1 00:00:01,960 --> 00:00:05,120 This programme contains some strong language. 2 00:00:05,120 --> 00:00:08,560 Today, Britain stands at a fork in its crossroads. 3 00:00:08,560 --> 00:00:11,320 And its people are asking questions. 4 00:00:11,320 --> 00:00:14,360 Now we've got our country back - what actually is it? 5 00:00:14,360 --> 00:00:17,320 Who are we? And why? 6 00:00:17,320 --> 00:00:20,080 The best way to find out where Britain's heading 7 00:00:20,080 --> 00:00:23,920 is to look behind us into something called history - 8 00:00:23,920 --> 00:00:26,440 a sort of rear view mirror for time. 9 00:00:26,440 --> 00:00:28,280 So that's where I'm going. 10 00:00:28,280 --> 00:00:30,080 Back there. 11 00:00:30,080 --> 00:00:34,400 It's a journey that'll take me the length and width of the country. 12 00:00:34,400 --> 00:00:39,160 On my odyssey, I'll be starting sentences in one location, 13 00:00:39,160 --> 00:00:42,200 and finishing them in another. 14 00:00:42,200 --> 00:00:45,280 And looking at some of the biggest faces in British history, 15 00:00:45,280 --> 00:00:48,000 and asking other people's faces about them. 16 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:53,000 What was the difference between punk rock and just being angry 17 00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:55,280 but without a guitar? 18 00:00:55,280 --> 00:00:59,280 All of it taking place in this skepterred isle we call home. 19 00:00:59,280 --> 00:01:01,760 So join me, Philomena Cunk, 20 00:01:01,760 --> 00:01:03,480 as I take you right up the history 21 00:01:03,480 --> 00:01:05,600 of the United Britain of Great Kingdom. 22 00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:08,520 This... is Cunk On Britain. 23 00:01:22,280 --> 00:01:23,760 Throughout this series 24 00:01:23,760 --> 00:01:27,080 I've been on a journey up through Britain's history. 25 00:01:27,080 --> 00:01:29,160 Now I'm almost at the end of that road, 26 00:01:29,160 --> 00:01:33,120 at the point where olden times end and now times begin. 27 00:01:33,120 --> 00:01:37,360 A time when the archive footage goes colour at long fucking last, 28 00:01:37,360 --> 00:01:40,040 and some things you might have actually heard of happened. 29 00:01:40,040 --> 00:01:43,600 It's the story of how Britain went from the 1960s 30 00:01:43,600 --> 00:01:46,120 to this very moment now. 31 00:01:46,120 --> 00:01:47,520 And this moment. 32 00:01:47,520 --> 00:01:48,840 And this one. 33 00:01:48,840 --> 00:01:50,360 And also this. 34 00:01:50,360 --> 00:01:54,040 And found itself here and now, at the arse end of history. 35 00:01:55,360 --> 00:01:58,600 Britain had been uptight ever since Victorian times, 36 00:01:58,600 --> 00:02:01,680 and having two world wars on top of that had really knocked the fun 37 00:02:01,680 --> 00:02:03,200 out of everyone. 38 00:02:03,200 --> 00:02:05,960 Men had to wear bowler hats issued by the government, 39 00:02:05,960 --> 00:02:09,680 and their only form of entertainment was reading boring newspapers. 40 00:02:09,680 --> 00:02:12,120 They weren't even allowed to get erections 41 00:02:12,120 --> 00:02:14,720 and had to make do with a stiff upper lip instead. 42 00:02:14,720 --> 00:02:17,440 Meanwhile, women had to stay at home washing clothes, 43 00:02:17,440 --> 00:02:19,520 raising hundreds of children by hand, 44 00:02:19,520 --> 00:02:22,680 and agreeing with their husbands. The only form of personal expression 45 00:02:22,680 --> 00:02:25,280 they were allowed was wearing pointy glasses. 46 00:02:25,280 --> 00:02:28,920 But all that was about to change thanks to four boys from Liverpool - 47 00:02:28,920 --> 00:02:31,120 George, Ringo and their guitarists. 48 00:02:31,120 --> 00:02:34,400 A pop band called The Beatles. 49 00:02:34,400 --> 00:02:37,600 Some brave volunteers among the British police elect to act 50 00:02:37,600 --> 00:02:39,800 with heroism above and beyond the call of duty 51 00:02:39,800 --> 00:02:42,960 and escort The Beatles to their car... 52 00:02:42,960 --> 00:02:46,120 These Beatles didn't have six legs. They had eight legs. Like a spider. 53 00:02:46,120 --> 00:02:49,440 Everywhere they went, girls screamed. Like with a spider. 54 00:02:49,440 --> 00:02:52,560 But unlike spiders, The Beatles never crawled into anyone's mouth 55 00:02:52,560 --> 00:02:54,000 when they were asleep. 56 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:57,200 Instead they sang, which scientists claim spiders don't. 57 00:02:57,200 --> 00:02:59,760 The Beatles started from humble beginnings. 58 00:02:59,760 --> 00:03:02,640 In the early days they couldn't afford individual haircuts, 59 00:03:02,640 --> 00:03:05,520 and had to copy and paste the same one onto each of their heads. 60 00:03:05,520 --> 00:03:08,160 And they had to share a microphone to save money. 61 00:03:08,160 --> 00:03:10,560 But their catchy jingles were so infectious 62 00:03:10,560 --> 00:03:13,400 they soon lead to an epidemic called Beatlemania. 63 00:03:13,400 --> 00:03:15,840 And The Beatles wanted to hold your hand, 64 00:03:15,840 --> 00:03:18,680 which only made the disease spread faster. 65 00:03:18,680 --> 00:03:20,800 Soon it spread across the Atlantic to America, 66 00:03:20,800 --> 00:03:22,520 a country which was still there. 67 00:03:22,520 --> 00:03:25,200 There are rumours around that this is Britain's revenge 68 00:03:25,200 --> 00:03:27,840 for the Boston Tea Party. 69 00:03:27,840 --> 00:03:30,640 While The Beatles were in the USA they started to become influenced 70 00:03:30,640 --> 00:03:33,560 by the hippies - which were sort of American Wombles. 71 00:03:33,560 --> 00:03:36,960 They experimented with a drug called LUZZD which made the user 72 00:03:36,960 --> 00:03:39,240 see and hear things that weren't really happening - 73 00:03:39,240 --> 00:03:40,640 a bit like Netflix. 74 00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:42,520 Their music turned psychopathic. 75 00:03:42,520 --> 00:03:44,960 Rather than churning out more simple love songs, 76 00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:46,800 thanks to psychopathic drugs, 77 00:03:46,800 --> 00:03:50,520 The Beatles began to sing about deeper, more meaningful things. 78 00:03:58,720 --> 00:04:04,040 The Beatles created some incredible music whilst they were on drugs. 79 00:04:04,040 --> 00:04:06,560 Did they not have dope testing back then? 80 00:04:06,560 --> 00:04:09,320 How come they weren't disqualified from the charts? 81 00:04:09,320 --> 00:04:13,720 Well, erm, as a matter of fact there were songs they did 82 00:04:13,720 --> 00:04:17,840 that the BBC, who in those days were most of the radio stations, 83 00:04:17,840 --> 00:04:20,760 thought were references to drug taking 84 00:04:20,760 --> 00:04:22,960 so they did ban them from the charts. 85 00:04:22,960 --> 00:04:27,600 It's weird that The Beatles LSD songs are so happy, isn't it, 86 00:04:27,600 --> 00:04:31,080 because LSD isn't always a happy experience. 87 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:36,360 Like, my mate Paul met this Italian couple whilst he was backpacking 88 00:04:36,360 --> 00:04:40,760 and they invited him back to their room for a threesome. 89 00:04:40,760 --> 00:04:44,480 And they gave him some LSD and when they got there the bloke one 90 00:04:44,480 --> 00:04:47,640 pulled a screwdriver on him and made him shit in his own shoe 91 00:04:47,640 --> 00:04:51,480 and eat it, whilst the woman one filmed it. 92 00:04:51,480 --> 00:04:53,040 And that's a side of drug use 93 00:04:53,040 --> 00:04:55,400 that Paul McCartney doesn't sing about, isn't it? 94 00:04:55,400 --> 00:04:57,840 No, I think, luckily, that... 95 00:04:57,840 --> 00:05:01,880 That kind of experience never came his way. Hmm. 96 00:05:01,880 --> 00:05:05,040 During one LUZZD expedition, or "trip", 97 00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:09,160 The Beatles became the first Britons to discover the existence of colour. 98 00:05:09,160 --> 00:05:12,800 And like Sir Walter Raleigh and his potatoes, they took their discovery 99 00:05:12,800 --> 00:05:17,600 home to the UK, where it caught on like hot cakes of wildfire. 100 00:05:17,600 --> 00:05:21,040 Britain went overnight from grey to groovy. 101 00:05:22,200 --> 00:05:24,760 Suddenly it was cool to ignore society 102 00:05:24,760 --> 00:05:26,760 and just be whoever you wanted to be, 103 00:05:26,760 --> 00:05:29,480 as long as you had fashionable hair and flamboyant clothing 104 00:05:29,480 --> 00:05:31,440 like everybody else. 105 00:05:31,440 --> 00:05:33,440 A pearl mink miniskirt. 106 00:05:35,720 --> 00:05:37,640 Must be tailor-made for the freeze. 107 00:05:39,960 --> 00:05:44,920 Were miniskirts actually shorter or did they just appear that way 108 00:05:44,920 --> 00:05:47,760 cos people's legs were getting longer? 109 00:05:47,760 --> 00:05:51,440 They were actually quite a lot shorter. 110 00:05:51,440 --> 00:05:54,960 And they got shorter as the '60s went on. 111 00:05:54,960 --> 00:05:57,040 Was there a miniskirt for men? 112 00:05:57,040 --> 00:06:00,400 You know like trousers that just stopped under the balls? 113 00:06:00,400 --> 00:06:03,800 No, there wasn't. There wasn't a miniskirt for... for men. 114 00:06:03,800 --> 00:06:06,800 That seems like a shame. For whom? For men. 115 00:06:06,800 --> 00:06:09,520 So they didn't feel left out, you know. 116 00:06:09,520 --> 00:06:13,920 And it must be nice to have that sort of... air circulating. 117 00:06:13,920 --> 00:06:16,040 But it wasn't just clothes that were changing. 118 00:06:16,040 --> 00:06:19,920 The sexual revolution was coming, and the country was lapping it up. 119 00:06:19,920 --> 00:06:24,400 Much of the change was due to this - the pill - a condom you could eat. 120 00:06:24,400 --> 00:06:27,880 A sort of "Get Out of Child Free" card, that meant at last 121 00:06:27,880 --> 00:06:30,600 women could have sex for fun, with any man of their choosing, 122 00:06:30,600 --> 00:06:32,240 for two or three minutes, 123 00:06:32,240 --> 00:06:35,560 until he spaffed off, rolled over and went to sleep. 124 00:06:35,560 --> 00:06:38,760 Some women were having so much sex they decided to burn their bras 125 00:06:38,760 --> 00:06:42,000 cos it was quicker than putting them on and taking them off all the time. 126 00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:43,560 Free love was all the rage. 127 00:06:43,560 --> 00:06:46,280 Thanks to the pill, sex was turned on its head. 128 00:06:46,280 --> 00:06:47,480 And its back. 129 00:06:47,480 --> 00:06:48,840 And over the table. 130 00:06:48,840 --> 00:06:50,600 People let it all hang out, 131 00:06:50,600 --> 00:06:53,360 like your dad doing the gardening in loose shorts. 132 00:06:53,360 --> 00:06:55,920 And the law was catching up with the times. 133 00:06:55,920 --> 00:06:58,280 For years, homosexuality was illegal 134 00:06:58,280 --> 00:07:01,600 and gay men were sent to prison where, as punishment, they'd have to 135 00:07:01,600 --> 00:07:05,000 share a tiny room with a man, for years. 136 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:08,040 But in the '60s, same-sex sex was decriminalized. 137 00:07:08,040 --> 00:07:10,360 It was a time of liberation. 138 00:07:10,360 --> 00:07:13,280 Soon everyone in Britain was swinging. 139 00:07:13,280 --> 00:07:16,760 Except convicted murderers, because hanging had just been abolished. 140 00:07:16,760 --> 00:07:20,160 For the first time ever, Britain was cool, not just the weather. 141 00:07:20,160 --> 00:07:23,200 Britain even decided to be cool at sport. 142 00:07:23,200 --> 00:07:24,880 England, the posh bit of Britain, 143 00:07:24,880 --> 00:07:28,160 brought back memories of the war by beating the Germans again. 144 00:07:28,160 --> 00:07:32,320 This time they bounced a ball into a net, rather than a bomb into a dam, 145 00:07:32,320 --> 00:07:35,280 killing far fewer civilians and coining the infamous phrase 146 00:07:35,280 --> 00:07:38,280 "They think it's all over, presented by Nick Hancock." 147 00:07:38,280 --> 00:07:40,760 Things were really looking up. 148 00:07:40,760 --> 00:07:44,280 But the fun, like a Toblerone, couldn't last forever, 149 00:07:44,280 --> 00:07:47,880 and almost as quickly as the '60s had arrived, they were over, 150 00:07:47,880 --> 00:07:52,280 give or take ten years. And now it was the 1970s turn to happen. 151 00:07:53,720 --> 00:07:55,920 The 1970s was a time of great change 152 00:07:55,920 --> 00:07:58,200 and the first change was the economy. 153 00:07:58,200 --> 00:08:01,600 Britain had a new Prime Minister, Edward Heath. 154 00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:04,440 With his love of yachts, classical music and church organs, 155 00:08:04,440 --> 00:08:07,040 Edward Heath seemed to be a real man of the people. 156 00:08:07,040 --> 00:08:10,440 But Heath soon found himself facing a financial crisis, 157 00:08:10,440 --> 00:08:14,600 the likes of which the world only sees about every ten years or so. 158 00:08:14,600 --> 00:08:17,240 Thanks to inflation, prices were getting bigger, 159 00:08:17,240 --> 00:08:18,920 while wages were getting smaller. 160 00:08:18,920 --> 00:08:20,720 The country was in chaos. 161 00:08:20,720 --> 00:08:23,320 Britain was said to have "the British disease". 162 00:08:23,320 --> 00:08:25,280 And there was no known cure. 163 00:08:25,280 --> 00:08:27,400 Apart from not to be Britain any more. 164 00:08:27,400 --> 00:08:31,520 Which is why Ted Heath insisted we should became part of Europe. 165 00:08:31,520 --> 00:08:34,280 Soon Britain entered the European Common Market, 166 00:08:34,280 --> 00:08:37,480 in what should have been called Brentrance, but wasn't. 167 00:08:37,480 --> 00:08:40,800 It was so perfect we held a referendum to check 168 00:08:40,800 --> 00:08:42,760 whether Britain should stay in Europe... 169 00:08:42,760 --> 00:08:46,480 Yes is now at 67% and the no vote at 33%. 170 00:08:46,480 --> 00:08:49,120 .. and it turned out everybody was happy with the idea, 171 00:08:49,120 --> 00:08:52,800 as a majority secretly are today but daren't mention. 172 00:08:52,800 --> 00:08:55,080 But things were still rubbish. 173 00:08:55,080 --> 00:08:58,680 There was rising unemployment, widespread industrial action 174 00:08:58,680 --> 00:09:01,760 and an energy crisis, which meant for the first time 175 00:09:01,760 --> 00:09:05,200 people had to justify how much electricity they were using. 176 00:09:05,200 --> 00:09:08,840 But elsewhere on the estate, one bar of an electric fire 177 00:09:08,840 --> 00:09:11,760 was heating a defiant old-age pensioner. 178 00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:16,160 If we don't need two bars on, well, we don't have two bars on. 179 00:09:16,160 --> 00:09:19,400 If we need two bars on we put two bars on! 180 00:09:19,400 --> 00:09:22,880 It's like... It's not... It's logic. It's human nature. 181 00:09:22,880 --> 00:09:25,600 So if the weather suddenly turns very cold again you're probably 182 00:09:25,600 --> 00:09:27,640 going to have to put the other bar on, are you? 183 00:09:27,640 --> 00:09:31,760 I'll put the other bar on and a reflector. I'll have the lot on. 184 00:09:31,760 --> 00:09:34,120 Soon power cuts became all the rage. 185 00:09:34,120 --> 00:09:37,160 Because the lights kept going out at a moment's notice, 186 00:09:37,160 --> 00:09:40,640 plunging everyone into darkness, there was no point dressing nicely. 187 00:09:40,640 --> 00:09:44,200 And as a result the world of fashion decided to simply give up. 188 00:09:44,200 --> 00:09:47,080 Every item of clothing in the world went off overnight. 189 00:09:47,080 --> 00:09:50,120 And the sickness spread to haircuts, which caught Dutch elm disease 190 00:09:50,120 --> 00:09:52,040 and became horribly disfigured. 191 00:09:52,040 --> 00:09:54,840 Even the air and the sky started to look dingy and awful, 192 00:09:54,840 --> 00:09:57,240 and like it was all filmed underwater. 193 00:09:57,240 --> 00:10:00,760 To cap it all, in Northern Ireland, a civil war was breaking out, 194 00:10:00,760 --> 00:10:03,280 but so as not to scare anyone, they didn't call it a civil war, 195 00:10:03,280 --> 00:10:06,280 they just called it The Troubles, like it was a tummy bug or something. 196 00:10:06,280 --> 00:10:10,360 People were angry and all that pent-up fury had to go somewhere. 197 00:10:10,360 --> 00:10:14,520 Conditions were ripe for a musical explosion known as punk. 198 00:10:33,320 --> 00:10:35,600 As you can see from this searing performance, 199 00:10:35,600 --> 00:10:38,880 the punks were antisocial, cynical, and dangerous. 200 00:10:38,880 --> 00:10:43,960 And no punk band was bigger or more shockinger than the Sex Pistons. 201 00:10:50,240 --> 00:10:53,600 They had shocking names like Johnny Bottom and Sid Knickers, 202 00:10:53,600 --> 00:10:56,120 they wore shocking home-made clothes, 203 00:10:56,120 --> 00:10:58,040 and put hankies on their heads, 204 00:10:58,040 --> 00:11:01,880 hence their famous call to arms - Handkerchiefs in the UK. 205 00:11:01,880 --> 00:11:05,440 But the most shocking thing they did was swearing on TV, 206 00:11:05,440 --> 00:11:09,680 an incident so outrageous that in the time since it first happened, 207 00:11:09,680 --> 00:11:12,840 it's only ever been seen again three, or maybe four hundred times, 208 00:11:12,840 --> 00:11:14,680 in music documentaries. 209 00:11:14,680 --> 00:11:18,320 It's what? Nothing. A rude word. Next question. 210 00:11:18,320 --> 00:11:20,600 No, no, what was the rude word? 211 00:11:20,600 --> 00:11:21,760 Shit. 212 00:11:21,760 --> 00:11:23,600 Was it really? Good heavens! 213 00:11:23,600 --> 00:11:28,280 The Sex Pistols were fired, weren't they, as TV presenters? 214 00:11:28,280 --> 00:11:30,200 What was all that about? 215 00:11:30,200 --> 00:11:33,760 Well, I think the thing about the Sex Pistols were that they were... 216 00:11:33,760 --> 00:11:36,080 They had a lot of impact cos they got a lot of, you know, 217 00:11:36,080 --> 00:11:39,320 shock value and sensation in the papers and on telly. 218 00:11:39,320 --> 00:11:41,560 And they help really launch the movement of punk 219 00:11:41,560 --> 00:11:44,000 because everybody knew about what they were up to. 220 00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:46,800 But I don't understand why they got fired on the telly? 221 00:11:46,800 --> 00:11:50,440 Well, they swore. Oh, right, yeah. OK. 222 00:11:50,440 --> 00:11:53,000 That was quite shocking back then, wasn't it? Back then it was. 223 00:11:53,000 --> 00:11:54,640 Not now though, really. No. 224 00:11:54,640 --> 00:11:57,680 Now you'd have to do something much bigger, wouldn't you? Yeah. 225 00:11:57,680 --> 00:12:00,800 You'd have to like do a poo on The One Show or something. Yes. 226 00:12:00,800 --> 00:12:03,720 Even then, you know, you might not get fired. 227 00:12:03,720 --> 00:12:09,120 What if you then sort of hoike your trousers up without even wiping? 228 00:12:09,120 --> 00:12:12,920 But punk wasn't the only sign the country had gone to the dogs. 229 00:12:12,920 --> 00:12:16,000 In 1978, literally everyone went on strike in 230 00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:17,920 the Winter Of Discomfort. 231 00:12:17,920 --> 00:12:22,520 Even punks went on strike, refusing to put on their punk uniforms 232 00:12:22,520 --> 00:12:25,280 and instead dressing like normal people. 233 00:12:25,280 --> 00:12:28,880 Something had to be done, so it was decided to start the 1980s 234 00:12:28,880 --> 00:12:33,880 a year early, with the election of a new Prime Minister in 1979 - 235 00:12:33,880 --> 00:12:35,280 Margaret Thatcher. 236 00:12:35,280 --> 00:12:37,760 Street name: Mrs. 237 00:12:37,760 --> 00:12:42,920 Her Majesty the Queen has asked me to form a new administration. 238 00:12:42,920 --> 00:12:45,000 Thatcher's election was a watershed. 239 00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:48,000 It proved that absolutely anyone could become Prime Minister, 240 00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:51,200 provided they went to Oxford and married a millionaire. 241 00:12:51,200 --> 00:12:54,920 As well as a uterus, Mrs Thatcher had a vision. 242 00:12:54,920 --> 00:12:56,440 An economic vision. 243 00:12:56,440 --> 00:12:58,160 With all coins up it. 244 00:12:58,160 --> 00:13:00,120 She believed in laissez faire economics - 245 00:13:00,120 --> 00:13:01,840 which is French for something, 246 00:13:01,840 --> 00:13:04,800 and then English again for the "economics" bit. 247 00:13:04,800 --> 00:13:09,680 OK, let's pretend it's the 1980s and I'm Margaret Thatcher. 248 00:13:09,680 --> 00:13:11,640 This is a political interview. 249 00:13:11,640 --> 00:13:13,000 What would you ask me? 250 00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:17,440 I think I would start by asking, 251 00:13:17,440 --> 00:13:22,160 if this was, erm, the early part 252 00:13:22,160 --> 00:13:23,960 of her period in office, 253 00:13:23,960 --> 00:13:28,600 erm, why she was setting interest rates so high, 254 00:13:28,600 --> 00:13:32,400 why she was allowing the exchange rate to go so high 255 00:13:32,400 --> 00:13:38,680 in a way that was really damaging British industry and, er, 256 00:13:38,680 --> 00:13:42,840 causing a huge rise in unemployment, 257 00:13:42,840 --> 00:13:48,800 and didn't she think that she was causing huge, unnecessary suffering? 258 00:13:48,800 --> 00:13:53,360 You're not expecting me to answer that, seriously. 259 00:13:53,360 --> 00:13:55,920 Mrs Thatcher had saved the nation from chaos 260 00:13:55,920 --> 00:13:58,200 with her tough economic policies, 261 00:13:58,200 --> 00:14:02,680 and a grateful nation erupted into lively street parties. 262 00:14:02,680 --> 00:14:05,680 The sense of jubilation continued during the royal wedding 263 00:14:05,680 --> 00:14:07,080 of the century. 264 00:14:07,080 --> 00:14:09,000 It was a dream come true, 265 00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:11,840 as the then future and still future King of England, 266 00:14:11,840 --> 00:14:13,440 the Prince of Charles, 267 00:14:13,440 --> 00:14:15,640 married one of the three people in his marriage, 268 00:14:15,640 --> 00:14:19,160 the future Queen of Hearts, Lady Diana Frank Spencer, 269 00:14:19,160 --> 00:14:22,320 in a wedding just like something from a fairy tale, 270 00:14:22,320 --> 00:14:26,280 except without a wolf or dwarves or a beanstalk, or a happy ending. 271 00:14:26,280 --> 00:14:30,000 But while people waved flags like idiots at home, 272 00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:33,760 trouble was brewing overseas, at a faraway corner of foreign Britain 273 00:14:33,760 --> 00:14:36,440 known as the Isle of Falklands Island. 274 00:14:36,440 --> 00:14:40,120 This island was invaded by Argentinas, 275 00:14:40,120 --> 00:14:42,880 who'd mistaken it for an identical island they'd left lying around 276 00:14:42,880 --> 00:14:45,880 in exactly the same place a few centuries ago. 277 00:14:45,880 --> 00:14:49,640 Mrs Thatcher immediately fought back by bravely ordering troops 278 00:14:49,640 --> 00:14:51,800 to fight and die on her behalf. 279 00:14:51,800 --> 00:14:53,440 And soon that famous flag, 280 00:14:53,440 --> 00:14:58,760 the Onion Jack, was flying over the Isle of Falklands Island once again. 281 00:14:58,760 --> 00:15:02,640 Beating the Argentines at war sealed Mrs Thatcher's reputation 282 00:15:02,640 --> 00:15:06,680 as a tough guy so much that people started to call her the Iron Lady. 283 00:15:06,680 --> 00:15:09,720 And she soon got another chance to prove just how hard she was, 284 00:15:09,720 --> 00:15:12,880 not in a major war but a minor strike. 285 00:15:12,880 --> 00:15:16,440 During Mrs Thatcher's reign there was the Minor's Strike, 286 00:15:16,440 --> 00:15:17,680 wasn't there? Yeah, yeah. 287 00:15:17,680 --> 00:15:20,160 Why was it considered minor? 288 00:15:20,160 --> 00:15:22,560 It wasn't considered minor. 289 00:15:22,560 --> 00:15:25,400 It was a strike by miners. 290 00:15:25,400 --> 00:15:28,920 People who go, you know, underground and dig out coal. 291 00:15:28,920 --> 00:15:30,920 Right. What's a mine? 292 00:15:30,920 --> 00:15:34,080 So a mine is the underground construction 293 00:15:34,080 --> 00:15:36,000 where you dig out the coal. 294 00:15:36,000 --> 00:15:38,360 Right. What's coal? 295 00:15:38,360 --> 00:15:43,600 So, coal is this black, er, rock that you burn. 296 00:15:43,600 --> 00:15:45,040 Right. 297 00:15:45,040 --> 00:15:47,720 And that's grown underground? And that's underground. 298 00:15:47,720 --> 00:15:51,080 So the min-ers go in the mine... They do. 299 00:15:51,080 --> 00:15:53,120 .. and they get the coal. And they get the coal. 300 00:15:53,120 --> 00:15:55,440 And then they went on strike. Yeah. 301 00:15:55,440 --> 00:15:58,640 The miners' struck their strike in 1984, led by their leader, 302 00:15:58,640 --> 00:16:00,280 Arthur Scarface. 303 00:16:00,280 --> 00:16:02,400 If we've got to suffer, 304 00:16:02,400 --> 00:16:05,280 through November and December we'll beat this... 305 00:16:07,760 --> 00:16:12,640 Thatcher refused to back down and soon the two sides were at war. 306 00:16:12,640 --> 00:16:13,720 A class war. 307 00:16:13,720 --> 00:16:17,160 The rich police on their horses in their smart uniforms, 308 00:16:17,160 --> 00:16:20,040 and the poor dirty miners fighting with bits of coal. 309 00:16:20,040 --> 00:16:22,880 It was like something out of the Russian Revolution. 310 00:16:22,880 --> 00:16:24,520 Except it was happening here. 311 00:16:24,520 --> 00:16:25,680 In Britain. 312 00:16:25,680 --> 00:16:27,040 Somewhere near you. 313 00:16:27,040 --> 00:16:28,800 If you lived near a mine. 314 00:16:28,800 --> 00:16:30,280 The miners' strike, 315 00:16:30,280 --> 00:16:33,120 perhaps the most bitter dispute Britain had seen in years, 316 00:16:33,120 --> 00:16:36,840 tore generations apart, before ending in 1985 - 317 00:16:36,840 --> 00:16:40,160 one whole year before the terrestrial broadcast premiere 318 00:16:40,160 --> 00:16:42,960 of the BBC sitcom Brush Strokes. 319 00:17:12,400 --> 00:17:15,720 With the miners crushed, like miners in a bad mine, 320 00:17:15,720 --> 00:17:18,640 Thatcher was free to pursue her economic dreams 321 00:17:18,640 --> 00:17:21,800 by privatizing some of Britain's biggest assets. 322 00:17:21,800 --> 00:17:24,960 Thanks to the big sell off, anyone could get rich, 323 00:17:24,960 --> 00:17:27,800 providing they had loads of spare money already - 324 00:17:27,800 --> 00:17:30,320 a system still in use to this day. 325 00:17:30,320 --> 00:17:32,560 Suddenly having money was cool 326 00:17:32,560 --> 00:17:37,240 and no-one had more money than the yuppies, or Young Urban Twats. 327 00:17:37,240 --> 00:17:42,040 To be a 1980s yuppie, did you have to qualify as a wanker first 328 00:17:42,040 --> 00:17:43,800 and then just work your way up? 329 00:17:43,800 --> 00:17:47,880 Eh... I think some people identified as yuppies but it was also, 330 00:17:47,880 --> 00:17:52,360 I think, used as an insult in the 1980s. 331 00:17:52,360 --> 00:17:58,600 I've seen footage of yuppies holding Filofaxes and mobile phones. 332 00:17:58,600 --> 00:18:04,400 Er, are they still in that footage or where are they now? 333 00:18:05,520 --> 00:18:07,120 Er, where are they now? 334 00:18:07,120 --> 00:18:11,240 Well, they're sort of 30 years older now so... 335 00:18:11,240 --> 00:18:13,440 So they're not in that footage any more? 336 00:18:13,440 --> 00:18:16,320 Well, that footage is historical so... 337 00:18:16,320 --> 00:18:20,760 So if you look back at that footage it'll just be empty? No... 338 00:18:20,760 --> 00:18:22,800 Cos that person has now left. 339 00:18:22,800 --> 00:18:26,360 No, the footage is... is... is a recording of what happened 340 00:18:26,360 --> 00:18:27,840 in the past. 341 00:18:27,840 --> 00:18:30,360 So the footage stays the same but those people, 342 00:18:30,360 --> 00:18:32,840 we don't know what's happened to them. 343 00:18:32,840 --> 00:18:36,560 But what... What of their Filofaxes? What happened to them? 344 00:18:36,560 --> 00:18:39,560 It seemed like a golden age of twattery. 345 00:18:39,560 --> 00:18:44,440 But Thatcher's luck couldn't last forever and as the 1990s approached 346 00:18:44,440 --> 00:18:49,040 she got too ambitious, by unveiling the controversial Paul Tax. 347 00:18:49,040 --> 00:18:51,320 A tax on people called Paul. 348 00:18:51,320 --> 00:18:53,560 And they were furious. 349 00:18:53,560 --> 00:18:56,160 Following a wave of protests, 350 00:18:56,160 --> 00:18:59,240 Thatcher wound up on her Iron Arse, leaving Downing Street crying 351 00:18:59,240 --> 00:19:03,920 tears down her face, which she'd never done before in case it rusted. 352 00:19:06,720 --> 00:19:10,600 The next Prime Minister, Major John, was as fearsome as he looked, 353 00:19:10,600 --> 00:19:14,480 and he presided over yet another depressing period of recession. 354 00:19:16,440 --> 00:19:19,080 Britain was in a right state, not only financially 355 00:19:19,080 --> 00:19:22,320 but also economically, and in money terms, too. 356 00:19:22,320 --> 00:19:26,680 The only hope was that we could somehow paint and sing our way out. 357 00:19:26,680 --> 00:19:29,200 It was an art and culture renaissance. 358 00:19:29,200 --> 00:19:33,400 An era defined by Oasis, The Spice Girls, Swede, 359 00:19:33,400 --> 00:19:38,120 Chris Evans, Take This, Damien Hurts, The Proddy Guy, 360 00:19:38,120 --> 00:19:43,720 Trainspotting, Chris Evans, Mr Blobby, Jamie Oliver, mopeds, 361 00:19:43,720 --> 00:19:46,240 ironic wanking, The Italian Job, 362 00:19:46,240 --> 00:19:49,520 Chris Evans, Chris Evans, and Chris Evans. 363 00:19:49,520 --> 00:19:54,440 But one name sums up the nineties better than anyone else: Blur. 364 00:19:54,440 --> 00:19:56,280 In the 1997 election, 365 00:19:56,280 --> 00:20:00,720 why do you think more people voted for Tony Blur than Oasis? 366 00:20:02,040 --> 00:20:06,040 You're making, erm, a mistake which was quite common at the time 367 00:20:06,040 --> 00:20:08,480 because the Prime Minister, or Labour Party leader 368 00:20:08,480 --> 00:20:11,280 at the time, was called Tony Blair. 369 00:20:11,280 --> 00:20:13,120 Blur. Blair. 370 00:20:13,120 --> 00:20:15,120 Blur. Blair. Blur. 371 00:20:16,680 --> 00:20:18,080 Blair. Blur. 372 00:20:18,080 --> 00:20:20,320 Tony Blair was... Blur. Blair. Blur. 373 00:20:20,320 --> 00:20:25,360 .. was Prime Minister and leader of the Labour Party and there was one 374 00:20:25,360 --> 00:20:29,200 of the biggest, erm, rock or pop bands of the time was Blur. 375 00:20:29,200 --> 00:20:31,080 Blur. Blur. 376 00:20:31,080 --> 00:20:32,160 Yeah. 377 00:20:32,160 --> 00:20:33,680 It's hard to remember today, 378 00:20:33,680 --> 00:20:36,760 but Blur and Blair were actually two different things. 379 00:20:36,760 --> 00:20:41,400 Blur were a rock band locked into a notorious rivalry with Oasis. 380 00:20:41,400 --> 00:20:44,160 Oasis were rough-and-tumble lads from Manchester, 381 00:20:44,160 --> 00:20:47,720 whereas Blur were from art school, which is the opposite of Manchester. 382 00:20:47,720 --> 00:20:50,160 And that's why they hated each other. 383 00:20:50,160 --> 00:20:53,640 Tony Blur, meanwhile, was a guitarist and D: ream fan, 384 00:20:53,640 --> 00:20:57,600 who reinvented the Labour Party and rode it to victory at the election. 385 00:20:57,600 --> 00:20:59,720 Blur hosted a party at Number Ten, 386 00:20:59,720 --> 00:21:02,480 inviting lots of the Cool Britannia crowd 387 00:21:02,480 --> 00:21:05,360 and immediately making them much less cool. 388 00:21:05,360 --> 00:21:08,040 Anyone who was anyone who was a massive prick was there. 389 00:21:08,040 --> 00:21:11,800 But the party atmosphere was interrupted by tragedy. 390 00:21:11,800 --> 00:21:15,560 Diana's death couldn't have come at a worse time for a nation 391 00:21:15,560 --> 00:21:18,920 that had just got really into being judgmental about her sex life. 392 00:21:18,920 --> 00:21:21,760 The sense of loss was shocking. 393 00:21:21,760 --> 00:21:24,720 It's hard to convey the atmosphere to younger viewers, 394 00:21:24,720 --> 00:21:27,720 although it's fair to say the general mood was... 395 00:21:27,720 --> 00:21:29,760 And also... 396 00:21:29,760 --> 00:21:32,520 But because emojis hadn't yet been invented, 397 00:21:32,520 --> 00:21:34,080 people had to cry with their faces. 398 00:21:34,080 --> 00:21:38,560 Millions looked to the Queen to pull a ceremonial sad face in solidarity. 399 00:21:38,560 --> 00:21:40,880 But with the monarch constitutionally forbidden 400 00:21:40,880 --> 00:21:44,520 to express emotion, their pleas fell on deaf tear ducts. 401 00:21:44,520 --> 00:21:47,800 Tony Blur stepped in to say what needed to be said. 402 00:21:47,800 --> 00:21:50,000 He called Diana "the Peebles Princes." 403 00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:51,880 "She was the People's Princess." 404 00:21:51,880 --> 00:21:54,720 Even though she wasn't from Peebles, she was from Norfolk, 405 00:21:54,720 --> 00:21:58,560 but sometimes the facts aren't as important as how something sounds. 406 00:21:58,560 --> 00:22:02,040 It was the first step on a post-pop career that turned the 407 00:22:02,040 --> 00:22:07,400 Prime Minister into a living saint, like Bono, or Holly Willoughby. 408 00:22:07,400 --> 00:22:10,720 Through the '90s, Blur solved all the nation's problems - 409 00:22:10,720 --> 00:22:14,280 the economy, health, education, education, education, 410 00:22:14,280 --> 00:22:17,320 even the Irish Troubles - there was nothing he couldn't do. 411 00:22:17,320 --> 00:22:20,120 But no sooner had the 21st century started happening, 412 00:22:20,120 --> 00:22:23,080 than Blur dragged Britain into the war on terror. 413 00:22:23,080 --> 00:22:25,360 But the war in Iraq proved about as popular 414 00:22:25,360 --> 00:22:27,480 as infanticide-flavoured crisps. 415 00:22:27,480 --> 00:22:31,080 And Blair's legacy was well and truly shat through a bin bag. 416 00:22:31,080 --> 00:22:34,040 Blur slinked off to live inside a haunted mirror, 417 00:22:34,040 --> 00:22:36,360 leaving Number 10 under the stewardship of a man 418 00:22:36,360 --> 00:22:40,000 with all the carefree joie de vivre of a haunted cave in Poland - 419 00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:41,240 Gorgon Brown. 420 00:22:41,240 --> 00:22:44,440 Gorgon Brown knew mainly about coins, but that wouldn't help him 421 00:22:44,440 --> 00:22:47,280 cos all the coins were about to implode 422 00:22:47,280 --> 00:22:50,600 in a financial crisis which would become known as 423 00:22:50,600 --> 00:22:53,080 "the financial crisis". 424 00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:57,040 People queued outside banks in scenes of boring desperation. 425 00:22:57,040 --> 00:23:00,880 The world of money was broken and no-one knew how to fix it. 426 00:23:00,880 --> 00:23:04,200 Today stock markets across the world tumbled, imploded, 427 00:23:04,200 --> 00:23:07,200 continued to collapse like deflated dirigibles. 428 00:23:07,200 --> 00:23:09,800 People say the financial crisis happened 429 00:23:09,800 --> 00:23:14,960 because it just got too complicated and it's all because of the maths. 430 00:23:14,960 --> 00:23:18,680 If we took maths out of the equation it'd be much easier. 431 00:23:18,680 --> 00:23:22,600 Couldn't we use something else instead of numbers? 432 00:23:22,600 --> 00:23:27,600 I think that actually you're right, in a way. 433 00:23:27,600 --> 00:23:31,840 That there is too much maths in the way that people 434 00:23:31,840 --> 00:23:33,680 think about the economy. 435 00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:38,560 One of the things that occasionally goes wrong is that economists 436 00:23:38,560 --> 00:23:43,400 think that they can build... 437 00:23:43,400 --> 00:23:45,880 Man! I Feel Like A Woman by Shania Twain 438 00:23:50,960 --> 00:23:52,320 Sorry about that. 439 00:23:52,320 --> 00:23:55,360 After Gorgon Brown stuck a plaster on the economy and left, 440 00:23:55,360 --> 00:23:57,640 the country needed a strong leader, 441 00:23:57,640 --> 00:24:01,800 and luckily one man stepped up to single-handedly save the nation. 442 00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:04,200 The finest Prime Minister Britain has ever had. 443 00:24:04,200 --> 00:24:06,760 A man whose name will never be forgotten. 444 00:24:06,760 --> 00:24:08,720 Davis Cameron. 445 00:24:08,720 --> 00:24:12,120 Davis Cameron skilfully almost won the 2010 election, 446 00:24:12,120 --> 00:24:15,160 and formed a Brokeback Mountain style coalition 447 00:24:15,160 --> 00:24:18,000 with the equally visionary and beloved Nick Clegg. 448 00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:20,520 Almost immediately, Britain's problems, 449 00:24:20,520 --> 00:24:23,640 apart from the economy and social injustice and all the other ones, 450 00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:27,760 were solved, and by 2011 everything was going swimmingly. 451 00:24:27,760 --> 00:24:30,960 There was even a new Diana, in the form of Kate Middleton, 452 00:24:30,960 --> 00:24:32,560 who married King William 453 00:24:32,560 --> 00:24:35,040 in a high definition reboot of the Royal Wedding. 454 00:24:35,040 --> 00:24:37,560 By the time the Olympics came to Britain 455 00:24:37,560 --> 00:24:40,400 the country was riding the crest of a wave. 456 00:24:40,400 --> 00:24:43,640 Suddenly, it seemed like we could do anything if we put our mind to it, 457 00:24:43,640 --> 00:24:47,560 even stop moaning. It was a great time to be British. 458 00:24:47,560 --> 00:24:49,520 Unless you were Scottish. 459 00:24:49,520 --> 00:24:52,880 Scotland wasn't sure it wanted to be British any more 460 00:24:52,880 --> 00:24:54,960 and thought being Scottish might be good enough. 461 00:24:54,960 --> 00:24:59,520 Delegates, it's game on for Scotland. 462 00:24:59,520 --> 00:25:03,240 It's funny - why do Scottish people hate the English 463 00:25:03,240 --> 00:25:09,600 when the English have absolutely no feelings at all about the Scots? 464 00:25:10,920 --> 00:25:14,920 I suppose it's a bit like a... a marriage... 465 00:25:14,920 --> 00:25:16,920 .. of an old couple. 466 00:25:16,920 --> 00:25:20,240 Er, it's, you know, it's as though Scotland 467 00:25:20,240 --> 00:25:22,320 and England got married when they were young 468 00:25:22,320 --> 00:25:26,280 and it's constantly under debate whether they're better off 469 00:25:26,280 --> 00:25:30,040 staying together for the sake of the pension and the house 470 00:25:30,040 --> 00:25:33,560 or if they should get divorced. 471 00:25:33,560 --> 00:25:35,600 Do you think England snores? 472 00:25:35,600 --> 00:25:39,880 England looks to me like the kind of person that snores. Mm. 473 00:25:39,880 --> 00:25:42,400 The Scots held something called a referendum, 474 00:25:42,400 --> 00:25:45,120 which is a way of asking the public what they want to happen, 475 00:25:45,120 --> 00:25:49,040 and then actually taking them seriously, unlike in an election. 476 00:25:49,040 --> 00:25:51,920 In the end, Scotland voted to stay attached to England 477 00:25:51,920 --> 00:25:54,840 using a system of fields and roads, as before. 478 00:25:54,840 --> 00:25:58,000 But the referendum had been such a hit that Davis Cameron 479 00:25:58,000 --> 00:25:59,920 decided he wanted one, too. 480 00:25:59,920 --> 00:26:04,240 But this referendum would be about a different country: Europe. 481 00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:06,000 And I will go to Parliament 482 00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:10,440 and propose that the British people decide our future in Europe. 483 00:26:10,440 --> 00:26:11,880 It was a simple choice - 484 00:26:11,880 --> 00:26:15,280 should Britain leave things as they were and stay part of Europe 485 00:26:15,280 --> 00:26:17,960 or, alternatively, remain on its own, 486 00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:20,600 and become part of England instead? 487 00:26:20,600 --> 00:26:23,440 One thing's for sure, Davis Cameron's referendum 488 00:26:23,440 --> 00:26:26,800 would stop anyone arguing about Europe ever again. 489 00:26:26,800 --> 00:26:30,840 When the sun rose on 24th June, 2016, 490 00:26:30,840 --> 00:26:33,120 with it came the news that Britain had voted Out. 491 00:26:33,120 --> 00:26:36,840 Brexit was happening, and everyone was delighted. 492 00:26:36,840 --> 00:26:38,960 That is now statistically, 493 00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:43,120 mathematically there, that the Leave campaign have won. 494 00:26:43,120 --> 00:26:45,520 The Brexit result shook everything up. 495 00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:47,600 Suddenly Davis Cameron was out, 496 00:26:47,600 --> 00:26:51,520 Theresa May was in and Jeremy Corbyn was sexually attractive. 497 00:26:51,520 --> 00:26:54,920 The future of Britain is now more uncertain than at any point 498 00:26:54,920 --> 00:26:57,920 in the past, which is the opposite of its future. 499 00:26:57,920 --> 00:27:03,360 Right now, is Britain at an important moment in history, 500 00:27:03,360 --> 00:27:06,000 or a significant one? 501 00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:09,040 Erm... I'd say really important. 502 00:27:09,040 --> 00:27:11,360 Not significant? Both. 503 00:27:11,360 --> 00:27:14,840 What if you had to choose one? Important. Not significant? 504 00:27:14,840 --> 00:27:17,680 Just because it's important, doesn't mean it's... They can be both. 505 00:27:17,680 --> 00:27:21,240 They can be important and significant. Not in this. 506 00:27:21,240 --> 00:27:23,640 OK. You have to choose one. 507 00:27:23,640 --> 00:27:25,840 If I'm going to choose one... Yeah. 508 00:27:25,840 --> 00:27:29,080 ..I'll chose important. So it's not significant? 509 00:27:31,840 --> 00:27:35,120 Throughout this series I've charted the story of Britain, 510 00:27:35,120 --> 00:27:37,120 and it's a story that ends here, 511 00:27:37,120 --> 00:27:40,080 with the country once again at a turning point 512 00:27:40,080 --> 00:27:42,080 between a rock and a harder rock, 513 00:27:42,080 --> 00:27:45,920 closing one door with a foot in the past, and opening another 514 00:27:45,920 --> 00:27:49,040 with an eye to the future, an eye that's looking at itself in 515 00:27:49,040 --> 00:27:54,480 the mirror and asking the question, "What sort of massive country am I?" 516 00:27:54,480 --> 00:27:58,120 Can the nation that withstood Romans, Vikings, plagues, 517 00:27:58,120 --> 00:28:01,280 Great Fires, Rippers and Hitler survive itself? 518 00:28:01,280 --> 00:28:05,680 Will it draw upon the spirit of King Arthur, Lord Nelson, Queen Victoria, 519 00:28:05,680 --> 00:28:07,800 Charles Darwin and Andy Crane? 520 00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:11,080 Who will the Britain of tomorrow look like? And why? 521 00:28:11,080 --> 00:28:14,080 Britain didn't get to have a long history by ceasing to exist 522 00:28:14,080 --> 00:28:16,320 or being born yesterday. 523 00:28:16,320 --> 00:28:19,760 The one thing we can be sure of is that Britain is Britain. 524 00:28:19,760 --> 00:28:21,960 And it'll stay that way forever. 525 00:28:21,960 --> 00:28:31,960 Until it's not.