0:00:03 > 0:00:06In the 1950s, the famous newsreel company,
0:00:06 > 0:00:11Pathe, produced a major historical documentary series for British television.
0:00:13 > 0:00:17Made by the award-winning producer Peter Baylis and narrated by an illustrious line-up
0:00:17 > 0:00:22of celebrated actors, Time to Remember chronicled the social, cultural
0:00:22 > 0:00:26and political forces that shaped the first half of the twentieth century.
0:00:27 > 0:00:33The series covered the exploits of inventors and adventurers in several of its episodes.
0:00:35 > 0:00:41The achievements of those intrepid pioneers offer remarkable insights into another era.
0:00:49 > 0:00:55Things, faces, friends, places, years and moments half-forgotten.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59Laughs, fears, songs, tears,
0:00:59 > 0:01:02memories are made of this.
0:01:06 > 0:01:08CLOCK WINDS AND CHIMES
0:01:25 > 0:01:28In the first half of the 20th Century,
0:01:28 > 0:01:33the arrival of new technological breakthroughs brought dramatic change to the lives of millions.
0:01:33 > 0:01:38Improvements to the design of the internal combustion engine saw the roads transformed
0:01:38 > 0:01:44and aviators taking to the skies for the first time in new-fangled "heavier than air" flying machines.
0:01:44 > 0:01:48Experiments in communication technology brought radio,
0:01:48 > 0:01:51then moving pictures, into millions of homes.
0:01:51 > 0:01:53The possibility of being the "very first"
0:01:53 > 0:01:57was motivating pioneers in every field of human endeavour.
0:01:57 > 0:02:03This was an age of daringly ambitious engineering projects, and often eccentric modes of transport.
0:02:03 > 0:02:10For those with a bold spirit and a desire to reach new horizons, the opportunities were boundless.
0:02:15 > 0:02:20Adventure! Even in the changing world of 1900, adventure could still be found for the asking.
0:02:20 > 0:02:24If you grew weary of pushing a clerk's pen or swinging a navy's pick
0:02:24 > 0:02:29you could still find plenty of adventure under the sun.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33For instance, there was still the air to conquer,
0:02:33 > 0:02:38as yet only balloons and airships had risen into that element.
0:02:38 > 0:02:42But though the first heavier than air machine had yet to take off,
0:02:42 > 0:02:47progress was such that already flying was considered safe for ladies,
0:02:48 > 0:02:50in moderation of course.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55Plenty of adventure under the sun.
0:02:55 > 0:03:01You could still be first at the North Pole or the South, for there no man had yet trod, only you'd have
0:03:01 > 0:03:07to make the journey on your own feet with your own sweat and nobody would know of it until you got back,
0:03:07 > 0:03:10if you ever did.
0:03:12 > 0:03:17Get rich quick, you could still plant a stake on a diamond or gold field,
0:03:17 > 0:03:21but you had to be tough enough to defend it against all comers.
0:03:21 > 0:03:23Nowadays it's football pools.
0:03:26 > 0:03:32You could still be first to conquer any one of a hundred virgin peaks, from the Matterhorn to Everest.
0:03:33 > 0:03:36Room and scope up there for a stout heart and a strong rope.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41Plenty of adventure under the sun.
0:03:42 > 0:03:46But the whole century was moving forward, in communications,
0:03:46 > 0:03:53in science and medicine, reason, thought, and above all in industry.
0:03:53 > 0:03:58Never had there been such expansion, sprawling, messy, but where there's muck there's money.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04At the end of her reign Victoria saw a transformed world and all
0:04:04 > 0:04:09around her were mighty monuments to those who had had vision and courage.
0:04:09 > 0:04:14A transformed world moving forward with ever increasing speed.
0:04:14 > 0:04:18Though some preferred to proceed at a more stately pace.
0:04:18 > 0:04:23That was about the time too when Fred got his first motorbike.
0:04:23 > 0:04:29I say motor, but exactly how it did work we were never quite sure.
0:04:29 > 0:04:33And sometimes I suspect neither was Fred.
0:04:33 > 0:04:35Paraffin, or was it petrol?
0:04:36 > 0:04:42At all events there was much priming and lighting up and clouds of mysterious threatening smoke,
0:04:42 > 0:04:44lots of uncertainty.
0:04:45 > 0:04:46ENGINE BLOWS
0:04:47 > 0:04:51But whatever we thought about it, Fred always seemed to get there.
0:04:57 > 0:05:02But changing circumstances forced some to adopt more robust forms of transport.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06In the First World War, the race for superiority on the battlefield
0:05:06 > 0:05:10inspired a new invention, one that wasn't to everyone's taste.
0:05:10 > 0:05:14The people born and bred to horses were reluctant to accept the fact
0:05:14 > 0:05:20that the day of the horse in battle was over and cavalry breakthroughs were no longer possible.
0:05:20 > 0:05:26What war required now was some kind of mechanical armoured horse.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32Well, there were a few weird experiments along these lines,
0:05:32 > 0:05:35complete with reins, so strong was the horse influence.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38But there was little doubt that something
0:05:38 > 0:05:42more revolutionary was wanted, something more revolutionary.
0:05:51 > 0:05:52So was born the tank.
0:05:55 > 0:05:59The first of them was enough to frighten the life out of anybody,
0:05:59 > 0:06:01including those who had to drive them.
0:06:05 > 0:06:09Crushing a car into wreckage was quite another thing from smashing through the deep
0:06:09 > 0:06:13German front. But all the same, it looked very impressive.
0:06:15 > 0:06:20Britain was the first country to develop and then deploy tanks on the battlefield.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23At the Somme, in September 1916.
0:06:25 > 0:06:31After the war, these formidable weapons of combat fulfilled a very different purpose.
0:06:33 > 0:06:38Roll out the tanks, but not for war, for memorials or scrap
0:06:38 > 0:06:41or rides for happy holiday makers at the seaside resorts.
0:06:47 > 0:06:49In the post-war years,
0:06:49 > 0:06:53most people sought thrills in more conventional forms of transport.
0:06:53 > 0:06:56The roaring 20's continued their roaring way.
0:06:58 > 0:07:00Britain was not going to be left behind in the great
0:07:00 > 0:07:05drive for mechanical superiority that this noisiest of eras promoted.
0:07:05 > 0:07:10Throughout the decade, the desirability of the motorcar grew inexorably,
0:07:10 > 0:07:13and inventors responded to the public's fascination
0:07:13 > 0:07:19with ever more experimental, and sometimes outlandish, designs.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23Cars were wonderful, you could do anything with cars.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29How about a car driven by a propeller?
0:07:32 > 0:07:33Just one question...
0:07:35 > 0:07:36Why?
0:07:36 > 0:07:38Then someone brought out a two-way car.
0:07:54 > 0:07:57With all this race and tear to get from place to place,
0:07:57 > 0:08:00it was nice to see someone inventing something
0:08:00 > 0:08:02to help you should you fall over in the rush.
0:08:03 > 0:08:04Another try.
0:08:13 > 0:08:14And yet again.
0:08:19 > 0:08:21That time, I think something bent.
0:08:27 > 0:08:29And parking, watch this.
0:08:35 > 0:08:40Just in case you thought you were seeing things, once again...
0:08:47 > 0:08:51It has another advantage in that, if you changed your mind, you could turn around for home in seconds.
0:08:51 > 0:08:55But there again, it didn't last, probably ran out of front wheels
0:08:55 > 0:08:58changing direction at 60 miles an hour.
0:08:58 > 0:09:02There were some pretty snappy buses too by that time,
0:09:02 > 0:09:03with pneumatic tyres.
0:09:03 > 0:09:06And believe it or not, road sleepers,
0:09:06 > 0:09:09London to Liverpool by night tucked up in your own bed.
0:09:09 > 0:09:13It didn't last long, I don't know what happened to them,
0:09:13 > 0:09:17I suppose they didn't pay or they ran out of sheets or something, or alarm clocks.
0:09:17 > 0:09:24Now, here was something new, a machine designed to skim the water at great speed,
0:09:24 > 0:09:26neither airborne or really seaborne.
0:09:34 > 0:09:38But what would it do faced with the 40-feet Atlantic rollovers?
0:09:38 > 0:09:41Luckily no-one was foolish enough to try and find out.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45Journeys over land and sea could be exhilarating,
0:09:45 > 0:09:50but the really intrepid were reaching for the skies.
0:09:50 > 0:09:52Aviation was the rage around this time.
0:09:52 > 0:09:56Anybody who could afford it went in for their own private plane.
0:09:56 > 0:09:59Hitch your flying machine to your car and tow it to nearest aerodrome,
0:09:59 > 0:10:02there to unfold its wings and take to the air.
0:10:02 > 0:10:06No knowing what the skies over Europe might become if this kind of thing went on.
0:10:12 > 0:10:15Whenever there's a need there's always someone trying to fill it.
0:10:15 > 0:10:17Trying was the word.
0:10:22 > 0:10:25One can't help having a distinct impression that as far as this
0:10:25 > 0:10:29model was concerned there was something aerodynamically wrong.
0:10:29 > 0:10:31Just an impression,
0:10:31 > 0:10:36but in every field of human endeavour hope springs eternal.
0:10:36 > 0:10:37I wonder if he's still trying.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43The odd thing about progress is that there always seems to be
0:10:43 > 0:10:47somebody reading the writing on the wall the wrong way round.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50To change the wheel of a car in motion would be difficult
0:10:50 > 0:10:54enough for anyone, but to change the wheel of an aircraft in flight
0:10:54 > 0:10:57would be a million times more difficult.
0:10:57 > 0:10:59So logic said that if you succeeded
0:10:59 > 0:11:02you'd make progress a million times more progressive,
0:11:02 > 0:11:04if you get what I mean.
0:11:04 > 0:11:08And even if you don't the wheel still got changed, so there.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17An unswerving belief in the power of technology, and optimism
0:11:17 > 0:11:20about all things new and modern, marked the spirit of the age.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23In the '20s, the daredevils had a field day.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28In 1922 it looked very much as though normalcy wasn't so much
0:11:28 > 0:11:32something to get back to as something to get away from.
0:11:32 > 0:11:36And there were plenty of ways open for people to try and do that.
0:11:36 > 0:11:40You could be the first to hang by your teeth from an aeroplane,
0:11:40 > 0:11:43this way up or the other.
0:11:43 > 0:11:47Or the first to walk the English channel instead of taking the boat.
0:11:47 > 0:11:48The choice was unlimited.
0:11:52 > 0:11:56Two bright boys crossed the channel on a motorbike,
0:11:58 > 0:12:02while two other characters paced it out to Vienna on stepladders.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09The exact reason for this escapes me.
0:12:09 > 0:12:14Somebody else achieved a lifetime ambition, to fly into a house at 70 miles an hour.
0:12:18 > 0:12:20A steam roller that went by itself.
0:12:20 > 0:12:22Went was the word.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24It hasn't been seen again since.
0:12:29 > 0:12:33Yes, in every field there must be pioneers.
0:12:38 > 0:12:41Something not done before, and frankly I don't think ever since,
0:12:41 > 0:12:45but in everything there has to be a first time.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53The desire to be first was manifested in a variety of ways.
0:13:03 > 0:13:08Particularly in the quest to reach some of the most inaccessible territories on the planet.
0:13:08 > 0:13:11Time to Remember featured some of the greatest moments
0:13:11 > 0:13:13from the heroic age of exploration,
0:13:13 > 0:13:18including an epic, ill-fated expedition to Antarctica in 1910.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22A ship leaving Britain for the distant Antarctic.
0:13:22 > 0:13:23What was her name?
0:13:23 > 0:13:25The Terra Nova.
0:13:29 > 0:13:31Going to be away some time, so the papers said,
0:13:31 > 0:13:36carrying an expedition that was to try and reach the South Pole.
0:13:36 > 0:13:43Its leader, a naval man, Robert Falcon Scott. Such a little ship,
0:13:43 > 0:13:45such a little band of men,
0:13:45 > 0:13:51but the first chapter in a great story of endurance.
0:13:51 > 0:13:57Always in history it is the pioneers who suffer for ultimate victory.
0:13:59 > 0:14:04Hundreds of miles away from the little Terra Nova, Scott
0:14:04 > 0:14:10and his party plod on night after night in the freezing polar air.
0:14:10 > 0:14:18They set up camp to follow the monotonous routine of keeping alive on the worst journey in the world.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21Farewell, Scott,
0:14:21 > 0:14:24Evans, Wilson and Oates,
0:14:24 > 0:14:30for your march leads only to death.
0:14:30 > 0:14:35Four years later, Scott's great rival, Ernest Shackleton, attempted to be the first to
0:14:35 > 0:14:40cross the Antarctic continent from ocean to ocean via the South Pole.
0:14:40 > 0:14:44The expedition ultimately failed, but is recognised as one of
0:14:44 > 0:14:46history's great stories of endurance.
0:14:46 > 0:14:49Shackleton's fascination with polar exploration continued
0:14:49 > 0:14:54until his death off the coast of South Georgia Island in 1922.
0:14:54 > 0:14:57Two years later, another British expedition embarked
0:14:57 > 0:14:59on an equally arduous mission,
0:14:59 > 0:15:03to become the first men to scale the world's most forbidding peak.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06To conquer the air or the roof of the world.
0:15:06 > 0:15:10That year found another British expedition making the long trek
0:15:10 > 0:15:12through Tibet to camp at the foot of Everest,
0:15:12 > 0:15:15in order to attack that as yet unconquered peak.
0:15:22 > 0:15:26Among that little party in camp were two men, Mallory and Irving, whose
0:15:26 > 0:15:32courage and tenacity were destined to write a never to be forgotten chapter in the history of mountain climbing.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35Through powerful glasses, the rest of the party watched these two
0:15:35 > 0:15:39as they painfully scaled the most formidable of all mountain sides.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42With all that terrible power, Everest fought back.
0:15:42 > 0:15:47And two black specks near her summit was all that was last seen of Mallory and Irving.
0:15:51 > 0:15:56Who can deny that even in defeat, Britain has her great moments.
0:15:56 > 0:16:02That year, closer to home, there was a more successful attempt to claim a world's first.
0:16:02 > 0:16:06At the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley in 1924,
0:16:06 > 0:16:09a speech by a reigning monarch was broadcast over the radio
0:16:09 > 0:16:11for the very first time.
0:16:14 > 0:16:20We've come here today for the purpose of opening...
0:16:20 > 0:16:25Wireless, they called it in Britain, and there are many of them who still do.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28With crystals and cat whiskers and earphones, and the
0:16:28 > 0:16:32new high falutin valve sets, most of the nation listened into that speech,
0:16:32 > 0:16:36and those who managed to pick out the words from all the static and
0:16:36 > 0:16:40interference declared it to be a historic moment indeed.
0:16:40 > 0:16:45As radio was very much in its infancy, you had to put up the vital aerial yourself.
0:16:45 > 0:16:49And if you were as inexpert as Harry Tate and friends,
0:16:49 > 0:16:52there was a fair chance that you didn't catch the king's speech.
0:16:52 > 0:16:55Or anything else, for that matter.
0:16:55 > 0:16:58Yes, these were the first real do-it-yourself days.
0:17:01 > 0:17:03By this time, the inventor who'd helped to achieve
0:17:03 > 0:17:07this landmark moment in the history of communications, and made possible
0:17:07 > 0:17:10special garter-mounted radios for the ladies,
0:17:10 > 0:17:13was striving to make the technology accessible to all.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16Senor Marconi, the radio expert.
0:17:18 > 0:17:22His work in the past had revolutionised wartime navel operations.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25Now, what new marvel was to come next?
0:17:25 > 0:17:29Messages to the moon, some claimed.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32One thing was sure, fire brigades need no longer remain
0:17:32 > 0:17:36out of touch with their bases when dealing with distant conflagrations.
0:17:36 > 0:17:39First, all they needed was an aerial,
0:17:39 > 0:17:43and for that, any tallish structure would suffice.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46The next thing was to spread out on the ground a kind of mattress.
0:17:46 > 0:17:49Don't ask me why. I'm not technically minded.
0:17:49 > 0:17:53This is engine number 235, ready for action.
0:17:53 > 0:17:57But tell us, where's the fire?
0:17:58 > 0:18:02For some time now in southern England, a little group of enthusiasts,
0:18:02 > 0:18:08deep in a mass of coils and wire, had been operating an experimental radio station for half an hour a week.
0:18:08 > 0:18:11And then in 1922, from London's Savoy Hill,
0:18:11 > 0:18:15close by the roaring traffic of The Strand, came the
0:18:15 > 0:18:22first voice of the BBC, the British Broadcasting Company, as it was then.
0:18:22 > 0:18:252LO, Marconi House, London calling.
0:18:25 > 0:18:292LO, Marconi House, London calling.
0:18:31 > 0:18:37Regular radio programmes had at last arrived, open to all with a crystal and a cats whisker.
0:18:37 > 0:18:39SINGS
0:18:46 > 0:18:49At that time, the BBC was broadcasting radio only, but soon
0:18:49 > 0:18:55a new form of entertainment would captivate the public imagination.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58The turn of the century had seen the first moving pictures, a remarkable
0:18:58 > 0:19:02new technology, no matter how crude and unprepossessing the images.
0:19:02 > 0:19:06Sitting on hard benches before one of the first of those whirring,
0:19:06 > 0:19:13erm, cinematograph machines, seeing, for a few pennies, a miracle.
0:19:17 > 0:19:20What did it matter what was on the screen,
0:19:20 > 0:19:23so long as it moved, and what did it matter, either, if sometimes
0:19:23 > 0:19:27the lettering on the picture was unaccountably back to front.
0:19:27 > 0:19:28All part of the miracle.
0:19:31 > 0:19:33Fireman, save my child.
0:19:38 > 0:19:43And among those leaping shadows, often you saw something else.
0:19:43 > 0:19:45You saw history.
0:19:45 > 0:19:47A flickering, jumpy scene.
0:19:49 > 0:19:52That carriage arriving at the garden party,
0:19:52 > 0:19:54an old, old lady being assisted from it.
0:19:57 > 0:20:01Victoria Regina, long may she continue to reign.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06Another tuppence, and something even more exciting.
0:20:06 > 0:20:10Soldiers riding across the African Delt. The Boer war.
0:20:10 > 0:20:17It was De Wet, Kruger and a pressman named Winston Churchill, escaping from the Boers.
0:20:17 > 0:20:20£25 reward, dead or alive.
0:20:20 > 0:20:24The brave, the great, the famous.
0:20:24 > 0:20:28Cricketers march out into what looks like a snow storm.
0:20:28 > 0:20:30Oh, but that's only the film.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33Surely it never snowed in those far-off sunny days?
0:20:34 > 0:20:38To the British, a beard as famous as any, well...
0:20:38 > 0:20:43Since Moses. The beard of a man now a legend, WG Grace.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50Soon, cinema's pioneers would marry sound and vision to great effect.
0:20:50 > 0:20:55I recall about 1905, it would have been,
0:20:55 > 0:21:02somebody in Germany experimenting with, surprising at that early date, talking pictures.
0:21:02 > 0:21:09A crude system of synchronisation and amplification, but very interesting.
0:21:32 > 0:21:36A rare glimpse ahead, the movies then were silent and
0:21:36 > 0:21:42destined to remain silent for close upon another quarter of a century.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45In 1929, British cinema-goers flocked to see the first-ever
0:21:45 > 0:21:48home-grown talking picture.
0:21:48 > 0:21:50I shall have quite a lot to say,
0:21:50 > 0:21:54and the first thing I shall say is that she was there too.
0:21:54 > 0:22:00Blackmail featured a trademark cameo appearance by its director, the legendary Alfred Hitchcock.
0:22:02 > 0:22:07But by then, moving pictures were already making their way onto the small screen.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11Under crude aerials with primitive equipment, the engineers of Baird
0:22:11 > 0:22:16were dabbling in, for those days, a real far fetched realm of science.
0:22:16 > 0:22:21Television. Sending pictures, as well as sound, by means of radio waves.
0:22:21 > 0:22:22Oh, what an absurdity.
0:22:22 > 0:22:27In any case, such a device could never have the slightest effect on the motion picture trade, could it?
0:22:27 > 0:22:29Not a chance.
0:22:32 > 0:22:38The land where the talkies had really taken off, the United States, was still mired in the financial
0:22:38 > 0:22:41calamity that had followed the Wall Street Crash in 1929.
0:22:41 > 0:22:44Even so, America was leading the world in science,
0:22:44 > 0:22:47technology and immense engineering projects.
0:22:47 > 0:22:511932, in the richest country in the world.
0:22:53 > 0:22:57Depression or no depression, you can't hold up progress and men thinking.
0:22:57 > 0:23:02Somewhere up there, above the pinnacles, someone is perfecting
0:23:02 > 0:23:06a piece of apparatus to enable aircraft to fly without a pilot.
0:23:06 > 0:23:11Just set the machine on course, plug in and leave the plane to its own devices.
0:23:15 > 0:23:17A real achievement.
0:23:17 > 0:23:23A pity they couldn't devise an automatic pilot to steer a nation through its storms.
0:23:26 > 0:23:30Then, in front of the very capital of Washington itself, an autogyro,
0:23:30 > 0:23:36forerunner of the helicopter, sails in to land at the steps of the nation's seat of government.
0:23:36 > 0:23:41From there, golf clubs at the ready, two VIPs take off,
0:23:41 > 0:23:45bound for Gettysberg or wherever it is that golfers go from Washington.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52And behind that great skyline,
0:23:52 > 0:23:56new concrete steel and great spanning bridges.
0:23:56 > 0:24:02An America demonstrating new strength in tremendous public works and giant undertaking.
0:24:05 > 0:24:08In the name of the people of the United States,
0:24:08 > 0:24:15to Boulder Dam, are a symbol of greater things in the future.
0:24:15 > 0:24:23And in the honoured presence of guests from many nations, I call you to life.
0:24:35 > 0:24:39At the touch of a switch, waters hitherto controlled only by nature
0:24:39 > 0:24:44gushed forth to make a spectacle, as Franklin D Roosevelt had put it,
0:24:44 > 0:24:49symbolic of a nation pulling itself together after the dark days of uncertainty and depression.
0:24:49 > 0:24:54The early years of the 20th century had seen astonishing advances in almost all areas of human endeavour.
0:24:54 > 0:24:59Despite the economic setbacks of the Great Depression, in the 1930s,
0:24:59 > 0:25:04the mood was still upbeat, and faith in the power of technology was undiminished.
0:25:04 > 0:25:06The 30s -
0:25:06 > 0:25:08a time of optimism.
0:25:08 > 0:25:12Vague and woolly, perhaps, but still optimism.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17A new look to the streets, the cars, the buses,
0:25:17 > 0:25:22as though we were all out to rub away the rough shapes and edges of the 20s.
0:25:22 > 0:25:25All out to streamline our world for the future.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29The first of the 30s promised an amazing world.
0:25:29 > 0:25:35A world where science and progress were rushing ahead to make it yet more wonderful every day.
0:25:35 > 0:25:41Now you could call New York or Istanbul or Rio de Janeiro,
0:25:41 > 0:25:43as though you were calling the grocers round the corner.
0:25:43 > 0:25:51Telephones and radio, in the 20s an amusing toy, today a worldwide network.
0:25:51 > 0:25:56And through it, nation could speak peace unto nation.
0:25:59 > 0:26:06But the really great revolution was mass production, the turning out of everything for everybody.
0:26:09 > 0:26:14Once a radio set was largely a matter of a soldering iron and a do-it-yourself kit.
0:26:14 > 0:26:18Now it was all production line and button-pressing, with millions
0:26:18 > 0:26:22emerging, all ready to tune in to this new and wonderful world.
0:26:24 > 0:26:27And clearly there was not only more but everything to come.
0:26:31 > 0:26:33Soon, no more networks of lines.
0:26:33 > 0:26:38Only sky-borne ships, in the manner that HG Wells had so long prophesised.
0:26:38 > 0:26:43Just a matter of last adjustments and the proper finance.
0:26:43 > 0:26:45And it wasn't just theory either.
0:26:45 > 0:26:49Everywhere you looked, you could find the ingenious applications of the new knowledge.
0:26:55 > 0:27:00A sliding roof for a car or a door that appeared to open without human agency.
0:27:06 > 0:27:10What the world would be like by the 40s was anybody's guess.
0:27:10 > 0:27:17Already someone in Germany has developed a car driven by a rocket motor, its fuel, liquid oxygen.
0:27:17 > 0:27:20The shape of things to come
0:27:20 > 0:27:22and the sound too.
0:27:22 > 0:27:24ENGINE WHIRRING
0:27:30 > 0:27:33And then there's all this scientific talk about splitting the atom.
0:27:33 > 0:27:39But, darling, what on earth is an atom, let alone how do you split it?
0:27:39 > 0:27:41Oh, well, it's a...erm, er...
0:27:41 > 0:27:47Something very small. Er, it's a promising path to follow, isn't it?
0:27:47 > 0:27:51Yes, but exactly what it does promise beats me.
0:27:51 > 0:27:56Science, progress, little doubt that the sky was the limit.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59The 30's promised everything.
0:28:00 > 0:28:05In less than 40 years, everyday life in Britain had changed profoundly.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09The spirit of endeavour and imagination of the early 20th-century pioneers
0:28:09 > 0:28:13brought radical transformations to every sector of life, from new
0:28:13 > 0:28:20modes of land and air transport, to revolutionary new mediums for information and entertainment.
0:28:20 > 0:28:25In the early explorers' attempts to conquer the near unconquerable,
0:28:25 > 0:28:30man had challenged the limits of human endurance and set the precedent for those that followed.
0:28:30 > 0:28:34The inspired inventors of this period brought to the world bold
0:28:34 > 0:28:39innovations, ranging from the radical and world-changing, to the playful and frivolous.
0:28:39 > 0:28:43Their energy, imagination and daring blazed the trail
0:28:43 > 0:28:47from the Victorian Age towards the modern, high-tech world of today.
0:28:54 > 0:28:56Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:28:56 > 0:28:58E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk