Reel History of Britain — Season 1, Episode 9: The Glory Days of Fishing
Documentary • 30 min • 1 season, 20 episodes • ★ 6.0/10
Episode synopsis
Today we're pulling up in Great Yarmouth, once home to the world's largest herring fleet, to look back to the 1920s and the heyday of British fishing. We'll speak to Fred Normandale, whose family have been fishing since the early eighteenth century, and Ronnie King who first went to sea in a steam drifter in 1937. Maritime historian and writer Mike Smylie will tell us about the heyday of herrings before the fish finger got us hooked. And fishing lassie descendant, Irene Watt provides an unexpected musical treat with a sea shanty about the work of her ancestors.
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.