Under Pressure The 80s with Dominic Sandbrook


Under Pressure

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Contains language which some may find offensive.

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In the early 1980s,

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Britain was struggling to hold back a tide of change.

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Danger seemed to be lurking everywhere.

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And at the beginning of the decade,

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we found ourselves under attack.

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This was an invasion not just of our streets and our homes,

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but of our hearts and minds.

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Resistance was futile.

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For, almost overnight, Britain had fallen -

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to the space invaders.

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# Dance all night

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# Get real loose

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# You don't need no bad excuse... #

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These Japanese machines first came to Britain in January 1979.

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And before long, they were in arcades from St Andrews

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to St Austell.

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In the halls of Westminster, MPs debated what one called

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"the growing menace of the video games arcade."

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By now, the tabloids were overflowing with horror stories

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about British children who'd fallen victim to the alien plague.

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They skipped school and missed meals.

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They'd become zombies, sleepwalkers oblivious to everything around them,

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as they played on and on to the brink...

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of destruction!

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The moral panic over video games arcades was just one example

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of the deep anxiety running right through the heart of the decade.

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The headlines were dominated by one battle after another,

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and almost every week brought some new controversy

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about the morals of the young and the state of the nation.

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MUSIC: I Don't Need This Pressure On by Spandau Ballet

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Getting to grips with the threat of AIDS...

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This is a condom.

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It is rolled over the man's penis

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before sexual intercourse begins.

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..taking on racism and prejudice...

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Paki!

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..backing our boys in the Falklands.

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I felt very, very proud and, please God, they pull it off.

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Only decades earlier,

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Britain had been defined by its industrial might

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and imperial supremacy.

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But, in the age of globalisation,

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the power of British Empire and of British manufacturing

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seemed like ancient history.

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By the middle of the 1980s, Britain stood at a crossroads.

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And the one hand, the reassurance of the familiar,

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the world of industry and Empire, coal and steam.

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And on the other, the shock of the new.

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An exciting, unsettling new world of foreign imports

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and digital technology.

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These were the years in which Britain redefined itself

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for the 21st century.

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A nation forged in battle against enemies without and within.

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# I don't need this pressure on

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# I don't need this pressure on... #

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MUSIC: Under Pressure by Queen & David Bowie

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One cold evening in March 1982,

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a distinguished-looking man strode across Westminster Bridge.

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Dressed in military uniform,

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he bore a look of grim determination

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and he strode into the Palace of Westminster,

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narrowly avoiding being detained by a policeman in the lobby.

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His name was Admiral Sir Henry Leach,

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First Sea Lord and head of the Royal navy.

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Leach had come to the Commons to confront the unthinkable.

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Thousands of miles away,

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Argentina's Navy was poised to land on the Falkland Islands,

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a far-flung outpost of British territory in the freezing waters

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of the South Atlantic.

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GUNFIRE

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# Pressure

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# Pushing down on me

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# Pressing down on you... #

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Within hours, the Argentine invaders

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had overwhelmed the island's governor and his token garrison.

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8,000 miles away,

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Margaret Thatcher's government was in crisis,

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and the stage was set for Henry Leach.

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He went straight into the Prime Minister's room and standing there,

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a magnificent martial figure in his naval regalia,

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he gave Margaret Thatcher perhaps the single most important advice

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of her entire career.

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Not just that we COULD fight this war, but that we MUST.

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MUSIC: War Child by Blondie

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That was Mrs Thatcher's kind of talk.

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Fighting talk.

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And within hours, Britain was preparing for war.

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To her critics, Mrs Thatcher's decision to send a task force

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halfway across the world to kick out the Argentine invaders

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felt like something from the days of gunboat diplomacy

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and the age of Empire.

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But, for precisely that reason,

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many people rather loved it.

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And when the task force sailed from Portsmouth docks,

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it did so amid a vast outpouring of national sentiment,

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the air ringing with patriotic hymns.

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CROWD SINGS "SAILING"

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We can't allow them to walk all over us and kick us in the face.

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Would you be saying that if you had a relation on board those ships?

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Oh, yes. Definitely.

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All of this bullish patriotism made for a stark contrast with the way

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the press and public had treated Britain's Armed Forces in the 1970s.

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For more than a decade,

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the British Army had been bogged down in Northern Ireland.

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And if the Falklands felt relatively clear-cut,

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then Northern Ireland was a nightmare

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in endless, muddy shades of grey.

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Not just a divisive conflict,

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but a dirty one, in which Britain's fighting men had been dogged

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by accusations of torture and assassination.

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But now, the Falklands had thrown up an enemy against whom

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the British people could stand united.

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MUSIC: Stand And Deliver by Adam And The Ants

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# I'm the dandy highwayman

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# Who you're too scared to mention... #

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No casting agency could have supplied a more fitting villain.

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A South American military dictator, General Leopoldo Galtieri.

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Fighting the war was one thing,

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but winning it was quite another.

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Never before had any Government fought such a difficult

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naval campaign, thousands of miles from home

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in the freezing waters of the South Atlantic.

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It was for that very reason that Mrs Thatcher's government

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kept its cards extremely close to its chest.

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News, some of it very bad news,

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only reached the public in short bursts,

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delivered by the defence spokesman Ian McDonald,

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not, perhaps, one of life's natural broadcasters.

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In the course of its duties,

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HMS Sheffield, a Type 42 destroyer,

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was attacked and hit late this afternoon

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by an Argentinian missile.

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As for TV footage,

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strikingly little actually made it back to Britain from the front lines

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and those reports that did were very carefully censored.

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'I'm not allowed to say how many planes joined the raid,

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'but I counted them all out and I counted them all back.

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'Their pilots were unhurt, cheerful and jubilant,

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giving thumbs-up signs.'

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MUSIC: The Hurting by Tears For Fears

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It was a gruelling and bloody campaign, but on the 14th June,

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with the British troops outside Port Stanley,

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Argentine morale collapsed.

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There is a white flag flying over Stanley.

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Bloody marvellous!

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Victory had come at a heavy price.

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14 ships, more than 900 lives,

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broken bodies and shellshocked minds.

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But it was victory all the same

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and it had taken just ten weeks.

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-MARGARET THATCHER:

-We, the British people,

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are proud of what has been done.

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Proud of these heroic pages in our island's story.

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Proud to be British.

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Proud indeed.

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Once again, it seemed that Britain has stood up alone against

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a foreign bully and won.

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For Britain's Armed Forces,

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the stains of Northern Ireland were quietly forgotten.

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Now, our boys were national heroes once again.

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And what Mrs Thatcher had proudly called

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"the spirit of the South Atlantic"

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was more than just a political soundbite.

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There was, I think, a palpable sense

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that after years of imperial decline, Britain had rediscovered

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its patriotic pride.

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A warrior nation,

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renewed in battle.

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MUSIC: Wouldn't It Be Good by Nik Kershaw

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For a time, the Falklands victory gave Britain a new sense

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of national self-confidence.

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# I got it bad

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# You don't know how bad I got it #

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But in the turbulent world of the 1980s,

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there was always another demon to confront, some of them much closer to home.

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# It's getting harder

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# Just keeping life and soul together... #

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One day in March 1982,

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a small business sent out one of its staff to post a package

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to an elderly woman in a quiet village near Colchester.

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The lady in question was a retired schoolmistress.

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A churchgoer. A letter writer.

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The kind of public-spirited warrior

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that you'd find in towns and villages all over the country.

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Except that this woman wasn't quite your stereotypical little old lady,

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because her name, you see, was Mary Whitehouse.

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MUSIC: Waiting For A Girl Like You by Foreigner

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# I've been waiting

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# For a girl like you #

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Mary Whitehouse had made her name campaigning tirelessly

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against blasphemy, filth and smut in the national media.

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And inside the package was a video cassette.

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In the spring of 1982, video technology was still relatively new.

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Most people were only beginning to buy their first video recorders.

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In fact, my parents didn't get our first VCR until a year or two later.

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So, the video companies were naturally keen to drum up

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as much extra publicity as they could.

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Now, the people who'd sent this package

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were a company called Go Video,

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and what they were hoping was that

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Mrs Whitehouse would watch their film

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and would be so appalled by it that she would go straight on TV

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to condemn it.

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And that way, they'd get thousands of extra viewers.

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And as plans go, it sort of worked,

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because she did watch it,

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and she did talk about it.

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Its name was The Care Bears Mov...

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No, it wasn't.

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Its name was Cannibal Holocaust.

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Video recorders arrived at the perfect time.

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Battered by recession and unemployment,

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British families were turning inwards.

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Instead of spending money outside the home,

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many were now staying in, night after night.

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MUSIC: On TV by The Buggles

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And now, home videos allowed us to choose what we wanted to watch

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and when we wanted to watch it.

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In case you've never seen one of these before, this is a video tape

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and this little thing is creating a big revolution

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in the way that people watch television.

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At first, the big Hollywood studios hesitated to release their films

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on video, worried that people would stop going to the cinema.

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That left a hole in the market,

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a hole that the small independent distributors

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were only too pleased to fill.

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So they pumped out anything they could get their hands on.

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European arthouse classics?

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Well, not quite.

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More slasher flicks and soft-core porn,

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all packaged in these tastefully understated covers.

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Now, unlike cinema releases,

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videos weren't covered by the censorship laws.

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This was home entertainment, right?

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You could watch whatever you liked,

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and that meant that the distributors could get away with, well,

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with anything.

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MUSIC: Living On The Ceiling by Blancmange

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Horror, nudity, murder,

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torture, rape, even cannibalism.

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No wonder Mary Whitehouse was up in arms.

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A new enemy was at hand...

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the video nasties.

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And soon, video nasties were everywhere.

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My own favourite programme even visited a planet devoted

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to the export of explicit videos.

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Are they very disturbing,

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these videos you sell?

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They show what befalls those who refuse to obey the orders

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by which the people of Varos must live.

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Torture!

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Blindness!

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Execution!

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For the anarchic sitcom The Young Ones,

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the video nasties panic was a gift.

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First, we're going to have

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Sex With The Headless Corpse Of The Virgin Astronaut.

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Urgh. Won't the carpet get awfully sticky?

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It's a video nasty!

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It's a carpet, Farty!

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But true to form, Mrs Whitehouse didn't quite see the funny side.

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It's like a plague

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and just as the locusts eat the green leaf,

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so most at risk in this plague

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are the virgin minds of the children.

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One of Mrs Whitehouse's allies compiled a dossier claiming,

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among other things, that half of all small children had already seen

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a video nasty and that the video recorder

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was now replacing the baby-sitter.

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Alas, as dossiers go, this one was distinctly dodgy.

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In fact, a later study found that seven out of ten children

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were claiming to have seen films that didn't actually exist.

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MUSIC: Blue Monday by New Order

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Let's have a look at a video.

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Yeah, that one looks good. I heard someone gets strangled in that.

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-Really? Oh, good. I want to see it.

-Yeah, you'll like that.

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You see a lot of people getting their heads chopped off

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and slaughtered all over the place.

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I suppose there's obviously a market for them,

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or people wouldn't hire them.

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-'Do you think there should be legal controls over the distribution?'

-No.

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'Why not?'

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Erm, well, I think it's wrong to restrict what people want to see.

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If there's a market for it, let people watch it.

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In the summer of 1983,

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the panic reached its climax.

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An 18-year-old man convicted of rape and burglary blamed the videos.

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"I got the idea for the rapes", he told the court,

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"from a video nasty".

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Here was the evidence that Mary Whitehouse's moral crusaders

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had been looking for.

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A year later, the government passed the Video Recordings Act.

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The worst titles were banned,

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and the rest placed under strict age restrictions.

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Steve? What do I class this as?

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It's masturbation.

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Classify it in the miscellaneous column.

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Just like cinematic releases,

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home entertainment would now be subject to classification

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and state censorship.

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Even if the video nasties panic was a bit exaggerated,

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it was a very striking symptom of the anxieties thrown up

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by social and cultural change.

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Britain in the mid-'80s was a country obsessed with

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the idea of privacy and of domesticity,

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and yet it was getting harder and harder

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to keep the outside world at bay.

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Try as you might, it kept finding its way in,

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seeping through the cracks into the heart of the family living room.

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MUSIC: That's All by Genesis

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And in one corner of England,

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that collision between the speed of change

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and the security of family and community provoked open conflict.

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On the 21st of April 1984,

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hundreds of football fans poured through the turnstiles

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to watch their local heroes Chesterfield, in Derbyshire,

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take on the might of Nottinghamshire's Mansfield town.

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Just another mid-season encounter

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between two fourth division sides in the East Midlands.

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But the atmosphere that day was charged with tension.

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Forget Liverpool and Everton or Rangers and Celtic,

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even Real Madrid and Barcelona.

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This was different.

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The air was electric with bitterness and betrayal.

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You see, Mansfield and Chesterfield were both mining towns.

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They both relied on the coal industry for jobs and prosperity.

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You know, there was only 12 miles between them,

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but in the spring of 1984, those 12 miles yawned like a chasm.

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In March 1984, the Coal Board had announced the closure

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of 20 pits across the country.

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North Sea oil and foreign coal supplies were now cheaper

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than coal from many Britain's pits.

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20,000 miners would lose their jobs.

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The miners' union, under Arthur Scargill, called a strike.

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But Scargill refused to organise a national ballot,

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perhaps because he feared that miners in more productive collieries

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would vote no.

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Mansfield in Nottinghamshire was one of those places.

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With plentiful coal and modernised pits,

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Nottinghamshire's miners were under little threat,

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so why, they asked, should they go on strike?

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By the time Chesterfield and Mansfield met on the football field,

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Britain's miners were deeply divided.

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Most of Chesterfield's miners were out on strike.

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Most of Mansfield's miners were still working.

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And as Mansfield's players ran out onto the pitch that day,

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the chants rolled down from the Chesterfield terraces...

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Scab.

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Scab.

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Scab.

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MUSIC: Hammer To Fall by Queen

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CROWD CHANTING

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Off the field, the mood was even uglier.

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Every morning, as Mansfield's miners turned up for work,

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they were met by flying pickets

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bussed in from Chesterfield and beyond.

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The government had quietly stockpiled coal reserves

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to keep the lights on,

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but unless coal kept on coming from Nottinghamshire's pits,

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those reserves would run out in six months.

0:21:120:21:15

And that meant that Nottinghamshire was absolutely crucial.

0:21:170:21:20

In effect, everything else was a sideshow,

0:21:200:21:23

because if Nottinghamshire's men carried on working,

0:21:230:21:26

the nation's coal reserves would never run out,

0:21:260:21:29

and one day, eventually,

0:21:290:21:31

the Government would win.

0:21:310:21:33

So if the strike were to succeed,

0:21:330:21:35

Arthur Scargill absolutely had to cut off the flow of coal

0:21:350:21:40

from the Nottinghamshire pits.

0:21:400:21:42

In May, Arthur Scargill came to Mansfield

0:21:440:21:47

and appealed for solidarity.

0:21:470:21:49

There is one rule in the whole of the trade union rule book in Britain

0:21:500:21:55

that supersedes every other.

0:21:550:21:57

When workers are on strike,

0:21:580:22:00

you don't cross picket lines!

0:22:000:22:02

CROWD CHEERS

0:22:020:22:03

To Margaret Thatcher, the striking miners were the enemy within,

0:22:060:22:10

but to the wives of the men on strike,

0:22:100:22:13

the working miners were the real enemy.

0:22:130:22:15

'All on his own.'

0:22:160:22:18

Come on, spikey.

0:22:180:22:19

This is the brave one, with all his windows boarded up!

0:22:220:22:25

'How long is this going to go on?'

0:22:270:22:28

As long as it takes.

0:22:280:22:30

As long as it takes to get them out.

0:22:300:22:32

Traitor, traitor, traitor...!

0:22:330:22:34

But to Nottinghamshire's working miners,

0:22:340:22:37

Scargill was the real traitor.

0:22:370:22:39

Each area was given a choice to vote and the Notts area voted to come

0:22:400:22:45

to work, so that's why we're here.

0:22:450:22:47

And until they have a national ballot, we're coming to work.

0:22:470:22:50

MUSIC: It Ain't Necessarily So by Bronski Beat

0:22:500:22:52

The miners' strike was the longest industrial dispute

0:22:530:22:56

in British history.

0:22:560:22:58

It held for a year before the miners gave in.

0:22:580:23:00

It is often seen as a turning point,

0:23:020:23:04

a titanic personal and political showdown

0:23:040:23:07

between militant socialist Arthur Scargill

0:23:070:23:10

and free-market capitalist Margaret Thatcher.

0:23:100:23:12

But, I'm not sure about that.

0:23:160:23:18

You see, I think the key battle, the real battle,

0:23:180:23:21

was among the miners themselves.

0:23:210:23:24

And I think that conflict was part of a much wider and more profound

0:23:240:23:27

ideological struggle.

0:23:270:23:30

See, on the one hand, you had those miners who thought that

0:23:300:23:32

the most important thing was loyalty to the union.

0:23:320:23:35

Comradeship with your mates.

0:23:350:23:37

Solidarity with the British working class.

0:23:370:23:40

And on the other hand, you had those miners who didn't want to be

0:23:400:23:43

strong-armed into joining Arthur Scargill's revolutionary crusade,

0:23:430:23:47

who wanted to put their own livelihoods and their own families first.

0:23:470:23:51

And I think that tension,

0:23:520:23:53

between collective loyalty and individual aspiration,

0:23:530:23:57

was a faultline that ran right through '80s Britain.

0:23:570:24:01

MUSIC: Big In Japan by Alphaville

0:24:020:24:03

This was an age of seismic industrial upheaval,

0:24:040:24:08

propelled not so much by the Thatcher government,

0:24:080:24:10

but by the sheer momentum of technological change.

0:24:100:24:13

This is a microchip.

0:24:160:24:19

It doesn't look like much, does it?

0:24:190:24:21

But what this represented was nothing short of a social,

0:24:210:24:24

cultural and technological revolution.

0:24:240:24:27

For some people, computers were just a gimmick.

0:24:320:24:34

But the government believed they were the future.

0:24:360:24:39

Yes, that's the section of the programme there...

0:24:390:24:41

A few weeks after Margaret Thatcher had first won power,

0:24:410:24:44

her Industry Secretary and ideological mentor,

0:24:440:24:48

Sir Keith Joseph, sent her this memo.

0:24:480:24:51

Now, Thatcher and Joseph had come to power absolutely determined

0:24:530:24:56

to roll back the state and force British industry to stand

0:24:560:24:59

on its own two feet.

0:24:590:25:01

But now, Joseph told her that the computer industry

0:25:010:25:04

ought to be a special case.

0:25:040:25:06

"It is," he wrote, "of crucial importance to our future industrial

0:25:060:25:10

"and economic performance.

0:25:100:25:11

"In its way, it's likely to be of the same sort of importance

0:25:110:25:15

"as was the steam engine."

0:25:150:25:17

So Mrs Thatcher decided not just to pour money into Britain's computer

0:25:170:25:20

industry, but to try and create a nation of young programmers,

0:25:200:25:25

and to do that, she put computers into schools.

0:25:250:25:29

The contract to supply our nation's classrooms went, naturally,

0:25:350:25:39

to a British firm, Acorn Computing.

0:25:390:25:43

And the result, devised in league with Britain's public service

0:25:430:25:46

broadcaster, was the BBC Micro.

0:25:460:25:48

This was a computer built for programming.

0:25:510:25:54

A computer to fire the imagination of Middle England.

0:25:540:25:58

Now, I used to love this machine, the BBC Micro.

0:26:010:26:05

Not just because we had it at school, but because this was

0:26:050:26:07

the very first home computer that my parents ever bought.

0:26:070:26:11

I was ten at the time and for months,

0:26:110:26:13

I'd been chipping away at their resistance,

0:26:130:26:15

endlessly lecturing them about it.

0:26:150:26:17

Vital importance as an educational tool, without which I would be sunk

0:26:170:26:22

in the harsh new world of the 1980s.

0:26:220:26:25

Still, let's see if I've got the old magic.

0:26:250:26:27

It might look rudimentary to you, but I'll have you know,

0:26:430:26:45

this is how Bill Gates started.

0:26:450:26:47

The BBC Micro faced stiff competition.

0:26:520:26:56

Not least from a deceptively flimsy looking little machine

0:26:560:26:59

that sold at barely half the price,

0:26:590:27:01

and came with an unforgettable rubber keyboard.

0:27:010:27:04

Now, this is the Sinclair ZX Spectrum.

0:27:060:27:10

If the BBC was something of an electronic Volvo,

0:27:100:27:13

then this was a bit more of an electronic Skoda.

0:27:130:27:16

Still, if you were in the market for a home computer at Christmas 1984,

0:27:160:27:21

the BBC would have set you back about £400,

0:27:210:27:24

but the Spectrum would only have cost about £129.

0:27:240:27:29

So, it's hardly surprising that, in a decade haunted by

0:27:290:27:32

recession and unemployment, the Spectrum proved a tremendous hit.

0:27:320:27:36

Indeed, by the middle of the 1980s,

0:27:360:27:38

Sinclair had shifted almost five million of them.

0:27:380:27:41

Some of them to my classmates.

0:27:410:27:43

Now, did we all use our new hardware

0:27:430:27:47

to write our own programmes?

0:27:470:27:49

Or just to play games?

0:27:490:27:51

Well, what do you think?

0:27:510:27:53

MUSIC: Together In Electric Dreams by Giorgio Moroder & Philip Oakley

0:27:530:27:57

Mrs Thatcher's dream of a nation of computer coders

0:27:580:28:02

never quite came off,

0:28:020:28:03

but the children of BBC Micro Britain did go on to develop

0:28:030:28:07

some of the most successful games ever made,

0:28:070:28:10

not least the best-selling Grand Theft Auto series,

0:28:100:28:13

which set new standards for gameplay and graphics.

0:28:130:28:17

And by the mid-1980s,

0:28:170:28:19

Britain had gone computer crazy.

0:28:190:28:21

'The British now have more home computers

0:28:230:28:25

'than anywhere else in the world.

0:28:250:28:27

'Most of the users are youngsters,

0:28:270:28:29

'taking to the computer as naturally as adults now use the telephone.'

0:28:290:28:33

You print into the computer directions for it to, erm,

0:28:360:28:40

try and go through the maze and hit the target.

0:28:400:28:43

When it comes to try to take a new idea and to get it into industry,

0:28:430:28:47

the brain is at its best when you're young.

0:28:470:28:49

'How does that help you with your school work?

0:28:510:28:53

I don't think it does.

0:28:530:28:54

Before long, the boom in the British-made home computers

0:28:570:29:00

had rather fizzled out.

0:29:000:29:01

By the end of the decade, both the Spectrum and the BBC were

0:29:010:29:04

effectively out of date

0:29:040:29:06

and by now, British consumers were turning to faster,

0:29:060:29:09

flashier American models, like the Commodore Amiga or the Atari ST.

0:29:090:29:14

And that, I think, told a wider and more interesting story,

0:29:140:29:18

because more than almost any other nation in the world,

0:29:180:29:20

Mrs Thatcher's Britain eagerly embraced

0:29:200:29:23

the new era of globalisation.

0:29:230:29:26

And now, in everything from computers to cookery,

0:29:260:29:29

ordinary people were beginning to look outside our shores

0:29:290:29:32

for entertainment and inspiration.

0:29:320:29:36

MUSIC: Take My Breath Away by Berlin

0:29:370:29:39

McDonald's had first come to Britain in 1974,

0:29:420:29:46

but it wasn't until the early '80s that we really took the Big Mac and

0:29:460:29:50

fries to our hearts -

0:29:500:29:51

and our stomachs.

0:29:510:29:53

Why did McDonald's strike such a chord?

0:29:550:29:57

Because it was fast, convenient, colourful,

0:29:570:30:00

very, very salty?

0:30:000:30:02

Well, yes. But there was something more.

0:30:020:30:04

McDonald's, you see, was different.

0:30:040:30:07

Because McDonald's, of course, was American.

0:30:070:30:10

# ..place inside... #

0:30:110:30:13

This was the heyday of the special relationship,

0:30:150:30:18

when Britain and the United States stood shoulder-to-shoulder against

0:30:180:30:22

the threat of Soviet communism.

0:30:220:30:25

And although Mrs Thatcher recognised the Soviet leader,

0:30:270:30:30

Mikhail Gorbachev, as a man she could do business with,

0:30:300:30:34

her heart really belonged to his American counterpart...

0:30:340:30:37

Ronald Reagan.

0:30:380:30:40

A man with more than his fair share of old-fashioned Hollywood charm.

0:30:400:30:44

We see so many things in the same way.

0:30:450:30:49

We share so many of the same goals and a determination to achieve them,

0:30:490:30:54

which you summed up so well - and alas,

0:30:540:30:57

I cannot imitate this wonderful American-English accent -

0:30:570:31:01

"You ain't seen nothing yet."

0:31:010:31:02

LAUGHTER

0:31:020:31:04

You are a very tough act to follow.

0:31:050:31:08

LAUGHTER

0:31:080:31:10

# Take my breath away... #

0:31:100:31:13

To those of us who grew up in '80s Britain,

0:31:150:31:18

the United States seemed richer, more glamorous

0:31:180:31:21

and much, much cooler.

0:31:210:31:23

Everything American appeared bigger and better, not least the shopping.

0:31:240:31:29

The north-eastern town of Gateshead had been especially hard hit

0:31:310:31:35

by the death of industry, but in April 1986,

0:31:350:31:39

its residents were treated to their own first glimpse of Britain's

0:31:390:31:42

American-style future.

0:31:420:31:45

The MetroCentre was a sparkling, consumerist paradise.

0:31:450:31:49

Gone were the days of taking the bus into town

0:31:500:31:53

and trudging miserably through the puddles,

0:31:530:31:55

bitterly regretting the fact that you'd left your umbrella at home.

0:31:550:31:59

Now you could park outside and stroll contentedly under cover.

0:31:590:32:03

This was shopping not as a chore to be endured,

0:32:030:32:06

but as a treat to be savoured.

0:32:060:32:08

At least in theory. You could spend all day here stuffing yourself in

0:32:080:32:12

the luxurious food court.

0:32:120:32:14

You could even get yourself a cocktail.

0:32:140:32:16

And afterwards? Well, why not take in a film?

0:32:180:32:21

Maybe the latest American blockbuster?

0:32:210:32:23

Indiana Jones, Top Gun, Howard The Duck...

0:32:230:32:26

This was the shopping experience transformed into a glossy,

0:32:280:32:32

consumerist fantasy,

0:32:320:32:33

transplanted into the gritty heart of the post-industrial north-east

0:32:330:32:38

all the way from suburban America.

0:32:380:32:41

Thank you.

0:32:430:32:44

We find that people come from the greater distance to the MetroCentre

0:32:450:32:48

because they know they can come and enjoy this or their children can do

0:32:480:32:51

this while they go and shop.

0:32:510:32:53

So it's an integration, really,

0:32:530:32:54

of leisure and shopping at its highest level.

0:32:540:32:56

MUSIC: Mickey by Toni Basil

0:32:560:33:00

And to make the shopping experience even easier,

0:33:000:33:03

the mid-'80s were boom years for easy credit.

0:33:030:33:07

If you find anything in here,

0:33:080:33:09

if you find a purse that's been dropped or a handbag,

0:33:090:33:12

you pull it out and it's got a string of plastic credit cards in.

0:33:120:33:16

So people are obviously not spending cash, they're using a credit system.

0:33:160:33:20

And now the American way of life

0:33:220:33:24

had even invaded the suburban living room.

0:33:240:33:27

MUSIC: Theme from Dallas

0:33:280:33:32

By the early 1980s, 27 million people had become

0:33:320:33:36

hooked on the gloriously melodramatic world

0:33:360:33:39

of the Dallas oil barons.

0:33:390:33:41

Well, this has all the earmarks of one of the great nights of my life.

0:33:410:33:45

Nothing brings out the best in you like other people's unhappiness.

0:33:470:33:52

Chief among them was the arch antihero JR Ewing.

0:33:520:33:56

A man who really knew the value of looking after number one.

0:33:560:34:00

Nothing would make me happier.

0:34:000:34:02

HE LAUGHS

0:34:020:34:04

Where Texas lead, Hampshire naturally followed.

0:34:040:34:07

Howards' Way brought a dash of glamour to Sunday evenings.

0:34:080:34:12

-Oh, hello, it's Jan Howard here.

-Oh, hello there.

0:34:130:34:16

Ken, you're sounding a bit muffled.

0:34:160:34:18

Hang on, I'll just give the receiver a bang.

0:34:180:34:21

Ooh!

0:34:220:34:23

This was pure Texan decadence with a south coast twist.

0:34:230:34:27

Yet to some critics, our love affair with all things

0:34:270:34:30

American marked what one called the end of

0:34:300:34:33

our ancient and revered civilisation.

0:34:330:34:35

# America... #

0:34:350:34:37

And the comedians Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry seemed to agree.

0:34:370:34:41

# America, America, America, America

0:34:430:34:47

LAUGHTER

0:34:470:34:49

# The States

0:34:510:34:52

LAUGHTER

0:34:520:34:54

# The States

0:34:540:34:57

# The States

0:34:570:34:58

# The States

0:34:580:35:00

# The States

0:35:020:35:04

# America

0:35:040:35:06

# America... #

0:35:070:35:09

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

0:35:110:35:13

Whether the arrival of American burgers

0:35:150:35:18

and American soap operas really marked the death of our civilisation

0:35:180:35:21

is, I suppose, a matter of personal taste.

0:35:210:35:24

What they certainly marked, though, was the end of British uniqueness.

0:35:240:35:28

In a globalised age, the idea that we could just

0:35:280:35:31

seal ourselves off from the rest of the world,

0:35:310:35:33

even if we wanted to, was clearly defunct.

0:35:330:35:37

While most of us were very happy to embrace American food

0:35:370:35:40

and American films, the new principle of openness

0:35:400:35:43

brought with it a new anxiety.

0:35:430:35:45

In the spring of 1983,

0:35:500:35:52

BBC Two's science programme Horizon

0:35:520:35:55

had carried a truly terrifying report.

0:35:550:35:58

It told the story of a newly identified disease.

0:35:580:36:02

'With an impaired immune system,

0:36:030:36:05

'Kevin's resistance to disease is lowered.

0:36:050:36:08

'His condition is called A-I-D-S.

0:36:080:36:10

'AIDS. Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

0:36:100:36:15

'It lets in secondary diseases that can kill.'

0:36:150:36:18

What made it so chilling was that nobody knew quite how you caught it.

0:36:200:36:24

Is it through blood?

0:36:260:36:28

Is it through saliva?

0:36:280:36:29

Is it through...? I don't know.

0:36:290:36:31

The first AIDS victims had tended to be gay men,

0:36:330:36:37

so AIDS was quickly dubbed "the gay plague".

0:36:370:36:40

Remember, it was barely 20 years since the decriminalisation of

0:36:420:36:46

homosexuality and now, once again,

0:36:460:36:49

Britain's gay community found itself under attack.

0:36:490:36:52

I've lost my job.

0:36:590:37:01

Apparently, where I was working,

0:37:010:37:03

they said they'd had customers ringing up saying

0:37:030:37:05

they'd got a gay chef working for them

0:37:050:37:07

and has the gay chef got AIDS?

0:37:070:37:09

Soon, some MPs were even calling for homosexuality to be re-criminalised

0:37:110:37:16

and for the police to shut down gay clubs.

0:37:160:37:20

If I make it more difficult for them to behave in this way,

0:37:200:37:24

to go into the pubs or the gay clubs, I think that is

0:37:240:37:30

quite useful, and although it may of course

0:37:300:37:32

drive some of this underground,

0:37:320:37:34

it makes it less likely that they can spread a disease.

0:37:340:37:37

But even as the headlines were attacking Britain's gay men,

0:37:390:37:42

it was becoming increasingly obvious that AIDS was far from being

0:37:420:37:46

an exclusively gay disease.

0:37:460:37:49

We were all potential casualties.

0:37:490:37:52

Young and old, rich and poor, gay and straight.

0:37:520:37:55

Today, when AIDS is far better understood

0:37:560:37:59

and where most of us talk about it much more openly,

0:37:590:38:02

it's easy to forget the stigma, the sensationalism,

0:38:020:38:05

even the shame with which it was associated in the mid-'80s.

0:38:050:38:09

But this happens to be a story with a hero.

0:38:090:38:12

One man who understood the seriousness of the threat

0:38:120:38:16

and was determined to do something about it.

0:38:160:38:19

And he turned out to be the unlikeliest person imaginable.

0:38:190:38:23

Norman Fowler was Mrs Thatcher's health secretary.

0:38:250:38:29

On the surface, with his slick suit and Brylcreemed hair,

0:38:290:38:32

he seemed the archetypal Thatcherite minister.

0:38:320:38:36

In 1986, Fowler went to San Francisco,

0:38:360:38:39

where AIDS had struck first and most devastatingly.

0:38:390:38:43

And he returned determined

0:38:430:38:44

that nothing like it must happen in Britain.

0:38:440:38:47

Over the next few years, the priority must be public education,

0:38:480:38:53

it must be getting the message through to the general public

0:38:530:38:56

and, perhaps most of all, to those groups most at risk

0:38:560:39:00

about the dangers of AIDS itself.

0:39:000:39:01

Fowler designed a public relations strategy

0:39:040:39:07

on a genuinely national scale.

0:39:070:39:09

'There is now a danger that has become a threat to us all.'

0:39:110:39:16

He masterminded a deliberately hard-hitting

0:39:160:39:18

TV advertising campaign...

0:39:180:39:21

'It is a deadly disease and there is no known cure.

0:39:210:39:23

'If you ignore AIDS, it could be the death of you.

0:39:260:39:29

'So don't die of ignorance.'

0:39:290:39:31

..accompanied by some astonishingly direct leaflets.

0:39:330:39:37

This is a mock-up of the front cover, and as I say,

0:39:370:39:43

that will be going out to every household in the country.

0:39:430:39:47

Norman Fowler's leaflet wasn't just forceful, it was downright explicit.

0:39:490:39:53

You see, Fowler and his officials believed that if you really wanted

0:39:530:39:57

to educate the public about AIDS,

0:39:570:39:58

then you couldn't spare their feelings. You had to be blunt.

0:39:580:40:02

You had to get down to, as it were, the nuts and bolts.

0:40:020:40:05

So the leaflet tells you exactly what AIDS is and how you get it.

0:40:050:40:09

It talks about your number of partners,

0:40:090:40:11

whether or not you wear a condom, oral sex, anal sex,

0:40:110:40:14

and all this without so much as a hint of moralising or disapproval.

0:40:140:40:19

Now, by '80s standards, all this was pretty strong stuff.

0:40:190:40:22

Too strong for Mrs Thatcher,

0:40:220:40:24

who was worried about its effect on impressionable teenage minds.

0:40:240:40:28

But it was, I think, to his credit

0:40:280:40:30

that Norman Fowler stuck to his guns.

0:40:300:40:33

Radio 1, meanwhile, launched its own campaign to reach younger listeners.

0:40:340:40:39

'Radio one!' AIDS. Frightening, isn't it?

0:40:420:40:45

You just can't tell who's got the AIDS virus and who hasn't.

0:40:450:40:49

Certainly not by looking at them.

0:40:490:40:51

The problem, of course,

0:40:510:40:52

is that many people didn't want Government leaflets

0:40:520:40:55

or BBC disc jockeys lecturing them, or indeed lecturing their children,

0:40:550:40:59

about how to put on a condom,

0:40:590:41:02

let alone about the finer points of oral and anal sex.

0:41:020:41:05

And this is a condom.

0:41:050:41:07

It is rolled over the man's hard penis

0:41:070:41:11

before sexual intercourse begins.

0:41:110:41:13

Despite the objections, the AIDS information campaigns hit home.

0:41:170:41:22

Within just three years, AIDS diagnoses were in steep decline.

0:41:220:41:27

The campaign had made it possible for the British public to talk about

0:41:270:41:30

AIDS and about sex in an entirely new way.

0:41:300:41:34

# I bought you drinks, I brought you flowers

0:41:340:41:37

# I read you books and talked for hours

0:41:370:41:39

# Every day, so many drinks Such pretty flowers, so tell me

0:41:390:41:42

# What have I, what have I

0:41:420:41:44

# What have I done to deserve this? #

0:41:440:41:48

But challenging the prejudice against people with AIDS was a very

0:41:480:41:52

different matter. And it was a very different public figure who did most

0:41:520:41:56

to demonstrate the power of human compassion.

0:41:560:42:00

In the late 1980s,

0:42:030:42:04

this clinic in east London became the first hospice in Europe entirely

0:42:040:42:10

dedicated to caring for patients with AIDS-related illnesses.

0:42:100:42:14

Now, at the time, that made it

0:42:140:42:16

the target of considerable local suspicion, but then one day,

0:42:160:42:19

the most photographed woman in the world

0:42:190:42:22

came walking through the doors.

0:42:220:42:23

# I'm so in love with you

0:42:230:42:26

# I hear you calling... #

0:42:260:42:30

And to the press and public alike,

0:42:300:42:32

her first visit here was nothing short of a sensation.

0:42:320:42:36

# Give a little respect to... #

0:42:360:42:40

'Although the unit provides care for the terminally ill,

0:42:400:42:43

'the cheerful atmosphere emphasised that both staff and patients regard

0:42:430:42:47

'this as a place for living, not dying.'

0:42:470:42:50

Princess Diana came to Mildmay 17 times before her untimely death.

0:42:520:42:57

If you can give an AIDS patient back his will to live,

0:42:580:43:03

then I think you've achieved one of the greatest gifts

0:43:030:43:07

you can give any human being.

0:43:070:43:09

Remember that this was a time when many people were frightened even to

0:43:100:43:14

touch patients with AIDS.

0:43:140:43:16

So the spectacle of Princess Diana coming here

0:43:160:43:20

in full view of the TV cameras and actually hugging people with AIDS

0:43:200:43:24

could hardly have been more powerful.

0:43:240:43:27

It might have taken Norman Fowler's leaflets

0:43:270:43:30

to change the way people thought about AIDS,

0:43:300:43:33

but I rather suspect that it took a member of the Royal family

0:43:330:43:36

to change the way that people felt about it.

0:43:360:43:39

The panic about the advent of AIDS reflected a wider anxiety about the

0:43:430:43:48

shifting landscape of the mid-'80s.

0:43:480:43:50

MUSIC: Mad World by Tears for Fears

0:43:500:43:53

Britain was very obviously changing.

0:43:550:43:58

Gay men and lesbians were becoming more visible

0:43:580:44:01

and ethnic minorities more vocal.

0:44:010:44:03

And one group of left-wing idealists was particularly keen to celebrate

0:44:080:44:13

the new age of diversity and multiculturalism.

0:44:130:44:16

Their critics called them "the loony left".

0:44:160:44:19

If they had a headquarters,

0:44:230:44:25

it was here on the South Bank of the River Thames,

0:44:250:44:28

home to the Greater London Council, or GLC,

0:44:280:44:31

led by a young, left-wing firebrand called Ken Livingstone.

0:44:310:44:35

The newspapers, of course, couldn't get enough of Red Ken,

0:44:380:44:41

his colourful allies and their crazy antics.

0:44:410:44:44

Most famously, they accused London's schools of banning the nursery rhyme

0:44:440:44:48

Baa, Baa, Black Sheep,

0:44:480:44:50

a claim which turned out to be almost completely untrue.

0:44:500:44:53

I think that's ridiculous.

0:44:530:44:54

My mother's been singing it before me,

0:44:540:44:56

they've been singing it for generations.

0:44:560:44:58

And it's ridiculous to decide just now that it's racialist.

0:44:580:45:02

But not all the stories were similarly exaggerated or invented.

0:45:030:45:07

Kennington schoolchildren were banned

0:45:070:45:09

from taking part in competitive sport

0:45:090:45:12

and even taught how to write protest letters in their English classes.

0:45:120:45:16

And Lambeth Council banned the word "family",

0:45:160:45:20

because it was, of course, discriminatory.

0:45:200:45:23

And there was plenty of money to back up the earnest rhetoric.

0:45:250:45:29

Councils offered special funds for businesses run by black residents.

0:45:290:45:33

They handed out money to women's groups

0:45:330:45:35

and encouraged gay and lesbian activists

0:45:350:45:38

to hold events using council facilities.

0:45:380:45:41

Since Labour had already lost two elections to Margaret Thatcher,

0:45:410:45:45

the party leadership were understandably anxious

0:45:450:45:48

about how all this would play with the public.

0:45:480:45:51

Alas, most people were less than overwhelmed

0:45:510:45:53

by the left's new-found commitment to diversity and multiculturalism.

0:45:530:45:58

The truth is that most people either howled with outrage

0:45:580:46:02

or howled with laughter.

0:46:020:46:04

The alternative comedians of The Comic Strip

0:46:070:46:10

had tremendous fun with the loony left.

0:46:100:46:12

They made an entire film about the GLC

0:46:120:46:15

with Robbie Coltrane

0:46:150:46:17

playing Charles Bronson playing Ken Livingstone.

0:46:170:46:20

For those of you that don't know, my name's Ken Livingstone.

0:46:210:46:25

And I'm looking for councillors

0:46:250:46:26

who ain't afraid to get their hands a little dirty.

0:46:260:46:29

You, I want you to take care of the black minorities.

0:46:290:46:32

Set up theatres, sports centres.

0:46:320:46:34

-Yes, sir.

-And equalise some women.

0:46:340:46:36

You, start a new movement, call it Gay Pride.

0:46:360:46:40

Let's get those gays out of the closet.

0:46:400:46:42

-Oh, yes, sir!

-All right, let's move it out!

0:46:420:46:45

-Come on, let's shake this city up!

-Whoo!

0:46:450:46:48

Meanwhile, Labour activists

0:46:490:46:51

were very publicly at each other's throats.

0:46:510:46:55

It's not the media who says we've got to ban Baa, Baa, Black Sheep and

0:46:550:46:58

ban wendy houses, and all the other sort of nonsense

0:46:580:47:01

that takes away the attention from the dole queues in the north.

0:47:010:47:04

If you believe that, Joe, then, I'm sorry,

0:47:040:47:06

you probably will believe anything that you see in the newspapers.

0:47:060:47:10

No council has banned Baa, Baa, Black Sheep.

0:47:100:47:12

You tell me the story and I will tell you it is a lie.

0:47:120:47:15

Loony as the loony left may have seemed at the time,

0:47:170:47:20

its enthusiasm for diversity looks rather less outlandish today.

0:47:200:47:25

And behind all the controversy was the plain,

0:47:250:47:27

unarguable reality of Britain's changing racial and ethnic make-up.

0:47:270:47:32

By the 1980s, a new generation of black and Asian children,

0:47:320:47:37

born right here in Britain,

0:47:370:47:38

were coming of age and they were demanding to be heard.

0:47:380:47:42

And one voice in particular stood out.

0:47:420:47:45

At the beginning of the 1980s, a young man called Hanif Kureishi

0:47:450:47:50

was hard at work on his first screenplay.

0:47:500:47:53

It's the story of a young Pakistani man

0:47:540:47:56

who falls in love with a white street punk

0:47:560:47:59

and it tackles some of the most controversial issues of the decade,

0:47:590:48:03

from racist hate crime to interracial homosexuality.

0:48:030:48:07

All in all, then, hardly Hollywood blockbuster material.

0:48:070:48:11

And on top of all that, it had a really weird title.

0:48:110:48:15

I've had a vision of how our place can be.

0:48:270:48:30

Why don't people like launderettes?

0:48:300:48:32

Because they're like toilets.

0:48:320:48:34

This could be a Ritz among launderettes.

0:48:340:48:36

A launderette as big as the Ritz!

0:48:370:48:40

Oh, yes.

0:48:410:48:42

My Beautiful Launderette was remarkably explicit,

0:48:440:48:47

breaking one taboo after another.

0:48:470:48:50

Many Asian viewers were more shocked than most.

0:48:500:48:53

What the hell are you doing?

0:48:550:48:57

-Sunbathing?

-Asleep, uncle.

0:48:570:48:59

We were shagged out.

0:48:590:49:01

Much of the appeal of My Beautiful Launderette comes,

0:49:020:49:04

I think, from the fact that

0:49:040:49:06

although the film's characters are definitely outsiders,

0:49:060:49:09

the script never presents them as losers.

0:49:090:49:11

As Hanif Kureishi himself put it, this was a new idea of being Asian.

0:49:110:49:16

Not your traditional notion of victims cowering in the corner.

0:49:160:49:20

My Beautiful Launderette was far from being a box office hit,

0:49:220:49:26

but the critics loved it.

0:49:260:49:28

And Kureishi's script was nominated for an Oscar.

0:49:280:49:31

It marked the arrival of a new wave of black and Asian voices

0:49:310:49:35

in our popular culture.

0:49:350:49:37

Where the hell are you going?!

0:49:370:49:39

But I think it was Britain's sporting heroes

0:49:430:49:45

who did most to challenge the prejudices of the past.

0:49:450:49:49

-COMMENTATOR:

-That's a fabulous individual goal.

0:49:490:49:52

The '80s was a golden age of televised sport,

0:49:550:49:58

and for telly addicts like me,

0:49:580:50:00

it was through sporting events like the Olympics and the World Cup

0:50:000:50:04

that we discovered our sense of patriotism and national identity.

0:50:040:50:08

But by the mid-1980s, the people that we were cheering

0:50:080:50:11

looked very different from the sporting icons of the past.

0:50:110:50:15

Many of these new patriotic heroes were the children of men and women

0:50:150:50:19

who had come to Britain from the Commonwealth in the '50s and '60s.

0:50:190:50:24

And to the tens of millions of us cheering them on,

0:50:240:50:27

they weren't immigrants, they were just British.

0:50:270:50:31

There was the Olympic javelin champion, Tessa Sanderson,

0:50:320:50:35

boxing's amiable giant, Frank Bruno,

0:50:360:50:39

football's extravagantly gifted John Barnes...

0:50:410:50:43

..and then, of course, there was the mighty Olympian, Daley Thompson.

0:50:480:50:53

# Ain't nothing gonna break my stride

0:50:530:50:55

# Nobody gonna slow me down

0:50:550:50:58

# Oh, no, I've got to keep on moving

0:50:580:51:02

# Ain't nothing gonna break my stride

0:51:020:51:04

# I'm running and I won't touch ground

0:51:040:51:07

# Oh, no, I've got to keep on moving... #

0:51:070:51:11

'Daley Thompson has proved yet again that he's the world's greatest

0:51:110:51:14

all-round athlete. He already holds two Olympic gold medals,

0:51:140:51:16

now he has three Commonwealth gold medals.

0:51:160:51:20

Thompson wasn't just a winner,

0:51:200:51:21

he smashed the world decathlon record no fewer than four times.

0:51:210:51:26

By the mid-'80s, he was a household name.

0:51:260:51:29

And for me, he's probably the greatest sportsman

0:51:290:51:32

that Britain has ever produced,

0:51:320:51:34

combining supreme athletic prowess with a cool,

0:51:340:51:37

devil-may-care spirit.

0:51:370:51:39

What I really need is some really good class competition

0:51:390:51:42

to bring the best out of me, because I'm sure that I'm capable of

0:51:420:51:45

breaking the world record at the moment.

0:51:450:51:47

It's just a case of getting some nice weather

0:51:470:51:50

and some really good opposition.

0:51:500:51:52

Daley Thompson is, I think, a richly symbolic figure.

0:51:520:51:55

Born to a Nigerian father and a Scottish mother,

0:51:550:51:59

he was sent as a boy to an institution

0:51:590:52:01

for difficult and disruptive children.

0:52:010:52:04

So in other circumstances,

0:52:040:52:05

he could easily have ended up on the scrapheap.

0:52:050:52:08

But what he became was not just a sporting hero,

0:52:080:52:11

but the swaggering standard bearer for a new country.

0:52:110:52:15

More tolerant, more racially diverse, and yet, nonetheless,

0:52:150:52:19

unmistakably British.

0:52:190:52:21

Around the world, though,

0:52:280:52:30

one person above all embodied Britain in the mid-'80s.

0:52:300:52:34

Margaret Thatcher was probably the most influential peacetime

0:52:340:52:37

Prime Minister in our modern history.

0:52:370:52:40

But things could have been very different.

0:52:410:52:44

On the night of the 12th of October 1984,

0:52:520:52:55

the Conservatives were here in Brighton

0:52:550:52:57

for their annual party conference.

0:52:570:52:59

In the Grand Hotel over there,

0:52:590:53:01

the Tory bigwigs danced and drank into the small hours.

0:53:010:53:05

In the Prime Minister's suite,

0:53:050:53:07

Mrs Thatcher was, of course, still working.

0:53:070:53:10

The time was 2:54 in the morning and she reached for one last paper -

0:53:100:53:16

and it was then that the bomb went off.

0:53:160:53:19

'The front of the hotel was blown apart.

0:53:220:53:25

'Stone and glass and debris was lasted across Brighton front.'

0:53:250:53:29

# Such a shame to believe

0:53:300:53:34

# In escape... #

0:53:340:53:36

The target, of course, was the Prime Minister herself.

0:53:360:53:40

The IRA had been bombing Britain for more than a decade,

0:53:420:53:46

but never before had they struck such a devastating blow at the heart

0:53:460:53:50

of the political establishment.

0:53:500:53:51

'The Prime Minister, along with the home and foreign secretaries,

0:53:530:53:57

'were all in first-floor rooms.

0:53:570:53:59

'The 20-pound bomb was planted in a fifth-floor bedroom.'

0:53:590:54:02

You hear about these atrocities, these bombs,

0:54:020:54:06

but you don't expect them to happen to you.

0:54:060:54:08

But...life must go on, as usual.

0:54:100:54:13

Now, whatever you think of Mrs Thatcher,

0:54:200:54:22

one thing is undeniable.

0:54:220:54:24

She was a fighter.

0:54:240:54:26

And that morning, Margaret Thatcher,

0:54:260:54:28

the Prime Minister who defined herself through conflict,

0:54:280:54:31

woke up as usual, tidied her hair,

0:54:310:54:34

put on her trademark blue suit

0:54:340:54:36

and walked out onto the conference stage,

0:54:360:54:39

a picture of defiance, to take her place on the moral high ground.

0:54:390:54:43

'A few hours later, Mrs Thatcher was back in the hall for her big speech.

0:54:450:54:50

'Security men were everywhere.

0:54:500:54:51

'As Mrs Thatcher declared her defiance of the bombers.'

0:54:530:54:56

The fact that we are gathered here now, shocked,

0:54:560:55:01

but composed and determined,

0:55:010:55:05

is a sign not only that this attack has failed,

0:55:050:55:08

but that all attempts to destroy democracy by terrorism will fail.

0:55:080:55:15

Of course, party leaders always get standing ovations at their annual

0:55:370:55:40

conferences. But this was different.

0:55:400:55:43

Because for once, this was an ovation that resounded

0:55:430:55:46

well beyond the conference hall.

0:55:460:55:48

Even Mrs Thatcher's bitterest enemies,

0:55:480:55:51

even people who opposed everything she stood for

0:55:510:55:54

agreed that this was her finest hour.

0:55:540:55:58

This Government will not weaken.

0:55:590:56:02

This nation will meet that challenge.

0:56:040:56:07

Democracy will prevail.

0:56:070:56:11

The Brighton bomb went off just two years after the Falklands conflict.

0:56:200:56:25

Margaret Thatcher was at the height of her powers.

0:56:250:56:28

And so it's tempting to wonder just how different Britain might be today

0:56:290:56:34

if the IRA had succeeded.

0:56:340:56:35

Maybe Britain would still be a country of mighty unions

0:56:370:56:40

and flourishing coalmines. An island fortress,

0:56:400:56:44

holding out against the advance of technology

0:56:440:56:48

and the march of globalisation.

0:56:480:56:50

But then again, maybe not.

0:56:520:56:55

Now, of course Margaret Thatcher was the political face of the 1980s,

0:56:550:56:59

the strident embodiment of an age of conflict.

0:56:590:57:03

But I think the deeper changes,

0:57:030:57:05

the social and economic and cultural changes that really mattered,

0:57:050:57:10

those had been gathering pace for decades.

0:57:100:57:13

Foreign imports, home computers, sexual tolerance, ethnic diversity.

0:57:130:57:19

Those things were always coming.

0:57:190:57:22

Margaret Thatcher or no Margaret Thatcher,

0:57:220:57:24

the sheer momentum had become unstoppable.

0:57:240:57:27

And I think it was in the 1980s that we at last understood that the days

0:57:270:57:32

of splendid isolation, of holding out against the tide of change,

0:57:320:57:37

those days were over.

0:57:370:57:39

Next time: '80s Britain embraces money markets and mobiles,

0:57:420:57:48

our continental cousins, and the cult of Gazzamania.

0:57:480:57:53

MUSIC: The Sun Always Shines On TV by A-Ha

0:57:560:57:59

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