0:00:16 > 0:00:20# I've been on tenterhooks Ending in dirty looks
0:00:20 > 0:00:23# Listening to the muzak Thinking about this and that
0:00:23 > 0:00:26# She said, that's that I don't want to chitter-chat
0:00:26 > 0:00:30# Turn it down a little bit Or turn it down flat
0:00:30 > 0:00:34# Pump it up When you don't really need it
0:00:34 > 0:00:37# Pump it up until you can feel it. #
0:00:41 > 0:00:46Maybe you were going on your first foreign holiday
0:00:46 > 0:00:48or furnishing your first home.
0:00:48 > 0:00:52Perhaps you were starting a family, or like me, just starting school.
0:00:54 > 0:00:56Whatever you got up to during the ''70s,
0:00:56 > 0:01:02it's passed from personal nostalgia into our shared national history.
0:01:05 > 0:01:07By the final years of the 1970s,
0:01:07 > 0:01:10Britain felt like a very different place.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13After a decade of extraordinary turbulence,
0:01:13 > 0:01:18we had made a decisive break with the old post-war settlement.
0:01:20 > 0:01:25But the future was still up for grabs and in the last years of the '70s,
0:01:25 > 0:01:31Britain was plunged into a fierce argument about how we'd make our way in the world
0:01:31 > 0:01:35and about what kind of country we wanted to be.
0:01:37 > 0:01:41This was the battleground on which our future would be decided.
0:01:41 > 0:01:46Late '70s Britain was a culturally diverse country.
0:01:46 > 0:01:50A competitive country. A conflicted country.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53But amid all the trauma and excitement,
0:01:53 > 0:01:56the 21st century was taking shape.
0:02:12 > 0:02:16The '70s are remembered as a golden age of pop music.
0:02:16 > 0:02:20But it wasn't such a good time to be a rich rock star.
0:02:20 > 0:02:23# Tonight there's going to be a jailbreak. #
0:02:24 > 0:02:28In 1974, as the economy crumbled,
0:02:28 > 0:02:32the top rate of income tax went up to 83%.
0:02:32 > 0:02:37So Britain's pop aristocracy simply took their fortunes abroad.
0:02:37 > 0:02:42The Rolling Stones were already in the south of France.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45Rod Stewart fled to California.
0:02:45 > 0:02:47David Bowie took his family to Switzerland.
0:02:47 > 0:02:51And even Thin Lizzy left for West Germany.
0:02:54 > 0:02:58If you had been a regular viewer of Top Of The Pops,
0:02:58 > 0:03:01you might scarcely have noticed.
0:03:01 > 0:03:04When it came to the very biggest names in pop and rock,
0:03:04 > 0:03:08the audience were used to enjoying the delights of Pan's People
0:03:08 > 0:03:11rather than a live appearance.
0:03:11 > 0:03:13# And there's nothing I can do. #
0:03:13 > 0:03:17Britain's rock star refugees were leaving behind a country
0:03:17 > 0:03:21that seemed to have become a closed shop
0:03:21 > 0:03:25of highly unionised, state-controlled industries.
0:03:25 > 0:03:29Car-making, steel-making, mining and railways,
0:03:29 > 0:03:33all relying on billions from the taxpayer
0:03:33 > 0:03:37to survive a harsh new world of global economic competition.
0:03:39 > 0:03:44Many foreign observers thought that Britain was in terminal decline.
0:03:44 > 0:03:49As one commentator put it, it was an "offshore industrial slum".
0:03:49 > 0:03:53But behind all the dereliction, you might have noticed
0:03:53 > 0:03:57the beginnings of a rare British success story.
0:03:59 > 0:04:03In one of the most unexpected twists of modern times,
0:04:03 > 0:04:06a new model for private enterprise had emerged
0:04:06 > 0:04:11from among the anti-materialistic hippie generation of the '60s.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13# Imagine me and you
0:04:13 > 0:04:15# I do
0:04:15 > 0:04:17# I think about you day and night. #
0:04:17 > 0:04:211967 - the Summer of Love.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24And in this quiet street in a well-to-do part of London,
0:04:24 > 0:04:27a small group of friends were at work
0:04:27 > 0:04:30on the first issue of a new magazine
0:04:30 > 0:04:33that would speak for Britain's youth.
0:04:33 > 0:04:37# I can't see me loving nobody but you. #
0:04:37 > 0:04:40Somehow, I doubt that anybody back then would have imagined
0:04:40 > 0:04:43that for just one of them, this would be the birth
0:04:43 > 0:04:48of a global business empire and a personal fortune worth billions.
0:04:48 > 0:04:52But it was, and it all began down there.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55# No matter how they tossed the dice
0:04:55 > 0:04:58# It had to be. #
0:04:58 > 0:05:01The magazine that started in this shabby basement
0:05:01 > 0:05:05was called, appropriately perhaps, 'The Student'.
0:05:05 > 0:05:10The driving force behind it was a 17-year-old former public schoolboy
0:05:10 > 0:05:14with one A-level and an ambition to become a journalist.
0:05:14 > 0:05:18His name was Richard Branson.
0:05:18 > 0:05:21Why shouldn't we just have pictures that people like to look at?
0:05:21 > 0:05:24Pictures that girls want to go out and buy the clothes of
0:05:24 > 0:05:26and do them much better than anybody else.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29'The Student' was typically idealistic
0:05:29 > 0:05:33and just as typically, it quickly ran out of money.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36And at that point, Richard Branson hit on an idea
0:05:36 > 0:05:39that he hoped would keep his magazine afloat.
0:05:39 > 0:05:41He started a mail-order business.
0:05:43 > 0:05:49But selling records didn't save 'The Student'. It made it redundant.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53Branson quickly spotted the much greater potential of his new venture
0:05:53 > 0:05:59and three years later, Virgin Records not only had its first shop in central London,
0:05:59 > 0:06:02it was a record label.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05# Money feeds my music machine. #
0:06:05 > 0:06:11The Virgin studio was in this 17th Century Oxfordshire manor house,
0:06:11 > 0:06:15which doubled as a comfortable country retreat
0:06:15 > 0:06:17for the head of the company.
0:06:18 > 0:06:23From mail order and music shops to his very own record label.
0:06:23 > 0:06:26The Branson legend has become one of the '70s
0:06:26 > 0:06:28most familiar success stories.
0:06:28 > 0:06:31Nothing symbolised it better than this.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34One of the bestselling records of the whole 1970s
0:06:34 > 0:06:39and Virgin's very first release all the way back in 1973.
0:06:39 > 0:06:43It is of course, Mike Oldfield's 'Tubular Bells'.
0:06:43 > 0:06:47If you really want to hear the genuine sound of the '70s,
0:06:47 > 0:06:50here it is.
0:07:07 > 0:07:12A 49-minute new-age symphony without a single lyric.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15The perfect soundtrack for the new sophisticates
0:07:15 > 0:07:17of the aspirational '70s.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24Of course, it sounds even better with these on.
0:07:30 > 0:07:32At the age of just 23,
0:07:32 > 0:07:36Richard Branson had made himself a millionaire.
0:07:36 > 0:07:41In five years, he'd gone from a basement squat to this.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47And part of the secret of Branson's success as an entrepreneur
0:07:47 > 0:07:50was that he created a very distinctive identity
0:07:50 > 0:07:52for the Virgin brand.
0:07:52 > 0:07:57That identity was based largely on himself.
0:08:02 > 0:08:06Branson had found a way of selling music to a newly affluent market,
0:08:06 > 0:08:12not just as pop culture, but as a kind of expression of identity.
0:08:12 > 0:08:16And his own self-consciously outrageous persona,
0:08:16 > 0:08:19was, of course, all part of the package.
0:08:19 > 0:08:23What Branson had realised long before many other people
0:08:23 > 0:08:29was that the future wasn't going to be about public ownership and heavy industry.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33It was going to be about private enterprise
0:08:33 > 0:08:35and selling pleasure.
0:08:44 > 0:08:49Branson had grown up in an era full of dreams of a brighter future.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52From full employment to better housing.
0:08:52 > 0:08:55What these dreams had in common was the idea
0:08:55 > 0:09:00that the state new best how to make them come true.
0:09:00 > 0:09:02# Reasons to be cheerful
0:09:02 > 0:09:04# Part three One, two, three
0:09:04 > 0:09:06# Summer, Buddy Holly, The working folly
0:09:06 > 0:09:08# Good golly Miss Molly and boats
0:09:08 > 0:09:10# Hammersmith Palais, the Bolshoi Ballet. #
0:09:10 > 0:09:15This is the National Theatre in London. It opened in 1976.
0:09:15 > 0:09:19It still enjoys the unusual distinction of being simultaneously
0:09:19 > 0:09:21one of the capital's most loved buildings
0:09:21 > 0:09:24and also one of its most hated.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27It was also several years overdue.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30The building had been planned back in the 1960s
0:09:30 > 0:09:35and the many terraces and foyers are testaments to the idea
0:09:35 > 0:09:41that equality and happiness can be engineered through architecture.
0:09:45 > 0:09:48Because this wasn't just a theatre.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51As the programs from that very first season put it,
0:09:51 > 0:09:55this was a social space, an area of casual encounter,
0:09:55 > 0:09:58a theatre of the crowd.
0:09:58 > 0:10:02Now, this kind of high-minded utopianism was all very well
0:10:02 > 0:10:05in a playground for middle-class Guardian readers.
0:10:05 > 0:10:10But what about in the places where real people actually lived?
0:10:10 > 0:10:14The children of Cardiff are facing a future city
0:10:14 > 0:10:17which will rise from the fall of condemned past
0:10:17 > 0:10:19and bring to the surface a way of new life.
0:10:19 > 0:10:22A way removed from disorder.
0:10:22 > 0:10:26A way of reaching some concrete expression of tomorrow.
0:10:29 > 0:10:34The story of how the '60s vision of streets in the sky
0:10:34 > 0:10:38became the concrete jungles of the 1970s
0:10:38 > 0:10:42is one of the most sobering lessons of recent history.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47On the face of it, these new homes
0:10:47 > 0:10:49with their fitted kitchens and indoor loos
0:10:49 > 0:10:52should have been a vast improvement
0:10:52 > 0:10:55on the Victorian slums they replaced.
0:10:56 > 0:11:00The problems, however, were on the other side of the window.
0:11:00 > 0:11:04In the kind of communal spaces that seemed so convivial
0:11:04 > 0:11:07in a building like the National Theatre.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10# I love the sound of breaking glass.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15Everyone smashes a window now and again
0:11:15 > 0:11:17and scratches their name on the wall.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20- Why do they do that? - Something to do.
0:11:20 > 0:11:22Have you ever done that?
0:11:22 > 0:11:25I've done it loads of times.
0:11:25 > 0:11:30Along with the vandalism went the violence.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34# I'm going out tonight
0:11:34 > 0:11:38# I don't know if I'll be all right. #
0:11:38 > 0:11:43- I don't go out at night time. - Why not? You must go out, surely?
0:11:43 > 0:11:45No, I don't.
0:11:45 > 0:11:47You get mugged here, smash your windows.
0:11:47 > 0:11:50You can't walk safely at night.
0:11:53 > 0:11:58# Concrete jungle Animals after me. #
0:11:58 > 0:12:01One housing estate in Nottingham
0:12:01 > 0:12:04summed up everything that had gone wrong.
0:12:09 > 0:12:11Welcome to Alcatraz, the jungle,
0:12:11 > 0:12:14because that's what the people on this estate call it.
0:12:14 > 0:12:16This is Hyson Green in Nottingham
0:12:16 > 0:12:20and there are hundreds of places like it all over the country.
0:12:20 > 0:12:23I suppose it took about 100 years
0:12:23 > 0:12:26for what our ancestors built to turn into slums.
0:12:26 > 0:12:31It's taken just 10 years for Hyson Green to turn into a modern slum.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34# You abandoned me
0:12:34 > 0:12:38# Love don't live here any more. #
0:12:38 > 0:12:43So why did these new estates deteriorate so badly, so quickly?
0:12:43 > 0:12:45Of course, the architecture didn't help
0:12:45 > 0:12:48but the problem wasn't just how they were built,
0:12:48 > 0:12:53it was about the kind of people that the council put in them.
0:12:54 > 0:12:56By the end of the '70s,
0:12:56 > 0:12:59a third of marriages were ending in divorce
0:12:59 > 0:13:03and one in ten children was born out of wedlock.
0:13:03 > 0:13:08Along with the elderly, single parents and homeless families
0:13:08 > 0:13:12were among those most in need of council housing.
0:13:12 > 0:13:17What reporters discovered in places like Hyson Green
0:13:17 > 0:13:20was what happened when these vulnerable people
0:13:20 > 0:13:22were tightly packed together.
0:13:24 > 0:13:28Earlier this year, Hyson Green, and in particular, Valley Walk,
0:13:28 > 0:13:32became a national byword for juvenile crime and vandalism.
0:13:32 > 0:13:36Over a period of eight months, a gang of children and teenagers
0:13:36 > 0:13:41terrified and tormented the old lady who lived here at number 22.
0:13:41 > 0:13:44Mrs Linda Bilson, a widow, was living alone.
0:13:44 > 0:13:46She was robbed and kicked.
0:13:46 > 0:13:47Her furniture was destroyed
0:13:47 > 0:13:51and a group of children were even alleged to have urinated on her.
0:13:52 > 0:13:55It was a desperately depressing story.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58Here in Hyson Green in 1978,
0:13:58 > 0:14:02it seemed that for once, something might actually be done.
0:14:04 > 0:14:06The residents themselves had a plan
0:14:06 > 0:14:09to revive the sense of community
0:14:09 > 0:14:12that seemed to have been sucked out of their estate.
0:14:12 > 0:14:15They wanted to turn their vandalised garages
0:14:15 > 0:14:17into a sports centre and workshops.
0:14:17 > 0:14:22Christine and Robin Robinson are with me from the tenant's association.
0:14:22 > 0:14:25Christine, why do you think the garages and what you do with them
0:14:25 > 0:14:27is important for the future of Hyson Green?
0:14:27 > 0:14:31Well, we hope it will encourage people to come into the flats
0:14:31 > 0:14:33who actually want to live here
0:14:33 > 0:14:35rather than people live here because they have nowhere else to go.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40The workshops did get built
0:14:40 > 0:14:43and in the end they sustained about 30 businesses
0:14:43 > 0:14:47but it was all too little, too late, and by the mid-1980s,
0:14:47 > 0:14:52the council decided that Hyson Green needed a complete rethink.
0:14:52 > 0:14:57So, this is Hyson Green today.
0:14:57 > 0:14:58It's a supermarket.
0:14:59 > 0:15:04In the end, the housing estate lasted barely 20 years.
0:15:04 > 0:15:06Like so many concrete dreams of the 1960s,
0:15:06 > 0:15:10it ended up on the wrong side of a wrecking ball.
0:15:17 > 0:15:22# When all the birds are singing in the sky
0:15:22 > 0:15:25# Now that the spring is in the air
0:15:25 > 0:15:27# We had joy we had fun
0:15:27 > 0:15:28# We had seasons in the sun...#
0:15:30 > 0:15:32The best communal housing, it turns out,
0:15:32 > 0:15:35is one that gives people a sense of individual space.
0:15:37 > 0:15:40Nottingham council had already learned that lesson in 1978,
0:15:40 > 0:15:43when it started building these new houses,
0:15:43 > 0:15:47literally next door to Hyson Green.
0:15:49 > 0:15:52These were the kind of homes that people wanted to live in
0:15:52 > 0:15:55and given the chance to buy.
0:15:55 > 0:15:59But the failure of the high-rise housing experiment
0:15:59 > 0:16:03was hugely damaging in a deeper sense too.
0:16:03 > 0:16:07It helped to fuel a growing mistrust of Government planning
0:16:07 > 0:16:11and a loss of faith in their supposedly benign bureaucrats
0:16:11 > 0:16:13who'd taken it upon themselves
0:16:13 > 0:16:16to manage the lives of millions of people.
0:16:16 > 0:16:22And that mistrust spread into another battleground of the 1970s.
0:16:22 > 0:16:23Education.
0:16:23 > 0:16:31SONG: GRANGE HILL THEME TUNE
0:16:33 > 0:16:37No children's series of the 1970s provoked more indignation
0:16:37 > 0:16:41among adults, than Grange Hill,
0:16:41 > 0:16:44which hit the nation's screens in 1978.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51This school was the original location for the series.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58Tucker Jenkins and his mates ran riot in this very playground.
0:17:01 > 0:17:02Wey hey!
0:17:06 > 0:17:09And they had their punch-ups in this corridor.
0:17:15 > 0:17:17The man who created Grange Hill, Phil Redmond,
0:17:17 > 0:17:20was a former comprehensive schoolboy himself.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23He'd written the series, he said,
0:17:23 > 0:17:25to give modern children something to relate to,
0:17:25 > 0:17:29something that reflected the realities of school life.
0:17:29 > 0:17:34Realities that as he well knew, were often less than pleasant.
0:17:34 > 0:17:35But that, of course, was the problem
0:17:35 > 0:17:38because the programme provoked a torrent of complaints
0:17:38 > 0:17:41from outraged parents,
0:17:41 > 0:17:45horrified by the hard-hitting realism of scenes like this.
0:17:48 > 0:17:50Now, I suppose it's too much to hope for
0:17:50 > 0:17:53that anyone knows what happened to Justin's trousers.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58- Thank you, Jenkins. Dianne will keep an eye on you.- Oh, Sir.
0:17:58 > 0:17:59Jenkins.
0:17:59 > 0:18:02We want the head. We want the head.
0:18:06 > 0:18:07"Dear sirs,
0:18:07 > 0:18:12"I have previously written to you on the vexed subject of Grange Hill.
0:18:12 > 0:18:17"I can now say I find the new series equally as obnoxious as before,
0:18:17 > 0:18:21"but because of my dislike, I watch extra carefully.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25"I do not see why I should have to listen to ill-mannered boys
0:18:25 > 0:18:30"shouting their desire for a pee all over my living room."
0:18:30 > 0:18:33Bunch of hooligans, the whole lot of you.
0:18:33 > 0:18:36You don't deserve the amenities of this place.
0:18:40 > 0:18:42Thank you, Jenkins.
0:18:42 > 0:18:44We all know who you descended from.
0:18:44 > 0:18:46But the complaints about Grange Hill
0:18:46 > 0:18:50were about much more than decency and realism.
0:18:50 > 0:18:54The programme was so controversial because it had touched a raw nerve
0:18:54 > 0:18:58among viewers who were already anxious and angry
0:18:58 > 0:19:01about the state of Britain's schools.
0:19:05 > 0:19:07Ever since the 1960s,
0:19:07 > 0:19:12Britain had been switching to a comprehensive school system.
0:19:12 > 0:19:16At the time, comprehensives were hailed as a great improvement
0:19:16 > 0:19:20on the old selection-based system,
0:19:20 > 0:19:22where the best went to grammar schools,
0:19:22 > 0:19:25and the rest to secondary moderns.
0:19:25 > 0:19:29But by merging these two types of school,
0:19:29 > 0:19:32comprehensives were supposed to raise standards
0:19:32 > 0:19:36across the board.
0:19:36 > 0:19:39I like it. I think it's great.
0:19:39 > 0:19:41All of my friends, they've been up here.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44It's fantastic.
0:19:44 > 0:19:46You can do almost anything you want.
0:19:46 > 0:19:51On the corridors, you can just lift your feet up, and you get carried.
0:19:51 > 0:19:56The politician who'd approved more comprehensives than any other
0:19:56 > 0:19:59was the Conservative Education Minister,
0:19:59 > 0:20:00Margaret Thatcher.
0:20:00 > 0:20:05Thanks to her, by the mid '70s, almost two-thirds of children
0:20:05 > 0:20:08were being educated at comprehensives,
0:20:08 > 0:20:11including the pupils at her own former grammar school.
0:20:11 > 0:20:14When Labour returned to power in 1974,
0:20:14 > 0:20:17they were determined to finish the job.
0:20:21 > 0:20:23They began by scrapping direct grants,
0:20:23 > 0:20:27a subsidy scheme that allowed bright children
0:20:27 > 0:20:29to go to fee-paying grammar schools
0:20:29 > 0:20:33that their parents would not otherwise have been able to afford.
0:20:33 > 0:20:36Although fewer than 200 schools were affected,
0:20:36 > 0:20:40the decision had a dramatic effect on public opinion.
0:20:40 > 0:20:44The switch to an entirely comprehensive system
0:20:44 > 0:20:47was now seen as a bad thing,
0:20:47 > 0:20:51depriving thousands of children of a grammar school education.
0:20:52 > 0:20:54I think all children, if they're bright,
0:20:54 > 0:20:56should be given a chance to go to a grammar school.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59You do get a better education.
0:20:59 > 0:21:01I think it's a better system at grammar school.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04You have the best children together. They must help each other along.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07At the same time, the press claimed,
0:21:07 > 0:21:10comprehensive schools had been infiltrated
0:21:10 > 0:21:13by raving young Marxists,
0:21:13 > 0:21:16whose progressive teaching methods were turning promising children
0:21:16 > 0:21:18into delinquents.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23The furore over comprehensive education
0:21:23 > 0:21:26is often presented as a partisan dispute
0:21:26 > 0:21:28between left and right.
0:21:28 > 0:21:31But it was actually more part of a culture war,
0:21:31 > 0:21:35fought out between two sets of middle class parents,
0:21:35 > 0:21:38with completely opposite views
0:21:38 > 0:21:40about whether schools should serve the community,
0:21:40 > 0:21:42or the individual.
0:21:42 > 0:21:46On the one side, were those parents who were really keen
0:21:46 > 0:21:49to embrace the principle of social and academic diversity.
0:21:49 > 0:21:53And on the other, were those who were desperate to see their children
0:21:53 > 0:22:00reach their full potential in a more selective environment.
0:22:00 > 0:22:01And it was to the second group,
0:22:01 > 0:22:04parents who still saw grammar schools
0:22:04 > 0:22:07as a precious opportunity for upward mobility,
0:22:07 > 0:22:10that the new Leader of the Opposition, Margaret Thatcher,
0:22:10 > 0:22:12began to speak.
0:22:12 > 0:22:15Conveniently forgetting her own record
0:22:15 > 0:22:17at the Department of Education.
0:22:17 > 0:22:23We've got to stop destroying good schools in the name of equality.
0:22:23 > 0:22:26APPLAUSE
0:22:26 > 0:22:30People from my sort of background needed grammar schools
0:22:30 > 0:22:33to compete with children from privileged homes,
0:22:33 > 0:22:37like Shirley Williams and Anthony Wedgwood Benn.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40APPLAUSE
0:22:40 > 0:22:42Now, then, Form one...
0:22:42 > 0:22:44'I think that the same anxieties
0:22:44 > 0:22:48'were at the root of the furious objections to Grange Hill,
0:22:48 > 0:22:50'from some adult viewers.
0:22:50 > 0:22:53'They were afraid that their bright children
0:22:53 > 0:22:57'might be dragged down by other people's badly behaved kids.'
0:22:57 > 0:23:00Trying to put that young girl's eye out, were you?
0:23:00 > 0:23:04- Were you born stupid? - 'Diana, no.'- I see.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07It's something you've developed yourself, is it?
0:23:07 > 0:23:08Don't!
0:23:08 > 0:23:12# Hey! Teacher! Leave those kids alone #
0:23:12 > 0:23:16The education debate was just one symptom
0:23:16 > 0:23:18of a consensus cracking apart.
0:23:18 > 0:23:20# All in all you're just another brick in the wall... #
0:23:20 > 0:23:24And just as the post-war settlement seemed to be breaking up,
0:23:24 > 0:23:27so some people were beginning to question
0:23:27 > 0:23:31the survival of the United Kingdom itself.
0:23:31 > 0:23:33'Putting his jacket on, ready for the final whistle.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36'Don Masson's there and the referee's looking at his watch.'
0:23:36 > 0:23:40And it's almost there, and now it is! A victory for Scotland, 2-1!'
0:23:40 > 0:23:46In June 1977, Scotland's footballers struck a hugely symbolic blow
0:23:46 > 0:23:51against their old enemy on the hallowed turf of Wembley Stadium.
0:23:51 > 0:23:57The exuberance with which the Tartan Army tore down the Wembley goalposts
0:23:57 > 0:24:01was about more than just the result of a football match.
0:24:01 > 0:24:03Not since the days of Bonnie Prince Charlie,
0:24:03 > 0:24:06three centuries earlier,
0:24:06 > 0:24:10had the Scots been so high on self-confidence.
0:24:10 > 0:24:12To understand why,
0:24:12 > 0:24:15you have to go back to an event at the beginning of the decade
0:24:15 > 0:24:17that seemed to have transformed the fortunes
0:24:17 > 0:24:20of everyone in the United Kingdom.
0:24:20 > 0:24:26It happened hundreds of miles north of Wembley, far from land.
0:24:31 > 0:24:33Seven years earlier,
0:24:33 > 0:24:40beneath the cold waters of the North Sea, BP had hit the jackpot.
0:24:40 > 0:24:44After decades of decline, the discovery of North Sea oil
0:24:44 > 0:24:47seemed a godsend for Britain's economy.
0:24:47 > 0:24:51Nothing captured the excitement more than this.
0:24:51 > 0:24:53The thrills of drilling,
0:24:53 > 0:24:58the hazards and rewards as you bring in your own offshore oil strike.
0:24:58 > 0:25:02An exciting board game for all the family.
0:25:02 > 0:25:06The reality was even more exciting than the game,
0:25:06 > 0:25:08because in the first years of the 1970s,
0:25:08 > 0:25:12the oil companies made strike after strike.
0:25:12 > 0:25:18Forties, Brent, Piper, Montrose and OILC.
0:25:18 > 0:25:19Now in the game,
0:25:19 > 0:25:24the first person to get to 120 million in cash is the winner.
0:25:25 > 0:25:30But the actual value to the British economy of North Sea oil
0:25:30 > 0:25:33was estimated at almost £1 billion a year,
0:25:33 > 0:25:37and in the 1970s, that was serious money.
0:25:37 > 0:25:41# Don't stop me now 'Cos I'm having a good time
0:25:41 > 0:25:42# Having a good time
0:25:42 > 0:25:45# I'm a shooting star leaping through the sky
0:25:45 > 0:25:49# Like a tiger defying the laws of gravity
0:25:49 > 0:25:54# I'm a racing car passing by like Lady Godiva
0:25:54 > 0:25:59# I'm going to go, go, go There's no stopping me
0:25:59 > 0:26:03# I'm burning through the sky, yeah
0:26:03 > 0:26:04# Two-hundred degrees
0:26:04 > 0:26:07# That's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit
0:26:07 > 0:26:10# I'm travelling at the speed of light
0:26:10 > 0:26:13# I want to make a supersonic man out of you #
0:26:13 > 0:26:18This must be the Chancellor of the Exchequer's favourite spot
0:26:18 > 0:26:20in the whole of Britain.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23It is the fiscal measuring bay, the point at which
0:26:23 > 0:26:27they work out exactly how much oil they're getting from the North Sea
0:26:27 > 0:26:31and exactly how much revenue all that's bringing in.
0:26:31 > 0:26:35But even before the very first drops of black gold
0:26:35 > 0:26:37had passed through these pipes,
0:26:37 > 0:26:40North Sea oil was paying handsome dividends
0:26:40 > 0:26:43for the Scottish National Party.
0:26:48 > 0:26:54For decades, the Scots had been the United Kingdom's poor relations.
0:26:55 > 0:26:58Very slowly the idea had been growing
0:26:58 > 0:27:03that Scotland should reclaim its identity as an independent nation.
0:27:07 > 0:27:10North Sea oil provided the means,
0:27:10 > 0:27:13it was a stunning windfall that could propel Scotland
0:27:13 > 0:27:18towards a more prosperous future outside the United Kingdom.
0:27:23 > 0:27:25The effect was dramatic.
0:27:27 > 0:27:31In 1973, Margo MacDonald of the Scottish National party
0:27:31 > 0:27:34was elected MP for Glasgow Govan.
0:27:34 > 0:27:39A seat that had been solidly Labour for 50 years.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45By November 1975,
0:27:45 > 0:27:47when the Queen arrived in Aberdeen
0:27:47 > 0:27:50to officially open the North Sea pipeline,
0:27:50 > 0:27:53the SNP, with its commitment to independence,
0:27:53 > 0:27:55had 11 MPs at Westminster
0:27:55 > 0:27:59and was the most popular political party in Scotland.
0:28:01 > 0:28:07At the end of 1975, the Labour government finally responded
0:28:07 > 0:28:09to this surge in nationalist sentiment
0:28:09 > 0:28:13with a proposal for referendums in Scotland and Wales.
0:28:13 > 0:28:17Not on the question of independence, but on devolution.
0:28:17 > 0:28:21A form of limited self-government.
0:28:21 > 0:28:23This is Edinburgh, on Burns night.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26The most cherished evening in the Scottish calendar.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29An occasion to bring out the pipes,
0:28:29 > 0:28:30and the haggis.
0:28:32 > 0:28:36It became a very significant date in modern Scottish history.
0:28:36 > 0:28:39Because after more than two years of Westminster bickering,
0:28:39 > 0:28:44it was on this night, January 25, 1978
0:28:44 > 0:28:47that MPs at last got the chance to vote
0:28:47 > 0:28:51on the government's plans for referendums.
0:28:51 > 0:28:53But there was a twist in the tale.
0:28:55 > 0:29:00It was late that night that an independent-minded Labour MP,
0:29:00 > 0:29:04called George Cunningham, introduced a crucial amendment.
0:29:04 > 0:29:05For devolution to pass,
0:29:05 > 0:29:09at least 40 percent of the entire electorate
0:29:09 > 0:29:11would have to vote for it.
0:29:11 > 0:29:15A simple majority of the votes passed would not be enough.
0:29:15 > 0:29:16Now, not surprisingly,
0:29:16 > 0:29:19the Nationalists were absolutely furious.
0:29:19 > 0:29:22"When the English start losing," said the SNP's Douglas Henderson,
0:29:22 > 0:29:26"they change the rules of the game."
0:29:26 > 0:29:30The great irony, though, is that George Cunningham was Scottish.
0:29:31 > 0:29:36Despite one Labour MPs attempt to thwart their ambitions,
0:29:36 > 0:29:40the Scottish Nationalists remained defiantly confident.
0:29:40 > 0:29:42The tide of history seemed to be with them,
0:29:42 > 0:29:45and that summer, the Scottish football team,
0:29:45 > 0:29:51the pride of the nation, was going to Argentina to win the World Cup.
0:29:51 > 0:29:54# We're going to the Argentine
0:29:54 > 0:29:59# And we'll really shake them up when we win the World Cup #
0:29:59 > 0:30:02The bandwagon was well and truly rolling.
0:30:02 > 0:30:05Even Rod Stewart wanted in on the act.
0:30:05 > 0:30:10And leading the parade was Scotland's manager, Ally MacLeod.
0:30:10 > 0:30:18MacLeod's predictions of Scottish glory in 1978 have become legendary.
0:30:18 > 0:30:20A few weeks before Scotland flew out, he told the press
0:30:20 > 0:30:25"I'm convinced the finest team this country has ever produced
0:30:25 > 0:30:28"can play in the final of the World Cup and win.
0:30:28 > 0:30:33"I'm so sure that we can do it that I give my permission here and now
0:30:33 > 0:30:39"for the big celebration on 25 June to be made a national Ally-day."
0:30:41 > 0:30:45Even before a World Cup ball had been kicked,
0:30:45 > 0:30:47Ally MacLeod had become a household name,
0:30:47 > 0:30:49and so had his wife.
0:30:50 > 0:30:53As you know, Ally's off to Argentina in the summer
0:30:53 > 0:30:54and he's leaving me behind.
0:30:54 > 0:30:56But the Daily Record and your Co-op
0:30:56 > 0:30:58are running the great World Cup competition
0:30:58 > 0:31:01and there's a total of 24 trips to Argentina to be won.
0:31:02 > 0:31:06England had famously failed to qualify for the tournament,
0:31:06 > 0:31:10so there was no danger of them bringing the trophy home to London.
0:31:10 > 0:31:14All their fans had to look forward to was a new West End musical,
0:31:14 > 0:31:17due to open in the very same week
0:31:17 > 0:31:22that Ally MacLeod would be leading his boys into the World Cup final.
0:31:27 > 0:31:31And in one of the cruellest and funniest ironies
0:31:31 > 0:31:33in British sporting history,
0:31:33 > 0:31:37Evita's most famous song became the unforgettable,
0:31:37 > 0:31:42unofficial, anthem of Scotland's trip to the World Cup.
0:31:42 > 0:31:49# Don't cry for me, Argentina
0:31:49 > 0:31:51'So, so, so close.'
0:31:51 > 0:31:55# The truth is I never left you
0:31:55 > 0:31:57'Gemmill gets the tackle in.
0:31:57 > 0:31:59'Oh, no!'
0:32:02 > 0:32:03'He has space there.
0:32:03 > 0:32:06'He might play swift, and he does! And it's brilliant goal.'
0:32:08 > 0:32:12And Scotland are out of the World Cup.
0:32:12 > 0:32:15One of the great saloon bar theories of British politics
0:32:15 > 0:32:19holds that it was England's dismal defeat by West Germany
0:32:19 > 0:32:22in the 1970 World Cup that cost Howard Wilson his chance
0:32:22 > 0:32:25of victory in that year's general election.
0:32:25 > 0:32:28Given the place of football in Scottish national identity,
0:32:28 > 0:32:34it is tempting to see Scotland's, frankly, abysmal performance in 1978
0:32:34 > 0:32:37as the kiss of death for the devolution campaign.
0:32:37 > 0:32:42Because, when the referendum was finally held on 1 March, 1979.
0:32:42 > 0:32:45The wind had gone out of the nationalist sails.
0:32:47 > 0:32:49When referendum day arrived,
0:32:49 > 0:32:52a third of Scottish voters didn't even turn up.
0:32:53 > 0:32:56Another third voted for devolution,
0:32:56 > 0:33:02but that still fell short of the 40 percent the law required.
0:33:02 > 0:33:05The devolutionists had lost.
0:33:05 > 0:33:07Now, unfortunately,
0:33:07 > 0:33:11this great theory about the correlation between sporting failure
0:33:11 > 0:33:14and political failure doesn't quite work for Wales.
0:33:18 > 0:33:22The Welsh sense of national identity was no less deep
0:33:22 > 0:33:24and powerful than that of the Scots.
0:33:24 > 0:33:29It was rooted in Wales' ancient language and culture,
0:33:29 > 0:33:32long buried but now at last re-emerging.
0:33:32 > 0:33:36Symbolised, above all, by the Welsh people's pride
0:33:36 > 0:33:38in their magnificent rugby team.
0:33:38 > 0:33:41'It would be a remarkable try, and he's made it!'
0:33:46 > 0:33:48Nationalists had already won the right
0:33:48 > 0:33:50to have Welsh taught in schools,
0:33:50 > 0:33:53and even the road signs were now bilingual.
0:33:55 > 0:33:58And yet the Welsh sense of a distinctive identity,
0:33:58 > 0:33:59powerful though it was,
0:33:59 > 0:34:03didn't extend to a desire for political independence.
0:34:04 > 0:34:07Because when the referendum on devolution was held in Wales
0:34:07 > 0:34:10at the same time as in Scotland,
0:34:10 > 0:34:12the Welsh voted against it
0:34:12 > 0:34:14by a margin of almost four to one.
0:34:16 > 0:34:19And so the United Kingdom survived
0:34:19 > 0:34:23the upheaval of the 1970s, politically intact.
0:34:23 > 0:34:28But there was no denying that something had changed.
0:34:28 > 0:34:32The very fact that devolution had been discussed at all
0:34:32 > 0:34:35was a powerful sign of how the old certainties were crumbling.
0:34:35 > 0:34:39As we entered the age of identity politics,
0:34:39 > 0:34:42diversity was all the rage.
0:34:45 > 0:34:47ROUSING GUITAR MUSIC
0:34:49 > 0:34:51Even within England,
0:34:51 > 0:34:54cultural diversity had become a controversial issue.
0:34:59 > 0:35:03For many older people who'd been born into a country that was
0:35:03 > 0:35:07almost entirely white, the effects of Commonwealth immigration
0:35:07 > 0:35:09seemed uncomfortable, even alarming.
0:35:09 > 0:35:12But for those young people
0:35:12 > 0:35:14who'd grown up after the heyday
0:35:14 > 0:35:16of mass immigration,
0:35:16 > 0:35:19a new Britain was taking shape around them,
0:35:19 > 0:35:23unified by a shared love of music
0:35:23 > 0:35:27and in particular, a band called The Specials.
0:35:29 > 0:35:33The Specials and their record label 2 Tone put their home city
0:35:33 > 0:35:37of Coventry on the British youth culture map.
0:35:39 > 0:35:43'Here I am, Adrian Thrills, a cub reporter with New Musical Express,'
0:35:43 > 0:35:46'on my way up from London to Coventry.'
0:35:46 > 0:35:49Keen as ever to keep its finger on the pulse,
0:35:49 > 0:35:53the BBC sent a young reporter to catch up with what had
0:35:53 > 0:35:56quickly become a national phenomenon.
0:35:56 > 0:35:59'I finally tracked The Specials down to 2 Tone HQ -
0:35:59 > 0:36:01'home of the hits.'
0:36:01 > 0:36:02- Hey.- Hi.
0:36:02 > 0:36:04Straight upstairs, all right?
0:36:04 > 0:36:08'This is where the assault on the nation's airwaves was planned
0:36:08 > 0:36:11'with a unique mix of punk and reggae.'
0:36:11 > 0:36:15CHATTER AND LAUGHTER
0:36:17 > 0:36:22The look and sound of a distinctive moment in British pop culture
0:36:22 > 0:36:24was devised and run from this upstairs bedroom
0:36:24 > 0:36:28by former art student called Jerry Dammers.
0:36:28 > 0:36:32CHATTER
0:36:36 > 0:36:38Here we have the cheque books.
0:36:38 > 0:36:40And this is the wardrobe.
0:36:40 > 0:36:42LAUGHTER
0:36:42 > 0:36:44Nice piece of mohair.
0:36:45 > 0:36:47CHEERING
0:36:47 > 0:36:51This is the original of one of the ones that we do.
0:36:52 > 0:36:55CARIBBEAN STYLED MUSIC PLAYS
0:36:55 > 0:36:59In fact, The Specials were reviving a musical style
0:36:59 > 0:37:01from the 1960s.
0:37:04 > 0:37:08Jamaican ska was street music.
0:37:08 > 0:37:11The songs were about everyday issues.
0:37:11 > 0:37:15The Specials kept the social angle but applied it to 1970s Britain.
0:37:15 > 0:37:20Their very first number one was a song about teenage pregnancy.
0:37:20 > 0:37:25SONG: "Too Much Too Young"
0:37:34 > 0:37:37Of course this wasn't the first time that British youngsters
0:37:37 > 0:37:39had got excited about black music,
0:37:39 > 0:37:42but what made The Specials special,
0:37:42 > 0:37:45was that black and white musicians were now playing together
0:37:45 > 0:37:49and attracting a huge following in the process.
0:37:49 > 0:37:53# Don't want to be rich Don't want to be famous... #
0:37:53 > 0:37:56Being black no longer meant that you had to integrate yourself
0:37:56 > 0:37:59fully into white culture.
0:37:59 > 0:38:02And at the same time, black culture was becoming increasingly
0:38:02 > 0:38:06appealing to white audiences.
0:38:06 > 0:38:09This was multi-culturalism in action,
0:38:09 > 0:38:12finding its way from the grassroots into the living rooms
0:38:12 > 0:38:15of millions of British families and just as it was
0:38:15 > 0:38:17happening in music,
0:38:17 > 0:38:21so it was also happening in football.
0:38:21 > 0:38:23'Cunningham...
0:38:23 > 0:38:25'Regis...'
0:38:25 > 0:38:27CHEERING
0:38:27 > 0:38:31COACH: On the outside, through the middle. On the outside.
0:38:31 > 0:38:34Today most football supporters take it for granted
0:38:34 > 0:38:38that their team is a melting pot of races and nationalities.
0:38:38 > 0:38:42Back in the 1970s, though, most would scarcely have noticed
0:38:42 > 0:38:46that their teams were almost exclusively white.
0:38:46 > 0:38:50Towards the end of the decade, though, that began to change
0:38:50 > 0:38:54and at the forefront was this small West Midlands club -
0:38:54 > 0:38:55West Bromwich Albion.
0:38:57 > 0:39:00In 1978,
0:39:00 > 0:39:04West Brom were one of the most exciting teams in the country.
0:39:04 > 0:39:08And that season, they achieved a unique distinction - becoming the
0:39:08 > 0:39:13first team in England's top division to field three black players.
0:39:13 > 0:39:15CHEERING
0:39:15 > 0:39:17'Yes, 3-2. Laurie Cunningham.'
0:39:17 > 0:39:20Laurie Cunningham was a Londoner.
0:39:20 > 0:39:23Cyrille Regis had come to England from French Guiana
0:39:23 > 0:39:27and Brendon Batson had been born in Grenada.
0:39:27 > 0:39:32In 1978, Top Of The Pops was possibly the only other place
0:39:32 > 0:39:37where you might see more than an occasional black face.
0:39:37 > 0:39:40So with more insights than he probably realised,
0:39:40 > 0:39:43West Brom's jovial manager, Ron Atkinson,
0:39:43 > 0:39:47nicknamed his three black players "The Three Degrees."
0:39:47 > 0:39:49CHEERING
0:39:49 > 0:39:52# When will I see you again? #
0:39:55 > 0:39:57'Back from Regis...'
0:39:57 > 0:40:01CHEERING
0:40:01 > 0:40:06# Will I have to wa-a-a-it
0:40:06 > 0:40:08# Forever
0:40:10 > 0:40:13# Will I have to suffer... #
0:40:13 > 0:40:19In 1978/79, West Brom celebrated their centenary season.
0:40:19 > 0:40:22They finished third in the First Division,
0:40:22 > 0:40:25their highest position for a quarter of a century.
0:40:25 > 0:40:27Yet the real highlight of the year was, in many ways,
0:40:27 > 0:40:33the visit to West Bromwich of the real Three Degrees.
0:40:33 > 0:40:37In its way this photograph, which shows all six degrees,
0:40:37 > 0:40:42is a compelling symbol of the changes reshaping not just football,
0:40:42 > 0:40:44but British society in general.
0:40:49 > 0:40:53But of course these changes often seemed deeply unsettling
0:40:53 > 0:40:55to people who vividly remember the days
0:40:55 > 0:40:59when Britain had been decidedly monocultural.
0:40:59 > 0:41:01And waiting in the wings,
0:41:01 > 0:41:07was a politician who was quite happy to speak on their behalf.
0:41:07 > 0:41:14# Said you'd been threatened by gangsters
0:41:14 > 0:41:16# Now it's you
0:41:16 > 0:41:20# That's threatening me. #
0:41:20 > 0:41:22If we went on as we are,
0:41:22 > 0:41:24then by the end of the century
0:41:24 > 0:41:26there'd be four million people
0:41:26 > 0:41:29of the new Commonwealth or Pakistan here.
0:41:29 > 0:41:31That's an awful lot
0:41:31 > 0:41:34and I think it means people are really rather afraid
0:41:34 > 0:41:38this country might be rather swamped by people with a different culture.
0:41:38 > 0:41:40# I'm wishing on a star... #
0:41:40 > 0:41:45Mrs Thatcher was not afraid to court controversy over
0:41:45 > 0:41:49issues like immigration if she thought it could win her votes.
0:41:49 > 0:41:54And yet, this was a tactic borne of frustration.
0:41:54 > 0:41:58Because despite all the economic horrors of the last three years
0:41:58 > 0:42:01under Labour, despite inflation at 26%
0:42:01 > 0:42:05and an emergency loan from the IMF,
0:42:05 > 0:42:07in the summer of 1978
0:42:07 > 0:42:12the Tories were still only on level pegging in the opinion polls.
0:42:12 > 0:42:13CHEERING
0:42:13 > 0:42:17CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:42:17 > 0:42:20But by the following May, Margaret Thatcher
0:42:20 > 0:42:22was walking into Downing Street
0:42:22 > 0:42:24as Britain's first woman Prime Minister.
0:42:24 > 0:42:28Now when historians tell that story, they often concentrate
0:42:28 > 0:42:32on the dramatic final months before the general election.
0:42:32 > 0:42:36But I think Mrs Thatcher's victory was the culmination of forces
0:42:36 > 0:42:40that had been gathering strength since the beginning of the 1970s.
0:42:40 > 0:42:43It was the crescendo of a kind of national mood music,
0:42:43 > 0:42:47that was as much cultural as it was political.
0:42:47 > 0:42:52But for a long time, Mrs Thatcher herself was merely humming along,
0:42:52 > 0:42:57building confidence before she felt ready to lead the orchestra.
0:42:57 > 0:43:01# Sailing away on the crest of a wave... #
0:43:01 > 0:43:05Take, for instance, council house sales.
0:43:05 > 0:43:09The right to buy is remembered as one of Mrs Thatcher's radical
0:43:09 > 0:43:11new policies, but the truth is,
0:43:11 > 0:43:15she was marching to a borrowed tune.
0:43:15 > 0:43:21This is Harold Hill in Essex, a huge suburban housing development,
0:43:21 > 0:43:23built after the Second World War.
0:43:28 > 0:43:31Estates like this one were precisely the kinds of places
0:43:31 > 0:43:34where many council tenants were desperate for the chance
0:43:34 > 0:43:36to buy their own homes.
0:43:36 > 0:43:40Today about half the houses on Harold Hill are privately owned
0:43:40 > 0:43:45and often, it's not difficult to spot which ones.
0:43:51 > 0:43:54On 16 August 1980, after she had become Prime Minister,
0:43:54 > 0:43:58Margaret Thatcher paid a visit to this house on Amersham Road
0:43:58 > 0:44:01to see Mr and Mrs Patterson.
0:44:01 > 0:44:05The Pattersons had just bought their own home.
0:44:05 > 0:44:09They were the 12,000th council tenants to do so
0:44:09 > 0:44:13and Mrs Thatcher was delighted to present them with the deeds.
0:44:13 > 0:44:15Don't you think this is lovely?
0:44:15 > 0:44:17And the trouble Mrs Patterson has taken with it?
0:44:17 > 0:44:20And Mr Patterson is a handyman. He's put in all these.
0:44:20 > 0:44:25He's done the garden and the shed outside.
0:44:25 > 0:44:27But this was hardly something new.
0:44:27 > 0:44:32The local Tory council had sold off its first house in 1967.
0:44:33 > 0:44:36But the most surprising thing about right to buy,
0:44:36 > 0:44:39is that it was a policy the Labour government had seriously
0:44:39 > 0:44:42considered after winning power in 1974.
0:44:42 > 0:44:45Polls showed massive public support for the idea.
0:44:45 > 0:44:48Eight out of ten council tenants liked it
0:44:48 > 0:44:50and Labour activists reported that
0:44:50 > 0:44:54on the doorstep, tenants would often bring it up themselves.
0:44:54 > 0:44:58One senior Labour minister even admitted that council tenancy
0:44:58 > 0:45:02carried with the whiff of welfare, of subsidisation
0:45:02 > 0:45:05and generally of second-class citizenship.
0:45:05 > 0:45:09# Should old acquaintance... #
0:45:09 > 0:45:11Of course, the right to buy was never really
0:45:11 > 0:45:15likely to get past the closed ranks of the Labour left.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18At the party conference in 1976,
0:45:18 > 0:45:23the comrades actually voted to make the sale of council houses illegal.
0:45:23 > 0:45:27# For auld lang syne... #
0:45:29 > 0:45:31And so an idea that chimed
0:45:31 > 0:45:37perfectly with ordinary families' desire for more personal freedom
0:45:37 > 0:45:39was handed to Mrs Thatcher on a plate.
0:45:42 > 0:45:46It was the perfect way to attract a new class of recruits
0:45:46 > 0:45:48to the Tory banner.
0:45:49 > 0:45:52# All I want is a room with a view
0:45:52 > 0:45:56# A sight worth seeing A vision of you... #
0:45:58 > 0:45:59Mrs Thatcher's target voters
0:45:59 > 0:46:02were a group known as the C2s.
0:46:02 > 0:46:05They were skilled workers, many of them
0:46:05 > 0:46:09trade union members, and most were Labour voters.
0:46:09 > 0:46:11But they weren't really interested in ideology.
0:46:11 > 0:46:14What they wanted was a government that kept prices down
0:46:14 > 0:46:17and strikes to a minimum.
0:46:17 > 0:46:19They dreamed of paying less tax,
0:46:19 > 0:46:21taking more foreign holidays
0:46:21 > 0:46:23and getting onto the property ladder.
0:46:23 > 0:46:27But with inflation eating away at their earnings, they saw their
0:46:27 > 0:46:28dreams of the good life
0:46:28 > 0:46:31slipping further and further
0:46:31 > 0:46:34out of reach.
0:46:37 > 0:46:41In an age of rising prices, Mrs Thatcher's talk of balancing
0:46:41 > 0:46:44the family budget struck a powerful chord.
0:46:45 > 0:46:48I think they ought to make a woman go into power
0:46:48 > 0:46:51because she's had to economise,
0:46:51 > 0:46:54bring up children, budget with the shopping.
0:46:54 > 0:46:55These men haven't.
0:46:55 > 0:46:59You don't have to go into Tesco's every week
0:46:59 > 0:47:02and you go in there and everything, every single thing has gone up
0:47:02 > 0:47:06two or three pence, every single week.
0:47:06 > 0:47:08For people worried that rising prices were eating away
0:47:08 > 0:47:11at their living standards,
0:47:11 > 0:47:15there was an obvious answer. If you belonged to a big trade union,
0:47:15 > 0:47:19then it would protect you from the ravages of inflation.
0:47:19 > 0:47:23Even the threat of a strike was often enough to get you
0:47:23 > 0:47:26a handsome pay rise, effectively protecting your new affluence.
0:47:26 > 0:47:29This wasn't so much socialism,
0:47:29 > 0:47:31as self-interest.
0:47:31 > 0:47:34The unions might not have built the new Jerusalem,
0:47:34 > 0:47:38but at least they could get you that new Cortina.
0:47:38 > 0:47:42But by the late '70s, millions of ordinary people were
0:47:42 > 0:47:46beginning to wonder if the endless routine of strikes
0:47:46 > 0:47:50and walkouts could really deliver lasting prosperity.
0:47:50 > 0:47:56Still, as Britain entered the bleak and bitter winter of 1978,
0:47:56 > 0:47:59the unions were once again making the headlines.
0:48:03 > 0:48:07The trouble began in September, when at a Ford car plant on Merseyside,
0:48:07 > 0:48:10the workers went on strike over pay.
0:48:12 > 0:48:16Five other factories immediately followed suit.
0:48:16 > 0:48:18After eight weeks, a company handed them
0:48:18 > 0:48:20an inflation-busting
0:48:20 > 0:48:2317% pay rise.
0:48:26 > 0:48:28Now that Ford had surrendered,
0:48:28 > 0:48:30the floodgates burst.
0:48:30 > 0:48:32British Leyland car workers,
0:48:32 > 0:48:34coalminers, gas workers,
0:48:34 > 0:48:36even bakery workers,
0:48:36 > 0:48:40all demanded double digit increases of their own.
0:48:40 > 0:48:42Most spectacularly,
0:48:42 > 0:48:44Britain's 50,000 lorry drivers
0:48:44 > 0:48:48wanted a pay rise of 60%.
0:48:49 > 0:48:52And then, it started snowing.
0:49:03 > 0:49:08Road and rail services everywhere were severely disrupted.
0:49:08 > 0:49:14Only the polar bears and penguins at London Zoo seemed untroubled.
0:49:14 > 0:49:19And then, the lorry drivers began their walkout,
0:49:19 > 0:49:24immediately cutting the supply of food and fuel across the country.
0:49:24 > 0:49:27Within days, there were reports of panic buying in the shops
0:49:27 > 0:49:29and rationing at petrol stations.
0:49:29 > 0:49:33# You've done it all, you've broken everything... #
0:49:33 > 0:49:37Mrs Thatcher seized the moment.
0:49:37 > 0:49:42Her party political broadcast on the 17th of January 1979
0:49:42 > 0:49:43was a masterstroke,
0:49:43 > 0:49:48precisely because it appeared not to be political at all.
0:49:48 > 0:49:51Instead, she appealed to her audience to put aside
0:49:51 > 0:49:55their differences for the good of the nation.
0:49:55 > 0:49:59That no-one, however strong his case is entitled to pursue it
0:49:59 > 0:50:01by hurting others.
0:50:01 > 0:50:05There are wreckers among us who don't believe this.
0:50:05 > 0:50:11But the vast majority of us, and that includes the vast majority of trade unionists, do believe it,
0:50:11 > 0:50:16whether we call ourselves Labour, Conservative, Liberal or simply British.
0:50:16 > 0:50:20It's to that majority that I'm talking this evening.
0:50:20 > 0:50:23We have to learn again to be one nation,
0:50:23 > 0:50:26or one day we shall be no nation.
0:50:26 > 0:50:31If we've learned that lesson from these first dark days of 1979,
0:50:31 > 0:50:34then we've learned something of value.
0:50:35 > 0:50:40But the days were about to get an awful lot darker.
0:50:40 > 0:50:43On the 22nd of January, the three public sector unions called
0:50:43 > 0:50:49a simultaneous day of action to demand a £60-a-week minimum wage.
0:50:49 > 0:50:53And with 1.5 million people walking out on strike, this was the biggest
0:50:53 > 0:50:58and most effective industrial action since the General Strike of 1926.
0:51:01 > 0:51:06The two weeks that followed were among the grimmest in Britain's peace time history.
0:51:07 > 0:51:11The day of action was extended into weeks of action.
0:51:11 > 0:51:15Dustmen, ambulance drivers, caretakers, bus drivers,
0:51:15 > 0:51:17road gritters and many more
0:51:17 > 0:51:22began a series of rolling strikes that caused total chaos.
0:51:24 > 0:51:28TV pictures of piles of uncollected rubbish were bad enough,
0:51:28 > 0:51:31but it was the reports of medical supplies being blocked
0:51:31 > 0:51:36and of gravediggers refusing to bury the dead that began to convince many,
0:51:36 > 0:51:42even on the left, that their unions had simply lost their minds.
0:51:44 > 0:51:49This is the world famous children's hospital at Great Ormond Street in London.
0:51:49 > 0:51:53In February 1979, this was the location of perhaps
0:51:53 > 0:51:58the saddest single incident of the entire Winter of Discontent.
0:51:58 > 0:52:02Those in favour of going on strike...
0:52:02 > 0:52:06A walkout by support staff at a children's hospital was,
0:52:06 > 0:52:10said the newspapers, Britain's sickest strike.
0:52:10 > 0:52:16As the workers marched out, they told reporters they'd all go back if there was an emergency,
0:52:16 > 0:52:21but that was cold comfort for the strike-breaking nurses who stayed on,
0:52:21 > 0:52:24having torn up their union cards in disgust.
0:52:24 > 0:52:29- Why did you resign? - Because I'm employed here to look after the children
0:52:29 > 0:52:32and I didn't feel that I could do that in all conscience
0:52:32 > 0:52:38and belong to a union which is trying to disrupt the care of the children in this hospital.
0:52:38 > 0:52:41But the union say the children won't be affected.
0:52:41 > 0:52:44Well, I don't believe that's true actually.
0:52:51 > 0:52:55Hospital ancillary workers, cleaners, caretakers,
0:52:55 > 0:53:00catering staff, were among the worst paid of all public sector workers.
0:53:00 > 0:53:03But the images of sick children having to be cared for
0:53:03 > 0:53:07in hospital by their parents were more than enough
0:53:07 > 0:53:11to turn public opinion decisively against the unions.
0:53:13 > 0:53:17After weeks of disruption, from the toxic combination of bad weather
0:53:17 > 0:53:22and crippling strikes, the Labour Prime Minister Jim Callaghan
0:53:22 > 0:53:27conceded whopping pay rises for the public sector workers.
0:53:27 > 0:53:32By the beginning of March, the strikes were over, but the reckoning was about to begin.
0:53:34 > 0:53:40At the time, the Winter of Discontent was seen as the supreme triumph of union power.
0:53:40 > 0:53:46But the irony was that in the long-term, it was a catastrophe for the unions.
0:53:46 > 0:53:53At the end of January, a Gallup poll found 84% agreeing that the trade unions were too powerful,
0:53:53 > 0:53:56the highest figure in the survey's history.
0:53:56 > 0:54:02The Prime Minister was the first to feel the blast of the wind of change.
0:54:02 > 0:54:07On the 28th of March, Callaghan's government lost a vote of no confidence.
0:54:07 > 0:54:10An election was called for the 3rd of May.
0:54:10 > 0:54:13The Thatcher machine went into overdrive.
0:54:13 > 0:54:16# If you change your mind, Take a chance
0:54:16 > 0:54:18# I'm the first in line, Take a chance
0:54:18 > 0:54:20# Honey, I'm, still free
0:54:20 > 0:54:23# Take a chance on me,
0:54:23 > 0:54:27# If you need me, let me know, gonna be around
0:54:27 > 0:54:30# If you got no place to go... #
0:54:30 > 0:54:34Mrs Thatcher's campaign was famously slick.
0:54:34 > 0:54:38Advertising agencies had run election campaigns in Britain before,
0:54:38 > 0:54:43but no-one had marketed a candidate with as much energy and insight
0:54:43 > 0:54:46as Saatchi and Saatchi presented Mrs Thatcher.
0:54:47 > 0:54:50Look, she's coming towards us now.
0:54:52 > 0:54:56Her days were scheduled to deliver maximum exposure on the early evening news
0:54:56 > 0:54:59when her target audience of women,
0:54:59 > 0:55:04first-time voters and the C2s would be watching.
0:55:06 > 0:55:10And as polling day approached, she won some vital support.
0:55:15 > 0:55:17On the morning of the election,
0:55:17 > 0:55:22the Sun ran an enormous front page editorial urging its readers,
0:55:22 > 0:55:27for the first time in the paper's history, to vote Conservative.
0:55:27 > 0:55:33"This is D Day. D for decision, the first day of the rest of our lives.
0:55:33 > 0:55:35"The Sun is not a Tory paper.
0:55:35 > 0:55:40"We are proud of our working class readership, but the choice you have
0:55:40 > 0:55:45"to make today is quite simply the choice between freedom and shackles.
0:55:45 > 0:55:49"Freedom to work, with or without a union card,
0:55:49 > 0:55:52"freedom to rent your home or buy it,
0:55:52 > 0:55:55"freedom to live life your way."
0:56:00 > 0:56:05As the results came in, it quickly became clear that Margaret Thatcher
0:56:05 > 0:56:09would indeed be Britain's first woman prime minister.
0:56:09 > 0:56:13Her victory wasn't a landslide,
0:56:13 > 0:56:19but with 339 seats, she'd secured a solid majority of 43.
0:56:19 > 0:56:23And the rule book of British politics had been rewritten.
0:56:23 > 0:56:29In future, anyone wanting to win an election would need to appeal
0:56:29 > 0:56:34not to the trade union barons, but to the readers of The Sun.
0:56:37 > 0:56:41Mrs Thatcher's victory was a landmark in our political history.
0:56:41 > 0:56:45But it wasn't just a reaction to the disastrous Winter of Discontent,
0:56:45 > 0:56:49it marked the culmination of a decade of tremendous change.
0:56:51 > 0:56:56The '70s had made Britain a far more tolerant and open-minded country,
0:56:56 > 0:57:00but also one that had fallen in love with money.
0:57:00 > 0:57:04Margaret Thatcher was astute enough to understand this
0:57:04 > 0:57:08and that meant she reaped the political rewards.
0:57:11 > 0:57:15Of course, nobody back in 1979 thought that Margaret Thatcher
0:57:15 > 0:57:19would still be there 11 years later.
0:57:19 > 0:57:23Today, we remember her as the prime minister who changed everything,
0:57:23 > 0:57:25for good or ill.
0:57:25 > 0:57:28But the reason she got there in the first place
0:57:28 > 0:57:31was that more than any other politician of the day,
0:57:31 > 0:57:36she realised just how much Britain had changed already.
0:57:36 > 0:57:40She was taking over a country that was more ambitious, more affluent
0:57:40 > 0:57:44and more outgoing than it had been at the beginning of the '70s.
0:57:44 > 0:57:48And yet one that was also more anxious, more insecure
0:57:48 > 0:57:51and more individualistic.
0:57:51 > 0:57:54She didn't create all this. She inherited it.
0:57:54 > 0:57:58From sex and shopping to Europe and education,
0:57:58 > 0:58:03this was the great watershed in our modern history.
0:58:03 > 0:58:09And four decades on, we still live in a world the '70s made.
0:58:10 > 0:58:16# Now watch what you say or they'll be calling you a radical
0:58:16 > 0:58:20# Liberal, fanatical, criminal
0:58:20 > 0:58:25# Won't you sign up your name, we'd like to see you're acceptable
0:58:25 > 0:58:30# Respectable, oh, presentable, a vegetable... #
0:58:33 > 0:58:37Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd