0:00:07 > 0:00:09For more than half a century,
0:00:09 > 0:00:12the BBC has captured the changing face of everyday life
0:00:12 > 0:00:14in Northern Ireland.
0:00:14 > 0:00:17It all seems so innocent today,
0:00:17 > 0:00:19but without these moments,
0:00:19 > 0:00:22something of who we are now would be lost forever.
0:00:22 > 0:00:24These are the archives,
0:00:24 > 0:00:27and those were the days.
0:00:30 > 0:00:34It's completely invaluable to look back at film,
0:00:34 > 0:00:37because they take us back to another time.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42Hearing people talk about their lives,
0:00:42 > 0:00:46that's priceless, and we should be proud of the footage we have
0:00:46 > 0:00:48of our people talking about their lives.
0:00:49 > 0:00:51Film in particular,
0:00:51 > 0:00:54because to actually drive down the streets
0:00:54 > 0:00:57when the terraced houses were coming down,
0:00:57 > 0:00:59it just gives you...
0:00:59 > 0:01:02It's like finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
0:01:14 > 0:01:16In 1954,
0:01:16 > 0:01:19the BBC's foremost broadcaster, Richard Dimbleby.
0:01:19 > 0:01:21was dispatched from London
0:01:21 > 0:01:26to journey around what was then an unknown country to many viewers.
0:01:28 > 0:01:30What Dimbleby was searching for,
0:01:30 > 0:01:32down our highways and byways,
0:01:32 > 0:01:35was a traditional Ulster homestead.
0:01:38 > 0:01:42Dimbleby himself is... I mean, fantastic.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45He's like an intellectual Billy Bunter.
0:01:45 > 0:01:47He's vast!
0:01:47 > 0:01:48There's a fantastic shot,
0:01:48 > 0:01:52as he walks down steps at Belfast Castle with Joseph Tomelty,
0:01:52 > 0:01:54absolutely fantastic.
0:01:54 > 0:01:58- Let's have a seat. Take the weight off your legs.- Hmm.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01Then, there's that very English,
0:02:01 > 0:02:04you know, whatever you do, when you're amongst the mad Paddies,
0:02:04 > 0:02:08don't mention religion,
0:02:08 > 0:02:09politics,
0:02:09 > 0:02:12that kind of very English deference,
0:02:12 > 0:02:14not wanting to upset the natives,
0:02:14 > 0:02:18which you can't quite tell whether it's sarcasm or good manners.
0:02:18 > 0:02:22Joe, what do you think I ought to look for while I'm here?
0:02:22 > 0:02:25Richard, that's hard for me to say. I can tell you what not to look for.
0:02:25 > 0:02:29You don't need to tell me that, I know already. Religion and politics.
0:02:29 > 0:02:32You just watch it and you think to yourself,
0:02:32 > 0:02:34poor Mr Tomelty.
0:02:34 > 0:02:39He has been told that this legend is coming across from the BBC,
0:02:39 > 0:02:41and he's about to despatch him
0:02:41 > 0:02:43into the heart of darkness
0:02:43 > 0:02:46that is, you know, the Antrim Coast Road.
0:02:47 > 0:02:49'Well, I started off in good weather.
0:02:49 > 0:02:55'But I can't say that the Riviera came to my mind on the Antrim Road.'
0:02:55 > 0:02:58It may not have been the Cote D'Azur,
0:02:58 > 0:03:00but this coast road led Dimbleby
0:03:00 > 0:03:02to an untarnished tableau of rural Ulster life.
0:03:02 > 0:03:04Locals gathered round the fire
0:03:04 > 0:03:07to enjoy music, share stories,
0:03:07 > 0:03:09and introduce viewers to a lifestyle
0:03:09 > 0:03:11free from the modern-day distractions
0:03:11 > 0:03:14of television, technology,
0:03:14 > 0:03:17and cosmetic dentistry.
0:03:17 > 0:03:18'The sound of a fiddle
0:03:18 > 0:03:21'told me where I should find the Emerson farm, and the ceilidh.'
0:03:21 > 0:03:24FIDDLE MUSIC
0:03:26 > 0:03:30The thing that I was really taken by were the smiles of the people.
0:03:30 > 0:03:34If you look at the smiles very carefully, they keep the lips down,
0:03:34 > 0:03:36and then now and again the lips slip back,
0:03:36 > 0:03:38and you see why they keep the lips down.
0:03:38 > 0:03:40Their teeth are terrible.
0:03:41 > 0:03:45There's one man, a young, sort of 18 or 19-year-old boy.
0:03:45 > 0:03:47When you look into his mouth,
0:03:47 > 0:03:51it's Stonehenge that you're seeing suddenly, very frighteningly.
0:03:56 > 0:03:58What about having a guess or two?
0:03:58 > 0:04:00Well, give us one of yours.
0:04:00 > 0:04:04All right. There's a wee white woman with a wee red nose,
0:04:04 > 0:04:06and the longer she sits, the shorter she grows.
0:04:06 > 0:04:08Now, who'll guess that one?
0:04:08 > 0:04:10Och, sure, that's a candle. A candle.
0:04:10 > 0:04:12Aye, it's a candle all right.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15They're doing what people have been doing for hundreds of years.
0:04:15 > 0:04:18It's only us, who now, because we've got TV and electricity,
0:04:18 > 0:04:22it's only us, very recently, who've stopped living like that,
0:04:22 > 0:04:25and have started living a completely different kind of life.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31We invite you now to join our Northern Ireland viewers
0:04:31 > 0:04:36for a further edition of our television magazine, Ulster Mirror.
0:04:36 > 0:04:38Away from the rosy picture of rustic living
0:04:38 > 0:04:41portrayed in Richard Dimbleby's journey
0:04:41 > 0:04:42was a looming housing crisis
0:04:42 > 0:04:46for most ordinary people living in Northern Ireland.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49The slums that were present in our towns and cities
0:04:49 > 0:04:52had remained unchanged for generations.
0:04:53 > 0:04:55'Places where people live merit some attention.
0:04:55 > 0:04:58'Lots of us live in houses like this,
0:04:58 > 0:05:01'some of us in the Victorian this,
0:05:01 > 0:05:03'and in little towns, often in this.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06'All very trim, and indeed, at times picturesque,
0:05:06 > 0:05:09'but what about this? It was in a country town.
0:05:09 > 0:05:11'Green fields were no distance away,
0:05:11 > 0:05:16'but the garbage could have been accumulated in the big city.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19'The slum terraces reeked of dilapidation and neglect.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22'These were the worst we could find in Ulster.'
0:05:22 > 0:05:24It's important to put into context
0:05:24 > 0:05:27just how bad the housing stock in Northern Ireland was.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30100,000 houses, they reckoned in 1945, were required
0:05:30 > 0:05:34to house the population in Northern Ireland.
0:05:34 > 0:05:36Now, put in context,
0:05:36 > 0:05:40they were only building 2,500 a year up until that point,
0:05:40 > 0:05:42so there was a serious problem to be addressed.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46They set up the Northern Ireland Housing Trust,
0:05:46 > 0:05:49and they were given a quarter, 25,000 houses
0:05:49 > 0:05:51they were entrusted to build.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58'You see, the old houses are quite easy to knock down,
0:05:58 > 0:06:00'while new houses are costly to build.
0:06:00 > 0:06:04'Yet this sort of thing is happening more all over Ulster.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07'This change from old standards to the new.'
0:06:10 > 0:06:14New standards would mean the demolition of the old way of life.
0:06:14 > 0:06:16Established neighbourhoods and much-loved street names
0:06:16 > 0:06:18would vanish off the map.
0:06:18 > 0:06:23However, not everyone was progressing up the housing ladder.
0:06:23 > 0:06:26In the mid-1960s the BBC went to film with the families
0:06:26 > 0:06:28caught between a home and a hard place.
0:06:28 > 0:06:30Take one!
0:06:30 > 0:06:32Take one!
0:06:32 > 0:06:34All I want is a home
0:06:34 > 0:06:37for my husband, myself and children,
0:06:37 > 0:06:39and surely that's not too much to ask.
0:06:39 > 0:06:43In all of those housing films,
0:06:43 > 0:06:47you had the people themselves talking directly to camera.
0:06:47 > 0:06:51That move during that period to people speaking for themselves
0:06:51 > 0:06:52is very, very important.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54It's come right through to the present day,
0:06:54 > 0:06:57where we have almost a fetishisation of liveness.
0:06:57 > 0:07:01We need to be there on the spot, at people telling us what happened.
0:07:01 > 0:07:05And that was the start of it, in those films in the 1950s and '60s.
0:07:05 > 0:07:08Well, there's 15 of us living in a two-bedroomed house.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11My husband has to sleep on a chair-bed,
0:07:11 > 0:07:14and I sleep on two chairs put together.
0:07:14 > 0:07:16Two of my babies sleep with my mother and father,
0:07:16 > 0:07:19and another one sleeps in a cot,
0:07:19 > 0:07:22and I have no cot for the child, I'm not able to put one up.
0:07:22 > 0:07:24And it sleeps in a small pram.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27What's it like to live in this kind of situation?
0:07:27 > 0:07:28It's terrible, indeed.
0:07:28 > 0:07:32I think the real strength of some of the archive material
0:07:32 > 0:07:36is seeing the actual women who were living in these houses.
0:07:38 > 0:07:42I can't begin to imagine what it must have been like for those woman.
0:07:42 > 0:07:45But you see a real strength in them,
0:07:45 > 0:07:48you know, you see woman who made it work, somehow.
0:07:48 > 0:07:50Slate 87, take three.
0:07:50 > 0:07:53Unfortunately, when we look at films like this,
0:07:53 > 0:07:5620-20 hindsight is a great thing. When we know what happened,
0:07:56 > 0:07:58one can say, "Somebody should have seen that."
0:07:58 > 0:08:01But I think that those conditions were so bad
0:08:01 > 0:08:03that somebody should have seen that.
0:08:04 > 0:08:06Our house would have been typical.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09We had the mother and father, and then 12 children
0:08:09 > 0:08:11in a one-bedroomed house.
0:08:11 > 0:08:13The mother and father slept in one bed
0:08:13 > 0:08:15with maybe the youngest in the house,
0:08:15 > 0:08:17and in one of the other beds,
0:08:17 > 0:08:19there was eight of us in the one bed,
0:08:19 > 0:08:21and it was like a question of,
0:08:21 > 0:08:23"Everybody turn to their right!"
0:08:23 > 0:08:26And so you had to do a sort of synchronised sleeping,
0:08:26 > 0:08:29as opposed to synchronised swimming.
0:08:29 > 0:08:31Of course, there was a bit of swimming as well,
0:08:31 > 0:08:34because when you're younger, some of us wet the bed.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37Our Brian says he slept at the shallow end.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42Just as the old heart of the city began to change forever,
0:08:42 > 0:08:45BBC viewers were taken on a remarkable drive
0:08:45 > 0:08:49through the fading backstreets of North Belfast.
0:08:49 > 0:08:54A drive designed to capture the once-vibrant working class community
0:08:54 > 0:08:56that was about to disappear.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59MUSIC: "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" By Van Morrison
0:08:59 > 0:09:01# You must leave now, take what you need
0:09:01 > 0:09:05# You think will last
0:09:05 > 0:09:07# But whatever you wish to keep
0:09:07 > 0:09:13# You better grab it fast.
0:09:13 > 0:09:20# Yonder stands your orphan with his gun... #
0:09:20 > 0:09:22I thought it was fantastic to see
0:09:22 > 0:09:25that somebody in the BBC had gone off at that time
0:09:25 > 0:09:30and literally drove around the streets,
0:09:30 > 0:09:33giving us a house-by-house, shop-by-shop, pub-by-pub
0:09:33 > 0:09:34view of an era.
0:09:39 > 0:09:45# And it's all over now, Baby Blue. #
0:09:45 > 0:09:50Some of the shots where you're just seeing street after street,
0:09:50 > 0:09:54and half-demolished little back sheds,
0:09:54 > 0:09:56with maybe corrugated iron roofs,
0:09:56 > 0:09:59and great swathes of a city
0:09:59 > 0:10:03that were just covered in really high-density housing.
0:10:05 > 0:10:11# The empty-handed painter from your streets... #
0:10:11 > 0:10:13When you look back on it now,
0:10:13 > 0:10:18it's like a packed, dense kaleidoscope of life,
0:10:18 > 0:10:23because everybody else's life was being lived on top of yours.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27You know, that kind of, like, intensified form of living,
0:10:27 > 0:10:30it led to a lot of advantages and a lot of disadvantages,
0:10:30 > 0:10:33but I must say, I look back on it fondly.
0:10:35 > 0:10:38There was a great spirit in those little terraced streets,
0:10:38 > 0:10:41and there had to be, because the people were...
0:10:41 > 0:10:44I mean, people talk about poverty now.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47Poverty now is nothing to what people were living in then.
0:10:47 > 0:10:49People were living on nothing.
0:10:49 > 0:10:52MUSIC: "Dead End Street" By the Kinks
0:10:52 > 0:10:55A new way of life would rise from the rubble.
0:10:55 > 0:10:57High-rise flats and large-scale housing estates
0:10:57 > 0:11:02would completely transform the urban landscape of Northern Ireland.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05Home would have a new name in the modern world.
0:11:05 > 0:11:09# What are we living for?
0:11:09 > 0:11:12# Two-roomed apartment on the second floor... #
0:11:14 > 0:11:17I can remember the first talk in the house around 1960.
0:11:17 > 0:11:21I heard them talking about a new house, and Rathcoole was mentioned.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24It was just a big notion for you.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26They could have been saying, "Los Angeles."
0:11:29 > 0:11:32And then, Turf Lodge was mentioned.
0:11:32 > 0:11:34Ballymurphy was mentioned.
0:11:34 > 0:11:36Divis Flats was mentioned.
0:11:36 > 0:11:37All these locations.
0:11:37 > 0:11:41My ma was particularly pushing my father to get somewhere new,
0:11:41 > 0:11:45and I think that's probably how we ended up in Turf Lodge.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51I think moving from a terrace of back-to-back housing,
0:11:51 > 0:11:53to move to somewhere where
0:11:53 > 0:11:56there were parks, trees, playing fields
0:11:56 > 0:11:59must have been an extraordinary journey for these people.
0:11:59 > 0:12:01The trouble was,
0:12:01 > 0:12:04there was a street where maybe people had lived for 100 years,
0:12:04 > 0:12:07then all of a sudden, you're moving them into a social programme,
0:12:07 > 0:12:09they're getting a new house,
0:12:09 > 0:12:11their neighbours might be three streets away,
0:12:11 > 0:12:15or maybe the neighbours never came.
0:12:15 > 0:12:18Broadly speaking, I think they made a real hames of it
0:12:18 > 0:12:21in the way they built Rathcoole,
0:12:21 > 0:12:23Turf Lodge, Taughmonagh,
0:12:23 > 0:12:26and they just split up the inner-city districts
0:12:26 > 0:12:28and dispersed people off everywhere.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31Looking back on it now, there isn't any reason why
0:12:31 > 0:12:34they couldn't have had a phased development,
0:12:34 > 0:12:37where they knocked the houses down in one section
0:12:37 > 0:12:40and got the people back in round the corner,
0:12:40 > 0:12:42kept the same neighbours, broadly speaking,
0:12:42 > 0:12:44kept the sense of identity.
0:12:47 > 0:12:49Ten years earlier,
0:12:49 > 0:12:51at the beginning of this great change,
0:12:51 > 0:12:54the BBC captured the optimism of a generation,
0:12:54 > 0:12:57who were told they had never had it so good.
0:12:59 > 0:13:02Rathcoole, just outside Belfast,
0:13:02 > 0:13:04was a mega housing estate
0:13:04 > 0:13:08and at one time the biggest in Europe.
0:13:08 > 0:13:11It had been designed to solve the city's housing problem
0:13:11 > 0:13:14and offer young families a completely new start.
0:13:14 > 0:13:17Rathcoole to me was just a name,
0:13:17 > 0:13:19but when we came to Rathcoole
0:13:19 > 0:13:20it was one of those things
0:13:20 > 0:13:22that you said to yourself,
0:13:22 > 0:13:23"This is where I want to live."
0:13:26 > 0:13:28It was just a world of green,
0:13:28 > 0:13:30houses right up the drive,
0:13:30 > 0:13:33gardens in front of every house.
0:13:33 > 0:13:36MUSIC: "Let The Good Times Roll" By Shirley and Lee
0:13:36 > 0:13:41Having your own space outside the house was lovely for me.
0:13:41 > 0:13:42We'd never had a garden.
0:13:42 > 0:13:46It was great fun learning, of course what to put in them,
0:13:46 > 0:13:47and how they would grow.
0:13:48 > 0:13:51And at first it was just houses,
0:13:51 > 0:13:53and then at the end of the houses
0:13:53 > 0:13:57would be another bigger house made into two flats.
0:13:57 > 0:13:59That was The Flats.
0:13:59 > 0:14:02And then I think there was the flats built, as you see in the film,
0:14:02 > 0:14:07on a curve, and they were known locally as the Banana Flats.
0:14:12 > 0:14:14I was reared in a house with a yard out the back,
0:14:14 > 0:14:16and the toilet was out there.
0:14:16 > 0:14:18Getting the house in Rathcoole,
0:14:18 > 0:14:22with an indoor toilet, and a bath, was luxury.
0:14:22 > 0:14:26To be able to go up and turn the hot water on, have a bath,
0:14:26 > 0:14:30close the door and have such privacy, it was brilliant.
0:14:30 > 0:14:32It was privacy, it was luxury,
0:14:32 > 0:14:36there was never anybody rapping the door to get in to go to the loo,
0:14:36 > 0:14:37and all sorts of things,
0:14:37 > 0:14:40but the bathroom was the one big luxury, I think,
0:14:40 > 0:14:43it was the thing that I appreciated.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46The bathroom and then the garden, I think in that order.
0:14:47 > 0:14:51BBC PRESENTER: 'We chose to visit the Long family in Rathcoole Drive,
0:14:51 > 0:14:55'to go around with them a bit and see through their eyes
0:14:55 > 0:14:59'something of what it's like to live on a Housing Trust estate.'
0:14:59 > 0:15:01Well, that's the way children were in those days.
0:15:01 > 0:15:03They had their wee coats on them,
0:15:03 > 0:15:05their hats, their scarves, their gloves.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08You didn't go out just whatever way you wanted then.
0:15:08 > 0:15:11You went out dressed.
0:15:11 > 0:15:13And you had to have your gloves on,
0:15:13 > 0:15:16and it was just like my mummy, seeing us out.
0:15:18 > 0:15:22'Mrs Miller lives in Ardlea Crescent, in an old people's house.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25'Living-room, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom.'
0:15:25 > 0:15:30That family would have been the same as most families in Rathcoole.
0:15:30 > 0:15:34Their children would have visited their grandmother and grandfathers,
0:15:34 > 0:15:36and they would have went and visited friends.
0:15:36 > 0:15:41In the house they went to visit, the ornament sitting in the window,
0:15:41 > 0:15:44my mummy had one exactly the same. Exactly the same,
0:15:44 > 0:15:47so it was just our home, except in a different place.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53'Other small houses are cunningly fitted into corner sites,
0:15:53 > 0:15:55'like this Type D flat,
0:15:55 > 0:15:59'where Anne Murray, the children's friend, lives.'
0:15:59 > 0:16:02When we moved in, it was a whole new area being redeveloped,
0:16:02 > 0:16:04so the people all moved in together,
0:16:04 > 0:16:06and we made friends,
0:16:06 > 0:16:10and everybody was in the same boat. Not very much money.
0:16:10 > 0:16:11And it was a community.
0:16:12 > 0:16:14'And Rathcoole already has a focal point,
0:16:14 > 0:16:17'in the big old Georgian house
0:16:17 > 0:16:21'where the housing manager's office is to be found.'
0:16:21 > 0:16:23That was a big estate at one time,
0:16:23 > 0:16:26and it became a home for lots of things.
0:16:26 > 0:16:30The doctor had a surgery there in one of the rooms,
0:16:30 > 0:16:33and it was just used as a community centre for a while.
0:16:33 > 0:16:37'Mrs Long, the children's mother, is on her way shopping.'
0:16:37 > 0:16:42However, the optimism of the housing estates was short-lived.
0:16:42 > 0:16:45The onset of the Troubles in the late 1960s
0:16:45 > 0:16:47meant that many of the early promises
0:16:47 > 0:16:49would remain just that.
0:16:51 > 0:16:55But for those founding settlers who stayed and raised their families,
0:16:55 > 0:16:58Rathcoole would always be home.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05Well, I'm still living in the same house that I moved into,
0:17:05 > 0:17:07and I've no intentions of moving out.
0:17:07 > 0:17:09I still like Rathcoole.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12To me, it's home now, and to me, I have my friends,
0:17:12 > 0:17:16still the same friends I made 47 years ago.
0:17:16 > 0:17:19I fought to stay. I saw the hard times.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22I went back with the good times, and I'll probably...
0:17:22 > 0:17:25I'll fall off the perch when I get there!
0:17:28 > 0:17:31While most of us went about our day-to-day lives,
0:17:31 > 0:17:35far removed from a designer lifestyle with all the trimmings,
0:17:35 > 0:17:38one Belfast superstar
0:17:38 > 0:17:40was living the dream.
0:17:40 > 0:17:41A 1971 documentary
0:17:41 > 0:17:44gave us a tantalising glimpse
0:17:44 > 0:17:48into the home life of a Belfast football legend.
0:17:51 > 0:17:54You know, George was, I always felt,
0:17:54 > 0:17:59our representative out there in the world that was swinging.
0:18:00 > 0:18:04I think there was an awful lot invested in George.
0:18:04 > 0:18:06My feeling always was,
0:18:06 > 0:18:07insofar that I could express it
0:18:07 > 0:18:09at the age of nine, or ten,
0:18:09 > 0:18:12you know, "Good on you. A wee bit of that is ours."
0:18:12 > 0:18:15BBC PRESENTER: The most obvious symbol of Best's success
0:18:15 > 0:18:17is the uncompromisingly modern house
0:18:17 > 0:18:20he has had built on a hill outside Manchester.
0:18:20 > 0:18:24George's house is so 1971 it's not true.
0:18:24 > 0:18:26Now you'd probably drive past
0:18:26 > 0:18:27if it was still there and think,
0:18:27 > 0:18:29"What an atrocity, what a '70s disaster."
0:18:29 > 0:18:34But back then, 1971, that was just the house to have.
0:18:34 > 0:18:37The fact you could drive in under the house and park your car,
0:18:37 > 0:18:40that's very cool, that's very Persuaders.
0:18:42 > 0:18:44I mean, that is a cool house.
0:18:44 > 0:18:46Those mad arcing lights
0:18:46 > 0:18:49and the incredible touch-button TV,
0:18:49 > 0:18:51a colour TV!
0:18:51 > 0:18:54To have a pushbutton anything in 1970-71, you know,
0:18:54 > 0:18:58changing channels was still, it was a day trip.
0:18:58 > 0:19:00You had to get up from the sofa, schlep across the room
0:19:00 > 0:19:03and turn it over, and try and get it exactly right.
0:19:03 > 0:19:05Opening safes was easier.
0:19:07 > 0:19:12He's got this huge snooker table, which fills the entire room.
0:19:12 > 0:19:14And it looks like the bedroom hasn't been touched at all.
0:19:14 > 0:19:19There's the old quilt, there's the old cover over the bed.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23George Best then is not only perhaps the world's greatest footballer,
0:19:23 > 0:19:26he's also one of the best-looking blokes in the world,
0:19:26 > 0:19:28and he's always happy to get the shirt off.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31He's a sex symbol, and happy to show it off.
0:19:31 > 0:19:34George had it, he'd flaunt it, and not just on the football pitch.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37He's looking good as he goes to the bath, so fair play to him.
0:19:37 > 0:19:39He's got it. Flaunt it.
0:19:40 > 0:19:44I love the bathroom. I love that he has it in Manchester United colours,
0:19:44 > 0:19:47I love the fact he has a footballer's bath as well,
0:19:47 > 0:19:49it's like something from Old Trafford,
0:19:49 > 0:19:52and he's had transported into his dream home.
0:19:52 > 0:19:54It's perfectly of the period.
0:19:54 > 0:19:56It's 1971, but I tell you what,
0:19:56 > 0:19:59if it was up for sale today, and I could afford it,
0:19:59 > 0:20:02I'd move in, and I'd be in that bath in seconds.
0:20:05 > 0:20:09We're not sure if George Best took interior design inspiration
0:20:09 > 0:20:12from the Ideal Home Exhibition,
0:20:12 > 0:20:14but thousands of house-proud locals
0:20:14 > 0:20:18couldn't resist the lure of this annual King's Hall extravaganza.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26The Ideal Home Exhibition at one time was in everyone's social calendar.
0:20:26 > 0:20:28If you didn't go to the Ideal Home Exhibition,
0:20:28 > 0:20:30you were missing something.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41Whether like me, you're here with no money to have a look,
0:20:41 > 0:20:43or whether you've come to buy something,
0:20:43 > 0:20:45there really is something for everybody.
0:20:48 > 0:20:52It was one of the events of the year. Everybody went, really.
0:20:52 > 0:20:56Maybe people had a bit more disposable money for a change,
0:20:56 > 0:21:01they were starting to move on from where their parents might have been,
0:21:01 > 0:21:04from a lot of that very utilitarian furniture
0:21:04 > 0:21:07that there would have been, certainly in the '50s.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12That was, sort of round the 1980s, people realising,
0:21:12 > 0:21:16"Look, you know, there's a lot of innovation in here now,
0:21:16 > 0:21:19"I can do things to my house, make my house more lived-in,
0:21:19 > 0:21:21"I want to show off my house,
0:21:21 > 0:21:24"I want to show off my avocado bathroom suite,
0:21:24 > 0:21:28"my new dining room table," whereas there wouldn't have been that before.
0:21:28 > 0:21:32I think people were becoming more aware of style.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35I think, more importantly, people also wanted to dream.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38They wanted to see those things that they can't have.
0:21:38 > 0:21:40There's that through-the-keyhole thing.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43They want to see how the other half live,
0:21:43 > 0:21:45and have something to dream about or aspire to.
0:21:45 > 0:21:47And if you get a bit foot-sore
0:21:47 > 0:21:49while you're walking around the exhibition,
0:21:49 > 0:21:52you can always have a rest on something like this,
0:21:52 > 0:21:53which is a water bed,
0:21:53 > 0:21:56for only £499.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59It was the first time I had ever seen a water bed, actually.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02And it was fun, bouncing around on it, I must say.
0:22:02 > 0:22:05£499, I thought that was a fortune.
0:22:05 > 0:22:07Imagine spending that on a bed?
0:22:07 > 0:22:09No wonder they didn't catch on.
0:22:09 > 0:22:13That's the porridge in there.
0:22:13 > 0:22:15I've got it very sticky and gooey and messy.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18You had, of course, what we call the demonstrators.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21The demonstrators always added that bit of theatre.
0:22:21 > 0:22:25The egg we've got in the pan there,
0:22:25 > 0:22:26that's the egg cooked.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29They were always English, and always, "Yeah, come over here!"
0:22:29 > 0:22:32I suppose they were like latter-day market traders, you know,
0:22:32 > 0:22:35and they were, they made you really,
0:22:35 > 0:22:40how did you survive without this apple segmenter or whatever it was?
0:22:40 > 0:22:44No tinfoil, no cellophane. It's not required.
0:22:44 > 0:22:49There'd be selling something like a special cheese-grater
0:22:49 > 0:22:51or those things where you banged up and down,
0:22:51 > 0:22:55and it was supposed to reduce your onion to very tiny bits in no time.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58You banged it up and down a few times when you got it home,
0:22:58 > 0:23:00and the whole thing fell apart.
0:23:02 > 0:23:05Just as the 1980s declared the demise of dull
0:23:05 > 0:23:09and championed the birth of bling,
0:23:09 > 0:23:11Robinsons Builders,
0:23:11 > 0:23:14the family business behind the centrepiece show-home,
0:23:14 > 0:23:19saw room for improvement and put their money where their house was.
0:23:19 > 0:23:21It's very simple. For the last seven years,
0:23:21 > 0:23:23we have been involved in building
0:23:23 > 0:23:25the Ideal Home house, that's the central feature.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28My father was always known as Joe Robinson,
0:23:28 > 0:23:31and Joe Robinson was a builder.
0:23:31 > 0:23:33In 1981, we were offered
0:23:33 > 0:23:36the opportunity to buy the contract for the exhibition,
0:23:36 > 0:23:41and we agreed that we would borrow a serious amount of money,
0:23:41 > 0:23:45then it was a serious amount of money, to buy the contract.
0:23:45 > 0:23:48The basic concept of the show is the same.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51We have to consider a lot of the people that like to come,
0:23:51 > 0:23:52and don't like changes...
0:23:52 > 0:23:55The archive you have of the interview
0:23:55 > 0:23:57is a very proud Joe Robinson,
0:23:57 > 0:23:59having got this exhibition together
0:23:59 > 0:24:02at a time when the exhibition had dipped considerably
0:24:02 > 0:24:05and we knew, having been involved with show houses,
0:24:05 > 0:24:08that a lot of key exhibitors were going to pull out,
0:24:08 > 0:24:10and I say, fools rush in, but we pulled it together.
0:24:10 > 0:24:13We pulled together a very credible exhibition,
0:24:13 > 0:24:15a very interesting exhibition,
0:24:15 > 0:24:19and that's the pride that he shows in the interview.
0:24:19 > 0:24:22MUSIC: "Don't Stop" By Fleetwood Mac
0:24:27 > 0:24:32We needed to generate publicity. We needed to generate media attention,
0:24:32 > 0:24:33and what we looked at
0:24:33 > 0:24:37was media personalities, celebrities, if you like,
0:24:37 > 0:24:40that might be of interest to the public at the time.
0:24:40 > 0:24:42There's a fabulous range of products
0:24:42 > 0:24:44on display at the exhibition this year.
0:24:44 > 0:24:45You might come up not knowing
0:24:45 > 0:24:48if you want a new kitchen knife or a whole new kitchen.
0:24:48 > 0:24:50The presenters liked to get involved,
0:24:50 > 0:24:52and it suited us to get involved too,
0:24:52 > 0:24:55and a very young Noel, I have to add,
0:24:55 > 0:24:58was seen sipping champagne in there with a very lovely young lady.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01But what you really need is one of these.
0:25:01 > 0:25:03A California-style whirlpool Jacuzzi bath.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06Invigorating, refreshing, guaranteed to get you perked up
0:25:06 > 0:25:08and speed up your metabolism in the morning.
0:25:08 > 0:25:11All for a mere £2,200.
0:25:11 > 0:25:13And if you happen to know one of the salesmen,
0:25:13 > 0:25:15there are some optional extras available
0:25:15 > 0:25:17that really do make it an ideal home.
0:25:17 > 0:25:20Cheers.
0:25:20 > 0:25:22Noel Thompson, God bless him,
0:25:22 > 0:25:25sitting there with his glass of champagne, it was just so...
0:25:25 > 0:25:27And this girl, this model, in the corner,
0:25:27 > 0:25:29who obviously wasn't allowed to speak.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it sometime,
0:25:32 > 0:25:35and yeah, there's all sorts of antics like that.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39It's all about generating publicity from our point of view,
0:25:39 > 0:25:42and that's what made the whole industry fun.
0:25:43 > 0:25:47And, as if finding BBC presenters in your hot tub wasn't enough,
0:25:47 > 0:25:50the best was still to come.
0:25:50 > 0:25:53For sitting at the heart of the King's Hall complex
0:25:53 > 0:25:55was the last word in luxury living,
0:25:55 > 0:25:58the must-see legendary show house.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01The show house was the focal part of the exhibition.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04We realised that you just don't put a little,
0:26:04 > 0:26:06maybe 1050-square-foot bungalow in the middle.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09This has got to create the wow factor.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12The difficulty each year
0:26:12 > 0:26:14was to go better than the previous year,
0:26:14 > 0:26:18and you can never go better, you have to go different.
0:26:18 > 0:26:21If it's ultra-modern one year, you go very traditional the next year,
0:26:21 > 0:26:24and vice versa. You just keep creating a difference,
0:26:24 > 0:26:26and hope that difference is enough
0:26:26 > 0:26:29to create the perception it's better than the previous year.
0:26:31 > 0:26:33However, as tastes changed,
0:26:33 > 0:26:35and new generations of house-owners
0:26:35 > 0:26:38found faster ways to create their ideal homes,
0:26:38 > 0:26:41there was no longer the same need for the annual exhibition.
0:26:46 > 0:26:48Consumers became more discerning.
0:26:48 > 0:26:52You had the emergence of shopping centres,
0:26:52 > 0:26:54you had the emergence of the retail parks.
0:26:54 > 0:26:57I think the internet's made everything instant.
0:26:57 > 0:26:58There's nothing new anymore,
0:26:58 > 0:27:02whereas the Ideal Home Exhibition was somewhere you could have gone
0:27:02 > 0:27:06and got something innovative, taken it home, shown it to your friends.
0:27:06 > 0:27:08Now it's like, "Whatever. I've seen that."
0:27:08 > 0:27:13To a generation, or to generations that perhaps aren't around any more,
0:27:13 > 0:27:16the loss of it would have been quite massive to them.
0:27:16 > 0:27:19To younger generations,
0:27:19 > 0:27:24they don't even notice its existence having gone now.
0:27:27 > 0:27:31What is also gone, and totally unknown to the younger generations,
0:27:31 > 0:27:36is the Northern Ireland that Richard Dimblebly explored in the 1950s.
0:27:36 > 0:27:39This is a forgotten portrait of our home
0:27:39 > 0:27:42that now only exists on film.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45When you look at the Dimbleby film made in 1954,
0:27:45 > 0:27:47that's the parents or grandparents
0:27:47 > 0:27:49or great-grandparents of most people.
0:27:49 > 0:27:52They're simple and they're rural and they're deferential
0:27:52 > 0:27:55and they're old-fashioned and they're hard-working,
0:27:55 > 0:27:58and that's what we've all come out of.
0:27:58 > 0:28:01'And that was the end of my Ulster journey.'
0:28:01 > 0:28:04- Well, Richard, are you any wiser for your rambling?- I am that.
0:28:04 > 0:28:06It's like a time capsule.
0:28:06 > 0:28:10It takes you back to the sort of feelings people had,
0:28:10 > 0:28:12and the way they talked.
0:28:14 > 0:28:16Looking back at any films of that kind,
0:28:16 > 0:28:22I think the real benefit of looking back is hearing those voices,
0:28:22 > 0:28:25what I like to call those echoes of the sacred
0:28:25 > 0:28:28that are passed down, even though you might not know who said them,
0:28:28 > 0:28:30you know what was said.
0:28:32 > 0:28:33The story of our homes,
0:28:33 > 0:28:35whether in the country,
0:28:35 > 0:28:37town or city,
0:28:37 > 0:28:40is also the story of how we used to live.
0:28:40 > 0:28:43And thanks to a rich archive and the magic of film,
0:28:43 > 0:28:46we can bring those bygone days back to life.
0:29:11 > 0:29:14Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:29:14 > 0:29:18E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk