- 6/12/2025
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00:00Swinbrook House in Oxfordshire, 1932.
00:12Two girls are glaring at each other across a room.
00:18It's been divided straight down the middle.
00:21Fascist images on one side of the line,
00:24communist propaganda on the other.
00:29On the red side is a feisty 15-year-old called Jessica Mitford.
00:34On the fascist side, her 18-year-old sister, Unity Mitford.
00:44After the fighting, the two Mitford sisters would snuggle up together
00:48and discuss how they'd feel if one of them were ever ordered to execute the other.
00:54Unity would later tell her sister how she dreamed of meeting Hitler.
01:05Jessica said she was going to run away and become a communist.
01:11And you know what? Unity really did become a close personal friend of Adolf Hitler,
01:17endlessly sitting at his feet while the Führer stroked her hair.
01:22And Jessica really did elope with Winston Churchill's lefty nephew to the Spanish Civil War,
01:29later becoming a communist herself.
01:32The antics of the Mitfords transfixed Britain in the 30s and have done ever since.
01:39They became the pin-up girls for the political madness of those years.
01:44In the real world, 99% of the British were much duller.
01:49Thank the Lord.
01:51Thank the Lord.
02:22For me, more than anything else, the 1930s is symbolised by hats.
02:36Podgy politicians in trilby hats, incompetent financiers in top hats, hard-faced manufacturers in bowler hats and endless streams of the unemployed, their flat caps pulled down tight.
02:56Britain's new Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald, was, hat-wise, a man for all seasons.
03:03Top hat? Homburg, bowler. Bad sign.
03:10And yet, MacDonald was a remarkable man, a long-haired, youthful agitator who'd helped to find the Labour Party, and who in 1924 became its first Prime Minister for just nine months.
03:26In June 1929, he was elected again.
03:29I can assure you that my idea is going to be to give this country a status in the world based upon the righteousness of its actions.
03:43When the victorious Ramsay MacDonald arrived here at London's King's Cross Station, he was greeted by 12,000 people, cheering wildly.
04:04As he got out of the train, they tried to lift him on their shoulders.
04:09One of the journalists wrote that in the slums of the manufacturing towns and the hovels of the countryside,
04:17Ramsay MacDonald has become a legendary being, the personification of all the thousands of downtrodden men and women, hope and dream and desire.
04:31But if we remember thirties Britain for one thing, it's for unemployment.
04:43And soon after MacDonald took office, his hopes for a better future were shattered.
04:47The stock market crashed, bringing the worst financial collapse the world had up to that point ever seen.
05:00By December 1930, unemployment in Britain had reached two and a half million.
05:14In some areas, nearly everyone was out of work.
05:17The areas worst affected were in the north of England, Scotland and Wales, where millions of unemployed people eked out their lives on meagre benefits.
05:36And this was unemployment which left families really hungry, living in under-heated, almost bare houses,
05:49and always with the cosh of the means test, waiting for anyone who showed the slightest sign of existing just a little above the bread line.
05:58Neighbours would rat on neighbours, and government inspectors quite literally looked inside people's cooking pots
06:06to check that they weren't eating the better cuts of meat.
06:15A young Lancashire man, Walter Greenwood, was living just this kind of life, in a slum called Hankey Park in Salford.
06:25Walter Greenwood started working at pawnbrokers when he was just thirteen.
06:30He never earned more than two pounds a week, barely enough to pay the rent.
06:34When he was made redundant, he spent nine months burning up inside with fury at the poverty of his hometown.
06:44And then he began to write a novel.
06:47He said he wanted to show the tragedy of a lost generation who had been denied the natural hopes and desires of youth.
06:57The best-selling novel was a morality tale, following the Hardcastle family, as they're torn apart by unemployment.
07:14God, just give me a job. I don't care if it's only half paid.
07:18Their daughter, Sally, played by Deborah Carr in the 1941 film, is eventually forced into prostitution.
07:25So you go on the loose, will you? And make respectable folks like me and your mother the talk of the neighbourhood.
07:32It's sick I am a codging old clothes to try and make them look somewhat like.
07:35And it's sick I am a working week after week and seeing out for it.
07:39And it's sick I am of never having out but what's been in pawn shop and crawling with dirt and vermin.
07:43I'm sick of the sight of Hankey Park, I, and everybody in it.
07:46You brazen slut!
07:48Keep your line to nothing, mother dear!
07:49The gritty dialogue and the realism were totally new to most of its readers.
07:55One reviewer said it was a terrible indictment of modern civilisation.
08:00Capitalism is utterly condemned.
08:12McDonald, that's the view across the...
08:15Yet Britain's first socialist prime minister seemed to be living in another world.
08:21The only thing we have found to do here thus far, Mr McDonald, is to walk over the moors and to get a little trout fishing.
08:28Perhaps I can lure you into taking a little of that sometime while you are here.
08:32Yes.
08:35McDonald seemed hopelessly out of touch already with ordinary people and he had no obvious solution to what he called the economic blizzard.
08:43At the Labour Party conference at Landedno in 1930, McDonald suggested that the best solution for the unemployed was to return to the land, where they could till and grow, sow and harvest.
08:58Well, it's an idea, I suppose.
09:00But a rather more modern solution was coming from another member of the Labour Party.
09:06Enter stage left, the 1930s very own pantomime villain.
09:12We live in a period in which politicians are not very popular.
09:19And believe me, you have my sympathy.
09:24Oswald Mosley started as a Tory war hero before discovering socialism and joining Labour.
09:31In his spare time, he liked to move among the rich and beautiful, trying it on with almost every female he met.
09:40Moseley was a flashy, dashing cad.
09:49But he confined his mistresses to the upper classes.
09:53His personal motto, vote labour, sleep Tory.
09:57But when he finally settled down with the aristocratic heiress, Simi Curzon, he promised an end to this vigorous hobby.
10:08He drew a line under it all and confessed to all his previous conquests.
10:14Well, not quite all.
10:16He conveniently forgot to mention his affairs with both his wife's sister and her stepmother.
10:23But Moseley took his politics seriously.
10:30Influenced by Mussolini's social fascist experiment in Italy, he came up with one idea after another to solve the problem of unemployment.
10:38We have resources of craftsmanship, of skill, second to none in the world.
10:48But those resources must be mobilised for a great effort of a united nation.
10:56Moseley wrote up his plans for large-scale borrowing and ambitious public works schemes.
11:12It was called the Moseley Memorandum.
11:15But standing in his way was the Chancellor, Philip Snowden, a cold little man who blocked every radical policy to create jobs.
11:30Wildcat finance, Snowden called Moseley's plans.
11:34MacDonald was a bit more sympathetic, but he flapped and dithered.
11:39Every time Moseley produced a detailed proposal, he was brutally slapped down.
11:45Until eventually, he resigned.
11:49I didn't come into politics to change the Labour Party, he said later, but to change the country.
11:55Thank you. Goodbye.
11:57Very soon, the streets of Britain are swamped with lines of marching men in search of work.
12:13On hunger marches, or promoting a new big idea.
12:17Among them are the most disciplined, impressive marchers of them all.
12:34Yes, it's the Greenshirts.
12:40The who? The what?
12:43The green-clad shock troops of the People's Fighting Front.
12:49As the Greenshirts came to be known, believed in a fairer society, the joys of outdoor living,
12:55but above all, the overthrow of the banking system.
13:06The Greenshirts were founded by a charismatic former scout leader called John Hargrave,
13:12also known as White Fox.
13:19Hargrave's movement had begun in the 1920s as a non-political organisation called the Kindred of the Kibbo Kift.
13:26They were dedicated to the joys of camping, handicrafts, world peace, and silly dancing.
13:34There was a lot of silly dancing in the 1920s, but the mood of the 1930s was darker.
13:44Hargrave was converted to a new economic theory called social credit,
13:49which seemed a middle way between capitalism and communism.
13:52Working or not, young, old, sick, everybody would get directly their share of the national dividend.
14:06Why?
14:07Because the credit of a community belongs to the community.
14:11Very straightforward.
14:12And as a country grew richer through technical advance, everybody would have to work far less.
14:19Result?
14:20A leisure society.
14:23Now, what's wrong with that?
14:24Alongside the camping, the Greenshirt movement now came up with new political slogans and propaganda.
14:39Kibbo Kift dancing was out, marching was in, and the Greenshirts became more and more militant.
14:46A young unemployed man called Michael Murphy threw a green brick into the windows of No. 11 Downing Street.
15:00On it were two slogans.
15:02Issue the national dividend and power to the Greenshirts.
15:07Social credit had gone guerrilla.
15:10And the evolution of the Greenshirts, from the mildly batty, but entirely gentle Kibbo Kift,
15:18to paramilitary street fighters, is about as good a parable of the age as you're likely to get.
15:33By the summer of 1931, government spending seemed out of control.
15:38The Treasury demanded a £67 million reduction in payments to the unemployed,
15:44which is the equivalent of £3.4 billion today.
15:51Could a Labour government slash spending?
15:54And if not, would the Conservatives come in and do it instead?
15:58Very reluctantly, Ramsey MacDonald recommended the cuts to his cabinet.
16:02What is going on behind these famous doors?
16:08The whole country and the rest of the world is watching to see how Great Britain is going to put its financial affairs in order.
16:16But the cabinet was split.
16:18Many refused to agree.
16:20MacDonald's authority over his party had collapsed,
16:23and he felt he had no alternative but to offer his resignation to the king.
16:27But even before MacDonald had delivered his letter,
16:34the king announced that he trusted there was no question of him leaving office.
16:39MacDonald was the only man to lead the country through the crisis.
16:44Instead, MacDonald should form a national government, including Conservatives and Liberals.
16:51Now, MacDonald knew that if he did this, he'd be scuppered in his own words,
16:57becoming a ridiculous figure, unable to command support
17:01and bring odium not only upon his party, but himself.
17:06Yet, flattered by the king,
17:09at this moment of crisis, that little bit of magic royal oil,
17:15MacDonald agreed.
17:16For the National Coalition to go ahead,
17:22MacDonald brought down his own Labour government,
17:25and Parliament was dissolved.
17:27On 28th September, he was expelled from the party he'd helped to create.
17:32Among Labour people to this day,
17:34Ramsay MacDonald is bitterly remembered as a traitor.
17:38But in the general election that followed,
17:48MacDonald was rewarded with one of the largest mandates ever won by a British Prime Minister.
17:54But with Tories Neville Chamberlain as Chancellor,
17:58and Stanley Baldwin as the effective deputy leader,
18:01MacDonald now found himself at the beck and call of the Conservatives.
18:05One of Ramsay MacDonald's first challenges as the leader of the national government
18:21was to paper over the cracks in the British Empire.
18:25Here he is at last, the mystery man of India, Mr. Gandhi,
18:30dressed in just his loincloth, even in the chilly climes of Europe.
18:34He's carrying with him his pots and pans, which he declared at the customs.
18:40On September 12th, 1931, Gandhi came to Britain to discuss the future of India.
18:49In the early 30s, he'd begun a campaign of non-violent protest against British rule.
18:58The British government reacted by arresting some 100,000 Indians, including Gandhi himself.
19:06The empire was becoming a worldwide laughingstock.
19:17Here in Britain, Winston Churchill was infuriated by Gandhi's cheek
19:23and resigned in protest from the government.
19:27Churchill saw the irritating little man in a loincloth
19:32as the beginning of the end for the British Empire.
19:35And nothing he said has worn quite as badly as his description of Gandhi
19:40as a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, posing as a half-naked fakir.
19:47He said he'd like to see Gandhi bound, laid in the dust outside Delhi
19:54and trampled upon by the Viceroy, riding an elephant.
20:03But now, to Churchill's horror,
20:05here he was having roundtable talks with the British government.
20:09While the talks were going on, Gandhi toured the country,
20:16visiting unemployed mill workers in Lancashire.
20:20Oh, he looked alike, Lillard.
20:28On November 5th, Gandhi was invited to tea
20:32with King George V at Buckingham Palace.
20:35The king was most unhappy.
20:39I tell you what it is, Mr. Gandhi, the king blurted out.
20:46I'm not having any of your damned interference in my empire.
20:52Gandhi replied very calmly,
20:55I must not be drawn into political discussion with your majesty
21:00while I am receiving your majesty's hospitality.
21:04As he was leaving the palace,
21:07he was asked by journalists
21:09if he felt properly dressed for the occasion.
21:13Oh, it was fine, said Gandhi.
21:16The king was wearing enough for both of us.
21:24Gandhi left Britain,
21:26as eventually his country would too.
21:28Elsewhere, new empires were rising.
21:43In 1933, Adolf Hitler was elected chancellor of Germany.
21:47He immediately began a massive expansion
21:51of the country's industrial production.
22:01In Italy, Benito Mussolini, or Il Duce,
22:05was planning the invasion of Abyssinia.
22:07In Britain, we had a different sense of national destiny.
22:29Let's look the other way,
22:31vote for dull politicians and keep our fingers crossed.
22:34And, after all, there were other distractions.
22:40I've tasted the waffles and corn on the cob,
22:44but give me some hot pot.
22:46Are you dreaming? Come on.
22:49None bigger, none louder
22:51than Britain's very own superstar of the talkies,
22:55Gracie Fields.
22:56This was a great age of film,
23:02and Gracie was, by far,
23:04the most popular entertainer in Britain.
23:08Even her director, Basil Dean,
23:10seemed puzzled by her success,
23:12what he called her almost freakish drawing power.
23:17Gracie's personality literally bounces off the screen, he wrote.
23:21Queen Mary wondered how it was possible that she sang so beautifully,
23:33while at the same time making those rough noises.
23:37Oh, Gracie was born Gracie Stansfield in 1898,
23:58above a chip shop in Rochdale, Lancashire.
24:00She escaped the cotton mills with a career in music hall,
24:03and, by the time she was 25, she was a household name.
24:06May I'm in the shadow tomorrow, maybe?
24:12In 1934, she appeared in the box office hit
24:15Sing As We Go,
24:16the story of a mouthy mill worker called Gracie Platt.
24:21Well, Grace, this lot's knocked the song and dance out to you.
24:24Oh, no, it hasn't, Longface.
24:26Come on, lads and lashes, let's leave the mill in good style.
24:28Sing as we go.
24:29Sing as we go,
24:31When she hears she's going to lose her job in the Depression,
24:50Gracie takes it on the chin.
24:53If we can't spin, we can still sing, she insists,
24:56as she warbles her way out of the factory gate
24:59and off into an uncertain future.
25:02She gets on her bike and ends up here in Blackpool.
25:08Where she tries various jobs, she's a waitress.
25:11Oh, don't know, Gracie.
25:12You haven't said how'd you do to me yet.
25:15A spiritualist.
25:16Your astral form is very visible to me.
25:18It's bright red.
25:18I feel the radiation's coming through to me at once.
25:20Oh, go on.
25:20And a vendor of crunchy-wunchy toffee here on the seafront.
25:25Give us a six-month-a-packet. Crunchy-wunchy toffee.
25:28Crunchy-wunchy toffee.
25:28Crunchy-wunchy toffee.
25:30Crunchy-wunchy toffee.
25:31After a series of adventures,
25:37Gracie returns triumphantly to the reopened factory.
25:40Fairy tale or not,
25:50this is probably the worst film I have ever seen.
25:54But in the 1930s, Britain lapped it up.
26:01One critic at the time wrote,
26:03In the cinema, there is too much sex appeal.
26:06But the performance of Gracie Fields brings a breath of fresh air.
26:14This helps keep the right spirit of England together.
26:18Clean living and a total absence of anything unnatural.
26:23Except, of course, the unnatural appeal of Gracie Fields herself.
26:29In history, not everything can be explained.
26:35Woo!
26:36The worldwide fascist movement has made a new advance in Germany.
26:51They have reached power after polling over 17 million votes in a general election.
26:57And we believe that Britain will be the next country to give fascism a chance.
27:02In 1932, Oswald Moseley was ready for his next costume change.
27:11He launched the British Union of Fascists.
27:15Fundraising for his new party, Moseley approached the businessman, Israel Seif,
27:28who'd later run Marks and Spencers.
27:31Seif obligingly organised a dinner for a dozen business leaders.
27:35In what must be one of the most cack-handed attempts at political fundraising in British history,
27:43Moseley told Israel Seif and the assembled gathering that a political party must capitalise on emotion and have a hate plank.
27:52And today, he said, the best hate plank is the Jews.
27:56Realising that this might be just a little tactless, Moseley hastily added,
28:01Of course, this doesn't apply to Jews like you, Israel.
28:07Seif said nothing, but rang his bell to alert the butler that Moseley would be leaving.
28:14But I haven't finished my brandy yet, spluttered Moseley.
28:19Charles, Sir Oswald is leaving.
28:26And Moseley struggled.
28:29While fascists overseas were holding vast military rallies and making plans to invade other countries,
28:35the British blackshirts spent quite a lot of time frolicking at the seaside.
28:40In organised camps, they could learn about party principles,
28:47practice boxing, relax in the sun or take a bracing dip.
28:52Fascism on sea.
28:57As ever, Moseley was busy flirting, but not with women this time.
29:03Nope, newspaper tycoons instead.
29:06Lord Rothermere was a particular enthusiast.
29:13And soon his newspaper, the Daily Mail, was encouraging its readers to join the blackshirts.
29:19It ran pound-a-week prizes for the best letter on why I like the blackshirts.
29:25It ran beauty contests for blackshirt women.
29:28And in January 1934, it abandoned all pretense of neutrality and ran the foamingly pro-Moseley headline,
29:38Hurrah for the blackshirts!
29:40Only a small splash for the blackshirts.
29:56While at Westminster, politics as usual chugged on.
30:00Ramsey MacDonald retired and Stanley Baldwin took over.
30:04A placid-looking fellow, he didn't make waves either.
30:17Baldwin was always a strangely anonymous figure.
30:22Once he was travelling on the train, I noticed that a fellow passenger was staring at him.
30:28After a while, the man leaned forward and tapped him on the knee.
30:34You're Baldwin, he said.
30:37Harrow, 84.
30:39Baldwin nodded in agreement and his former school fellow seemed satisfied.
30:47Then a few moments later, he leaned forward and tapped the Prime Minister again.
30:51So, he said, tell me, what are you doing now?
31:02Baldwin might have been bland, but he did make a lot of promises.
31:06One was to take thousands off the dole queues by building houses across Britain.
31:10On the continent, the 30s building boom had produced white, boxy, sharp-edged houses with flat roofs,
31:24inspired by modernist architects with an eye on the future.
31:30We had a few here, but most Britons were having none of that.
31:34Instead, we got mock Tudor and mock Elizabethan homes that gave the impression of unshakable stability.
31:43Homes for commuters spread out along the Metropolitan Railway and far beyond.
31:49They called it Metroland.
31:55European modernism seemed simply unable to answer some deep instinct in the British.
32:02Something to do with our love of privacy on a small, crowded island.
32:08Our sense that the past, for all its faults, was perhaps a kinder country.
32:14Metroland expresses British conservatism.
32:19Our small dreams, so easy to sneer at in an age of big, bad ideas.
32:32At dawn on March 7th, 1936, in contravention of the Treaty of Versailles,
32:40Adolf Hitler ordered 19 German infantry battalions to march into the Rhineland.
32:50The reaction in Britain was muted.
32:53One diplomat said it was no more than the Germans walking into their own backyard.
32:57Winston Churchill disagreed.
33:05There is a nation which has abandoned all its liberties in order to augment its collective strength.
33:12There is a nation in the grip of a group of ruthless men
33:16preaching a gospel of intolerance and racial pride,
33:21unrestrained by law, by Parliament or by public opinion.
33:24One diplomat said it was no more than the people who were in the world.
33:27One diplomat said it was no more than the people who were in the world.
33:31Alarmed British officials were feeding Churchill secret information
33:35about Britain's woeful lack of military preparations.
33:39He understood the Nazis and he was worried.
33:45On this, Churchill was right and he was relentless.
33:49But he was mostly dismissed, not least, by the Prime Minister.
33:52Stanley Baldwin once said that he dreamt of making a speech to the House of Commons
34:02that would go something like this.
34:05When Winston was born, lots of fairies swooped down on his cradle with gifts.
34:12Imagination, eloquence, industry, ability.
34:15And then came a fairy who said no one person has the right to so many gifts
34:24and picked him up and gave him such a shake and a twist
34:28that with all these gifts he was denied wisdom and judgment.
34:34And that is why, while in this house we delight to listen to his eloquence,
34:40we do not take his advice.
34:42Instead, Britain was getting to know its own homegrown little Hitler.
34:57This nation again and again in the great hours of its fate
35:06has swept aside convention,
35:09has swept aside the little man of Cork and of delay
35:12and have decided to follow men and women.
35:16In October 1936, Oswald Mosley remarried.
35:24His new bride, Diana, was part of one of Britain's most notorious families.
35:29Yes, it's those Mitfords again.
35:32Diana Mitford was the older sister of Jessica and Unity.
35:37Like Unity, Diana was fascinated by Hitler.
35:40So when it came to the wedding, what better place than Goebbels' private house
35:45with special guest Adolf Hitler.
35:53Hitler gave the happy couple a signed photograph of himself
35:58in a silver monogrammed frame,
36:00complete with German eagle presented in a leather case lined with red velvet.
36:06Very nice.
36:07With Diana at his side and increasingly under Hitler's spell,
36:12Mosley now turned his party in a more violent and anti-Semitic direction.
36:215,000 fascists rally to their mobilisation
36:23for the much-advertised march through the East End.
36:27And Sir Oswald Mosley, black shirt leader, arrives to inspect his followers.
36:30On October 4th, Mosley organised a fascist march
36:35through the predominantly Jewish areas of London's East End,
36:40a deliberate act of intimidation.
36:49But Britain's anti-fascists were ready and waiting.
36:52By around 2pm, some 50,000 Jews, communists, trade unionists, Labour Party members and dockers
37:11had arrived here, at Gardiner's Corner in Aldgate, to halt the march.
37:16Chanting, they shall not pass, they shall not pass.
37:21And 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, we want Mosley dead or alive.
37:34Hundreds of policemen were soon holding the line between the black shirts and the anti-fascists.
37:38Word filtered out that the chief of police had directed Mosley to march along Cable Street.
37:47Demonstrators barricaded the street.
37:51The police feared a riot.
37:53At 3.40, the police ordered Mosley and his men to abandon their march.
37:59They then turned on the demonstrators.
38:01All around, there were running battles.
38:20Horses' hooves went flying as children through marbles onto the streets.
38:24Women emptied the unappealing contents of chamber pots onto policemen's heads.
38:42More than 100 people were injured in the battle.
38:4683 of the protesters were arrested.
38:48It became known as the Battle of Cable Street.
39:01The overwhelming public reaction was one of disgust and, very important this, mockery.
39:08The interesting thing is how quickly Mosley became a national figure of fun.
39:19The peaked cat, the shiny boots, all that shouting just didn't work.
39:24When we ask why Britain never fell for a totalitarian leader,
39:29it's about our suspicion of all politicians,
39:31our national inability to go the whole hog,
39:35and that sense of humour.
39:36Well, Cable Street was most unusual.
39:40Generally, when people saw lines of marching men in silly uniforms,
39:46they simply sniggered.
39:55It hath pleased almighty God
39:58that the high and mighty Prince Edward Albert Christian George...
40:05On Wednesday, the 22nd of January 1936,
40:08King Edward VIII watched the proclamation of his own accession to the throne
40:12from a window at St. James's Palace.
40:15He has now become king.
40:19At his side was a 40-year-old American called Wallis Simpson.
40:25God save the king!
40:27The new king would be played out at a toy castle outside London called Fort Belvedere.
40:42The new king was a super celebrity.
40:52In many ways, a perfect symbol of modernisation, informal, handsome, beautifully dressed.
41:00This man was Hollywood on tent at a time when, frankly, this country didn't have a lot in the way of homegrown glamour.
41:08By the time he came to the throne, Edward had already been having an affair for two years
41:19with the once-divorced and married Mrs. Simpson.
41:24His father, George V, had predicted trouble.
41:28When I am dead, he once said,
41:30that boy will ruin himself in 12 months.
41:34Somewhere the sun is shining
41:37So, honey, don't you cry
41:41We'll find a silver lining
41:45The clouds will soon roll by
41:49Edward knew that his affair with a married woman would be a scandal,
41:53but the British media kept their deferential distance.
41:58The Americans had no such qualms
42:00and paparazzi followed the king and his mistress wherever they went.
42:04Edward says she makes him happy
42:07Bright hours by the blue Mediterranean
42:10Exclusive movie-torn pictures
42:12There have been rumours that he might elope with her
42:15and abandon crown and throne for her
42:19In October 1936, the Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, arrived at Number 10
42:26to discuss world events including the Spanish Civil War
42:30and the mounting threat from Nazi Germany
42:32Baldwin's first question to Eden was
42:39whether he'd had a lot of telegrams about the king
42:42Eden replied that he hadn't
42:44Baldwin said he'd had a great many
42:47some from the most extraordinary people
42:50I foresee I shall have a lot of trouble over this
42:54I hope that you won't trouble me too much with foreign affairs just now
43:00By now, Wally Simpson was filing for divorce from her second husband
43:08opening the way for her to marry Edward and become queen
43:12Baldwin panicked and made an appointment to visit the king
43:17at his Fort Belvedere retreat
43:19To calm his nerves, Baldwin first asked for a drink
43:27and then he came straight to the point
43:29You may think me Victorian, sir
43:33You may think my values are out of date
43:36but I believe that I know how to interpret the mind of my own people
43:41and although it is true that standards are lower since the war
43:46that only leads people to expect higher standards from their king
43:50A few days later, the king received a letter from his personal private secretary
43:59it warned him that his affair was doing untold damage
44:03The government was threatening to resign
44:06Mrs. Simpson, he concluded, must leave the country
44:09Two days later, on the 11th of December 1936
44:20Edward spoke to his people
44:22I have found it impossible
44:25to carry the heavy burden of responsibility
44:28and to discharge my duties as king
44:33as I would wish to do
44:35without the help and support of the woman I love
44:41Britain erupted with an outpouring of support for the king
44:52but hostility towards Wally Simpson
44:55In playgrounds across the country
45:01children chanted
45:03Mrs. Simpson stole our king
45:06But I think she did this country an enormous favour
45:11for Edward was pro-German
45:14and just a little too close to the Nazis
45:17He even visited Hitler shortly after he abdicated
45:20By removing this vain, petulant and politically naive man from the throne
45:30Wally Simpson also took away a real source of domestic danger
45:36Far from being a national blow
45:40the abdication was a great stroke of national luck
45:45As Britain recovered from abdication fever
45:54a little revolution was taking place at the seaside
45:58and no, not a fascist one
46:01Its leader, Billy Bucklin
46:11Billy Bucklin was a tough little character
46:15a natural showman
46:17who carried a cutthroat razor in his top pocket
46:20He told friends
46:23he had three aims in life
46:25power, money and women
46:28He started off with a humble hoopla stall
46:32but his big break came
46:34when he bought the European license
46:37for the new
46:38all-American
46:39Dodge'em car
46:42The vision of a holiday camp
46:47came to Billy Bucklin
46:49when he noticed
46:49hordes of miserable holidaymakers
46:51wandering the streets in the rain
46:54desperately looking for something to do
46:56Not everything changes
47:01He found a location
47:05here in Skeg Ness
47:07and began to design the camp himself
47:09with vast dining rooms
47:11theatres and swimming pools
47:13Guests would stay in individual
47:25hutch-like mock Tudor chalets
47:27Billy's first guest
47:33was Frida Monk
47:35from Nottingham
47:36Unable to contain her excitement
47:39Frida had turned up
47:40a day early
47:42One of the managers
47:43found her wandering around
47:45the still unfinished camp
47:47clutching her suitcase
47:48and looking lost
47:50she was quickly bundled
47:52into her chalet
47:53and then
47:55it began to snow
47:56Frida spent her first night
47:59shivering with cold
48:00and she was spotted
48:01the next morning
48:02having breakfast
48:03wearing her overcoat
48:04but Frida Monk
48:06didn't care about the weather
48:09she was just delighted
48:10to have a week away
48:12from ordinary life
48:14In 1938
48:19the government passed a new law
48:21giving a week's paid holiday
48:23to all industrial workers in Britain
48:25and
48:27hello dear
48:27well this shirt
48:30we've got holidays with pie
48:31look at it
48:32woo
48:32in the holidays
48:34and the brightening sky today
48:37they must have known
48:39just how I like it
48:40cause everything's coming away
48:42Buckland came up
48:44with the catchy slogan
48:45holidays with pay
48:47holidays with play
48:49a week's holiday
48:50for a week's wage
48:52the morning to bedtime activities
49:00provided by the relentlessly
49:02jolly redcoats
49:03seemed to be exactly
49:04what grey Britain needed
49:06Billy Bucklin offered
49:08colour
49:09and fun
49:10and for the time
49:11surprisingly good food
49:12so when the news arrived
49:14about the Italians
49:15invading Abyssinia
49:16or the Nuremberg rallies
49:18here there was a constant diet
49:20of distraction
49:21from light opera
49:22to ballroom dancing
49:24to the notorious
49:25knobbly knees
49:26and glamorous grannies
49:27contests
49:28you didn't get that
49:30in the Hitler youth
49:31on the 12th of March
49:451938
49:46Hitler's troops
49:47marched into Austria
49:48in Britain
49:57we had a new
49:58Prime Minister
49:58Neville Chamberlain
50:00he announced
50:04that nothing
50:05could have arrested
50:06this action
50:06by Germany
50:07unless we and others
50:08had been prepared
50:09to use force
50:10to prevent it
50:11and they weren't
50:13appeasement
50:15not confrontation
50:16was the British way
50:18the word
50:22appeasement
50:23is now
50:24loaded
50:25with shame
50:26and embarrassment
50:27but it once
50:28had a gentler meaning
50:30simply
50:31to bring peace
50:32or calm down
50:33and as a strategy
50:35for dealing with Hitler
50:36never forget
50:37that it was hugely popular
50:39with millions of Britons
50:41who supported it
50:41at every stage
50:43appeasement
50:44was pursued
50:45by politicians
50:47and diplomats
50:48with skill
50:49determination
50:50and even nerve
50:52like a chess game
50:53only one problem
50:56Hitler wasn't playing chess
50:58the guns boomed
51:03from the mountains
51:03behind Goddersberg
51:04as a million German men
51:05turn field and forest
51:07into a practice battleground
51:08once Austria
51:11was folded into the Reich
51:12Hitler turned his attention
51:14to part of Czechoslovakia
51:16the Sudetenland
51:17on Germany's eastern border
51:19Chamberlain did nothing
51:22by all accounts
51:27Chamberlain
51:27was not an appealing man
51:29he was cold
51:30and he was sarcastic
51:31but he wasn't stupid
51:33he'd had a finger
51:34in almost every
51:35international crisis
51:37since the early 1930s
51:39he thought that only
51:40his wisdom
51:41had kept Britain
51:42out of the Spanish Civil War
51:43only he could soothe Mussolini
51:46and when he became
51:47Prime Minister at last
51:48he said
51:48I only have to raise a finger
51:50and the whole face
51:52of Europe is changed
51:54Chamberlain's problem
51:56wasn't ignorance
51:57it was colossal
51:59and tragic vanity
52:01A gasp of amazement
52:05and satisfaction
52:06runs round the world
52:07the Prime Minister
52:08decides to fly
52:09to a personal meeting
52:10with the German Chancellor
52:11the world has realised
52:12that war
52:12would be a polish
52:14and a crime
52:14when Chamberlain arrived
52:22in Munich
52:23he was greeted
52:24by saluting Nazis
52:25he responded
52:26by waving his
52:28Homburg hat
52:28then it was off to Hitler's
52:35Alpine retreat
52:36Berchtesgaden
52:37and the mission
52:38of his life
52:38this was history's
52:44first modern summit
52:45and it was
52:47give and take
52:48British give
52:49and German take
52:51Chamberlain
52:52accepted entirely
52:54that three million Czechs
52:56wanted to leave
52:56their country
52:57and join the Reich
52:59and promised
52:59to do his bit
53:01to bully the Czech government
53:03into agreeing
53:04and in return
53:05he got
53:06what?
53:07a short delay
53:09and the German promise
53:10not to actually
53:12invade Czechoslovakia
53:13unless of course
53:14they were provoked
53:15by terrorist incidents
53:17on the border
53:18round one
53:20to him
53:21Britain was selling
53:28Czechoslovakia
53:29down the river
53:30but when Chamberlain
53:31returned home
53:32this diplomatic
53:33disgrace
53:34was greeted
53:35with huge enthusiasm
53:36anything to avoid war
53:39the tumult
53:42and the clamour
53:43are for the man
53:44who has brought
53:44to politics
53:45the common sense
53:45point of view
53:46of the man
53:46in the street
53:47on his sane judgment
53:49we base our hopes
53:50of peace
53:51and happiness
53:51two weeks later
54:04Chamberlain
54:05was off again
54:05at a summit
54:06on the Rhine
54:07Hitler gave notice
54:08that German troops
54:09were now ready
54:10to invade
54:11the Sudetenland
54:12chamberlain protested
54:15but Hitler
54:16had decided
54:17he was a ninny
54:18but in Britain
54:22the mood
54:23was now rapidly changing
54:25preparations for war
54:26were underway
54:27Churchill's instincts
54:29had been right
54:30all along
54:31and at last
54:32people were starting
54:33to listen
54:34one senior official
54:40at the foreign office
54:41wrote in his diary
54:42that he knew
54:44Britain was in no condition
54:45to fight
54:46but I'd rather be beat
54:48than dishonoured
54:49how could we look
54:51any foreigner
54:52in the face
54:53after this
54:54then Hitler
55:00blinked
55:01instead of invading
55:02Czechoslovakia
55:03he called
55:04yet another summit
55:05Chamberlain called it
55:07the last desperate
55:09snatch
55:10at the last tuft
55:11on the very verge
55:12of the precipice
55:13the summit
55:19didn't achieve much
55:21Chamberlain persuaded
55:23Hitler to sign
55:24a waffle filled
55:25piece of paper
55:26and the prime minister
55:35comes home
55:36home to a welcome
55:37that he will never forget
55:38on his return
55:41Chamberlain was met
55:43by a large crowd
55:44waiting in the rain
55:45he waved his precious
55:47piece of paper
55:48and read it out
55:49we regard the agreement
55:51signed last night
55:52and the Anglo-German
55:54naval agreement
55:55as symbolic
55:56of the desire
55:57of our two peoples
55:58never to go to war
56:00with one another again
56:01back at Downing Street
56:11there was another
56:12cheering crowd
56:13Chamberlain leaned out
56:18of a window
56:19and announced
56:20that he had brought
56:21back peace with honour
56:22it was he said
56:23peace for our time
56:25on the 1st of September
56:401939
56:41German forces
56:42invaded Poland
56:43Chamberlain gave Hitler
56:48an ultimatum
56:49withdraw
56:49or face the consequence
56:51the fateful hour of 11
56:57has struck
56:58and Britain's final warning
57:00to Hitler
57:00having been ignored
57:01a state of war
57:02once more exists
57:03between Great Britain
57:04and Germany
57:05with the declaration of war
57:10there was a steady
57:10crescendo of demands
57:12for Winston Churchill's
57:13return to government
57:14Chamberlain bowed
57:16to the inevitable
57:17and invited Churchill
57:18to join his war cabinet
57:20as first lord of the admiralty
57:22we tried again and again
57:24to prevent this war
57:26and for the sake of peace
57:28we put up with a lot of things
57:30happening
57:31which ought not to have happened
57:33but now we are at war
57:35and we are going to make war
57:38and persevere in making war
57:41until the other side
57:43have had enough of it
57:45Churchill hadn't set foot
57:52in the admiralty
57:53since 1915
57:55but when he went in
57:57and opened a cupboard
57:58he found one of his own
58:00old maps
58:01charting Royal Naval positions
58:03from the Great War
58:04still hanging there
58:06later that day
58:08the admiralty sent the fleet
58:10a signal
58:11it consisted
58:13of just three words
58:15Winston
58:16is back
58:18in the next program
58:32Churchill to the rescue
58:34Spitfire magic
58:36tanks
58:38yanks
58:39and dad's army
58:41and dad's army
58:46and dad's army
58:47and dad's army
58:48so
58:49are you
58:50unwindate
58:50and dad's gang
58:51a be continued
58:51and i hope
59:03to a천
59:04of
59:05st
59:06yanks
59:07and
59:08of
59:08and
59:08loos
59:09and
59:10You
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