0:38:10and 12 licensed massage parlours.
0:38:10 > 0:38:14Most of them open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
0:38:19 > 0:38:25During the 1960s, many of Britain's neighbours embraced the new sexual frankness
0:38:25 > 0:38:28with unsettling enthusiasm.
0:38:28 > 0:38:32And now, extravagantly explicit material from red light Amsterdam
0:38:32 > 0:38:34and free-thinking Copenhagen
0:38:34 > 0:38:37had found its way to buttoned up Britain.
0:38:40 > 0:38:43Your export sales, I gather, are booming?
0:38:43 > 0:38:47Last year we had a total sale of more than 20 million Danish krone,
0:38:47 > 0:38:52that will be about one million pounds.
0:38:54 > 0:38:57In the 70s there was a sense of a kind of wildness,
0:38:57 > 0:38:58a free for all, even,
0:38:58 > 0:39:01with sex breaking out from beyond its boundaries,
0:39:01 > 0:39:03and invading the kind of public spaces
0:39:03 > 0:39:05from which it had been previously absent.
0:39:06 > 0:39:10The influx of XXX rated European pornography
0:39:10 > 0:39:13transformed the British market.
0:39:13 > 0:39:18In this full frontal battle for customers, coy was out,
0:39:18 > 0:39:20explicit was in.
0:39:20 > 0:39:24Even old fashioned, bawdy humour was becoming crassly obscene.
0:39:30 > 0:39:32With cinema audiences in free fall,
0:39:32 > 0:39:36the British film industry created a whole new genre,
0:39:36 > 0:39:38the 70s sex comedy.
0:39:41 > 0:39:46The French had the exotic eroticism of Emmanuelle.
0:39:50 > 0:39:52We had spying on school girls in the shower.
0:39:57 > 0:40:01'Some of the things you see are quite an education.
0:40:01 > 0:40:04'Blimey, they're big for their age.
0:40:04 > 0:40:06'They're also big for my age.'
0:40:06 > 0:40:08'Confessions of a window cleaner,
0:40:08 > 0:40:12'the lowest point in British cinema history,
0:40:12 > 0:40:16'and, embarrassingly, the highest grossing film of 1974.'
0:40:19 > 0:40:22'Even prime time family entertainment
0:40:22 > 0:40:25'was splattered with sexual references.'
0:40:27 > 0:40:29You're a member of the permissive society,
0:40:29 > 0:40:31you're supposed to know where the erogenous regions are.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34It's here, the Mecca of a permissive society.
0:40:34 > 0:40:36- Where?- Well, right here in suburbia.
0:40:36 > 0:40:39Perhaps I should be more... permissive?
0:40:39 > 0:40:40No.
0:40:40 > 0:40:41No, no.
0:40:48 > 0:40:51And say hello to Lesley Phillips,
0:40:51 > 0:40:56his libido unleashed in this nominally comic effort.
0:41:01 > 0:41:05Do you think I ought to get my bosom lifted?
0:41:05 > 0:41:06LAUGHTER
0:41:06 > 0:41:07What, again?
0:41:09 > 0:41:14For people who had been brought up in an older, more conservative moral regime,
0:41:14 > 0:41:16all of this was profoundly shocking.
0:41:16 > 0:41:19It was as though an entire moral order was falling apart.
0:41:22 > 0:41:24This is our message!
0:41:24 > 0:41:29This is the light of our Festival of Light, praise the Lord.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34'Gathered under the banner of the Festival of Light,
0:41:34 > 0:41:37'thousands marched to demonstrate their outrage.
0:41:37 > 0:41:42'This was the voice of the traditionalist, Christian counterrevolution.'
0:41:42 > 0:41:47The whole world has a problem of moral pollution,
0:41:47 > 0:41:51and once again, Britain has the chance today
0:41:51 > 0:41:54to give leadership to the whole world.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59'Mary Whitehouse, the Shropshire schoolmistress,
0:41:59 > 0:42:03'was determined to clean up filth wherever she found it.
0:42:03 > 0:42:07'And the reliably provocative European film industry
0:42:07 > 0:42:09'gave her something to really complain about.'
0:42:11 > 0:42:13In January 1973, a team of censors,
0:42:13 > 0:42:17the British Board of Film Classification,
0:42:17 > 0:42:21sat down to watch a film called last Tango in Paris.
0:42:21 > 0:42:23It was to prove one of the most controversial pictures
0:42:23 > 0:42:25in British cinema history.
0:42:27 > 0:42:30Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci,
0:42:30 > 0:42:34Last Tango is classic 70s arthouse erotica.
0:42:34 > 0:42:36Charting the intense relationship
0:42:36 > 0:42:39between Marlon Brando's shabby widower,
0:42:39 > 0:42:42and a young Parisienne, half his age.
0:42:43 > 0:42:45It's a bleak, misanthropic vision,
0:42:45 > 0:42:49punctuated by loveless, sadomasochistic sex.
0:42:49 > 0:42:52So, it gave the censors plenty to think about.
0:42:54 > 0:42:58This is the file in which we have the original examiners report
0:42:58 > 0:43:02from 9 January, 1973.
0:43:02 > 0:43:03They did have a few problems,
0:43:03 > 0:43:06"reel four, the butter and buggery scene,
0:43:06 > 0:43:09we have had nothing like this passed." It says.
0:43:09 > 0:43:13And "reel five, a scene in which Brando commands Jan
0:43:13 > 0:43:17"to trim her nails and put her fingers up his..."
0:43:17 > 0:43:19Yeah, um...
0:43:21 > 0:43:24The censors gave Last Tango an X certificate.
0:43:29 > 0:43:32But now, for a bit more fuss about the film all the fuss is about,
0:43:32 > 0:43:33Last Tango in Paris.
0:43:33 > 0:43:38One London cinema took £600,000 during its year long run.
0:43:38 > 0:43:41Since the film's release, 18 months ago,
0:43:41 > 0:43:43more than a million British cinema goers have seen the film.
0:43:43 > 0:43:46Eroticism, as Andre Malraux has said,
0:43:46 > 0:43:48is the means by which man escapes from his era,
0:43:48 > 0:43:51and ours, God knows, is an era to escape from.
0:43:53 > 0:43:56But the film generated a flood of complaints.
0:43:57 > 0:43:59You've seen it, what do you think of it?
0:43:59 > 0:44:00Ah, not much.
0:44:00 > 0:44:03Was it as bad as you thought it was going to be?
0:44:03 > 0:44:05Just about, yes.
0:44:05 > 0:44:09Last Tango was banned by 17 local councils,
0:44:09 > 0:44:13indeed, no other film has ever provoked as many letters
0:44:13 > 0:44:15to the film censors.
0:44:19 > 0:44:22But not everybody was against it, so, here's a letter.
0:44:22 > 0:44:25"Congratulations on your decision about the film Last Tango.
0:44:25 > 0:44:27"I never usually write letters,
0:44:27 > 0:44:29"perhaps I'm one of the silent majority,
0:44:29 > 0:44:31"but I'm very angry and somewhat frightened
0:44:31 > 0:44:34"by the pressure of people like Mary Whitehouse
0:44:34 > 0:44:35"and the Festival of Light.
0:44:35 > 0:44:38"Is this a free society or not?",
0:44:38 > 0:44:39says this man.
0:44:39 > 0:44:42Now, this...this one is a bit different.
0:44:42 > 0:44:45"I'm just an ordinary house wife", it begins.
0:44:45 > 0:44:47"I speak for thousands more like me when I say,
0:44:47 > 0:44:50"the majority of us have had as much as we are going to take
0:44:50 > 0:44:53"of all the sex filth that is being allowed to be shown
0:44:53 > 0:44:54"on our television.
0:44:54 > 0:44:58"Why should a few depraved perverts,
0:44:58 > 0:45:00"and most of them from other countries,
0:45:00 > 0:45:03"be allowed to display sex and love in the most disgusting manner?
0:45:03 > 0:45:07"And you, a British citizen, giving way to a rotten Italian."
0:45:07 > 0:45:09Tut, tut.
0:45:09 > 0:45:11I suppose what you get from all these letters
0:45:11 > 0:45:15is a real sense of the vigour and contentiousness of the debate.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18This wasn't a reasoned argument between two sides
0:45:18 > 0:45:20that were prepared to listen to one another.
0:45:20 > 0:45:23This was an argument between, I suppose, an old Britain
0:45:23 > 0:45:28based on conservative moral values and faith and tradition and so on,
0:45:28 > 0:45:33and a new Britain, based on the individual exercise of personal choice.
0:45:33 > 0:45:35And, in many ways, that confrontation,
0:45:35 > 0:45:38is the key to the whole decade.
0:45:42 > 0:45:45The Festival of Light campaigners battled on,
0:45:45 > 0:45:49urging the Government to crack down on the plague of pornography.
0:45:53 > 0:45:55But by February 1974,
0:45:55 > 0:46:00Edward Heath was locked in a very different battle,
0:46:00 > 0:46:02in which his political survival was at stake.
0:46:12 > 0:46:16Weeks of talks between the miners and the government had got nowhere.
0:46:16 > 0:46:19And now, the miners raised the stakes,
0:46:19 > 0:46:23as their overtime ban became an all-out strike.
0:46:27 > 0:46:29We're not going to accept pennies,
0:46:29 > 0:46:32well, my hope is, we're not going to accept pennies this time.
0:46:32 > 0:46:33We've got to win it, haven't we?
0:46:33 > 0:46:36If he beats us, what chance have other people?
0:46:36 > 0:46:37They've no chance whatsoever.
0:46:39 > 0:46:44Two years earlier, Ted Heath had lost the first round to the miners.
0:46:44 > 0:46:48But this time, he appealed to the country.
0:46:48 > 0:46:52It's time now for the ballot that really counts,
0:46:52 > 0:46:55it counts because the government you'll return
0:46:55 > 0:46:57will have the strength of your confidence
0:46:57 > 0:47:00to tackle the new problems that face us.
0:47:00 > 0:47:05We shall need that strength to cope with a world in crisis.
0:47:05 > 0:47:07But, let's face it, the miners aren't the only ones
0:47:07 > 0:47:09who spend most of their lives in the dark,
0:47:09 > 0:47:11half the time I don't know what's going on either.
0:47:14 > 0:47:19The shock general election was set for the last day of February.
0:47:30 > 0:47:33The papers called it the crisis election.
0:47:33 > 0:47:37And never had one been fought under grimmer circumstances.
0:47:37 > 0:47:38As the Daily Mail put it,
0:47:38 > 0:47:41it was "the strangest, most exciting,
0:47:41 > 0:47:43"and most wide-open election for decades."
0:47:45 > 0:47:47For Ted Heath, the choice was simple,
0:47:47 > 0:47:50the elected government or the union militants.
0:47:50 > 0:47:55The British people, he said, must decide. Who governs?
0:47:55 > 0:47:59These men want to bring down the elected government,
0:47:59 > 0:48:04not just this government, but any government, and control events.
0:48:07 > 0:48:10Britain's yachting Prime Minister
0:48:10 > 0:48:13thought this was an election about union power.
0:48:16 > 0:48:20But sailor Ted had misread the political wind.
0:48:20 > 0:48:24It soon became clear that this was really an election
0:48:24 > 0:48:27about something rather closer to ordinary families' hearts.
0:48:30 > 0:48:34In crucial marginal seats, like Falmouth in Cornwall,
0:48:34 > 0:48:36the great inflation was eating away
0:48:36 > 0:48:39at the prosperity that people had got so used to,
0:48:39 > 0:48:43and most local voters were only interested in one issue,
0:48:43 > 0:48:46runaway prices.
0:48:47 > 0:48:51I've been in the shop this morning, yesterday I went in the same shop,
0:48:51 > 0:48:54it was seven and a half for a tin of tomatoes, they've gone to ten and a half,
0:48:54 > 0:48:57they were doing them like that as we walked in this morning.
0:48:57 > 0:48:59That's in a day's time.
0:48:59 > 0:49:00I had a pensioner come in this morning,
0:49:00 > 0:49:02she wanted a bar of household soap.
0:49:02 > 0:49:04I said, "Sorry, it's up tuppence on last time."
0:49:04 > 0:49:06She said, "My mother always used to say to me
0:49:06 > 0:49:08"that poverty was no excuse for being dirty,
0:49:08 > 0:49:10"but I've got second thoughts now."
0:49:10 > 0:49:11You try and plan a week ahead,
0:49:11 > 0:49:13but next week the prices are completely different
0:49:13 > 0:49:15from what you budgeted for last week,
0:49:15 > 0:49:17so it's impossible to deal with intelligently.
0:49:17 > 0:49:19It's a ridiculous situation.
0:49:19 > 0:49:22It's costing me a fortune in new price tickets every week
0:49:22 > 0:49:23just re-marking everything.
0:49:25 > 0:49:28Prices. They've come smack into the middle of the election
0:49:28 > 0:49:30with a bang tonight.
0:49:35 > 0:49:38In just four years, the price of eggs, cheese, and beef
0:49:38 > 0:49:40had almost doubled.
0:49:40 > 0:49:43In 1970, if you'd spent nine pence,
0:49:43 > 0:49:46you'd have been able to buy this nice, big, white loaf.
0:49:46 > 0:49:51By 1974, it would have bought you barely half a loaf.
0:49:51 > 0:49:55MUSIC: "Devil Gate Drive" by Suzi Quatro
0:50:01 > 0:50:04At the end of February, Suzi Quatro went to number one,
0:50:04 > 0:50:08and an anxious Britain went to the polls.
0:50:13 > 0:50:15In Falmouth, the Tories just clung on,
0:50:15 > 0:50:19but late that night from the state-of-the-art,
0:50:19 > 0:50:22and tastefully beige BBC election set,
0:50:22 > 0:50:25came news of an historic muddle.
0:50:27 > 0:50:30And we are now, from the computer, almost certain
0:50:30 > 0:50:32that neither Conservative nor Labour
0:50:32 > 0:50:35will get enough seats to form a government.
0:50:36 > 0:50:39Accordingly, the Liberals and other parties
0:50:39 > 0:50:42are almost certain, according to the computer at this stage,
0:50:42 > 0:50:45to be holding the balance in the middle.
0:50:46 > 0:50:50And when Heath failed to do a deal with the Liberals,
0:50:50 > 0:50:54Labour's Harold Wilson returned as a minority prime minister.
0:50:56 > 0:50:59Heath had asked the British people, who governs?
0:50:59 > 0:51:02And the nation had answered, not you.
0:51:03 > 0:51:08And while Heath's political career sank beneath the ocean waves,
0:51:08 > 0:51:12Wilson gave the miners what they wanted,
0:51:12 > 0:51:15a pay rise worth a cool £110 million.
0:51:18 > 0:51:22In October 1974, Wilson called a second election,
0:51:22 > 0:51:23and won a tiny majority,
0:51:23 > 0:51:26but he had inherited a whole heap of problems,
0:51:26 > 0:51:29from record borrowing and soaring inflation,
0:51:29 > 0:51:32to the decade's most dreadful dilemma,
0:51:32 > 0:51:35the bleeding sore of Northern Ireland.
0:51:41 > 0:51:43Since the beginning of the decade,
0:51:43 > 0:51:46Republican paramilitaries, loyalist vigilantes,
0:51:46 > 0:51:47and the British Army
0:51:47 > 0:51:49had been fighting a bloody battle
0:51:49 > 0:51:52to control the streets of Northern Ireland.
0:51:58 > 0:52:02How is it that over 1,000 people have died in a part of the United Kingdom
0:52:02 > 0:52:07that, five years ago, appears no more important to the British government
0:52:07 > 0:52:08than London taxicabs?
0:52:24 > 0:52:28Harold Wilson was determined to come up with a solution.
0:52:30 > 0:52:34And buried in these recently declassified government documents
0:52:34 > 0:52:37is the story of his attempts to find one.
0:52:39 > 0:52:42What all these top-secret documents show
0:52:42 > 0:52:46was just how far the Wilson government was prepared to go
0:52:46 > 0:52:49to find a solution to the problems of Northern Ireland.
0:52:49 > 0:52:52So, for instance, they talked about redrawing the border,
0:52:52 > 0:52:55about giving Catholic areas to the Republic.
0:52:55 > 0:52:58The talked about negotiating openly with the paramilitaries,
0:52:58 > 0:53:01and indeed, they had already secretly started talking to the IRA.
0:53:01 > 0:53:04They discussed getting the United Nations involved to run
0:53:04 > 0:53:06the province themselves.
0:53:06 > 0:53:11And above all, Wilson contemplated what he called the doomsday scenario,
0:53:11 > 0:53:14in which Britain would just unilaterally get out,
0:53:14 > 0:53:17and Northern Ireland would be left to sink or swim.
0:53:23 > 0:53:26To many British observers, the conflict in Northern Ireland
0:53:26 > 0:53:31seemed an unfathomable relic of ancient history.
0:53:31 > 0:53:35But after years of bloodshed, with no end in sight,
0:53:35 > 0:53:40the Republican IRA decided to copy the Marxist terror groups
0:53:40 > 0:53:43wreaking havoc in continental Europe.
0:53:43 > 0:53:45It was time, they thought,
0:53:45 > 0:53:47to take their struggle across the water,
0:53:47 > 0:53:50from the killing grounds of Belfast
0:53:50 > 0:53:53to the quiet streets of middle England.
0:53:57 > 0:54:03On 17 November 1974, the Provisional IRA spokesman,
0:54:03 > 0:54:06David O'Connell, gave an interview to British television.
0:54:13 > 0:54:15Let me make this point,
0:54:15 > 0:54:17for five years the British government
0:54:17 > 0:54:20has had his forces waging a campaign of terror,
0:54:20 > 0:54:23not just on the IRA, but on the people of Ireland.
0:54:23 > 0:54:26What have we got from the British public? From the British people?
0:54:26 > 0:54:30Total indifference, they can wash their hands.
0:54:30 > 0:54:31We said last week in a statement
0:54:31 > 0:54:35that the British government and the British people must realise
0:54:35 > 0:54:38that because of the terror they're waging in Ireland,
0:54:38 > 0:54:40they will suffer the consequences.
0:54:44 > 0:54:48Four days later in two Birmingham pubs,
0:54:48 > 0:54:51those consequences became devastatingly clear.
0:54:52 > 0:54:56It was payday, and in the city centre, The Tavern in the Town
0:54:56 > 0:54:59and the Mulberry Bush were packed with young drinkers.
0:55:02 > 0:55:04That dreadful night, 21 people were killed
0:55:04 > 0:55:09and nearly 200 injured by the bombs of the IRA.
0:55:09 > 0:55:13I was just standing with about four friends,
0:55:13 > 0:55:16and there was a flash and a blast
0:55:16 > 0:55:20which seemed to, you know, just go on and on.
0:55:27 > 0:55:28It was like a nightmare,
0:55:28 > 0:55:31I was under this rubble and I was trying to get out,
0:55:31 > 0:55:34and I thought I'd be trapped there, my legs were trapped.
0:55:34 > 0:55:36What were you thinking at the time?
0:55:37 > 0:55:40I was just thinking, you know, God help us.
0:55:44 > 0:55:47The victims weren't policemen or soldiers,
0:55:47 > 0:55:50they were ordinary young men and women
0:55:50 > 0:55:52on an ordinary night out.
0:55:56 > 0:55:58In the immediate aftermath,
0:55:58 > 0:56:01the public reaction was horror and fury.
0:56:01 > 0:56:05Do you want to see the death penalty come back altogether?
0:56:05 > 0:56:07Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.
0:56:07 > 0:56:10I think it's just really necessary for terrorism at the moment.
0:56:12 > 0:56:13After the horror of Birmingham,
0:56:13 > 0:56:18public opinion rallied against the bombers of the IRA.
0:56:18 > 0:56:22Wilson's doomsday scenario disappeared into the filing cabinet,
0:56:22 > 0:56:25and the war went on.
0:56:25 > 0:56:28But Birmingham was also a terrifying reminder
0:56:28 > 0:56:31that nowhere in Britain was safe
0:56:31 > 0:56:34from the violence that had engulfed Northern Ireland.
0:56:34 > 0:56:36As one commentator put it,
0:56:36 > 0:56:41it was as though the vanguard of anarchy was loose in the world.
0:56:44 > 0:56:46Britain had entered a new age of insecurity,
0:56:46 > 0:56:51when even going for a quiet pint could get you killed.
0:56:51 > 0:56:54That terrible day in November 1974
0:56:54 > 0:56:58had raised the spectre of the international terrorist,
0:56:58 > 0:57:04and 40 years on, we still live in the bomber's shadow.
0:57:08 > 0:57:12# Oh, it's 12 o'clock
0:57:12 > 0:57:15# On the old grey wall
0:57:15 > 0:57:18# Yet another year
0:57:18 > 0:57:21# 75 is here... #
0:57:21 > 0:57:24As the clocks tick down to 1975,
0:57:24 > 0:57:25the harsh truth was sinking in
0:57:25 > 0:57:31that the British people were no longer masters of their own destiny.
0:57:31 > 0:57:34Our island fortress had been overwhelmed
0:57:34 > 0:57:38by the tempestuous realities of a changing world.
0:57:38 > 0:57:41And nothing in our economy, in our politics,
0:57:41 > 0:57:44or our culture would be the same again.
0:57:44 > 0:57:48As the British people dusted themselves off and looked around,
0:57:48 > 0:57:52they found themselves in a strange and unsettling new landscape.
0:57:52 > 0:57:57Much of what they'd taken for granted had been simply swept away.
0:57:57 > 0:58:00A new Britain, edgier, more anxious,
0:58:00 > 0:58:02and more ambitious was at hand.
0:58:05 > 0:58:08Next time, belligerent.
0:58:10 > 0:58:12Bolshy.
0:58:12 > 0:58:13Bust.
0:58:15 > 0:58:19And bursting with ideas.
0:58:19 > 0:58:22Britain hits the mid-'70s.
0:58:41 > 0:58:44Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd