Reel History of Britain — Season 1, Episode 8: Britain On the Move
Documentary • 30 min • 1 season, 20 episodes • ★ 6.0/10
Episode synopsis
Today we're pulling up at the Haynes International Motor Museum in Somerset, to look back to the 1960s when dreams of the open road became a reality for the first time for millions of people. Joan Wright remembers the impact on her family when her father acquired his first car. We'll hear from Joe Moran, one of the thousands of men who travelled from Ireland to build Britain's motorways. And Anna Purkiss will see footage of her parents that evokes emotional memories of the time they were forced to make way for the motorway.
About Reel History of Britain
Reel History of Britain is a 20 part series being shown on BBC Two, presented by Melvyn Bragg and about the history of modern Britain; through the eyes of people who were there. It was shown from 5–30 September 2011. The programme is a social history documentary, charting the course of the twentieth century through archive film, plus interviews and recollections of key events that have taken place in the last one-hundred years, since the advent of moving film. In each episode, Bragg goes to a different place in the UK and shows people film in a 1950s Ministry of Technology mobile cinema, then gauges their reactions and captures them on film.