1 00:00:04,200 --> 00:00:06,282 [Sombre instrumental music] 2 00:00:07,240 --> 00:00:11,006 [Announcer at railway station chattering over P.A. system] 3 00:00:23,440 --> 00:00:26,091 NARRATOR: [Voiceover] Sitting comfortably, I opened my copy... 4 00:00:26,200 --> 00:00:28,646 of The Revolution of Everyday Life. 5 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:34,129 Reality, as it evolves, sweeps me with it. 6 00:00:35,520 --> 00:00:39,570 I'm struck by everything, and though not everything strikes me in the same way... 7 00:00:39,680 --> 00:00:42,923 I'm always struck by the same basic contradiction: 8 00:00:43,960 --> 00:00:47,965 although I can always see how beautiful anything could be if only I could change it... 9 00:00:48,080 --> 00:00:51,846 in practically every case, there is nothing I can really do. 10 00:00:52,400 --> 00:00:56,291 Everything is changed into something else in my imagination. 11 00:00:56,800 --> 00:01:01,761 Then the dead weight of things changes it back into what it was in the first place. 12 00:01:02,280 --> 00:01:06,285 A bridge between imagination and reality must be built. 13 00:01:06,400 --> 00:01:09,165 [Sombre instrumental music continues] 14 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:14,447 After Robinson published the results of his study of London... 15 00:01:14,560 --> 00:01:17,040 I didn't see him again for a long time... 16 00:01:17,160 --> 00:01:20,926 but I heard that he'd been dismissed from his university position. 17 00:01:21,040 --> 00:01:24,442 And after a period in which he sank into a deep depression... 18 00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:29,122 had taken a part-time job teaching English in a language school in Reading... 19 00:01:29,240 --> 00:01:31,163 where he was now living. 20 00:01:32,200 --> 00:01:34,885 He wrote to me in the spring of 1995... 21 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:37,924 suggesting that I should come down to Reading on a visit. 22 00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:40,520 I was struck by the improvement in his mood... 23 00:01:40,640 --> 00:01:43,450 and arranged to spend a few days with him. 24 00:01:45,880 --> 00:01:50,249 Robinson met me at the station, and took me immediately to Kings Road... 25 00:01:50,360 --> 00:01:54,331 where he had identified the building which had been the coaching establishment... 26 00:01:54,440 --> 00:01:58,570 where Rimbaud was employed as a teacher of French in 1874. 27 00:01:59,840 --> 00:02:04,607 He was very excited by this and the other literary associations of the town... 28 00:02:04,720 --> 00:02:09,521 which he praised with the euphoria reminiscent of that of Nietzsche for Turin. 29 00:02:09,800 --> 00:02:13,168 So much so, that I was concerned for his well-being... 30 00:02:13,280 --> 00:02:17,410 and the extent of his commitment to the derangement of the senses. 31 00:02:20,600 --> 00:02:23,251 The Maiwand Lion commemorates the battle... 32 00:02:23,360 --> 00:02:27,331 after which Dr. John Watson was invalided out of the army... 33 00:02:27,440 --> 00:02:30,489 and into his acquaintance with Sherlock Holmes. 34 00:02:46,600 --> 00:02:50,685 Jane Austen was educated in two rooms above the abbey gateway... 35 00:02:50,800 --> 00:02:54,043 which is next to the jail where Oscar Wilde was imprisoned... 36 00:02:54,160 --> 00:02:56,640 for the last years of his sentence. 37 00:02:58,280 --> 00:03:02,001 "It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. 38 00:03:02,280 --> 00:03:06,285 "The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible." 39 00:03:08,560 --> 00:03:12,406 I did not think that Robinson's move to Reading was a good one. 40 00:03:12,760 --> 00:03:16,446 Despite his vision that other people could become fellows and neighbours... 41 00:03:16,560 --> 00:03:18,927 the fact is, as Lefebvre says: 42 00:03:19,040 --> 00:03:23,204 "The space which contains the realised preconditions of another life... 43 00:03:23,320 --> 00:03:27,609 "is the same one as prohibits what those preconditions make possible.' 44 00:03:30,640 --> 00:03:34,326 He had been living in a single room in a house in the northern suburbs. 45 00:03:34,440 --> 00:03:37,410 His job was poorly paid and insecure. 46 00:03:37,520 --> 00:03:40,842 He did not eat well, he seemed to know no one in the town... 47 00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:42,564 and he had no telephone. 48 00:03:42,680 --> 00:03:45,411 His only reassurance was the presence... 49 00:03:45,520 --> 00:03:48,763 of 18 undeniably utopian Routemaster buses... 50 00:03:48,880 --> 00:03:52,601 operated by enthusiasts in a deregulated market. 51 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:56,083 He could not keep up the effort of his euphoria... 52 00:03:56,200 --> 00:04:00,683 nor hide his vulnerability, his fear of provincial England. 53 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:04,243 He had been taunted by groups of homophobic youths... 54 00:04:04,360 --> 00:04:07,170 when he ventured into town in the evening. 55 00:04:09,520 --> 00:04:12,251 He had once told me that he wished to become a spy... 56 00:04:12,360 --> 00:04:14,761 but was not sure who to approach. 57 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:18,049 In the afternoon, he took me to the Chatham Street car park... 58 00:04:18,160 --> 00:04:22,324 overlooking the Ramada Hotel, where it turned out he was now living. 59 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:25,970 He told me that some weeks before, he had received a letter... 60 00:04:26,080 --> 00:04:30,210 from a representative of a well-known international advertising agency... 61 00:04:30,320 --> 00:04:33,051 inviting him to a meeting at the hotel. 62 00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:36,726 These people had heard of his study of London... 63 00:04:36,840 --> 00:04:40,083 and wished to commission him to undertake a peripatetic study... 64 00:04:40,200 --> 00:04:42,248 of the problem of England. 65 00:04:42,760 --> 00:04:45,366 He had accepted this offer with alacrity... 66 00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:48,324 and insisted that I join him as researcher. 67 00:04:51,680 --> 00:04:55,048 Our first outing was to a record shop in Friar Street... 68 00:04:55,160 --> 00:04:58,243 where Adam Ant was making a personal appearance. 69 00:04:59,480 --> 00:05:02,962 The music industry is one of the UK's most successful... 70 00:05:03,080 --> 00:05:06,607 and brings in more money from abroad than motor manufacturing... 71 00:05:06,720 --> 00:05:10,964 its products often characterised by sexual ambivalence... 72 00:05:11,080 --> 00:05:15,005 and a traditional English contempt for petty bourgeois England. 73 00:05:16,240 --> 00:05:20,643 Robinson had once taught at the art school where Adam Ant was a student. 74 00:05:22,160 --> 00:05:24,925 The next day, we visited the house at West Green... 75 00:05:25,040 --> 00:05:29,523 built by General Henry 'Hangman' Hawley who commanded the cavalry at Culloden... 76 00:05:29,640 --> 00:05:32,928 the former home of Allistair Lord McAlpine... 77 00:05:33,040 --> 00:05:37,887 treasurer of the Conservative Party between 1975 and 1990. 78 00:05:39,480 --> 00:05:43,883 The recent gateposts and the obelisk are by the architect Quinlan Terry. 79 00:05:45,280 --> 00:05:48,170 The obelisk bears an inscription in Latin. 80 00:05:48,320 --> 00:05:51,244 This monument was built with a large sum of money... 81 00:05:51,360 --> 00:05:53,761 which would have otherwise fallen, sooner or later... 82 00:05:53,880 --> 00:05:56,406 into the hands of the tax gatherers. 83 00:05:57,480 --> 00:06:00,848 "It is my belief, Watson," said Holmes... 84 00:06:00,960 --> 00:06:05,682 "founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London... 85 00:06:05,800 --> 00:06:08,929 "do not present a more dreadful record of sin... 86 00:06:09,080 --> 00:06:12,289 "than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." 87 00:06:14,840 --> 00:06:17,889 The Winnersh Triangle Business and Distribution Park... 88 00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:21,402 is in the Wokingham constituency of John Redwood... 89 00:06:21,560 --> 00:06:25,087 admired by Gingrich Republicans in the United States... 90 00:06:25,200 --> 00:06:29,489 as the leader of the revolutionary wing of Great Britain's Conservative Party. 91 00:06:43,120 --> 00:06:47,125 On Easter Monday, Greenpeace activists blocked the outfall... 92 00:06:47,240 --> 00:06:50,483 from the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston. 93 00:06:50,600 --> 00:06:53,649 Robinson had read that the growth of high technology industry... 94 00:06:53,760 --> 00:06:55,888 in the M4 corridor was triggered... 95 00:06:56,000 --> 00:07:00,403 by the number of government research establishments in the Reading area. 96 00:07:02,440 --> 00:07:06,604 On the centenary of the Martian landing on Horsell Common near Woking... 97 00:07:06,720 --> 00:07:09,291 which was so vividly described by H.G. Wells... 98 00:07:09,400 --> 00:07:12,051 Robinson took me to see the crater. 99 00:07:13,560 --> 00:07:17,281 He told me that there were more than 100 patents in microelectronics... 100 00:07:17,400 --> 00:07:22,042 nanotechnology and other fields for uses of Buckminsterfullerenes... 101 00:07:22,320 --> 00:07:24,561 the large, spherical carbon molecules... 102 00:07:24,680 --> 00:07:28,571 discovered in cosmic dust by British and other scientists... 103 00:07:28,680 --> 00:07:30,808 but they are all held abroad. 104 00:07:30,920 --> 00:07:33,207 [Solemn instrumental music] 105 00:07:33,320 --> 00:07:36,164 The Martians destroyed most of Surrey. 106 00:07:36,920 --> 00:07:41,642 500 tons of Mars is estimated to land on Earth each year. 107 00:07:44,800 --> 00:07:46,564 [Birds chirping] 108 00:08:02,600 --> 00:08:04,204 On St George's Day... 109 00:08:04,320 --> 00:08:08,723 a group of campaigners occupied land at Wesley, near St George's Hill... 110 00:08:08,840 --> 00:08:12,481 the private estate developed in 1911 on former common land... 111 00:08:12,600 --> 00:08:15,683 where the diggers had set up camp in 1649. 112 00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:22,129 "We are challenging the government's whole philosophy... 113 00:08:22,240 --> 00:08:25,608 "about the pre-eminence of property rights," said their spokesman... 114 00:08:25,720 --> 00:08:28,121 an Oxford University Fellow. 115 00:08:29,320 --> 00:08:32,164 Robinson had not found any Buckminsterfullerenes... 116 00:08:32,280 --> 00:08:34,931 in the crater at Horsell Common, but he was impressed... 117 00:08:35,080 --> 00:08:38,084 by the technology of the latter-day levellers. 118 00:08:38,960 --> 00:08:42,009 On the 28th, the eve of World No Golf Day... 119 00:08:42,120 --> 00:08:45,408 they occupied the golf course at St George's Hill. 120 00:08:52,240 --> 00:08:55,210 May the 4th was the day of the local elections. 121 00:08:55,640 --> 00:08:58,291 Despite the poor air quality, we set out for a walk... 122 00:08:58,400 --> 00:09:00,289 in the Bluebell Woods towards Henley... 123 00:09:00,400 --> 00:09:02,926 and came across a group of satellite dishes... 124 00:09:03,040 --> 00:09:05,611 at a location we've been asked not to name... 125 00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:09,691 which are the television receivers for the BBC's World Monitoring Service... 126 00:09:09,800 --> 00:09:14,044 a few miles away at Caversham Park, established during World War ll. 127 00:09:17,920 --> 00:09:22,403 With the coincidence of the Tory election defeat and the V-E Day anniversary... 128 00:09:22,520 --> 00:09:25,763 there was a lot of talk about the 1945 election... 129 00:09:26,080 --> 00:09:29,448 and how laissez-faire had been kept off the political agenda... 130 00:09:29,560 --> 00:09:33,087 until those who participated in the war at decision-making level... 131 00:09:33,200 --> 00:09:35,328 had departed from the scone. 132 00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:41,722 Robinson says that unless Labour wins a landslide victory in the general election... 133 00:09:41,840 --> 00:09:45,162 there is always a Conservative majority in England. 134 00:09:48,440 --> 00:09:51,603 Henley is the constituency of Michael Heseltine... 135 00:09:51,720 --> 00:09:54,121 then the president of the Board of Trade. 136 00:09:54,240 --> 00:09:57,801 It was twinned with Baroma, Somalia in 1981. 137 00:10:00,160 --> 00:10:02,049 As we walked back to Reading... 138 00:10:02,160 --> 00:10:05,482 we passed the preparations for a celebration bonfire. 139 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:09,641 Robinson told me that he'd received instructions from our employer... 140 00:10:09,760 --> 00:10:13,446 and that the next day, we would begin the first of seven journeys... 141 00:10:13,560 --> 00:10:16,370 that were to be the basis of our project. 142 00:10:18,080 --> 00:10:20,924 This method had been suggested by his reading... 143 00:10:21,040 --> 00:10:24,408 Daniel Defoe's Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain... 144 00:10:24,520 --> 00:10:28,650 which is based on Defoe's travels as a spy for Robert Harley... 145 00:10:28,760 --> 00:10:32,048 the government minister in the reign of Queen Anne. 146 00:10:33,080 --> 00:10:36,163 The narrative of Britain since Defoe's time... 147 00:10:36,280 --> 00:10:40,330 is the result of a particularly English kind of capitalism. 148 00:10:42,080 --> 00:10:45,050 With our contracts and expense account agreed... 149 00:10:45,160 --> 00:10:48,687 we set out to follow the Thames downstream to the sea. 150 00:10:50,440 --> 00:10:53,842 Passing Fawley Court, a work of Sir Christopher Wren... 151 00:10:53,960 --> 00:10:57,931 and the nearby tunnels that allow toads to cross the road... 152 00:10:58,200 --> 00:11:02,842 we came to the Henley Management College and Research Centre at Greenlands... 153 00:11:03,280 --> 00:11:08,047 which offers degree and NVQ courses for individuals and corporate groups. 154 00:11:09,720 --> 00:11:12,769 The village of Medmenham is near the abbey ruins... 155 00:11:12,880 --> 00:11:16,009 where the Hellfire Club held their nocturnal revels. 156 00:11:18,240 --> 00:11:22,370 The Shelleys moved to Albion House in Marlow In 1817... 157 00:11:22,560 --> 00:11:25,325 where she transcribed his Revolt of Islam... 158 00:11:25,440 --> 00:11:28,284 and prepared Frankenstein for publication. 159 00:11:30,560 --> 00:11:33,962 Marlow is also home to the UK headquarters... 160 00:11:34,080 --> 00:11:36,526 of Volvo, Saab and Rank Xerox. 161 00:11:36,760 --> 00:11:39,445 And at Cookham, near the home of Stanley Spencer... 162 00:11:39,560 --> 00:11:43,281 is the headquarters of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. 163 00:11:45,160 --> 00:11:48,960 The Fountain of Love at Cliveden was bought in Rome by William Waldorf... 164 00:11:49,080 --> 00:11:51,845 the first Lord Astor, In 1897. 165 00:11:54,040 --> 00:11:57,840 It was at Cliveden that John Profumo first met Christine Keeler... 166 00:11:57,960 --> 00:12:00,440 who was staying at a cottage in the grounds. 167 00:12:00,560 --> 00:12:03,245 She was naked beside the swimming pool. 168 00:12:05,800 --> 00:12:08,770 The Astor's pro-appeasement stance... 169 00:12:08,880 --> 00:12:12,407 and their entertainment of von Ribbentrop and Oswald Mosley... 170 00:12:12,520 --> 00:12:15,922 led to belief in the existence of the Cliveden Set... 171 00:12:16,040 --> 00:12:20,648 a conspiracy giving tacit support to Hitler's conquest of Europe. 172 00:12:22,160 --> 00:12:24,845 Cliveden's prominence has always rested... 173 00:12:24,960 --> 00:12:27,645 on its proximity to London and its views. 174 00:12:27,760 --> 00:12:30,889 The present house is the work of Sir Charles Barry... 175 00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:33,526 the architect of the Palace of Westminster. 176 00:12:33,640 --> 00:12:37,008 And the view along the river was compared by Garibaldi... 177 00:12:37,120 --> 00:12:40,363 with the mighty river prospects of South America. 178 00:12:42,880 --> 00:12:47,329 At Maidenhead, we passed beneath Brunel's Bridge of 1837... 179 00:12:47,600 --> 00:12:50,763 the longest-spanning brickbuilt arches in Europe... 180 00:12:50,880 --> 00:12:54,248 and the scene of Turner's Rain, Steam, and Speed. 181 00:12:56,240 --> 00:12:57,765 In a letter from Ethiopia... 182 00:12:57,880 --> 00:13:01,407 Rimbaud imagined a son who would become a famous engineer... 183 00:13:01,520 --> 00:13:04,330 a man rich and powerful through science. 184 00:13:07,640 --> 00:13:10,405 With the departure of Douglas Hurd for the NatWest... 185 00:13:10,520 --> 00:13:14,525 there remained three Old Etonians in a Cabinet of 23. 186 00:13:15,240 --> 00:13:16,844 About an eighth. 187 00:13:16,960 --> 00:13:19,486 Between 1868 and 1955... 188 00:13:19,600 --> 00:13:23,047 of the 294 Cabinet ministers who held office... 189 00:13:23,160 --> 00:13:25,242 over a quarter attended Eton... 190 00:13:25,360 --> 00:13:29,331 so, either Eton is no longer what it was, or more likely... 191 00:13:29,440 --> 00:13:32,649 government is no longer an occupation that is so necessary... 192 00:13:32,760 --> 00:13:35,161 for Etonians to be concerned with. 193 00:13:37,440 --> 00:13:39,249 We left the river bank at Windsor... 194 00:13:39,360 --> 00:13:44,207 where the 180 mile riverside park is blocked because it passes through the Royal Estate. 195 00:13:45,280 --> 00:13:47,681 The riverbank was enclosed by Queen Victoria... 196 00:13:47,800 --> 00:13:50,167 with an Act of Parliament in 1860... 197 00:13:50,280 --> 00:13:53,011 despite the prohibition of the Magna Carta... 198 00:13:53,120 --> 00:13:55,805 which is displayed at the memorial at Runnymede... 199 00:13:55,920 --> 00:14:00,164 erected by the American Bar Association in 1930. 200 00:14:02,360 --> 00:14:04,727 Nearing Heathrow, we came across a factory... 201 00:14:04,840 --> 00:14:07,525 the first we'd seen since leaving Reading. 202 00:14:07,640 --> 00:14:11,486 All the more unusual, since most toys are made in China. 203 00:14:12,200 --> 00:14:15,443 Bendy products are made in natural rubber. 204 00:14:18,320 --> 00:14:22,450 Heathrow Airport, where the first commercial flight took off in 1946... 205 00:14:22,560 --> 00:14:25,643 is the busiest international airport in the world. 206 00:14:29,760 --> 00:14:32,491 Robinson didn't like to continue into London... 207 00:14:32,600 --> 00:14:35,251 fearing reprisals for his earlier study. 208 00:14:35,400 --> 00:14:39,769 So, after a journey on the Underground and many hours wandering lost in tunnels... 209 00:14:39,880 --> 00:14:42,963 we emerged from the workings of the Jubilee Line Extension... 210 00:14:43,080 --> 00:14:47,165 near the site subsequently chosen for the Millennium Exhibition... 211 00:14:47,400 --> 00:14:50,131 and didn't stop until we reached Becton. 212 00:14:58,800 --> 00:15:01,883 East Ham Churchyard, opposite the Becton ski slope... 213 00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:04,571 is the largest churchyard in England. 214 00:15:06,160 --> 00:15:09,403 Robinson was hoping to find some trace of the opium den... 215 00:15:09,520 --> 00:15:13,889 frequented by Dorian Gray by following the route described in the story... 216 00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:16,446 but he couldn't find anyone to ask. 217 00:15:24,800 --> 00:15:27,406 Coming soon on this site... 218 00:15:27,640 --> 00:15:30,883 a Warner Brothers nine screen multiplex cinema... 219 00:15:31,000 --> 00:15:33,321 opening Easter, 1996. 220 00:15:35,200 --> 00:15:38,044 We had read that Ford was seeking government aid... 221 00:15:38,160 --> 00:15:40,766 to build a new small car for Mazda... 222 00:15:40,920 --> 00:15:45,448 but that their Dagenham plant was facing competition from Valencia in Spain. 223 00:15:47,120 --> 00:15:51,250 The development of Rainham Marshes was, for the time being, unlikely... 224 00:15:51,360 --> 00:15:53,840 as the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Terminal... 225 00:15:53,960 --> 00:15:57,931 had been confirmed at Ebbsfleet on the south side of the estuary. 226 00:15:59,080 --> 00:16:03,324 Robinson thought he'd discovered Dracula's house, Carfax at Purfleet... 227 00:16:03,440 --> 00:16:06,489 until I pointed out that we were still in Rainham. 228 00:16:06,920 --> 00:16:08,365 When we reached Purfleet... 229 00:16:08,480 --> 00:16:12,280 he was surprised to find the view of London unchanged since he had left... 230 00:16:12,400 --> 00:16:15,210 despite both his predictions of imminent ruin... 231 00:16:15,320 --> 00:16:17,926 and various attempts to link the Channel Tunnel... 232 00:16:18,040 --> 00:16:22,841 with the regeneration of the estuary, balancing the pull of Heathrow in the west. 233 00:16:25,640 --> 00:16:29,167 Robinson had purchased a copy of Port Statistics... 234 00:16:29,560 --> 00:16:32,643 a publication of the Government Statistical Service... 235 00:16:32,760 --> 00:16:35,604 and every night, he pored over it with a calculator... 236 00:16:35,720 --> 00:16:39,042 emerging from time to time with some new revelation. 237 00:16:39,520 --> 00:16:42,046 Port traffic continues to increase... 238 00:16:42,160 --> 00:16:45,926 exports have increased fivefold since 1965... 239 00:16:46,200 --> 00:16:50,967 most rapidly in the late '70s, when North Sea oil was first exploited. 240 00:16:51,480 --> 00:16:56,042 Imports have fluctuated, but overall, have risen by more than a fifth. 241 00:16:59,480 --> 00:17:02,324 The Thames estuary from Teddington to Foulness... 242 00:17:02,440 --> 00:17:04,886 is still the leading port in the UK... 243 00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:06,445 though, in foreign traffic... 244 00:17:06,560 --> 00:17:10,770 the Humber ports outrank the total for London and the Medway. 245 00:17:11,760 --> 00:17:16,641 The docks at Tilbury, sold to its employees in 1992 for £32 million... 246 00:17:17,120 --> 00:17:21,887 was bought recently by Forth Ports PLC for £132 million. 247 00:17:23,160 --> 00:17:27,563 There is a house nearby where Daniel Defoe wrote part of Robinson Crusoe. 248 00:17:31,480 --> 00:17:34,563 Having spent the night at Tilbury in the manner of the pilgrims... 249 00:17:34,680 --> 00:17:38,730 we spent the morning at the Lakeside Shopping Centre at Thurrock... 250 00:17:38,840 --> 00:17:41,366 before crossing the river to Dartford. 251 00:17:41,800 --> 00:17:45,202 Robinson was anxious to see the town which is the birthplace... 252 00:17:45,320 --> 00:17:49,120 of both Keith Richards and Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones. 253 00:17:51,480 --> 00:17:53,960 It was Environment Week in Dartford. 254 00:17:54,640 --> 00:17:56,927 We visited the landfill at Ebbsfleet... 255 00:17:57,040 --> 00:17:59,407 where Blue Circle proposed to build a new town... 256 00:17:59,520 --> 00:18:01,682 alongside the Channel Tunnel Station... 257 00:18:01,800 --> 00:18:05,327 and Donald Trump is rumoured to be planning casinos. 258 00:18:07,520 --> 00:18:11,366 Marlowe, the narrator of Conrad's Heart of Darkness... 259 00:18:11,760 --> 00:18:14,843 tells his story on a ship lying off Gravesend. 260 00:18:20,160 --> 00:18:23,767 On the following evening, we reached the Isle of Sheppey. 261 00:18:24,440 --> 00:18:26,602 The fully-automated plant at Windham... 262 00:18:26,720 --> 00:18:30,202 produces 120 square metres of plasterboard per minute... 263 00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:33,324 the fastest-running production line in Europe. 264 00:18:34,720 --> 00:18:39,282 Coast Steel Sheerness recycles scrap into steel rod and bar. 265 00:18:39,960 --> 00:18:43,885 The Canadian company evangelises total team culture... 266 00:18:44,280 --> 00:18:48,968 in which overtime is unpaid and union members fear identification. 267 00:18:51,640 --> 00:18:53,085 The Port of Sheerness... 268 00:18:53,200 --> 00:18:56,329 where 300 dockers lost massive share profits... 269 00:18:56,440 --> 00:18:59,410 through being made redundant when they refused a pay cut... 270 00:18:59,520 --> 00:19:02,888 is now owned by the Mersey Dock and Harbour Company. 271 00:19:04,680 --> 00:19:07,286 This was the end of our first journey. 272 00:19:07,440 --> 00:19:09,647 The next day, we returned to Reading. 273 00:19:11,840 --> 00:19:14,491 Two weeks later, we set off again by the packhorse road... 274 00:19:14,600 --> 00:19:16,841 over the hills towards Oxford. 275 00:19:22,400 --> 00:19:26,610 The Oratory is an independent, selective secondary school for boys. 276 00:19:27,280 --> 00:19:29,123 We were pleased to have an opportunity... 277 00:19:29,240 --> 00:19:33,290 to study the authorship of appearances in the English countryside. 278 00:19:34,840 --> 00:19:38,811 As we began our descent, we could see the power station at Didcot... 279 00:19:38,920 --> 00:19:42,447 which generates about 5% of peak demand in England. 280 00:19:46,920 --> 00:19:49,491 Near the river, we came across a break in the hedge... 281 00:19:49,600 --> 00:19:52,206 where an excavation crossed the road. 282 00:19:53,840 --> 00:19:56,844 From Wittenham clumps, we could see that it led to Didcot... 283 00:19:56,960 --> 00:19:59,770 a gas pipeline to supply a new power nation... 284 00:19:59,880 --> 00:20:03,362 being built next to the existing one, which runs on coal. 285 00:20:03,760 --> 00:20:06,491 Didcot is operated by National Power. 286 00:20:06,680 --> 00:20:08,648 [Birds chirping] 287 00:20:08,800 --> 00:20:11,246 [Machinery humming in the distance] 288 00:20:14,360 --> 00:20:18,365 The Wittenham Clumps were the magic landscape of the painter Paul Nsah... 289 00:20:18,480 --> 00:20:21,484 but we had to press on, following the Thames upstream... 290 00:20:21,600 --> 00:20:24,365 deeper into the interior of the country. 291 00:20:28,040 --> 00:20:30,327 [Upbeat instrumental music] 292 00:20:40,360 --> 00:20:43,489 On the evening of the 12th of June, we arrived in Oxford... 293 00:20:43,600 --> 00:20:46,001 the King's headquarters in the Civil War... 294 00:20:46,120 --> 00:20:49,920 and Hitler's preferred capital had he occupied England. 295 00:20:51,920 --> 00:20:55,003 Most of what was once the Morris Motor Works at Cowley... 296 00:20:55,120 --> 00:20:57,122 was demolished in 1993... 297 00:20:57,440 --> 00:21:01,604 and the site is now a business perk owned by British Aerospace... 298 00:21:01,720 --> 00:21:05,167 who sold the Rover Group to BMW in 1994. 299 00:21:08,480 --> 00:21:10,403 There's been little made of the fact... 300 00:21:10,520 --> 00:21:13,000 that Bernd Pischetsrieder, the chairman of BMW... 301 00:21:13,120 --> 00:21:16,169 is the great-nephew of the late Alec Issigonis... 302 00:21:16,280 --> 00:21:19,807 whose innovative designs for Morris and its successors... 303 00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:23,208 could probably have given the company a 10-year lead over Volkswagen... 304 00:21:23,320 --> 00:21:25,641 in the European mass market. 305 00:21:27,120 --> 00:21:29,771 At Magdalene, pronounced "maudlin," College... 306 00:21:29,880 --> 00:21:33,089 we visited the rooms once occupied by Oscar Wilde... 307 00:21:33,200 --> 00:21:35,407 who apparently enjoyed Oxford... 308 00:21:35,520 --> 00:21:38,126 though its atmosphere of stifled sexuality... 309 00:21:38,240 --> 00:21:41,722 must have been even more striking than than it is today. 310 00:21:41,960 --> 00:21:45,487 The Fellows were not allowed to marry until 1877... 311 00:21:45,640 --> 00:21:49,167 and despite, or perhaps because of the small numbers of women... 312 00:21:49,280 --> 00:21:52,602 open homoeroticism is still most unusual. 313 00:21:54,080 --> 00:21:57,971 The President showed us the new buildings by Demetri Porphyrios... 314 00:21:58,080 --> 00:22:02,130 which he described as examples of the architecture of the future. 315 00:22:05,560 --> 00:22:08,643 Our employer has suggested we should buy a car. 316 00:22:09,040 --> 00:22:13,170 While I was impressed by the favourable reports of the current local product... 317 00:22:13,280 --> 00:22:16,762 Robinson preferred the older 1100 we'd seen earlier. 318 00:22:17,760 --> 00:22:21,731 I was sent to make the purchase, and he went off to the Bodleian. 319 00:22:26,560 --> 00:22:29,040 We visited Christ Church, where as librarian... 320 00:22:29,160 --> 00:22:33,404 Robert Burton lived a silent, sedentary, solitary, private life. 321 00:22:35,080 --> 00:22:38,050 The Anatomy of Melancholy appeared In 1621... 322 00:22:38,160 --> 00:22:40,925 under the pseudonym Democritus, Junior. 323 00:22:43,480 --> 00:22:46,404 "The Jacobean melancholy, like our own," said Robinson... 324 00:22:46,520 --> 00:22:49,046 "was the result of a disorientation. 325 00:22:49,160 --> 00:22:52,323 "You and I are deeply disillusioned people." 326 00:22:54,360 --> 00:22:57,045 Burton was vicar of St Thomas the Martyr... 327 00:22:57,160 --> 00:23:00,482 between 1616 and his death in 1639. 328 00:23:01,240 --> 00:23:03,242 The porch is his addition. 329 00:23:07,200 --> 00:23:10,363 I think we were never so happy as on the day of our pilgrimage... 330 00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:12,960 to the memorials of Robert Burton. 331 00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:16,889 The car was fitted with a radio. 332 00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:19,207 It turned out that it had belonged to a member... 333 00:23:19,320 --> 00:23:21,561 of a successful Oxford pop group. 334 00:23:21,680 --> 00:23:23,682 [Aeroplane engine humming] 335 00:23:24,160 --> 00:23:26,481 Opposite the airport is Campsfield House... 336 00:23:26,600 --> 00:23:30,366 the privately-run detention centre where up to 200 asylum seekers... 337 00:23:30,480 --> 00:23:32,960 are held in prison-like conditions. 338 00:23:33,480 --> 00:23:36,563 In April, the inexperience of its management and staff... 339 00:23:36,680 --> 00:23:40,924 had been severely criticised by the Chief Inspector of Prisons. 340 00:23:41,680 --> 00:23:44,763 Campsfield House is run by Group 4 Security. 341 00:23:45,600 --> 00:23:47,011 [Rock music] 342 00:23:47,120 --> 00:23:49,566 "Whatever is fitted in any sort... 343 00:23:49,720 --> 00:23:52,610 "to excite the idea of pain and danger... 344 00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:56,805 "that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible," says Burke... 345 00:23:56,920 --> 00:23:59,241 "is a source of the sublime." 346 00:23:59,360 --> 00:24:01,488 [Rock music continues] 347 00:24:02,080 --> 00:24:05,926 We had arranged to visit the new Aston Martin works at Bloxham. 348 00:24:06,480 --> 00:24:09,404 The literary stereotype of the sadistic Englishmen... 349 00:24:09,520 --> 00:24:13,241 endures in the drug excesses of contemporary aristocrats... 350 00:24:13,360 --> 00:24:15,283 and as James Bond. 351 00:24:15,840 --> 00:24:18,605 Robinson had never paid much attention to James Bond... 352 00:24:18,720 --> 00:24:21,769 but he wondered if we shouldn't have bought a faster car. 353 00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:27,888 We passed the United States Air Force's 603 Communications Squadron... 354 00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:29,604 at RAF Croughton... 355 00:24:29,720 --> 00:24:33,202 and the Defence Clothing and Textile Agency at Bicester. 356 00:24:34,760 --> 00:24:36,842 In the afternoon, we came to Stowe... 357 00:24:36,960 --> 00:24:40,726 described by the National Trust as "Britain's largest work of art." 358 00:24:40,840 --> 00:24:43,969 The house has been a public school since 1923. 359 00:24:46,200 --> 00:24:47,611 In the landscaped gardens... 360 00:24:47,720 --> 00:24:50,530 based on Milton's description in Paradise Lost... 361 00:24:50,640 --> 00:24:53,291 is Kent's Temple of British Worthies... 362 00:24:53,400 --> 00:24:56,529 where we paid our respects to Milton for Pandemonium... 363 00:24:56,640 --> 00:24:58,165 Shakespeare for Yorick... 364 00:24:58,280 --> 00:25:01,204 and Locke for Duration and its Simple Modes... 365 00:25:01,320 --> 00:25:03,448 and the Succession of Ideas. 366 00:25:04,160 --> 00:25:08,006 "For whilst we receive successively ideas in our minds... 367 00:25:08,280 --> 00:25:10,408 "we know that we do exist... 368 00:25:10,560 --> 00:25:13,166 "and so we animate the existence... 369 00:25:13,400 --> 00:25:17,121 "or the continuation of the existence of ourselves." 370 00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:22,721 At Bletchley Park, Alan Turing built the machine... 371 00:25:22,840 --> 00:25:26,287 that cracked the Enigma naval codes In 1942. 372 00:25:29,080 --> 00:25:32,209 On June the 10th, we arrived in Milton Keynes... 373 00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:36,166 visiting the multi-denominational cathedral in Silbury Boulevard... 374 00:25:36,280 --> 00:25:38,442 opposite the shopping centre. 375 00:25:39,040 --> 00:25:43,443 We stayed in Milton Keynes for a fortnight, leaving on July the second. 376 00:25:43,560 --> 00:25:48,168 We couldn't find the site where the Wiccans worship, which we'd read about... 377 00:25:48,280 --> 00:25:52,126 but there is a holy wall at Stevington which was easy to find. 378 00:25:54,520 --> 00:25:56,761 That night, we slept in a shed. 379 00:25:57,040 --> 00:25:59,850 It was never easy to find a decent place to stay... 380 00:25:59,960 --> 00:26:02,531 but we generally took whet was offered, imagining that... 381 00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:06,929 the problem of hotels in England would be of interest to our employer. 382 00:26:07,280 --> 00:26:10,011 We woke up outside what we thought must be the biggest... 383 00:26:10,120 --> 00:26:13,408 and is, apparently, the busiest landfill in the country: 384 00:26:13,520 --> 00:26:16,285 one of several sites which had previously been exploited... 385 00:26:16,400 --> 00:26:18,528 by the London Brick Company. 386 00:26:21,040 --> 00:26:24,010 The next day's pilgrimages were to the airship hangers... 387 00:26:24,120 --> 00:26:26,361 at Carlington, and to Bedford. 388 00:26:39,240 --> 00:26:41,481 [Bell tolling in the distance] 389 00:26:50,880 --> 00:26:52,769 At a garage near St Neots... 390 00:26:52,880 --> 00:26:55,406 as we were thinking of trading in the 1100... 391 00:26:55,520 --> 00:26:58,330 for an old Volvo full of second-hand books... 392 00:26:58,440 --> 00:27:01,649 we heard on the radio that John Major had been re-elected... 393 00:27:01,760 --> 00:27:03,524 leader of the Tory Party. 394 00:27:05,520 --> 00:27:07,329 That evening, we reached Cambridge... 395 00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:11,047 which we had thought might be more congenial than Oxford. 396 00:27:11,160 --> 00:27:15,210 Our employer had been unable to secure us an invitation to dine at Peterhouse... 397 00:27:15,320 --> 00:27:17,527 the oldest, the nastiest college... 398 00:27:17,640 --> 00:27:21,440 so we couldn't confirm its reputation for orgiastic revelry... 399 00:27:21,560 --> 00:27:25,121 or gauge any lingering influence of Maurice Cowling... 400 00:27:25,400 --> 00:27:29,883 the unusually right-wing historian who was Michael Portillo's tutor. 401 00:27:32,240 --> 00:27:34,049 [Bell tolling] 402 00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:37,525 In the morning, we had a look at Jesus College... 403 00:27:37,640 --> 00:27:40,007 where Laurence Sterne was an undergraduate... 404 00:27:40,120 --> 00:27:42,771 and where the patrons of architecture of the future... 405 00:27:42,880 --> 00:27:47,090 were, in our opinion, at least better advised than those in Oxford. 406 00:27:50,240 --> 00:27:52,720 After lunch and several games of table football... 407 00:27:52,840 --> 00:27:55,002 we drove off towards Felixstowe. 408 00:27:56,920 --> 00:28:00,845 The Devil's Dyke marks the boundary of Cambridge here in Suffolk... 409 00:28:00,960 --> 00:28:04,760 soon after which we joined the newly renamed A14 trunk road... 410 00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:09,363 European Route E28, which has cut journey time to the port. 411 00:28:11,800 --> 00:28:15,407 St Edmundsbury is the town of all this part of England... 412 00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:18,888 in proportion to its bigness, most thronged with gentry. 413 00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:22,209 People of the best fashion and the most polite conversation... 414 00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:24,687 of which other writers have talked very largely... 415 00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:27,041 and perhaps a little too much. 416 00:28:28,840 --> 00:28:33,289 Ipswich is still a considerable port, probably more so than in Defoe's time... 417 00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:36,688 with large tonnages of cereals and animal feed. 418 00:28:37,040 --> 00:28:39,964 But our destination was the Port of Felixstowe... 419 00:28:40,080 --> 00:28:43,926 which is owned by Hutchinson Whampoa, tho Hong Kong group... 420 00:28:44,040 --> 00:28:48,523 who, with British Aerospace own the Orange Mobile Telephone network. 421 00:28:49,200 --> 00:28:53,364 Felixstowe handles half of all UK deep sea container traffic... 422 00:28:53,600 --> 00:28:56,570 in which imports slightly outweigh exports. 423 00:28:57,360 --> 00:29:01,729 It is the fourth largest container port in Europe, 15th in the world. 424 00:29:02,440 --> 00:29:05,171 [Machine beeping] 425 00:29:12,600 --> 00:29:15,843 We were booked on the 11:00 ferry to Zeebrugge... 426 00:29:16,880 --> 00:29:20,885 Robinson said that he had to meet our employer at a conference in Lille. 427 00:29:23,080 --> 00:29:24,844 I spent a few days resting... 428 00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:29,960 then set off to walk along the coast of Calais where we had arranged to meet at the ferry. 429 00:29:31,040 --> 00:29:34,010 I visited some friends I hadn't seen for several years... 430 00:29:34,120 --> 00:29:38,489 and spent a weekend with Bray-Dunes, where I lived In the early 1970s. 431 00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:11,490 Freight through Dover has increased tenfold since 1965. 432 00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:17,164 Despite the tunnel, over half the UK's international goods vehicle traffic... 433 00:30:17,280 --> 00:30:21,365 still runs through the port. One million vehicles per year. 434 00:30:22,040 --> 00:30:26,329 Nationally, roll-on roll-off traffic is about equal to that in containers... 435 00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:29,444 but the rate of increase has been much greater. 436 00:30:40,120 --> 00:30:43,010 It's always difficult coming back to England. 437 00:30:43,120 --> 00:30:47,842 But we were expected in Brighton, and soon forgot our bad thoughts. 438 00:31:12,200 --> 00:31:15,921 The Victory, Nelson's flagship is preserved at Portsmouth... 439 00:31:16,040 --> 00:31:19,647 and is the principal monument of the 18th century British Navy... 440 00:31:19,760 --> 00:31:23,446 the largest industrial unlit of its day in the western world... 441 00:31:23,560 --> 00:31:27,565 on whose supremacy was built the capitalism of land... 442 00:31:27,800 --> 00:31:32,169 finance and commercial services centred on the city of London... 443 00:31:32,280 --> 00:31:35,523 which dominates the economy of the south of England. 444 00:31:37,320 --> 00:31:38,765 Those of us aesthetes 445 00:31:38,880 --> 00:31:42,771 who view the passing of the visible industrial economy with regret... 446 00:31:42,880 --> 00:31:45,770 and who longed for an authenticity of appearance... 447 00:31:45,880 --> 00:31:49,441 based on manufacturing and innovative modern design... 448 00:31:49,560 --> 00:31:51,881 are inclined to view this English culture... 449 00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:54,890 as a bizarre and damaging anachronism. 450 00:31:55,240 --> 00:31:58,050 But if so, it is not an unsuccessful one. 451 00:32:06,480 --> 00:32:10,849 Our visit to Portsmouth coincided with that of a group of Sandhurst cadets. 452 00:32:11,920 --> 00:32:15,527 In the afternoon, we visited Southampton, home port of the Titanic... 453 00:32:15,640 --> 00:32:17,449 where the Spitfire was developed... 454 00:32:17,560 --> 00:32:21,451 and the new dark fibre optic were invented at the University. 455 00:32:31,160 --> 00:32:33,731 "A sea port ls a pleasant place for a soul... 456 00:32:33,840 --> 00:32:37,128 "worn out with life's struggles," says Baudelaire. 457 00:32:37,560 --> 00:32:41,281 "The wide expanse of the sky, the mobile clouds... 458 00:32:41,920 --> 00:32:44,730 "the ever-changing colours of the sea..." 459 00:32:51,320 --> 00:32:54,688 A ship like the PandO's Colombo Bay has a crew of 20... 460 00:32:54,800 --> 00:32:57,770 and carries up to 4,200 containers... 461 00:32:57,880 --> 00:33:01,726 each one of which may be the full load of an articulated lorry. 462 00:33:04,040 --> 00:33:07,567 The M3 at Twyford Down had opened in the previous October. 463 00:33:08,120 --> 00:33:10,407 At Newbury, the bypass had been confirmed... 464 00:33:10,520 --> 00:33:13,444 a few days after the Tory leadership election... 465 00:33:13,560 --> 00:33:16,325 and people were already living in the trees. 466 00:33:18,400 --> 00:33:22,041 Towards Dorchester, we passed Charborough Park. 467 00:33:22,960 --> 00:33:27,841 Col Henry Drax left Yorkshire after the Civil War and settled in Barbados... 468 00:33:28,280 --> 00:33:32,126 where, in a few years, from £300 in sugar plantations... 469 00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:36,246 he acquired an estate of £8,000 to £9,000 a year. 470 00:33:37,360 --> 00:33:41,001 His successor married the heiress of the Earls of Charborough. 471 00:33:43,320 --> 00:33:45,004 Following the Enclosure Acts... 472 00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:48,920 agricultural wages in Dorset had dropped to nine shillings a week. 473 00:33:49,040 --> 00:33:52,931 George Loveless and others tried to get the wages increased... 474 00:33:53,040 --> 00:33:55,646 but they were lowered to six shillings. 475 00:33:56,080 --> 00:34:00,210 "We have injured no man's reputation, character, person or property. 476 00:34:00,680 --> 00:34:04,605 '"We were uniting together to protect ourselves, our wives and our children... 477 00:34:04,720 --> 00:34:07,530 "from utter degradation and starvation." 478 00:34:09,200 --> 00:34:13,171 In England, 1.1% of employees work in agriculture. 479 00:34:13,800 --> 00:34:17,771 A coffee shop assistant at Tesco eans £3.53 an hour. 480 00:34:18,120 --> 00:34:20,407 We very often ate in supermarkets. 481 00:34:20,520 --> 00:34:23,000 For the provincial spy or anyone in a hurry... 482 00:34:23,120 --> 00:34:26,363 who needs petrol, parking, telephone, postal services... 483 00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:31,247 clean toilets and palatable food, there's really no practical alternative. 484 00:34:37,600 --> 00:34:40,604 On the other side of Dorchester is Poundbury... 485 00:34:40,840 --> 00:34:42,922 the project of the Prince of Wales... 486 00:34:43,040 --> 00:34:46,726 which with the magazine Perspectives and the Institute of Architecture... 487 00:34:46,840 --> 00:34:51,482 is the outcome of his 10-year opposition to contemporary architecture. 488 00:34:52,560 --> 00:34:55,325 The project was planned, apparently with some difficulties... 489 00:34:55,440 --> 00:34:57,408 by the architect Leon Krier... 490 00:34:57,520 --> 00:35:01,411 and has been executed by the Percy Thomas Partnership of Cardiff. 491 00:35:19,640 --> 00:35:23,087 Our arrival in Yeovil coincided with that of Tim Eggar... 492 00:35:23,200 --> 00:35:26,443 the Trade and Industry minister, who was to announce that... 493 00:35:26,560 --> 00:35:29,769 Westland had been awarded a £25 billion order... 494 00:35:29,880 --> 00:35:33,009 to build American attack helicopters for the Army... 495 00:35:33,120 --> 00:35:38,001 in preference to the domestic options offered by British Aerospace and GEC. 496 00:35:40,360 --> 00:35:43,091 Westland is new owned by GKN. 497 00:35:44,760 --> 00:35:48,845 For the rest of the day, we looked at some non-agricultural land uses. 498 00:35:50,520 --> 00:35:55,003 We knew of six Jane Austen film or television adaptations underway... 499 00:35:55,280 --> 00:35:58,966 all involving country houses, mostly in the west of England. 500 00:35:59,560 --> 00:36:03,042 Sense and Sensibility was made at Montacute. 501 00:36:04,840 --> 00:36:09,767 We called at Worthy Farm near Glastonbury where the festival site was being cleared... 502 00:36:10,160 --> 00:36:13,084 and Halecombe Quarry at Leigh-on-Mendip. 503 00:36:14,240 --> 00:36:17,005 The DOE believes that the demand for aggregates... 504 00:36:17,120 --> 00:36:20,010 could more than double in the next 20 years. 505 00:36:22,440 --> 00:36:25,649 On the 14th July, we reached the Bristol Channel. 506 00:36:49,040 --> 00:36:51,725 We were expected at the Portbury Dock. 507 00:36:52,640 --> 00:36:56,406 Bristol imports more cars than any other port in the UK... 508 00:36:56,640 --> 00:36:59,644 and had the best PR of any port we visited. 509 00:37:00,320 --> 00:37:04,325 Bristol is closer to the enormous markets of the Americas, Australia... 510 00:37:04,440 --> 00:37:07,683 and the Pacific rim than any other port in the UK. 511 00:37:07,880 --> 00:37:12,681 The port of Bristol is the only major UK port to employ a permanent workforce. 512 00:37:16,320 --> 00:37:18,926 There were 60,000 cars at Portbury... 513 00:37:19,360 --> 00:37:22,409 ready for the new registration year on August 1st... 514 00:37:22,520 --> 00:37:27,048 including many Daewoos from South Korea, new on the UK market. 515 00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:37,971 Two weeks later, we came back again to visit the automated plasterboard factory... 516 00:37:38,080 --> 00:37:42,449 on the coal stockyard to which material: are conveyed directly from the ships. 517 00:37:44,920 --> 00:37:47,890 The coal is mostly from Richard's Bay in South Africa... 518 00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:50,651 and is carried to power stations by train. 519 00:37:53,640 --> 00:37:56,086 In Bristol, we visited the LLandoger Trow... 520 00:37:56,200 --> 00:38:01,001 where Defoe is supposed to have met Alexander Selkirk, the real Robinson Crusoe. 521 00:38:02,120 --> 00:38:06,648 LLandoger Trow was a boat that carried coal to Bristol from South Wales 522 00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:15,480 In Richard Jeffries' After London... 523 00:38:15,680 --> 00:38:18,809 the red rocks of Bristol are the western extremity... 524 00:38:18,920 --> 00:38:22,129 of the lake that has covered most of southern England... 525 00:38:22,240 --> 00:38:24,049 and the Severn is silted up. 526 00:38:25,600 --> 00:38:27,887 Robinson had been most affected by the book... 527 00:38:28,000 --> 00:38:30,685 which we'd heard one night being read on the radio... 528 00:38:30,800 --> 00:38:32,882 and had mistaken for a documentary. 529 00:38:35,400 --> 00:38:40,247 Although it was then the hottest day of the year, we walked out onto the bridge. 530 00:38:56,680 --> 00:38:59,081 In the afternoon, we visited Filton. 531 00:39:00,280 --> 00:39:02,806 Our employer had given Robinson a copy... 532 00:39:02,920 --> 00:39:07,369 of Capitalism, Culture and Decline In Britain, 1750-1990... 533 00:39:07,640 --> 00:39:09,688 by W.D. Rubinstein... 534 00:39:09,960 --> 00:39:14,488 who notes the close and harmonious connection before 1832... 535 00:39:14,760 --> 00:39:19,641 between city finance, land, the professions and the government... 536 00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:24,722 as contractor, loan agent and originator of old corruption... 537 00:39:24,840 --> 00:39:28,322 the extraordinary system of lucrative perquisites... 538 00:39:28,440 --> 00:39:33,321 which came to fortunate aristocrats, government employees and their relatives. 539 00:39:34,200 --> 00:39:38,649 The British government itself acted as the central matrix of this system... 540 00:39:38,840 --> 00:39:43,528 directly through contracts and perquisite, indirectly by maintaining... 541 00:39:43,640 --> 00:39:47,645 British control of the seas, the Empire and the balance of power. 542 00:39:53,200 --> 00:39:57,205 "Britain's role as the world's fifth largest trading nation... 543 00:39:57,400 --> 00:40:02,327 "is essential for its economic well-being," said Lord Mackey, the Lord Chancellor... 544 00:40:02,640 --> 00:40:07,009 during the first reading of the Intelligence Services Bill in 1993. 545 00:40:08,360 --> 00:40:09,850 It was very hot. 546 00:40:18,080 --> 00:40:21,323 The Defence Evaluation and Research Agency at Malvern... 547 00:40:21,600 --> 00:40:26,288 is a world centre for liquid crystal and semiconductor research. 548 00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:30,891 "They talk much of mines of gold and silver," said Defoe... 549 00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:34,766 "which are certainly to be found here, if they were but looked for... 550 00:40:34,880 --> 00:40:37,167 "and that Malvern would outdo Potosi." 551 00:40:40,120 --> 00:40:43,727 It was the driest summer since records began. 552 00:40:50,560 --> 00:40:53,803 We wanted to have a look at Blakenhurst Prison near Redditch... 553 00:40:53,920 --> 00:40:56,321 run by UK Detention Services... 554 00:40:56,440 --> 00:41:00,490 one of six Bullingdon type prisons based on an original design... 555 00:41:00,600 --> 00:41:03,001 by Building Design Partnership. 556 00:41:04,120 --> 00:41:08,205 Merry Hill near Dudley is the largest shopping centre in Europe. 557 00:41:08,520 --> 00:41:12,650 More than four and a half million people are within 65 minutes drlve. 558 00:41:14,120 --> 00:41:18,011 It is connected to the nearby waterfront development by a monorail... 559 00:41:18,120 --> 00:41:21,283 though this was not operating on the day of our visit. 560 00:41:21,400 --> 00:41:25,564 At the top of the hill are the offices of the Child Support Agency. 561 00:41:27,200 --> 00:41:29,851 The waterfront and Merry Hill were built on the site... 562 00:41:29,960 --> 00:41:32,566 of the former Round Oak Steel Works. 563 00:41:35,560 --> 00:41:39,281 Merry Hill attracts 25 million shopping visits a year... 564 00:41:39,400 --> 00:41:43,564 and its effects are felt in towns 200 miles away. 565 00:42:21,880 --> 00:42:24,531 Robinson wanted to visit Halesowen... 566 00:42:24,640 --> 00:42:28,486 to see the factory where the supergun parts have been produced. 567 00:42:30,800 --> 00:42:33,121 We were both ill from the cumulative effects... 568 00:42:33,240 --> 00:42:36,244 of months of bad food and living in hotels... 569 00:42:36,880 --> 00:42:40,282 and were becoming seriously worried about the weather. 570 00:42:50,680 --> 00:42:53,650 Robinson imagined the entire landscape occupied... 571 00:42:53,760 --> 00:42:56,969 in manufacturing goods for export to the Middle East. 572 00:42:59,920 --> 00:43:04,084 The West Midlands are traditionally the region where elections are decided. 573 00:43:06,320 --> 00:43:09,051 In the Dudley West by-election the previous December... 574 00:43:09,160 --> 00:43:13,131 Labour's winning share of the vote had been their biggest in any by-election... 575 00:43:13,240 --> 00:43:15,641 in a Tory seat since 1933. 576 00:43:19,720 --> 00:43:22,803 On August 11th, we reached West Bromwich... 577 00:43:22,920 --> 00:43:26,163 where we had come to see the headquarters of Hyundai, UK... 578 00:43:26,280 --> 00:43:30,126 which is part-owned by a company called International Motors. 579 00:43:31,200 --> 00:43:34,443 Their Phoenix International Industrial Estate... 580 00:43:34,560 --> 00:43:37,245 is next to the factory of Phoenix Drawn Tube. 581 00:43:38,600 --> 00:43:42,400 In an essay by the geographer Doreen Massey, we had read: 582 00:43:42,880 --> 00:43:45,611 "Amid the Ridley Scott visions of world cities... 583 00:43:45,720 --> 00:43:50,647 "the writing about skyscraper fortresses, Baudrillard visions of hyperspace... 584 00:43:51,120 --> 00:43:55,045 "most people still live in places like Halston or West Bromwich." 585 00:43:57,200 --> 00:44:01,569 Across the road is a chemical manufacturing company called Robinson Brothers. 586 00:44:02,760 --> 00:44:07,129 Robinson introduced himself to the managing director and explained our project. 587 00:44:07,240 --> 00:44:12,087 We were very generously looked after for the next two weeks while we convalesced. 588 00:44:15,720 --> 00:44:18,929 "Much of life, for many people," read Robinson... 589 00:44:19,040 --> 00:44:21,441 "even in the heart of the first world... 590 00:44:21,560 --> 00:44:24,609 "consists of waiting in a bus shelter with your shopping... 591 00:44:24,720 --> 00:44:26,927 "for a bus that never comes." 592 00:44:28,280 --> 00:44:32,205 The bus shelter was opposite the promises of Smallmen Lubricants. 593 00:44:33,720 --> 00:44:36,883 When the bus finally arrived, Robinson had disappeared... 594 00:44:37,000 --> 00:44:40,846 to a sexual encounter with a stranger he contacted through the internet... 595 00:44:40,960 --> 00:44:43,531 while we were waiting at the bus stop. 596 00:44:44,040 --> 00:44:48,045 Our employer had equipped us with a notebook computer and a mobile phone. 597 00:44:51,600 --> 00:44:54,729 We walked over to the Hiatt Works in Great Barr. 598 00:44:56,080 --> 00:44:58,970 Hiatt is one of the oldest firms in Birmingham. 599 00:44:59,200 --> 00:45:02,807 Established In 1780 in the era of the slave trade... 600 00:45:02,920 --> 00:45:05,082 who make handcuffs and other items... 601 00:45:05,200 --> 00:45:09,683 and whose name recently still appeared on leg irons used in Saudi prisons. 602 00:45:10,720 --> 00:45:13,849 Robinson went in and bought a pair of handcuffs. 603 00:45:16,240 --> 00:45:19,130 Beneath Spaghetti Junction, we met a man with a dog... 604 00:45:19,240 --> 00:45:22,403 who said he'd been paid for denouncing illegal immigrants... 605 00:45:22,520 --> 00:45:25,603 who'd been working on repairs to the structure. 606 00:45:26,480 --> 00:45:30,769 We were very relieved to reach the Jaguar body plant at Castle Bromwich... 607 00:45:30,880 --> 00:45:35,647 where Ford had secured government investment for X-200 small saloon. 608 00:45:36,840 --> 00:45:41,164 This is the factory where thousands of Spitfires were built during World War ll. 609 00:45:43,040 --> 00:45:45,486 The next day, we left Birmingham. 610 00:45:46,320 --> 00:45:49,290 Neither of us knows anything about Johnson... 611 00:45:49,400 --> 00:45:53,530 except that The Anatomy of Melancholy was the only book that ever took him out of bed... 612 00:45:53,640 --> 00:45:56,405 two hours earlier than he wanted to rise. 613 00:45:57,520 --> 00:46:02,208 We crossed the River Trent to Burton where we stayed the night and woke up very early. 614 00:46:02,800 --> 00:46:05,201 [Fast-paced instrumental music] 615 00:46:41,760 --> 00:46:43,410 The day we arrived in Derby... 616 00:46:43,520 --> 00:46:48,003 Rolls Royce announced half year profits up 43% to £70 million... 617 00:46:48,360 --> 00:46:51,762 though the chairman would not rule out more job losses... 618 00:46:51,880 --> 00:46:53,848 and the shares fell 8%. 619 00:46:55,080 --> 00:46:59,881 "The English are acknowledged world leaders in fetishism and SandM"'... 620 00:47:00,000 --> 00:47:01,923 Robinson road in the paper. 621 00:47:02,520 --> 00:47:06,730 The only company in the world that makes latex sheeting suitable for fetish wear... 622 00:47:06,840 --> 00:47:08,922 is based in Derbyshire. 623 00:47:09,800 --> 00:47:12,644 We wanted to visit Robin Hood's Well, near Eastwood... 624 00:47:12,760 --> 00:47:15,730 but the Wood had been fenced off by the owner. 625 00:47:16,320 --> 00:47:19,244 We did not go any further in this direction. 626 00:47:19,720 --> 00:47:21,802 We turned towards the northwest... 627 00:47:21,920 --> 00:47:26,403 and the next morning set off towards Liverpool, following the Derwent Valley. 628 00:47:26,560 --> 00:47:29,245 [Fast-paced instrumental music resumes] 629 00:47:58,920 --> 00:48:00,763 [Birds calling] 630 00:48:25,600 --> 00:48:28,888 Tesco is still expanding in the north of England. 631 00:48:29,040 --> 00:48:33,409 The distribution centre at Middlewich holds 43 million cases... 632 00:48:33,520 --> 00:48:36,603 about 9 days' stock for 120 stores... 633 00:48:36,760 --> 00:48:39,445 and delivers as far away as Gateshead. 634 00:48:39,600 --> 00:48:44,208 Six more superstores are scheduled to open in the north by May 1997. 635 00:48:44,920 --> 00:48:47,685 [Fast-paced instrumental music resumes] 636 00:49:02,760 --> 00:49:05,650 On September 4th, we arrived in Liverpool. 637 00:49:07,280 --> 00:49:09,931 In the statistics for 1993... 638 00:49:10,160 --> 00:49:13,164 the Mersey Dock and Harbour Company wee the most profitable... 639 00:49:13,280 --> 00:49:15,442 of any port authority listed. 640 00:49:16,240 --> 00:49:19,403 In the last 30 years, Liverpool's traffic has fluctuated... 641 00:49:19,520 --> 00:49:21,727 more than that of any other UK port. 642 00:49:21,960 --> 00:49:24,804 It is now about the same as in 1965... 643 00:49:24,920 --> 00:49:27,321 three times more than in the early '80s... 644 00:49:27,440 --> 00:49:30,887 and Liverpool is one of the biggest ports in England. 645 00:49:54,840 --> 00:49:59,084 Liverpool imports coal for Powergen from the USA and Columbia... 646 00:49:59,200 --> 00:50:02,170 and exports enormous tonnages of scrap... 647 00:50:02,440 --> 00:50:04,681 mostly to the Far East and Spain. 648 00:50:34,320 --> 00:50:37,608 The company did not want us to photograph the scrap. 649 00:50:37,720 --> 00:50:41,805 Not long after our visit, they sacked 329 dock workers... 650 00:50:41,920 --> 00:50:44,491 for refusing to cross a picket line. 651 00:50:44,600 --> 00:50:47,763 When dockers in New York began secondary protests... 652 00:50:47,880 --> 00:50:49,848 the ACL container line... 653 00:50:50,000 --> 00:50:54,085 said it would leave Liverpool unless the lock-out there was ended. 654 00:50:54,360 --> 00:50:58,524 And the Mersey Company's share value dropped by £70 million. 655 00:51:00,800 --> 00:51:04,122 The biggest shareholder in the Mersey Dock and Harbour Company... 656 00:51:04,240 --> 00:51:05,844 is the Treasury. 657 00:51:10,480 --> 00:51:13,245 Our next appointments were in Warrington. 658 00:51:13,360 --> 00:51:15,761 The Thorn Cross Young Offender institution... 659 00:51:15,880 --> 00:51:19,362 which had been chosen to become the first US-style boot camp... 660 00:51:19,480 --> 00:51:23,451 and the KinderCare Nursery, the first to open in the UK. 661 00:51:24,640 --> 00:51:28,804 KinderCare runs over a thousand centres in 38 American states. 662 00:51:31,000 --> 00:51:33,810 Warrington is near the crossing point of two motorways... 663 00:51:33,920 --> 00:51:37,129 and has attracted many large distribution centres. 664 00:51:37,600 --> 00:51:40,649 We stayed the night in a Whitbread Travel Inn near Wigan... 665 00:51:40,760 --> 00:51:43,081 that had opened the previous week. 666 00:51:43,200 --> 00:51:44,964 Our rooms were quite new. 667 00:51:45,400 --> 00:51:47,926 No one had ever stayed in them before. 668 00:51:53,800 --> 00:51:58,362 The Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened on September 18th, 1830. 669 00:51:59,160 --> 00:52:02,687 Robinson took me to see the memorial to William Huskisson... 670 00:52:02,800 --> 00:52:05,451 the Cabinet Minister who was knocked down by the rocket... 671 00:52:05,560 --> 00:52:09,042 as it passed the dignitaries gathered for the occasion. 672 00:52:11,280 --> 00:52:15,729 British Coal closed Parkside Colliery in 1993... 673 00:52:16,120 --> 00:52:20,409 and cleared the site after an 18-month-long women's protest vigil. 674 00:52:21,200 --> 00:52:25,125 They proposed a massive distribution centre for Morrison's Supermarket... 675 00:52:25,240 --> 00:52:27,925 with 5,000 vehicle movements daily. 676 00:52:28,880 --> 00:52:32,441 The coal used to go by train to Fiddler's' Ferry Power Station... 677 00:52:32,560 --> 00:52:36,724 which is now supplied from the terminal we'd seen in Liverpool Docks. 678 00:52:38,600 --> 00:52:41,171 We had lunch in a brand new Marks and Spencer... 679 00:52:41,280 --> 00:52:43,362 on the edge of Warrington. 680 00:52:57,360 --> 00:52:59,328 Robinson told me he had a relative... 681 00:52:59,440 --> 00:53:02,728 who emigrated to Canada from Warrington in 1935. 682 00:53:03,440 --> 00:53:07,889 He walked to the locks at Latchford and boarded one of the Manchester liners... 683 00:53:08,000 --> 00:53:11,083 that sailed to the Great Lakes until the late '70s. 684 00:53:17,240 --> 00:53:20,483 We arrived in Manchester on September 19th. 685 00:53:21,640 --> 00:53:23,130 In 1937... 686 00:53:23,240 --> 00:53:26,767 Turing published his paper on computable numbers. 687 00:53:27,680 --> 00:53:31,127 Two years later, he joined the Code and Cipher School at Bletchley Park... 688 00:53:31,240 --> 00:53:34,528 in the team that cracked the German Navy's Enigma Code... 689 00:53:34,640 --> 00:53:38,201 so that convoys could dodge U-boats in the North Atlantic. 690 00:53:38,760 --> 00:53:42,128 He continued his computer work at Manchester University... 691 00:53:42,240 --> 00:53:46,006 becoming Director of the Manchester Automatic Digital Machine. 692 00:53:46,840 --> 00:53:48,569 In 1954... 693 00:53:48,920 --> 00:53:51,491 a police investigation of a burglary at his home... 694 00:53:51,600 --> 00:53:54,524 led to his being charged with gross indecency. 695 00:53:55,720 --> 00:53:58,246 He pleaded guilty and was put on probation... 696 00:53:58,360 --> 00:54:01,648 on condition that he submitted to hormone treatment. 697 00:54:01,880 --> 00:54:04,611 Shortly afterwards, he killed himself... 698 00:54:04,720 --> 00:54:07,485 by eating en apple impregnated with cyanide. 699 00:54:08,360 --> 00:54:09,885 He was 42. 700 00:54:10,480 --> 00:54:13,370 [Solemn instrumental music] 701 00:54:56,160 --> 00:54:59,846 Murray's Mill in Ancoats was built in 1798. 702 00:55:00,080 --> 00:55:02,845 It is the world's oldest steam-driven mill... 703 00:55:02,960 --> 00:55:06,487 and as such, is described as the first factory. 704 00:55:07,960 --> 00:55:11,282 Engels visited Ancoats frequently in 1842... 705 00:55:11,400 --> 00:55:15,121 when working for the firm of Erman and Engels in Manchester. 706 00:55:15,600 --> 00:55:18,444 His Condition of the Working Class in England... 707 00:55:18,560 --> 00:55:21,325 was published in 1845 in Leipzig... 708 00:55:21,440 --> 00:55:24,046 but not in Britain until 1892. 709 00:55:25,880 --> 00:55:29,930 We stayed in another Travel Inn at Milnrow, near Rochdale... 710 00:55:30,040 --> 00:55:32,202 which had been open for about a month. 711 00:55:32,320 --> 00:55:36,882 These places always seem to be hosting conferences for their own executives. 712 00:55:37,880 --> 00:55:41,851 John Milne was a civil engineer with a passion for volcanoes. 713 00:55:42,480 --> 00:55:44,403 He travelled overland to Tokyo... 714 00:55:44,520 --> 00:55:47,330 where he was Professor of Geology and Mining... 715 00:55:47,440 --> 00:55:49,761 and developed the seismograph. 716 00:55:49,880 --> 00:55:53,202 He wrote many books, including some science fiction. 717 00:55:55,000 --> 00:55:57,526 We had ascended the Pennines at Blackstone Edge... 718 00:55:57,640 --> 00:55:59,927 by the route of Daniel Defoe. 719 00:56:10,040 --> 00:56:13,169 When we arrived at Yorkshire Waters Reservoir near Ripponden... 720 00:56:13,280 --> 00:56:17,365 there were 24 tankers waiting to load water to be taken into Halifax. 721 00:56:19,040 --> 00:56:21,611 At the time, there were altogether 40 lorries... 722 00:56:21,720 --> 00:56:24,644 working from this reservoir, 24 hours a day. 723 00:56:53,560 --> 00:56:56,928 Later in the year, there were as many as 1,000 tankers... 724 00:56:57,240 --> 00:56:59,322 moving water in West Yorkshire. 725 00:57:02,040 --> 00:57:03,849 Near the treatment works in Halifax... 726 00:57:03,960 --> 00:57:06,361 someone told us where they'd just seen another leak. 727 00:57:06,480 --> 00:57:08,528 So we went and had a look. 728 00:57:29,280 --> 00:57:31,442 We had an appointment at the wind farm... 729 00:57:31,560 --> 00:57:33,961 on Oxenhope Moor, above the town. 730 00:57:51,280 --> 00:57:53,806 We're both very fond of Halifax. 731 00:57:54,240 --> 00:57:58,165 It was the first place we'd had a decent cup of coffee in months. 732 00:58:26,800 --> 00:58:28,768 At Saltaire, north of Bradford... 733 00:58:28,880 --> 00:58:33,442 Pace Microtechnology make digital television equipment for export... 734 00:58:33,720 --> 00:58:36,087 to the Far East and Australasia. 735 00:58:37,720 --> 00:58:41,441 The VandA never managed to move their South Indian collection... 736 00:58:41,560 --> 00:58:45,246 to the Lister Mill in Bradford, but the police station is new. 737 00:58:48,120 --> 00:58:50,726 In Leeds, the site of the famous Quarry Hill flats... 738 00:58:50,840 --> 00:58:53,923 is now occupied by the Dept of Social Security. 739 00:58:54,640 --> 00:58:57,166 Junction 27 is a leisure park... 740 00:58:57,280 --> 00:59:01,968 Wakefield 41 is a distribution estate where Morrison have their depots. 741 00:59:04,080 --> 00:59:08,085 "On the threshold of our century," Henri Bergson wrote... 742 00:59:08,400 --> 00:59:12,325 "If realty could immediately reach our senses and our consciousness... 743 00:59:13,000 --> 00:59:16,766 "if we could come into direct contact with things and with each other... 744 00:59:16,920 --> 00:59:21,528 "probably art would be useless, or rather, we should all be artists." 745 00:59:23,480 --> 00:59:26,962 While we were in Wakefield, Robinson met someone who told him that... 746 00:59:27,080 --> 00:59:29,560 Bergson's mother came from Doncaster. 747 00:59:30,800 --> 00:59:33,201 There are three prisons in Doncaster. 748 00:59:33,320 --> 00:59:37,848 The largest is run by a subsidiary of the American Wackhut Corporation. 749 00:59:37,960 --> 00:59:41,089 It has the cheapest cost per prisoner in the UK... 750 00:59:41,200 --> 00:59:45,444 a non-union staff, and a record of violence and chaos. 751 00:59:45,640 --> 00:59:48,610 Doncaster prison was designed by Seifert Limited. 752 00:59:50,880 --> 00:59:54,362 Bentley used to be one of the most left-wing pits in Yorkshire. 753 00:59:54,480 --> 00:59:57,802 When it closed, it was producing the UK's cheapest coal... 754 00:59:57,920 --> 01:00:00,651 undercutting oven Columbian imports. 755 01:00:00,760 --> 01:00:04,207 There were 600,000 tonnes stock piled at the pit. 756 01:00:13,080 --> 01:00:17,165 RJB owned 17 of the 31 surviving pits and have contracts... 757 01:00:17,280 --> 01:00:20,523 with the power generators until 1998. 758 01:00:22,520 --> 01:00:25,364 There are 1,000 miners still working in the industry... 759 01:00:25,480 --> 01:00:28,245 1% of the number in 1946. 760 01:00:29,840 --> 01:00:33,970 The advancement of Stella Remington, MI5's former director... 761 01:00:34,120 --> 01:00:37,761 followed her role directing sabotage of the miners' strike. 762 01:00:38,080 --> 01:00:40,890 And the amateur interventions of David Hart... 763 01:00:41,000 --> 01:00:43,367 Old Etonian and former bankrupt... 764 01:00:43,480 --> 01:00:46,529 began with his funding strike-breaking miners. 765 01:00:46,800 --> 01:00:51,169 He is new unpaid advisor to Michael Portillo at the Ministry of Defence. 766 01:00:52,920 --> 01:00:56,811 A third of all UK deep-mined coal is burnt at Drax. 767 01:00:57,240 --> 01:01:00,926 Hugo Drax was James Bond's opponent in Monnraker. 768 01:01:03,080 --> 01:01:05,845 On October 5th, we entered the network area... 769 01:01:05,960 --> 01:01:09,681 of Kingston Communications on the north bank of the Humber. 770 01:01:19,360 --> 01:01:22,523 Kingston Communications ls owned through the City Council... 771 01:01:22,640 --> 01:01:24,404 by the citizens of Hull. 772 01:01:25,360 --> 01:01:27,442 Robinson took me to the fish dock. 773 01:01:27,560 --> 01:01:32,088 He had read how the Navy used to recruit trawler men as unpaid spies. 774 01:01:33,600 --> 01:01:37,525 Daniel Defoe was happy to welcome William III to England. 775 01:01:38,200 --> 01:01:42,330 This statue was erected in the year 1734... 776 01:01:42,520 --> 01:01:46,002 to the memory of King William III, our great deliverer. 777 01:01:47,160 --> 01:01:50,562 Robinson and I are proud to recollect our own experiences... 778 01:01:50,680 --> 01:01:52,728 of the glorious revolution. 779 01:01:55,000 --> 01:01:59,528 Robinson Crusoe sailed from Hull on September 1st, 1651. 780 01:02:02,240 --> 01:02:05,881 Kingston Communications has invented in a satellite... 781 01:02:06,080 --> 01:02:08,651 and has a worker-director on its board. 782 01:02:09,760 --> 01:02:13,606 William Wilberforce was born in Hull In 1759. 783 01:02:14,520 --> 01:02:18,923 Hull is the eastern English port on the Dublin to Berlin motorway. 784 01:02:19,840 --> 01:02:22,320 In the last century, the traffic was the other way... 785 01:02:22,440 --> 01:02:25,967 as more than a million emigrants from Central and Eastern Europe... 786 01:02:26,080 --> 01:02:29,766 passed through the port on their way to Liverpool in the new world. 787 01:02:29,880 --> 01:02:33,805 Many settled in Yorkshire, including perhaps the Levisons... 788 01:02:33,920 --> 01:02:37,163 whose daughter Catherine wee Henri Bergson's mother. 789 01:02:47,360 --> 01:02:49,681 We crossed the estuary to Immingham. 790 01:02:49,840 --> 01:02:54,368 To materialists like us, lmmingham is the second largest port in the UK. 791 01:02:54,600 --> 01:02:57,649 And yet, there are few ships and we saw no seafarers. 792 01:02:57,760 --> 01:03:01,731 Ships come in and out on a single tide, no one has time to get off. 793 01:03:07,480 --> 01:03:10,848 Volvo, Saab and BMW import cars... 794 01:03:10,960 --> 01:03:13,964 but most of the traffic is in bulk fuel and iron ore... 795 01:03:14,160 --> 01:03:16,401 which involves very little labour. 796 01:03:16,560 --> 01:03:20,565 Three million tonnes of coal a year are imported through Immingham. 797 01:04:40,200 --> 01:04:45,047 Hull's biggest private sector employer is British Aerospace at Brough... 798 01:04:45,440 --> 01:04:48,364 where it builds Hawks for export to Indonesia. 799 01:04:49,520 --> 01:04:53,923 We visited Scarborough to confirm the details of Rimbaud's promontory palace. 800 01:04:54,240 --> 01:04:57,403 Rimbaud was in Java in 1876. 801 01:04:58,640 --> 01:05:03,089 In the afternoon, we sat on a bench outside St Mary's Church, Whitby. 802 01:05:06,280 --> 01:05:10,524 It is about 100 years since the Demeter arrived in Whitby Harbour... 803 01:05:10,880 --> 01:05:15,727 It's 50 great wooden boxes of earth were consigned to Mr. Samuel Billington... 804 01:05:16,120 --> 01:05:20,091 a Whitby solicitor, who had them sent on to Purfleet by train. 805 01:05:21,760 --> 01:05:26,448 Capt. James Cook began his career as ship's boy on the Freelove. 806 01:05:36,600 --> 01:05:40,127 On the evening of the 11th of October, we arrived in Redcar. 807 01:05:46,960 --> 01:05:51,807 British Steel's plant at Redcar is one of the four major steel works in the country. 808 01:05:52,000 --> 01:05:54,844 It produces 70,000 tonnes of steel a week... 809 01:05:55,080 --> 01:05:58,607 70% of which is exported, much of it to the Far East... 810 01:05:58,720 --> 01:06:00,802 and employs hardly any people. 811 01:06:01,240 --> 01:06:03,641 The steel industry's current export surplus... 812 01:06:03,760 --> 01:06:06,445 is about three quarters of a billion pounds. 813 01:06:07,600 --> 01:06:10,968 Wilton is one the biggest chemical production sites in Europe. 814 01:06:11,360 --> 01:06:14,011 It produces about 40 intermediate products. 815 01:06:14,240 --> 01:06:18,609 The chemical industry's export surplus is about £4 billion. 816 01:06:20,360 --> 01:06:25,207 The service sector's share of exports has declined since 1960 817 01:06:25,360 --> 01:06:29,206 as a result of the mere extinction of the merchant shipping fleet. 818 01:06:30,360 --> 01:06:33,489 The Tees is the UK's biggest single port. 819 01:06:33,680 --> 01:06:35,887 It imports iron ore and coal... 820 01:06:36,000 --> 01:06:39,129 and exports oil and petroleum products. 821 01:07:22,520 --> 01:07:27,003 Unemployment in Middlesbrough is 17%, the highest in the country... 822 01:07:27,240 --> 01:07:31,245 which has the least regulated labour market in the industrialised world... 823 01:07:31,360 --> 01:07:34,967 and the highest prison population of any country in Europe. 824 01:07:46,240 --> 01:07:50,643 We stopped to watch the Queen arrive at the Samsung site at Wynyard Perk. 825 01:08:02,760 --> 01:08:05,604 With £58 million of government aid... 826 01:08:05,880 --> 01:08:09,566 Samsung have invested £450 million in a plant... 827 01:08:09,720 --> 01:08:12,690 which employs between 500 and 600 people... 828 01:08:12,840 --> 01:08:15,969 producing microwave ovens and computer monitors. 829 01:08:17,080 --> 01:08:19,367 There was a small demonstration by their committee... 830 01:08:19,480 --> 01:08:22,006 to defend socialism in South Korea. 831 01:08:35,080 --> 01:08:37,845 Wynyard Park is the estate of Sir John Hall... 832 01:08:37,960 --> 01:08:40,804 the developer of the Gateshead Metro Centre. 833 01:08:41,200 --> 01:08:45,922 He bought it in 1981 for £3 million from the Marquis of Londonderry... 834 01:08:46,200 --> 01:08:48,521 whose family were formerly coal owners... 835 01:08:48,640 --> 01:08:52,850 and has developed golf courses, housing estates and a hotel... 836 01:08:53,120 --> 01:08:55,566 which was not the one we stayed in. 837 01:09:06,040 --> 01:09:09,328 In the morning, we travelled south to Shandy Hall. 838 01:09:09,880 --> 01:09:14,807 Here dwelt Laurence Sterne, many years incumbent of Coxwold. 839 01:09:15,200 --> 01:09:18,841 Here he wrote Tristram Shandy and A Sentimental Journey. 840 01:09:19,400 --> 01:09:22,006 He died in London in 1768. 841 01:09:25,360 --> 01:09:26,964 Near Harrogate, we passed... 842 01:09:27,080 --> 01:09:31,130 the US National Security Agency's installation at Menwith Hill. 843 01:09:31,600 --> 01:09:35,241 This is the largest signals intelligence base in the world... 844 01:09:35,360 --> 01:09:38,648 and eavesdrops telephone and other communications. 845 01:09:38,880 --> 01:09:42,521 Some of the most sensitive of which concern the exploitation... 846 01:09:42,680 --> 01:09:44,842 of Buckminsterfullerenes. 847 01:09:48,680 --> 01:09:51,411 Robinson is beginning to act strangely. 848 01:09:52,480 --> 01:09:55,689 As we came down from the Pennines, we passed Samlesbury... 849 01:09:55,960 --> 01:09:58,406 and he tried to get past the security. 850 01:10:00,280 --> 01:10:03,409 In Preston, he went to another British Aerospace plant... 851 01:10:03,800 --> 01:10:05,529 but it had been demolished. 852 01:10:06,080 --> 01:10:08,651 He kept trying to tell me about David Hart... 853 01:10:08,840 --> 01:10:11,844 and his attempts to get the MID to abandon the Tornado... 854 01:10:11,960 --> 01:10:14,770 and lease second-hand F-16s... 855 01:10:15,040 --> 01:10:16,929 about Gothic cathedrals... 856 01:10:17,240 --> 01:10:21,962 and that Hollywood had overtaken aerospace as the leading US export. 857 01:10:23,560 --> 01:10:26,131 On the evening of 23rd of October... 858 01:10:26,360 --> 01:10:29,443 he told me he was going out to steal a piece of equipment... 859 01:10:29,560 --> 01:10:32,291 from one of the Saudi Arabian Tornadoes. 860 01:10:34,240 --> 01:10:36,766 Blackpool is Robinson's home town. 861 01:10:37,200 --> 01:10:39,043 His parents used to have a nursery... 862 01:10:39,160 --> 01:10:42,323 which specialised in strains of giant vegetables. 863 01:10:42,880 --> 01:10:46,362 He explained that life on earth evolved after the arrival... 864 01:10:46,480 --> 01:10:48,926 of Buckminsterfullerenes in meteorites. 865 01:10:58,080 --> 01:11:01,801 He showed me where the Wellington Bomber was built with the geodetic structure... 866 01:11:01,920 --> 01:11:03,684 invented by Barnes Wallis. 867 01:11:05,760 --> 01:11:08,411 We arrived in Blackpool on the second day of Diwali... 868 01:11:08,520 --> 01:11:11,091 and the last week of the illuminations. 869 01:11:12,520 --> 01:11:16,605 Robinson says that Blackpool holds the key to his Utopia. 870 01:12:57,080 --> 01:13:00,129 He often repeated Chamfort's favourite saying: 871 01:13:00,640 --> 01:13:03,086 "In each man's life, there comes the moment... 872 01:13:03,200 --> 01:13:06,921 "when his heart must either burst or turn to stone." 873 01:13:13,520 --> 01:13:17,127 Blackpool stands between us and revolution. 874 01:13:22,960 --> 01:13:25,611 Radiation levels in the Irish Sea are higher... 875 01:13:25,720 --> 01:13:28,451 than in any sea, anywhere in the world. 876 01:13:29,040 --> 01:13:30,883 We cross the lrish Sea to Barrow... 877 01:13:31,000 --> 01:13:34,482 where the third Trident submarine was nearing completion. 878 01:13:37,840 --> 01:13:41,322 Robinson said he had to be in Newcastle by the end of the week. 879 01:13:41,440 --> 01:13:44,489 Then he said he needed a day off to visit a relation. 880 01:13:58,520 --> 01:14:01,364 He took me to the dump at Drigg where radioactive waste... 881 01:14:01,480 --> 01:14:04,051 is stored in deteriorating conditions... 882 01:14:04,400 --> 01:14:07,449 and to the site whore Nirex is proposing to build... 883 01:14:07,560 --> 01:14:11,884 an underground repository for plutonium and other high-level waste. 884 01:14:14,480 --> 01:14:18,963 At Sellafield, the 1963 reactors' heat exchangers... 885 01:14:19,200 --> 01:14:23,410 were being removed as the first stage of dismantling the reactor. 886 01:14:23,840 --> 01:14:27,003 The Thorpe reprocessing plant had finally started up... 887 01:14:27,120 --> 01:14:29,361 In February 1995. 888 01:14:30,040 --> 01:14:34,090 He said it was unlikely ever to be even an economic proposition. 889 01:14:35,320 --> 01:14:38,722 He told me that the plutonium aftermath of the nuclear industry... 890 01:14:38,840 --> 01:14:42,083 will remain lethal for quarter of a million years. 891 01:14:42,840 --> 01:14:44,524 At Wordsworth's birthplace... 892 01:14:44,640 --> 01:14:47,803 I thought he was going to go in and register a complaint. 893 01:14:49,320 --> 01:14:51,482 On the 30th of October, without warning... 894 01:14:51,600 --> 01:14:54,285 we were told our contracts had been terminated... 895 01:14:54,400 --> 01:14:59,088 and we heard on the car radio that a Tornado had crashed in the North Sea. 896 01:15:01,720 --> 01:15:05,691 I cannot tell you where Robinson finally found his Utopia. 897 01:15:10,320 --> 01:15:12,926 [Birds chirping] 898 01:16:19,600 --> 01:16:21,887 [Solemn instrumental music] 899 01:17:08,240 --> 01:17:10,447 [Music intensifies] 900 01:17:19,080 --> 01:17:21,970 [Solemn instrumental music continues]