0:00:06 > 0:00:09In the story of the British people,
0:00:09 > 0:00:12we've reached the 20th century - our time.
0:00:13 > 0:00:16Through civil wars and foreign invasions,
0:00:16 > 0:00:20the British forged the roots of their democracy.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24In the Industrial Revolution, they invented the modern world.
0:00:26 > 0:00:30Creative and adaptable, they built the first industrial society.
0:00:30 > 0:00:33- Join the march!- Join the march!
0:00:33 > 0:00:37But the British would go through few more testing times
0:00:37 > 0:00:39than the 20th century.
0:00:39 > 0:00:42The last 100 years have seen the greatest changes
0:00:42 > 0:00:45to our society and even to our character as a nation.
0:00:49 > 0:00:51Through two world wars,
0:00:51 > 0:00:57we've become a multi-racial country and a post-industrial nation
0:00:57 > 0:01:02but the British people have remained hugely creative and inventive,
0:01:02 > 0:01:06pioneers in technology, arts and sciences.
0:01:07 > 0:01:09It's the last chapter
0:01:09 > 0:01:10of the Great British story.
0:01:27 > 0:01:29As we look at it now,
0:01:29 > 0:01:32the Edwardian age, before the First World War,
0:01:32 > 0:01:36was the high noon of British self-confidence.
0:01:36 > 0:01:38During the previous century,
0:01:38 > 0:01:41we'd become an industrial, urbanised nation.
0:01:43 > 0:01:45Now the power of the people was growing.
0:01:47 > 0:01:49Horizons were opening up.
0:01:51 > 0:01:56For the first time, the cinema showed us our own image.
0:01:56 > 0:02:02But that imperial, industrial heyday was inevitably brief...
0:02:05 > 0:02:08..as it appears now, an almost incredible adventure
0:02:08 > 0:02:11by the people of this small island off the shore of Europe.
0:02:11 > 0:02:15The big story for the 20th century, through two world wars,
0:02:15 > 0:02:19was the loss of empire and the dramatic collapse
0:02:19 > 0:02:23of the heavy industries on which our wealth depended.
0:02:25 > 0:02:29Just as the British people were the first nation in history
0:02:29 > 0:02:31to become an industrial country,
0:02:31 > 0:02:35so they were the first to go through that and come out the other side,
0:02:35 > 0:02:38forced now to reshape their identities
0:02:38 > 0:02:44once more in their history - as workers, as citizens
0:02:44 > 0:02:46and indeed, as Britons.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52The Edwardians ruled a maritime empire.
0:02:52 > 0:02:54At its heart was shipbuilding
0:02:54 > 0:02:58and nowhere was that more clear than Glasgow.
0:02:59 > 0:03:03To arrive in Edwardian Glasgow was to see the achievements of the age.
0:03:03 > 0:03:07But its powerhouse was the teeming shipyards of Govan,
0:03:07 > 0:03:12whose population had grown 30 times in three generations.
0:03:13 > 0:03:19It was something of gold rush proportions, what took place here.
0:03:19 > 0:03:231864, I think there was probably a population of about 2,500.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26It was an idyllic village on the river Clyde
0:03:26 > 0:03:29where people come to do watercolours and things.
0:03:31 > 0:03:37By 1912, there was 90,000 people living in Govan.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40And beyond that, there was people pouring in
0:03:40 > 0:03:43from outside Govan, from Glasgow to work here.
0:03:47 > 0:03:50By 1914, there were 48 shipyards on the Clyde.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53Shipbuilding guaranteed the empire
0:03:53 > 0:03:57and the empire guaranteed the shipyards.
0:04:06 > 0:04:11Glasgow really was prosperous when our trade was with America.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13- That's what built Glasgow.- Right.
0:04:15 > 0:04:17Everybody either worked in the shipyard
0:04:17 > 0:04:21or worked in an associated industry like myself.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24I actually started off in an engine works,
0:04:24 > 0:04:26building engines for the ships.
0:04:26 > 0:04:30We probably thought it would always last, but obviously it hasn't.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36And what was made here was not only ships, but an identity.
0:04:38 > 0:04:42A solidarity in labour, a pride in being a shipbuilder.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45As in Belfast and on the Tyne,
0:04:45 > 0:04:50in a few generations, shipbuilding became part of the people's DNA.
0:04:50 > 0:04:54Country folk mixed with traditional city dwellers.
0:04:54 > 0:04:58Eventually, they merged to become a completely new tribe.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01What were they? The Clydesiders.
0:05:01 > 0:05:04They became Clydesiders.
0:05:04 > 0:05:06From whatever Govan was before then,
0:05:06 > 0:05:09they came there and they almost formed a different nation.
0:05:16 > 0:05:18That is astounding, isn't it?
0:05:18 > 0:05:21'And shipbuilding meant more than earning a living -
0:05:21 > 0:05:27'it was something heroic, the sum of a community's creativity.'
0:05:28 > 0:05:31The ship's just been launched,
0:05:31 > 0:05:34so it's gathering speed.
0:05:34 > 0:05:35The drag chains hit.
0:05:35 > 0:05:36CLANKING
0:05:36 > 0:05:39The sound is horrendous.
0:05:39 > 0:05:41It drags the ship right back.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48That's it born. She's born, ready for the river.
0:05:53 > 0:05:55It's a rush of adrenaline.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00- It's the apex of satisfaction.- Yeah. - Remember, you've built the ships,
0:06:00 > 0:06:03you build yourself to a frenzy for the day of the launch.
0:06:03 > 0:06:07It's going in and it hits the water and you say, "Done it!"
0:06:10 > 0:06:12This was the time
0:06:12 > 0:06:16when the British defined themselves by their industry.
0:06:17 > 0:06:19At Halesowen in the Black Country,
0:06:19 > 0:06:23in the workforce there were people whose ancestors
0:06:23 > 0:06:25had worked metal in Tudor times.
0:06:27 > 0:06:30Me grandad did it and me dad
0:06:30 > 0:06:34and me brother works here, he works in that department there.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37So all my dad's brothers have worked in the steel as well.
0:06:37 > 0:06:39- Quite a few of them, yeah.- Wow.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44Before I worked here, me grandfather worked here,
0:06:46 > 0:06:49me uncles worked here. I've also got a son here at the moment.
0:06:49 > 0:06:54Me great-grandparents, mother, worked here during the war.
0:06:54 > 0:06:55She used to drive the crane.
0:06:57 > 0:07:00'The greatest expansion here was before the First World War.'
0:07:03 > 0:07:073,600-tonne steam hydraulic press.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12How about that? The old folks in Halesowen used to say that
0:07:12 > 0:07:15you could hear this wheezing, thumping,
0:07:15 > 0:07:18and feel it shaking the ground
0:07:18 > 0:07:21all the way through the night when they were on big jobs.
0:07:23 > 0:07:27DISTANT CLANGING
0:07:33 > 0:07:36Britain's pre-eminence was reinforced
0:07:36 > 0:07:38by a sense of British identity.
0:07:42 > 0:07:48The values of British society - hard work, deference, patriotism,
0:07:48 > 0:07:52were articulated in a myriad societies, mechanics' institutes,
0:07:52 > 0:07:56sports teams, boys' brigades, working men's clubs.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01Together, at work and play, the British knew who they were.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06..they're wearing from the time, and tennis rackets,
0:08:06 > 0:08:10but I didn't bring them today. I didn't know exactly what you wanted.
0:08:10 > 0:08:13It's a wonderful archive of stuff.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16'A crucial social role was played by organised sport.'
0:08:16 > 0:08:19The British, of course, had invented the rules.
0:08:19 > 0:08:22They actually won the Sussex Senior Cup.
0:08:24 > 0:08:28I think they also beat Ipswich Town as well.
0:08:32 > 0:08:34Fabulous.
0:08:34 > 0:08:36Yeah, that's the gardening club.
0:08:36 > 0:08:38The gardening club.
0:08:38 > 0:08:44- Fantastic. These amazing social documents, actually...- Oh, yes.
0:08:44 > 0:08:46The cycle volunteer force.
0:08:46 > 0:08:48- First World War period.- Yes.
0:08:50 > 0:08:52I could name all those people.
0:08:56 > 0:09:00But across Edwardian Britain, there was still a huge gulf
0:09:00 > 0:09:01between rich and poor.
0:09:01 > 0:09:05In 1910, the chain-makers of the Black Country went on strike.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08# Now pin back your ears and I'll sing you a song
0:09:08 > 0:09:10# Of a town that is dear to my heart... #
0:09:10 > 0:09:13The chain-makers were a cottage industry,
0:09:13 > 0:09:16unchanged since the Industrial Revolution.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19# And everyone's mad about darts.
0:09:19 > 0:09:21# So take me back...
0:09:21 > 0:09:25They worked in conditions almost impossible for us to imagine now
0:09:25 > 0:09:28and the most exploited were the women.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31# Where factory wenches lined all the park benches
0:09:31 > 0:09:34# Cradley Heath means home to me. #
0:09:36 > 0:09:40If you were a chain-maker, how would you have felt and why?
0:09:42 > 0:09:45You would have felt as if you was a slave.
0:09:45 > 0:09:48You'd work 12, 13 hours a day
0:09:48 > 0:09:50for next to nothing.
0:09:52 > 0:09:54No wonder they was angry.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57I get five shilling a week for what?
0:09:57 > 0:10:01Working from 7 o'clock in the morning till 7 o'clock at night!
0:10:02 > 0:10:05They had to buy their coal and their metal from a fogger.
0:10:08 > 0:10:10Some foggers actually boasted
0:10:10 > 0:10:13that they could sell metal to the women
0:10:13 > 0:10:15and then buy the made chain back
0:10:15 > 0:10:18for cheaper than the constituent components.
0:10:20 > 0:10:24And in Edwardian Britain, women still didn't have the vote.
0:10:24 > 0:10:29Any one of you that goes out on strike, you'll never work again!
0:10:29 > 0:10:32The press called it white slavery in the Black Country.
0:10:32 > 0:10:34They didn't get a living wage
0:10:34 > 0:10:37or a working wage. They were on starvation situation.
0:10:37 > 0:10:38SCREAMING
0:10:38 > 0:10:41The first strike to appear on cinema news in Britain
0:10:41 > 0:10:45was led by a young Scot called Mary Macarthur.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50This hopeless, despairing, struggle for survival will go on
0:10:50 > 0:10:56unless we gather our strength and our determination
0:10:56 > 0:10:58and we move as one.
0:11:00 > 0:11:05Let us take to the streets and make our voices heard
0:11:05 > 0:11:09for freedom and the rights!
0:11:09 > 0:11:11CHEERING
0:11:11 > 0:11:13BAND PLAYS
0:11:18 > 0:11:22So one side of life in Edwardian Britain was class struggle.
0:11:26 > 0:11:28Come and join the march!
0:11:28 > 0:11:30The first ten years of the century
0:11:30 > 0:11:33saw bitter strikes and unemployment marches,
0:11:33 > 0:11:36the rise of trades unions
0:11:36 > 0:11:39and from 1900, a labour party,
0:11:39 > 0:11:43all fighting to better the conditions of the people.
0:11:46 > 0:11:51And in no area was that more important than women's rights.
0:11:51 > 0:11:53The suffragettes, who were battling
0:11:53 > 0:11:56against one of the worst injustices of British society -
0:11:56 > 0:11:59that women still didn't have the vote.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03Women's franchise movements had a long history in Britain
0:12:03 > 0:12:06but now they found a national voice,
0:12:06 > 0:12:09despite at times brutal repression.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14But democracy was put on hold by the First World War.
0:12:21 > 0:12:25Across the country, the war had mass support,
0:12:25 > 0:12:28even in Ireland, which was still then a part of Britain.
0:12:28 > 0:12:30It was working-class patriotism
0:12:30 > 0:12:34that made the volunteer armies in the first total war.
0:12:34 > 0:12:35CHEERING
0:12:39 > 0:12:43From the riveters and platers of Ulster, Tyneside and Govan
0:12:43 > 0:12:48to the miners and steel men of South Wales,
0:12:48 > 0:12:50Britain lost nearly a million men.
0:12:55 > 0:12:57No place in Britain was untouched.
0:13:01 > 0:13:03The First World War is still a mystery -
0:13:03 > 0:13:07why a prosperous country at the height of its success,
0:13:07 > 0:13:11the source and agent of wealth and civilisation,
0:13:11 > 0:13:15chose to risk all in such horrors...
0:13:16 > 0:13:19..and to create a lost generation.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25In the industrial cities,
0:13:25 > 0:13:28where unemployment was already high on the eve of war,
0:13:28 > 0:13:32the government encouraged volunteers from the same towns,
0:13:32 > 0:13:36the same streets, so friends would fight together - Pals.
0:13:41 > 0:13:43One of these Pals' battalions
0:13:43 > 0:13:46came from a small Lancashire cotton town, Accrington.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52On the first day of the Somme, out of 700 Accrington Pals,
0:13:52 > 0:13:56235 were killed and 350 wounded.
0:13:56 > 0:13:58He's your grandad?
0:13:58 > 0:14:00He's my grandfather, yes.
0:14:00 > 0:14:03- And what happened to him? - He got killed on the Somme
0:14:03 > 0:14:06on the 2nd of July, 1916.
0:14:08 > 0:14:12They worked and played together, and they died together.
0:14:14 > 0:14:17Do you know what actually happened to him?
0:14:17 > 0:14:21I can't tell, they just said, "No known grave."
0:14:22 > 0:14:24His body were never found.
0:14:24 > 0:14:28All they can say is, he went missing on that day.
0:14:28 > 0:14:29There's a lot like that.
0:14:32 > 0:14:37How it could have happened is still impossible for us to grasp.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43You're like, you see him here,
0:14:43 > 0:14:45on one panel, on one wall.
0:14:45 > 0:14:49- Sad.- Yeah, it is sad.- Very sad.
0:14:53 > 0:14:55Honestly, I'm a grown man, 76,
0:14:55 > 0:14:57and it brings tears to my eyes.
0:14:57 > 0:15:01I know I'm very proud of him and all those who served and died with him.
0:15:01 > 0:15:03Because if it hadn't been for him,
0:15:03 > 0:15:07I wouldn't be here talking to you now. Very brave men, they were.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10Blood brothers, they were.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15Stand at...ease!
0:15:17 > 0:15:20The First War was the great divide for modern Britain.
0:15:20 > 0:15:23It also left its mark on daily life -
0:15:23 > 0:15:27on our pub opening hours, our love of allotments and cigarettes,
0:15:27 > 0:15:31our universal mistrust of the honesty of the press,
0:15:31 > 0:15:35but above all, in the loss of a generation who would have been
0:15:35 > 0:15:37the future doctors, judges and teachers.
0:15:38 > 0:15:41This is a way of a community way of remembering things -
0:15:41 > 0:15:44not just the ones we lost but also the ones who came back as well.
0:15:46 > 0:15:47People lost whole streets.
0:15:47 > 0:15:50They lost brothers, sons, cousins.
0:15:53 > 0:15:58These remembrance ceremonies stir the memories
0:15:58 > 0:16:01like sediment rising in the glass -
0:16:01 > 0:16:04memories of our common history shared by all of us as Britons.
0:16:07 > 0:16:13But they're memories shaped, conditioned, by an imperial past,
0:16:13 > 0:16:16by that astonishing arc of narrative
0:16:16 > 0:16:22which has taken our country, over a couple of hundred years or so,
0:16:22 > 0:16:25from being a small land on the fringe of Europe
0:16:25 > 0:16:27to world dominion,
0:16:27 > 0:16:33and then back to being a small island on the fringe of Europe.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38And ever since, Britain's most solemn ritual
0:16:38 > 0:16:41is not Good Friday but Armistice Day.
0:16:43 > 0:16:45In the aftermath of the Great War
0:16:45 > 0:16:47came the first cracks in the British Empire
0:16:47 > 0:16:50and the first part to go was Ireland.
0:16:52 > 0:16:54Up here in the north,
0:16:54 > 0:16:56the Protestant majority gave
0:16:56 > 0:16:58unstinting support to the cause.
0:16:58 > 0:17:02The Ulster Volunteer Force had actually formed before the war
0:17:02 > 0:17:03to block plans for Home Rule
0:17:03 > 0:17:06for Ireland, which was still a British colony.
0:17:06 > 0:17:09On the Somme, they performed heroics
0:17:09 > 0:17:13and up here, it's never been forgotten that they gave their all
0:17:13 > 0:17:15for king and country.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24But in the South, though many Catholics had fought for Britain,
0:17:24 > 0:17:26there were older loyalties.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29Here, many saw the war as a chance for freedom.
0:17:30 > 0:17:32The rising of 1916 had failed
0:17:32 > 0:17:38but in 1919, the Irish War of Independence or the Anglo-Irish War
0:17:38 > 0:17:42brought the end of British rule after more than three centuries.
0:17:44 > 0:17:48At the time of the Anglo-Irish War, 1919-21,
0:17:48 > 0:17:51the British government in London
0:17:51 > 0:17:54would have been happy to see a united Ireland
0:17:54 > 0:17:57remaining within the British Empire
0:17:57 > 0:18:02but that idea was fiercely resisted up here in Ulster by the Protestants
0:18:02 > 0:18:05who feared being the minority in a Catholic-dominated Ireland.
0:18:08 > 0:18:10And so, Ireland was partitioned
0:18:10 > 0:18:13with an Irish Free State to the south
0:18:13 > 0:18:15and Ulster up here remaining part of the UK
0:18:15 > 0:18:19with consequences that are still rumbling on today, of course.
0:18:21 > 0:18:23But in the 1920s,
0:18:23 > 0:18:26darker storm clouds were rolling across the world.
0:18:26 > 0:18:28With fascism rising in Europe,
0:18:28 > 0:18:31Britain was swept by the Great Depression, with recession
0:18:31 > 0:18:33and mass unemployment.
0:18:35 > 0:18:37The empire was now at its greatest extent
0:18:37 > 0:18:40but it hadn't recovered from the war.
0:18:40 > 0:18:43With huge war debts, industrial output declined
0:18:43 > 0:18:48and the old industries in the north, coal, steel and ships,
0:18:48 > 0:18:54were devastated - especially up here, on Tyneside and Jarrow.
0:18:56 > 0:18:59Here, the bitter experience of the 1930s
0:18:59 > 0:19:02is still a part of people's memory as if it happened yesterday.
0:19:07 > 0:19:09They walked to London as a protest
0:19:09 > 0:19:14- just to try and raise awareness. - When they shut the shipyard
0:19:14 > 0:19:17that employed 80% of the population of Jarrow,
0:19:17 > 0:19:19once that was shut, that was the town finished.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27What there is now, there's no work here, since the shipyard's finished.
0:19:28 > 0:19:35By 1936, unemployment in Jarrow reached 73% - the worst in Britain.
0:19:37 > 0:19:40For jobs for the youth of today, that's why we're doing it.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43Trying to make a change.
0:19:43 > 0:19:45Trying to make a stand and make a change.
0:19:45 > 0:19:46And for the alternative,
0:19:46 > 0:19:50an alternative to no jobs and no education for ordinary people.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57And that was what drove the marchers to make their protest...
0:19:59 > 0:20:00..not just for themselves
0:20:00 > 0:20:04but for their children and their grandchildren.
0:20:05 > 0:20:08In October 1936, they walked
0:20:08 > 0:20:12from Tyneside down to London, to present a petition
0:20:12 > 0:20:14asking for the right to work.
0:20:17 > 0:20:22The Britain they walked through was still the green and pleasant land
0:20:22 > 0:20:26but the nation was changing, its heavy industries out of date,
0:20:26 > 0:20:30overtaken by newer countries
0:20:30 > 0:20:33following in Britain's industrial path.
0:20:36 > 0:20:41On 22nd October, the marchers entered London,
0:20:41 > 0:20:43watched with curiosity by the rich.
0:20:44 > 0:20:47It's often said the Jarrow March achieved nothing.
0:20:47 > 0:20:52The Prime Minister here in the Houses of Parliament refused to see them.
0:20:52 > 0:20:54They got a minute or two at Question Time
0:20:54 > 0:20:57and each marcher was given a pound to get the train back home
0:20:57 > 0:21:03where unemployment stayed at the same horrendous level.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06But it's not true to say it achieved nothing. It wasn't only a matter
0:21:06 > 0:21:09of the dignity and discipline of the marchers,
0:21:09 > 0:21:11it was a visual demonstration
0:21:11 > 0:21:16of the huge disparities in work and health
0:21:16 > 0:21:21and housing and class that ran right through British society.
0:21:22 > 0:21:26Things had to change, and they did.
0:21:30 > 0:21:34"As I write," George Orwell said in 1940,
0:21:34 > 0:21:38"civilised human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me."
0:21:39 > 0:21:43Yet again, the British people were to be tested.
0:21:43 > 0:21:47Where I live on the Leicester boundary,
0:21:47 > 0:21:50the noise was horrendous so you couldn't get any sleep.
0:21:50 > 0:21:54Bombs were falling, then you'd hear another wave of bombers coming.
0:21:54 > 0:21:59Britain's industrial heartlands were devastated,
0:21:59 > 0:22:02her major ports, like Liverpool, systematically smashed.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07We lived by Edge Hill Station,
0:22:07 > 0:22:09which was very dangerous,
0:22:09 > 0:22:13so five of us were evacuated from our family.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18We didn't know where we were going.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21Nobody knew where you were going to finish up.
0:22:25 > 0:22:283.5 million people, mainly young children,
0:22:28 > 0:22:30were evacuated from the most threatened cities
0:22:30 > 0:22:34and billeted with families in the countryside.
0:22:34 > 0:22:39It was an internal migration unprecedented in British history.
0:22:43 > 0:22:47We finished up in North Wales, Snowdonia.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52It's a part of Britain's war experience
0:22:52 > 0:22:55still imprinted on the generation that lived it.
0:22:57 > 0:23:01We couldn't find the youngest of the family,
0:23:01 > 0:23:03she hadn't had her sixth birthday
0:23:03 > 0:23:07and she was taken off with the infants.
0:23:07 > 0:23:11And my brother, he was taken away with the boys
0:23:11 > 0:23:13because boys and girls didn't mix in those days.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17He was about 14 miles away.
0:23:17 > 0:23:19Three of us were together
0:23:19 > 0:23:22and when we were taken to a billet,
0:23:22 > 0:23:24they only wanted two.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27She only had a little cottage with three rooms.
0:23:27 > 0:23:32She said, "Well, if you're prepared three of you to sleep in a double bed
0:23:32 > 0:23:37"because I've got a guest," she said, "you can come here."
0:23:37 > 0:23:38So we went in there.
0:23:41 > 0:23:46They were genuine and really did give us a lot of love.
0:23:46 > 0:23:50So while nearly 6 million British men and women
0:23:50 > 0:23:52fought in the Armed Forces,
0:23:52 > 0:23:56their children were also learning what they were fighting for.
0:23:56 > 0:24:00By the Christmas, most of the children
0:24:00 > 0:24:02and all our friends had returned.
0:24:05 > 0:24:09My sister had a friend round about who had gone from Liverpool,
0:24:09 > 0:24:10she was one of our neighbours.
0:24:10 > 0:24:14She said, "Edith, I'm going back to Liverpool."
0:24:14 > 0:24:17And Edith said, "Oh, you can't go back to Liverpool,
0:24:17 > 0:24:19"because you're my friend!"
0:24:21 > 0:24:24She did come back to Liverpool
0:24:24 > 0:24:27and unfortunately, she was killed that very month.
0:24:34 > 0:24:36One of the many extraordinary things about
0:24:36 > 0:24:39what our country did in the Second World War,
0:24:39 > 0:24:41and there were many extraordinary things,
0:24:41 > 0:24:45and most of them were quite remarkable and absolutely essential.
0:24:45 > 0:24:48'One of the greatest industrial powers in the world...'
0:24:49 > 0:24:52The great economist Keynes said in 1941,
0:24:52 > 0:24:55we threw good housekeeping to the winds
0:24:55 > 0:24:58and in so doing, we saved ourselves and helped save the world.
0:24:58 > 0:25:00Never has a superpower put in its last throw
0:25:00 > 0:25:03to greater effect than we did in the year we stood alone.
0:25:08 > 0:25:12For 20 months, from Spring 1940 to December 1941,
0:25:12 > 0:25:14Britain stood alone -
0:25:14 > 0:25:16along with the Greeks, don't forget.
0:25:19 > 0:25:23Then came help from across the Atlantic,
0:25:23 > 0:25:26a former English colony founded in the 17th century
0:25:26 > 0:25:29and now the new powerhouse of the world.
0:25:31 > 0:25:33But the victory wouldn't have happened
0:25:33 > 0:25:35without the support of the Empire -
0:25:35 > 0:25:39people from the Caribbean, Africa and Asia
0:25:39 > 0:25:41also fought against fascism.
0:25:41 > 0:25:44India alone provided 200,000 troops,
0:25:44 > 0:25:48of whom 35,000 were killed.
0:25:51 > 0:25:56Together, in the end, they brought victory.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01The Strand was already filling up with crowds,
0:26:01 > 0:26:04lots of people arm in arm, right across the street.
0:26:04 > 0:26:07There was a lovely, effervescent atmosphere.
0:26:10 > 0:26:14I remember lying on my back and hearing all the cheering going on,
0:26:14 > 0:26:19my head on the silken lap of a charming young woman
0:26:19 > 0:26:24who was gently pouring champagne from the bottle into my open mouth.
0:26:25 > 0:26:29Victory over fascism crystallised the ideals
0:26:29 > 0:26:33the British people had nursed for over 300 years,
0:26:33 > 0:26:36from Bunyan and Blake to the Tolpuddle Martyrs.
0:26:36 > 0:26:41The Labour Party's victory in the election of 1945
0:26:41 > 0:26:44put in hand a visionary project by Sir William Beveridge,
0:26:44 > 0:26:48commissioned by the wartime coalition government of Winston Churchill.
0:26:50 > 0:26:55Sir William Beveridge came out with a manifesto for the post-war world
0:26:55 > 0:26:58and he said, adapting Bunyan's language,
0:26:58 > 0:27:01"There are five giants on the road to reconstruction -
0:27:01 > 0:27:05"ignorance, idleness, squalor, disease, want."
0:27:10 > 0:27:12And he said, "A revolutionary era
0:27:12 > 0:27:16"is a time for revolutions, not for patching."
0:27:16 > 0:27:19We'd lost a third of our wealth in the war, irretrievably, gone up in smoke.
0:27:21 > 0:27:25And yet, they put in place a full employment policy,
0:27:25 > 0:27:28universal benefits.
0:27:29 > 0:27:31The health service came into being.
0:27:37 > 0:27:42Never again the interwar era of deprivation and slump.
0:27:42 > 0:27:43A British New Deal.
0:27:45 > 0:27:47At that moment, it seemed
0:27:47 > 0:27:50that Jerusalem could be built in our green and pleasant land.
0:27:52 > 0:27:55And in the Commonwealth Conference of 1947,
0:27:55 > 0:27:59they asked what it meant now to be British.
0:27:59 > 0:28:01Were we still only the people of a small island?
0:28:01 > 0:28:04The British Nationality Act is another product
0:28:04 > 0:28:08of that extraordinary time of the post-war settlement,
0:28:08 > 0:28:10the British New Deal.
0:28:10 > 0:28:12It was nothing less than a redefinition
0:28:12 > 0:28:15of what it meant to be a British citizen.
0:28:15 > 0:28:17You were either a citizen of the UK
0:28:17 > 0:28:21or of the colonies or of the independent Commonwealth countries
0:28:21 > 0:28:23like Australia and New Zealand and Canada
0:28:23 > 0:28:29and astonishingly, the moment that they were drafting it here in 1947,
0:28:29 > 0:28:32that could have amounted to 800 million people,
0:28:32 > 0:28:36a third of the population of the planet!
0:28:36 > 0:28:41It's ecumenical, cosmopolitan, liberal,
0:28:41 > 0:28:44an astounding vision of the future.
0:28:44 > 0:28:48# It was a silent night...
0:28:48 > 0:28:52And on June 22nd, 1948, the Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury.
0:28:52 > 0:28:55# Holy night
0:28:55 > 0:28:58# All is calm...
0:28:58 > 0:29:00The new arrivals from the Caribbean
0:29:00 > 0:29:02were mainly war veterans seeking work.
0:29:02 > 0:29:07# All is bright
0:29:09 > 0:29:12- NEWSREADER:- He is here because he's heard there are jobs
0:29:12 > 0:29:14for coloured men in Birmingham.
0:29:14 > 0:29:17They'd come as British citizens
0:29:17 > 0:29:20to meet the chronic shortage of jobs in hospitals, transport
0:29:20 > 0:29:22and in the factories.
0:29:22 > 0:29:25# Tender and mild... #
0:29:25 > 0:29:28There are jobs in Birmingham.
0:29:28 > 0:29:31There are more jobs than there are men to fill them.
0:29:31 > 0:29:36We were young and we had the world news
0:29:36 > 0:29:38that come over every morning.
0:29:38 > 0:29:43And all you would hear, "Your mother country needs you."
0:29:43 > 0:29:46And they would encourage us to come to England
0:29:46 > 0:29:49to help rebuild the country after the war.
0:29:49 > 0:29:53# It was a silent night... #
0:29:53 > 0:29:56"Your future lies in England," and they would tell you
0:29:56 > 0:29:58it's a better life over here.
0:29:58 > 0:30:02And you want a better life for yourself.
0:30:02 > 0:30:06Your mother and your father want a better life for their children also,
0:30:06 > 0:30:09and that's part of it, coming to England. We had to come.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15Without them, a war-battered country would have ground to a halt.
0:30:17 > 0:30:23You expected a smooth path, you're coming to a better country,
0:30:23 > 0:30:27a better place, so things are going to be better for you.
0:30:27 > 0:30:30Oh, no. It wasn't.
0:30:30 > 0:30:32# Prise the sail... #
0:30:32 > 0:30:36Looked at now, it was another testing of the nation.
0:30:37 > 0:30:39Black and white.
0:30:41 > 0:30:43- VOICEOVER:- 'It's hard to say which is more bitter,
0:30:43 > 0:30:46'the cold street or the cold shoulder.'
0:30:48 > 0:30:52How would one like to be going out in the evenings after work
0:30:52 > 0:30:56and find yourself going into places where you'll not be accepted?
0:30:57 > 0:31:01Well, I don't think anyone would like having experiences like that,
0:31:01 > 0:31:04and the most that we can do is to stay at home.
0:31:06 > 0:31:08'In the city's dancehalls, nobody is barred,
0:31:08 > 0:31:11'but coloured men are not encouraged.
0:31:15 > 0:31:18'He'll be asked to get out if he does much of this.'
0:31:18 > 0:31:22I am married to a coloured man, and I am proud of him.
0:31:22 > 0:31:27He helps me with all my work, he helps me to do the washing,
0:31:27 > 0:31:29he's very good to me and my baby.
0:31:29 > 0:31:33When we walk along in town, they call out, black this, black that,
0:31:33 > 0:31:35why am I married to an Englishwoman?
0:31:35 > 0:31:38"Where are you coming into this country from," all that,
0:31:38 > 0:31:41they're telling us. And that's why I keep out of trouble.
0:31:43 > 0:31:46Over that time, about half a million people came from the Caribbean
0:31:46 > 0:31:50and Africa to work on the buses and the railways.
0:31:51 > 0:31:55And especially in the overstretched health service.
0:31:55 > 0:32:00When I went into nursing, even the patients that you are just
0:32:00 > 0:32:04giving a bath to, I did everything for them,
0:32:04 > 0:32:06they'll call you a black bastard.
0:32:06 > 0:32:10THEY SING
0:32:10 > 0:32:13Because of my beautiful skin.
0:32:18 > 0:32:21Me couldn't get anywhere decent to live.
0:32:21 > 0:32:25When you knock on the house community doors and asked for a room,
0:32:25 > 0:32:30they would say, "No blacks, no dogs.
0:32:30 > 0:32:31"And no Irish."
0:32:35 > 0:32:40We learned how to survive, and it was your determination.
0:32:40 > 0:32:42Your pride.
0:32:42 > 0:32:46Sense of achievement at the end of the day,
0:32:46 > 0:32:50and your ability to do what you'd set out to do.
0:32:53 > 0:32:56APPLAUSE
0:32:58 > 0:33:00The Commonwealth immigration of the '50s
0:33:00 > 0:33:03had been a new experience for the British people.
0:33:05 > 0:33:07And yet, in a way,
0:33:07 > 0:33:10it mirrors every tale of migration into these islands.
0:33:11 > 0:33:13Jews, Flemings, Huguenots,
0:33:13 > 0:33:15they'd all suffered racism in the beginning.
0:33:18 > 0:33:21Whenever a black person bought a house,
0:33:21 > 0:33:27we would all descend on this person for a room.
0:33:27 > 0:33:29And a room became a house.
0:33:30 > 0:33:35That one room, you cooked there, you bath there, you sleep there.
0:33:38 > 0:33:40We could not go on like that.
0:33:40 > 0:33:46So we had to meet together as citizens that want a better life.
0:33:47 > 0:33:49And now, 60 years on,
0:33:49 > 0:33:54the black community's an integral part of our society and culture.
0:33:54 > 0:33:56We're merging together,
0:33:56 > 0:33:58as did all those previous migrations in history.
0:33:58 > 0:34:03And, black or white, it's the Empire that made us who we are.
0:34:03 > 0:34:07And now, as the legislators of 1948 had wished,
0:34:07 > 0:34:13each of us can say, as the Romans did, civis britannicus sum.
0:34:13 > 0:34:17# Oh, happy day
0:34:17 > 0:34:21# Oh, happy day... #
0:34:21 > 0:34:25Princess Campbell's friends and neighbours in Bristol
0:34:25 > 0:34:27are celebrating her work in forming a housing association,
0:34:27 > 0:34:29providing affordable housing for all.
0:34:31 > 0:34:32Thank you, thank you.
0:34:33 > 0:34:35# Oh, happy day... #
0:34:35 > 0:34:42We did not discriminate, we provided affordable homes at affordable price
0:34:42 > 0:34:46for everybody, black, white, blue, pink, because everybody
0:34:46 > 0:34:50needs somewhere to live decently, and that's how we kept going.
0:34:50 > 0:34:54# Oh, happy day
0:34:54 > 0:34:58# Oh, happy day. #
0:34:58 > 0:35:01CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:35:04 > 0:35:08To me, I was very proud that we were able to do that, because they
0:35:08 > 0:35:15stigmatised black people as lazy, and don't do anything for themselves.
0:35:15 > 0:35:17But we proved different.
0:35:17 > 0:35:24We got up, we did it, we achieved it, and that's something to talk about.
0:35:26 > 0:35:29And some would say those are British virtues.
0:35:34 > 0:35:39The 1950s was also the time when Britain became a consumer society.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42# We're all going on a summer holiday... #
0:35:42 > 0:35:46From fridges and cars to the summer holiday,
0:35:46 > 0:35:49after the austerities of war, it was a heady time.
0:35:49 > 0:35:50# ..summer holiday
0:35:50 > 0:35:52# No more worries for me... #
0:35:52 > 0:35:55We were the best provided-for generation ever.
0:35:55 > 0:35:57# ..week or two
0:35:57 > 0:36:00# We're going where the sun shines bright... #
0:36:00 > 0:36:04I've never forgotten the first time I tasted my first piece of real steak.
0:36:04 > 0:36:08I mean, it sounds absurd now, but when I ate my first steak
0:36:08 > 0:36:11in a Berni Inn in Bristol, it was remarkable.
0:36:11 > 0:36:16# Everybody has a summer holiday... #
0:36:16 > 0:36:20Macmillan's famous phrase, "having it so good," resonated.
0:36:20 > 0:36:22But it also came with a warning.
0:36:22 > 0:36:25The one element that people forget
0:36:25 > 0:36:28is the dissolution of the British Empire.
0:36:28 > 0:36:32What became India and Pakistan went. '47, as did Burma.
0:36:34 > 0:36:39And not till 1957 did the next lot of Imperial disposals start,
0:36:39 > 0:36:41with the Gold Coast, which became Ghana.
0:36:42 > 0:36:44Nigeria, 1960,
0:36:44 > 0:36:48and then the huge rush to dispose of the British Empire.
0:36:48 > 0:36:50This huge territorial empire,
0:36:50 > 0:36:55the magnitude of which the world had never seen, was disposed of
0:36:55 > 0:37:02pretty well, apart from the Indian subcontinent, in eight to ten years.
0:37:04 > 0:37:06But once the Empire had gone,
0:37:06 > 0:37:10Britain's industrial decline was inevitable.
0:37:13 > 0:37:17The very existence of the British Empire
0:37:17 > 0:37:20and its commercial supremacy depended on ships.
0:37:20 > 0:37:25And when the Empire went, so, to a large extent,
0:37:25 > 0:37:27the shipyards went, too.
0:37:27 > 0:37:31Harland and Wolff, the builders of the Titanic,
0:37:31 > 0:37:34the greatest single shipyard in the world, were among the hardest hit.
0:37:35 > 0:37:38When I came into the shipyard in 1948,
0:37:38 > 0:37:40there was 21,000 men worked in here.
0:37:40 > 0:37:45Previously, in the Second World War, it was 40,000 men working here.
0:37:47 > 0:37:50This was a place for outfitting and for dry docking,
0:37:50 > 0:37:55and making sure the ships' bottoms weren't damaged during the launch.
0:37:56 > 0:37:57This was a great place.
0:37:57 > 0:38:01Pumping the dock dry, the men came down here just when there
0:38:01 > 0:38:05was about eight inches or six inches of water left in the dock,
0:38:05 > 0:38:10and then they headed up to where the water pumps out of, and they were after fish.
0:38:12 > 0:38:14The people here depended on Harland and Wolff,
0:38:14 > 0:38:16they thought it was going to last for ever,
0:38:16 > 0:38:20and they couldn't believe it when it went away.
0:38:20 > 0:38:24It is just derelict, the first yard to close down was the Abercorn yard,
0:38:24 > 0:38:28and they were still launching ships from the Queen's yard,
0:38:28 > 0:38:30but the Victoria yard went next.
0:38:30 > 0:38:32The women at home were wondering what was happening,
0:38:32 > 0:38:36and people were paid off, sacked.
0:38:36 > 0:38:39There was 21,000 men in here when I came in this place,
0:38:39 > 0:38:41but that went downhill very quick.
0:38:41 > 0:38:43Went downhill very quick.
0:38:43 > 0:38:46So, a tremendous effect on the life of the city?
0:38:46 > 0:38:51Yes, you take the wages each man was earning here,
0:38:51 > 0:38:5320,000 men going out with wages,
0:38:53 > 0:38:58and all of a sudden, no money at all, they are on the dole.
0:39:04 > 0:39:08So, the tide of history comes in and it goes out.
0:39:15 > 0:39:19These are moments in a nation's story as great as any war.
0:39:21 > 0:39:24The decline from such a height was a bitter and troubling time for Britain.
0:39:32 > 0:39:36From the steelworkers of Corby and Sheffield to the cotton mills of Lancashire,
0:39:36 > 0:39:40the world was doing it cheaper and more efficiently than we were.
0:39:44 > 0:39:45In the '60s and '70s,
0:39:45 > 0:39:48we lived through strikes and winters of discontent.
0:39:49 > 0:39:52But what we didn't see then,
0:39:52 > 0:39:54perhaps, was that the British people,
0:39:54 > 0:39:57with their resilience, their basic tolerance and humour,
0:39:57 > 0:40:00were already creating a new society,
0:40:00 > 0:40:03as they have before in their history.
0:40:06 > 0:40:09They were becoming the first post-industrial nation,
0:40:09 > 0:40:14and, in the process, they were transforming themselves.
0:40:14 > 0:40:15The loss of our heavy industries
0:40:15 > 0:40:20and of the British working-class identity that went with them
0:40:20 > 0:40:25has caused huge bouts of introspection about British identity.
0:40:26 > 0:40:30About the success of the citizenship project on which
0:40:30 > 0:40:32we all embarked in 1948.
0:40:35 > 0:40:38Back then, you could hear politicians of all persuasions
0:40:38 > 0:40:43arguing over what one can only call the soul of the nation.
0:40:46 > 0:40:49Take Enoch Powell, for example,
0:40:49 > 0:40:53a politician now remembered above all for his ill-considered
0:40:53 > 0:40:56and inflammatory remarks about immigration.
0:40:56 > 0:41:01But Powell asked, what is the clue that binds us all together,
0:41:01 > 0:41:08that we may, in our time, know how to hold onto it fast?
0:41:08 > 0:41:10Well, as so often in life,
0:41:10 > 0:41:15the answer seems to be not to hold on fast, but to let go.
0:41:15 > 0:41:19What the British people have learnt over this last phase of their history
0:41:19 > 0:41:25is that identity is a lot more fluid than they might have thought,
0:41:25 > 0:41:27and that in many places in the world,
0:41:27 > 0:41:30multiple identities are the norm.
0:41:30 > 0:41:33And, that you can choose them.
0:41:40 > 0:41:44And those different identities are now coming home.
0:41:47 > 0:41:51One of the things that is important in the arrival here
0:41:51 > 0:41:52is the difference in music.
0:41:57 > 0:42:01This is Manchester, the first city of the Industrial Revolution.
0:42:04 > 0:42:06And here at Peace Radio in Moss Side,
0:42:06 > 0:42:11the Friday phone in has a-panel of Moss Siders past and present,
0:42:11 > 0:42:14looking back at what's already history.
0:42:14 > 0:42:15And then coming to Moss Side.
0:42:15 > 0:42:19I belong to one of the oldest African families in the city.
0:42:19 > 0:42:21My dad came as a seaman,
0:42:21 > 0:42:24he did not come with any kind of Fantasy Island vision
0:42:24 > 0:42:28of where he was coming to, he came, he arrived in Liverpool,
0:42:28 > 0:42:32Liverpool was the place, and then after a period of time,
0:42:32 > 0:42:36they moved and settled here, because they joined the war effort.
0:42:36 > 0:42:38I was born and brought up in Moss Side,
0:42:38 > 0:42:41and I still live in Moss Side and I think Moss Side's a great place,
0:42:41 > 0:42:43- but I'm allowed to come out of Moss Side.- Yeah.
0:42:43 > 0:42:47You can do and you can be whatever it is you want to do
0:42:47 > 0:42:48and whatever you want to be.
0:42:48 > 0:42:51The only person that stops you is yourself and ourselves.
0:42:51 > 0:42:53We belong here.
0:42:53 > 0:42:55You know, we're here, we're not going anywhere quick,
0:42:55 > 0:42:58we may go on holiday, you know, but we belong here.
0:43:00 > 0:43:03When I grew up here, the people were mainly of Scots,
0:43:03 > 0:43:06Welsh and Irish descent.
0:43:06 > 0:43:09Later, they were Caribbean, Indian and Bangladeshi.
0:43:09 > 0:43:11It's always changing.
0:43:12 > 0:43:14We've got quite a large Somali population
0:43:14 > 0:43:18just to the right of us over in part of Moss Side.
0:43:19 > 0:43:22To the left of us we've got the old Victoria Park area,
0:43:22 > 0:43:26which is traditionally white British residents,
0:43:26 > 0:43:31we've got quite a large Pakistani population, and it's really very well integrated.
0:43:31 > 0:43:33We have very little hate crime reported.
0:43:35 > 0:43:39'In just a few years, we Britons have changed our culture and our music...'
0:43:40 > 0:43:42- Oh! Manchester weather!- I know.
0:43:42 > 0:43:45'..and, of course, our food.'
0:43:46 > 0:43:50We've got a mile of curry houses, where's the best one to go?
0:43:50 > 0:43:52I have to say, there are some real favourites from our local
0:43:52 > 0:43:54policing team here, and, you know,
0:43:54 > 0:43:59they can be regularly seen getting their chicken kebab in a naan bread.
0:44:05 > 0:44:08This area is so well-known for its festivals.
0:44:08 > 0:44:10We've got Diwali coming up this weekend,
0:44:10 > 0:44:16we have the Caribbean carnival over in Alexandra Park, we have Mega Mela.
0:44:16 > 0:44:20We had the Eid celebrations towards the end of August,
0:44:20 > 0:44:25and the next Eid, Eid al-Adha, I believe, is coming up at the start of November.
0:44:25 > 0:44:29It's going to be really interesting, because that coincides with
0:44:29 > 0:44:32Bonfire Night, so, of course,
0:44:32 > 0:44:35we'll have some kind of firework celebrations around Eid.
0:44:36 > 0:44:39It's all part of the legacy of Empire.
0:44:39 > 0:44:44But isn't that what makes our times so dynamic and so interesting?
0:44:47 > 0:44:52What we're seeing now is another radical reshaping of our identities,
0:44:52 > 0:44:54national and tribal.
0:44:54 > 0:44:58CHANTING IN GAELIC
0:44:58 > 0:45:03And that goes for the old British, too. Under the Empire,
0:45:03 > 0:45:08the Scots and Welsh shared with the English a common identity as Britons.
0:45:08 > 0:45:11But now, with the Empire gone, old allegiances are resurfacing.
0:45:11 > 0:45:14SHE CHANTS IN GAELIC
0:45:14 > 0:45:16Independence could be on the way soon.
0:45:29 > 0:45:33Here in Govan, one of many regeneration projects
0:45:33 > 0:45:36is exploring Glasgow's Scots Gaelic roots.
0:45:36 > 0:45:40This was one of the biggest shipbuilding areas in the world,
0:45:40 > 0:45:45but it had been almost wiped out by the shipyards closing down,
0:45:45 > 0:45:49and when people are poor, they seem to be stuck within a couple of streets, that's their world,
0:45:49 > 0:45:53they don't have the money to get out of it,
0:45:53 > 0:45:55and they don't have the transport, sometimes.
0:45:55 > 0:46:00So, by reconnecting people with a cultural, natural heritage,
0:46:00 > 0:46:02we open up the world a wee bit to people,
0:46:02 > 0:46:04and that works on their identity,
0:46:04 > 0:46:07their self-esteem, how they feel about themselves in a connected way.
0:46:11 > 0:46:14And, after all, as we've seen in this series,
0:46:14 > 0:46:18the Scottish past goes back before the coming of the English.
0:46:19 > 0:46:21After a visit to the Govan Old Parish,
0:46:21 > 0:46:27obviously I'd seen all the crosses, I was so impressed with it.
0:46:27 > 0:46:33I thought, "Why not have a go?" See what kind of job I could make of it.
0:46:33 > 0:46:36CHANTING IN GAELIC
0:46:44 > 0:46:47CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:47:05 > 0:47:06My father was a plater,
0:47:06 > 0:47:11and stayed in an area just across the road from the shipyard.
0:47:11 > 0:47:14My grandfather, he was a coker, again,
0:47:14 > 0:47:18stayed within 200 yards of the shipyard's front door.
0:47:23 > 0:47:27There's enough in the city telling the stories of the industrialists,
0:47:27 > 0:47:32the tobacco trade, the grandmasters.
0:47:32 > 0:47:33We wanted the people's story.
0:47:36 > 0:47:40The industrial past, too, still has the power to inspire.
0:47:40 > 0:47:43Above all, perhaps in places like Govan.
0:47:45 > 0:47:48And in a new cycle of growth, the giant Fairfield Shipyards
0:47:48 > 0:47:53regeneration project is beginning to draw a new population to Govan,
0:47:53 > 0:47:56despite the ravages of its recent history.
0:48:00 > 0:48:04People are moving into the old shipbuilding heartland again.
0:48:07 > 0:48:11And it was all wasteland, where it used to be streets and houses.
0:48:11 > 0:48:15Just a mile square of rubble. Thousands of people were gone.
0:48:15 > 0:48:16Nae jobs, nae nothing.
0:48:21 > 0:48:24Govan's like a phoenix, it's beginning to rise again.
0:48:24 > 0:48:28There's talk about another 4,000-5,000 people coming to Govan.
0:48:28 > 0:48:30It's incredible.
0:48:31 > 0:48:34I think they're starting a fish farm with salmon.
0:48:36 > 0:48:40That was originally an industry in Govan, salmon fishing.
0:48:40 > 0:48:45Possibly, you might get done for salmon poaching in Govan!
0:48:47 > 0:48:48Very soon, in the future.
0:48:50 > 0:48:52Great!
0:49:03 > 0:49:07And back in the Black Country, the tradition of chain making and metalworking
0:49:07 > 0:49:12that we've traced in this story from the 13th century has never been broken.
0:49:14 > 0:49:18Great. Great-great grand uncle.
0:49:18 > 0:49:21He is part of a group called the Titanic Chain Gang,
0:49:21 > 0:49:23and they made really big chains.
0:49:25 > 0:49:28Wow. And this is a photograph of them, is it?
0:49:28 > 0:49:30That's three and three-eighths on there,
0:49:30 > 0:49:34and then when I worked in different chain places,
0:49:34 > 0:49:37you got the odd few links lying around,
0:49:37 > 0:49:39which went up to as near as six inch.
0:49:39 > 0:49:43And how old were you when you first started doing this?
0:49:43 > 0:49:46Well, I started making chain when I left school at 15,
0:49:46 > 0:49:50but I used to work with my dad at five, and they bunged me on fire.
0:49:51 > 0:49:54- At five, did you say? - Five years old.- Five years old?!
0:49:54 > 0:49:59Yeah. I used to do jobs for her grandmother or great-grandmother.
0:49:59 > 0:50:03- Have you met before? - No.- No. We know your son.
0:50:03 > 0:50:07We're like a little chain community.
0:50:07 > 0:50:12It's amazing, isn't it? You think of it as old history, but it's quite close, isn't it, in some ways?
0:50:13 > 0:50:15Joe, what did you find out?
0:50:17 > 0:50:23My great-great nan, called Matilda Taylor, she was a chain maker.
0:50:23 > 0:50:28And I've got a picture of her with her chain maker family.
0:50:28 > 0:50:32This is a wonderful photograph, isn't it? Look at that.
0:50:32 > 0:50:34They've got their Sunday best on, haven't they?
0:50:34 > 0:50:37They're not wearing chain maker's clothes!
0:50:39 > 0:50:42And you've looked at the census as well?
0:50:42 > 0:50:44God, I'm really impressed, Joe!
0:50:44 > 0:50:49It's a great piece of research, Joe, I'm really impressed by what everybody has done.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52Let's just ask Ben, finally, may we?
0:50:52 > 0:50:59- It's my dad, and he does chain making for a living.- What, still?!
0:50:59 > 0:51:02- Yeah.- I know Ben's dad, I worked with him for a bit.
0:51:02 > 0:51:07Sometimes, in the school holidays, because my mum died
0:51:07 > 0:51:11a couple of years ago, and sometimes there's nowhere for me to go,
0:51:11 > 0:51:16so I go with my dad, and sometimes I make some links and stuff.
0:51:16 > 0:51:21So, any thoughts on what you might do when you leave school as a job?
0:51:21 > 0:51:27Make the chain for the navy ships and stuff.
0:51:27 > 0:51:30- What, seriously?! You might do that as a career?- Yeah.
0:51:30 > 0:51:32Well, good for you.
0:51:32 > 0:51:36If you do, we'll have to come back with a camera
0:51:36 > 0:51:37and find out what happens.
0:51:46 > 0:51:50And, let's not forget, through this latest testing time,
0:51:50 > 0:51:53the British people remained phenomenally inventive and creative.
0:51:53 > 0:51:58From atomic theory to the Pill, the Beatles, the jet and the computer,
0:51:58 > 0:52:02television and the iPod, DNA and the World Wide Web,
0:52:02 > 0:52:08we still help make the modern world, as we did in the Industrial Revolution.
0:52:11 > 0:52:16And, meanwhile, the ancient Britons, with whom this story began,
0:52:16 > 0:52:19are finding their voice again.
0:52:20 > 0:52:24SPEECH IN CORNISH
0:52:25 > 0:52:29The Cornish language died out after the Civil Wars,
0:52:29 > 0:52:30but it's coming back.
0:52:31 > 0:52:34Gayver is crawfish.
0:52:34 > 0:52:38A small swimming crab which is called a velvet crab now,
0:52:38 > 0:52:40they'd call guliark.
0:52:41 > 0:52:46- Ozle.- Ozle.- That's a good word.- Shakespearean.
0:52:46 > 0:52:49Ozle can be used for everything.
0:52:49 > 0:52:53It's a piece of twine, something like that,
0:52:53 > 0:52:57although years ago it'd been cotton or hemp and then nylon.
0:52:57 > 0:53:02It's the bit of twine between the conger hook and the main back line.
0:53:04 > 0:53:07And ozles have been used for tying everything up from time
0:53:07 > 0:53:08immemorial, including the front door.
0:53:08 > 0:53:12Language is a funny thing. I was thinking about it last night.
0:53:12 > 0:53:14I just wonder if over the years
0:53:14 > 0:53:17there's probably 50 languages
0:53:17 > 0:53:19gone before we've got this far
0:53:19 > 0:53:23and I wonder there's a new one being rebuilt.
0:53:23 > 0:53:26Because the youngsters sort of do tend to grunt at each other
0:53:26 > 0:53:29and make funny noises, don't they?
0:53:29 > 0:53:31They obviously know what they're talking about
0:53:31 > 0:53:32and you can't knock 'em for it.
0:53:32 > 0:53:35It's just the way the world is. Everybody needs an ozle.
0:53:38 > 0:53:40In the British story
0:53:40 > 0:53:42nothing is ever quite lost.
0:53:42 > 0:53:44Especially with what Bede back in the eighth century called
0:53:45 > 0:53:48the original Britons.
0:53:48 > 0:53:51Welsh language poetry has continued to be the most social
0:53:51 > 0:53:55of cultural media - a media of the people
0:53:55 > 0:53:57because it's about the people.
0:54:02 > 0:54:05Telling simple stories and celebrating simple,
0:54:05 > 0:54:08but significant events.
0:54:08 > 0:54:12The birth of children, marriages, someone coming of age, for instance.
0:54:15 > 0:54:19And, of course, not just celebrating but also lamenting.
0:54:19 > 0:54:21There are poems in condolence,
0:54:21 > 0:54:24so poetry always has a very practical application,
0:54:24 > 0:54:27almost utilitarian, it becomes a service.
0:54:31 > 0:54:34It still as current now as it was
0:54:34 > 0:54:38when Aneirin was writing back then in the sixth century.
0:54:40 > 0:54:43It's in the memory. It's in the nation's memory, really.
0:54:47 > 0:54:53Official policy from London that Welsh should not be spoken in school.
0:54:53 > 0:54:58In fact what they did was they sent inspectors around the school
0:54:58 > 0:55:01and if the marks were low, if the standard was low,
0:55:01 > 0:55:03the headmaster lost his salary.
0:55:03 > 0:55:05There was a deduction in his salary.
0:55:05 > 0:55:07The easy way out was not to teach two languages,
0:55:07 > 0:55:11concentrate on English and therefore he had more money in his pocket.
0:55:11 > 0:55:13That came from London.
0:55:13 > 0:55:15It was official policy as it was in Ireland,
0:55:15 > 0:55:20so no wonder we feel we must fight for our language.
0:55:20 > 0:55:24The language is far more for us than just a cultural medium,
0:55:24 > 0:55:28it defines us in many ways.
0:55:28 > 0:55:30It almost a political expression.
0:55:40 > 0:55:43It's Royal wedding day in Birmingham.
0:55:45 > 0:55:47Just now the priest, he moves the gods to bless
0:55:47 > 0:55:51the newly married couple,
0:55:51 > 0:55:54to prosperity as well as they should have children,
0:55:54 > 0:55:56grandchildren and be happy.
0:55:58 > 0:56:00And yes they should live more than 100 years.
0:56:03 > 0:56:05"Nothing ever stands still," George Orwell wrote,
0:56:05 > 0:56:07in the dark days of 1940.
0:56:07 > 0:56:11"We must add to our heritage or lose it.
0:56:11 > 0:56:14"We must go forward or we go backward."
0:56:15 > 0:56:17I felt that their mother is not dead.
0:56:17 > 0:56:19So we all mothers will pray for them.
0:56:20 > 0:56:26This is not only a Royal wedding, it is a festival of the UK.
0:56:26 > 0:56:30We've eaten their salt. So, we have to contribute to them, isn't it?
0:56:30 > 0:56:32- Yeah?- That's lovely.- I feel that.
0:56:36 > 0:56:39We can still shock the world.
0:56:39 > 0:56:42Not in terms of territory, military kit
0:56:42 > 0:56:45but in terms of our education,
0:56:45 > 0:56:47our science and technology,
0:56:47 > 0:56:51the quality of our democracy - all sorts of things.
0:56:51 > 0:56:54We can still be an exceptional nation, if we want to be,
0:56:54 > 0:56:56far greater than the sum of our parts.
0:56:59 > 0:57:01There you are, a swift snapshot of our story,
0:57:01 > 0:57:04taken between the Royal Wedding of 2011
0:57:04 > 0:57:06and the Jubilee of 2012.
0:57:08 > 0:57:12If you view British history, not from the point of view
0:57:12 > 0:57:16of the Kings and Queens from the palaces of the rich and powerful,
0:57:16 > 0:57:21but from the street, the Govan Road in Glasgow.
0:57:21 > 0:57:24From Liverpool, from the potteries and the Black country
0:57:24 > 0:57:28and the Rhondda, then you start to see the common experiences
0:57:28 > 0:57:30that bind us as Britons.
0:57:30 > 0:57:35The civil wars of the 17th-century, industrialisation,
0:57:35 > 0:57:39Empire, world wars, the post-industrial decline
0:57:39 > 0:57:44that we first of all in world history, have had to negotiate.
0:57:44 > 0:57:50Then, you see our history, our tribal identities as Britons
0:57:50 > 0:57:55in a 21st century may still seem obstinately distinct,
0:57:55 > 0:57:59but our destinies, are inextricably bound together.
0:58:01 > 0:58:04- I'm a Midlander. - We're from Liverpool.
0:58:04 > 0:58:06Londonderry.
0:58:06 > 0:58:08- I'm English.- I'm Irish.
0:58:08 > 0:58:10BOTH: We're English and Irish.
0:58:11 > 0:58:16BOTH: We're from Northern Ireland but our grandfather's from Brazil.
0:58:16 > 0:58:18I'll always be Scottish and proud to be Scottish.
0:58:18 > 0:58:20I'm a Liverpudlian from Britain.
0:58:20 > 0:58:22I am British but I'm a Kent girl at heart.
0:58:22 > 0:58:25I'm a Geordie living in Leicestershire.
0:58:25 > 0:58:27And I'm a Yorkshireman living in Leicestershire.
0:58:27 > 0:58:31- English. - Definitely London, English, yeah.
0:58:31 > 0:58:35I love the Irish heritage of my family.
0:58:35 > 0:58:37It's Glasgow where I want to be.
0:58:37 > 0:58:39British Indian.
0:58:39 > 0:58:40British.
0:58:40 > 0:58:44English, African and almost adopted Scouser.
0:58:44 > 0:58:48English, Mancunian and a huge Huddersfield town fan.
0:58:53 > 0:58:56Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd