You'd think with the library the Beeb has, they'd start a BBC History channel, and show some of these gems. I bet their cataloge has more than enough content for several channels.
Content creators at BBC are simply lazy, they haven't the foggiest clue on the rich historical content that they are sitting on . We are literally forced to trawl on You Tube searching for historical documentaries, which they would have otherwise aired.
15october91 The era when there was no stressful music, no fast switch from scene to scene, no moraling voice. Just the voice of a calm and confident man explaining how the world is.
ShazamMafia Well, there was a lot of anti-USSR propaganda (they were awful, but it was still propaganda). And there was a lot of fear mongering about nuclear apocalypse.
Well... the "Nuclear Apocalypse" was indeed a self sustain propaganda system of its own. west was oh no the red have the bomb too lets build more, reds think oh no the west thinks they can nuke cites, let's build some :) If you see period documentaries from the "cold war era"every country was the first doing this or doing that. that's state own media. No government, since ever, really cared for the poor and the hungry :) especially the "imperialists" :D
The only people who care about the poor are always foreign agents who want to exploit internal weak spots. The so called Social Justice lovers in todays West are good old bourgeois conservatives, when the "incel" movement started to protest the sexual misery of the ugly and the poor and theorise sexual inequality, the Social Justice bourgeois started attacking them like crazy. The difference with the 50s establishment is that it wasn't degenerate like today. Both were arrogant disconnected elites, but the elites from before were at least promoting proper boring lifestyles that enable stability while today, the advices given by the establishment about everything lead people to debt and misery if followed.
LOVE this! It is so interesting to see how they covered Oxford Circus for 5 years with that steel umbrella, essentially raising the traffic by a foot. And I love the way the public all stood around watching them dig the holes. That wouldn't happen now - us Londoners are so used to seeing holes being dug these days it's barely noticeable!
Before watching this documentary, I never realized that main ticket hall of Oxford Circus was opened as much as 69 years after the Central London Railway (now called the Central Line) opened. So much history since 1900, especially now that we're 18 years into the 21st Century.
Interesting. I find Metros/Undergrounds/subways so interesting. No other traffic, no crossroads with traffic lights, going right under houses, gardens, roads and rivers...engineering marvel!
Me too! Glad to see other people who have this interest in common. If only the Government had offered the City of Birmingham the necessary funds, to build their first Underground Line, which still doesn't exist. But it's not too late, as of January 2018. So I still advocate, an Underground Line for Birmingham and to eventually serve the entire West Midlands County.
I have no idea. Here in Houston, TX, if you dig a tunnel you will be totally flooded by the next hurricane. Witness Hurricane "Harvey" that utterely destroyed downtown Houston's infrasture such as courts, jury assembly building, basements and drowning a number of citizens. I will stay above ground, thank you very much.
Such a pleasure to watch and incredibly interesting. Seeing the workmanship, skill and achievements of yesteryear. With not very much, they just got on with it and created something that has withstood the test of time. Magnificent!
Well the Victoria line is a bit of a victim of its own success, it wasn't exactly given oodles of money, and there are stations that don't really have enough escalators. In comparison, trains on the Elizabeth line are twice as long. The Elizabeth line could have been done quicker and cheaper, but it wouldn't stand the test of time
Great documentary and I remember the Victoria line being built but didn't realise that it was so long ago back in the late 1960's. So much engineering effort going on underground, especially around the Kings Cross area when people above had no idea whilst they were doing their shopping or commuting across London. Well done to all those involved with making this happen.
Truly an amazing engineering accomplishment and much credit is due to the men who poured their sweat into digging those tunnels working in I'm sure, often extreme conditions.
This documentary is a little gem, everything about it is delightful - from the RP trained presenter to the editing, the music and especially the delicious end credits with the old BBC indents.. a true snapshot of everyday 60s London. Reminds me of those afternoon interlude fillers they used to show when I was a nipper! Some interesting points made in this 1968 doc: strangely looking back at a time of advancement, in the next 2-3 years you would see a moon landing, the flight of Concorde and the spanking new ticket machines with their prices in shillings and pence also reminds me that Decimalisation is just round the corner. I could be the one who says 'things were better back then', but as the presenter himself says at the end: 'Embrace the future, or become the past'.
The mid-60s BBC prose spoken throughout the film is classic. Such confidence exuded by the announcer about the precision of the work, with that proper "can-do" attitude taken for granted back then. Watch this just for the commentary.
I wish commentary today was the same 'standard BBC' instead of the regional accents. Whilst I embrace my own Nottingham dialect, I detest it on tv when geordies, scouters, brummies etc are narrating.
The Beeb made a decision in the '90s to be more welcoming of regional accents for their commentators to make the programming feel more welcome in homes outside of London. I can understand that decision, but the result just lacks that national pride that a confident Received Pronunciation voice brought to its programs, especially when they made it overseas. Of course, as a Yank, I love all English accents: RP posh, west and south London, West Counties, Geordies, Midlands...it's all fantastic to listen to when I'm in-country. Even better if that voice is female--now that's irresistible. :)
Well I'm a Yorkshire man and if I was narrating it I would say "eee bah gum they dint alf build that tunnel fast tha knows". So Personally I don't think I would have got the narrating job lols
Not necessarily , my friend. It's just that my London has changed from 99% White/British of my formative years in a very civilised,polite and friendly shared Culture to a London where in Inner London only 1 current birth in every 10 is to White/British indigenous.Quite a change in under 60 years. So if a small number of people aided by newly-arrived immigrants can produce that many children then imagine how many children the 90% No-White/British will produce and Whites will disappear altogether as they,virtually, have in parts of London already...@ @@omaismazhar3021
@@Isleofskye Tbh the amount of non-britishness in London has is scaring me, as a foreign student there. The east of London looks like a 3rd world country.
Of course there was a 200,000+ Jewish population in The East End and small Communities of Italians, Greeks, Turks, Cypriots and others in the 1960's when I grew up in the heart of London but I never heard another language spoken on a London street from 1954 to the early 1970's !!!!!!!
@@marvintpandroid2213crossrail has far more voluminous stations and trains twice as long as the Victoria line. It's no wonder it takes longer and is expensive, but it's money well spent in my opinion if we want it to be resilient in the future
Too white and far too much toxic masculinity for any woke committee these days to recognise. The tea lady might get a plaque for being forgotten and history rewritten to make her the brains of the outfit.
In addition to the safety comments, the contractors have found more and better ways to make everything more expensive in the name of profit taking.....
I so do love this city. It still shocks me how advanced the Victoria Line was for the 60s. To think the automatic system must've been designed in the late 50s - early 60s is amazing. Small calculators we have today weren't even a thing, yet they managed to run a whole tube line from one room using machines.
I was underpinning a house in barnes in the late 1990s and there was 7 different colour clays, i was told bythe engineer that it was spoil from the first london underground, a mile a day they could dig 2 steam shovels and a thousand men.
This is absolutely fascinating to watch, the precision combined with speed is remarkable. It's a shame projects that are smaller take much longer these days.
The Elizabeth line, for example is definitely not a smaller project, the Victoria line is now one of the most overcrowded because it was built to more tube like specifications, and the stations at many points have quite bare minimum stations with out enough space and narrow escalator shafts. Walthamstow Central is one of the most overcrowded stations on the whole network
If the BBC made this sort of thing now, ie, factual, informed, not politically minded etc then I would gladly pay for a tv licence and start watching them again.
If they did make it today the BBC would be bemoaning the lack of gender diversity on the project, not in the tunnels mind you, only the engineers and bosses.
@James Rhew - In the UK if you own any equipment capable of watching television as it's broadcast either via over-the-air transmission, internet, cable etc you have to pay the state an annual fee called the TV License, this funds the upkeep of the transmission network, the services and production of the B.B.C. including radio. It also means there is no advertising on B.B.C. channels.
I love the way they describe what they did at Kings Cross as Threading the Eye Of the Needle, echoed as it was in the recent BBC documentary about Crossrail when they were at (I think) Tottenham Court Road, describing a similar exercise as the same. "15 Billion Pound Railway" I think it was called. Anyway, both great documentaries, but nothing has changed...
This is about the construction of the Victoria Line which was completed at bout 1969/70. It would be interesting to see the technological and electronic improvements from 2019.
My uncle used to dig tunnels in London in 1950s and in later life he used the fireplace in the living room to demonstrate how they kept directional control.
Unfortunately, projects these days are still like the current version of Doctor Who. And not in a good way. Politicied, shoddy workmanship, all hype and no real effort.
Absolutely love how the most astonished out narrator is at the fact that there were no horrible accidents and no one died Says allot about how workplace safety has improved and continues to improve, even in the most difficult workplaces Complain as much as you want about the inconveniences of safety procedures, but just remember that those inconveniences save your and your co workers lifes
Just think, they did not have lasers or computers. Makes it even more amazing. Also worthy of note the public, not obsessed with sodding smart phones showing images of what other people had for dinner last night.
Yeah the public were obsessed with newspapers instead. There's never been a time when people have lived "in the moment" on public transport. It serves an important function, that's all it is to most people, especially if they travel every day.
Great to hear such a positive tone about the future...maybe we can learn a bit from this old bit of TV and welcome the future rather than dreading it. We seem so wrapped up in doom and gloom that we forget to enjoy the now...this very moment. This makes me want to celebrate life and mans accomplishments again. Cheers chaps and kegs away Ginger! What what...
Thank you taking my comment in the spirit in which I made it. Things like this somehow draw my attention. I can be looking at a whole page of text and the spelling mistake, misplaced apostrophe or grammatical error will leap to my eye like a carbuncle on the face of an old friend. I should do proof-reading.
+Nicole K I am exactly the same, it drives me crazy. Once I was in an Iron Maiden concert in my teens flicking thru the programme I'd just bought and saw an error, London typed as Lonbon. Couldn't believe I spotted it in the gig. I actually did proof read...until redundancy enforced by modern technologies.
6 лет назад
Nicole K Technics is a brand name for hi fi audio...
Happy 50th Anniversary 1969-2019 it’s very interesting and the ambition of these men will never be seen again in the UK the design of the Victoria line in those days are better than today’s designs
I didn't realize the tunnel boring machines went that far back with the concrete liners, etc. What an engineering marvel, hat's off to all the people involved in getting it done right.
2 miles from Central London and 2 miles from Brixton the other way in Walworth just off The Elephant and Castle. 29 fantastic years marched only by another 39 wonderful tears just 11 miles away on the edge of S E London and Kent, Boomer :)
I was just starting work back then and remember some of these men. Mostly Irish and paid a fortune compared to others. I remember some of them would down tools on a Friday afternoon, go straight to Monty Burtons, buy a suit of the peg, spend two days and nights in that suit getting drunk and sleeping it off then turn up on site in that same suit, throw the jacket on the deck, roll up their sleeves and carry on only adding the boots. Then did the same thing next Friday. Best fellas I ever knew.
I took down 50 feet of fence and wall today and had to bust up 6 concrete footers to get the poles out. By the end of the day I was wiped out, but watching this vid puts hard work into perspective.
@@lkrnpk probably true ☺️ Fun fact, Warsaw metro is being constructed now with lots of Turkish people, so I bet Poland exported kurwa and imported some Turkish curses 😁
Sexism in the sixties was rampant. He could have said she was blisfully unaware, however making ignorant assumptions heralded what seems to have become the rule in the internet age.
@@ExternalInputs should have said "likely a strong engineer herself - or himself - as we all are in many ways when dealing with echoes of the colonial past, all equally, and intensely valid, brave and stunning"
I am amazed at how many older people were in London those days, or maybe they were younger and worn out. I went there two weeks ago and I felt like an ancient dithery old fool walking at 75% of the speed of everyone else, but I was videoing which I may use in a RU-vid video at some time. I am well over 50 and I felt like a fish out of water but still enjoyed the vibrancy.
I was 65 last week (Thanks !:) ) and living,working and socialising all my life in London has made me feel 40 which is the same age as the 3 Ladies who have lived with me..lol I lived right in the centre and in 1983 took a wondrous move 10 miles away to THe Lobdon Suburbs and it has been great !
"We are for the future, and if we can't live with it we are for the past" lots of people keep harping on about life being better then. I think those engineers would be pissed off we keep looking back instead of forward.
weaselbread- You look to the past every time you admire an old master or listen to music from more than 20 years ago, is this wrong and undesirable? We live in the present and can look to the past and the future, What is wrong with doing both?
Hello, many " Thank you " for uploading these film. It's pretty amazing to watch these early Computers, Machines etc. how they work. I never thought about the fact, that a train can be driven by a Computer at the end of the 60s, without any human interactions. Just amazing. But I have one big question left. I know that the London Underground gets his energy via a 3rd rail and this one is on the right or left side. But I saw in this film the 4th rail, this was between then 2 rails and it was located in the middle of the track. My question is, what is the reason for the 4th rail? If anyone knows the answer it would be nice, to get an explanation from you. Thank you and have a nice time. cheerio Toni. PS: Also I must apologize for my bad English, but I'm from Bavaria ( Germany )
@@hkharnelian Because it is a DC system, by having the 4th rail it means that the metal shields used for the tunnels are not as subject to corrosion. The outside surfaces can be at/close to 0 potential volts to the soil surrounding them. The 4th rail acts as the - conductor back to the substations. The cost of having a 2nd conductor rail as return is less than the cost of amorilating the problem in other ways.
@@ThePeachJames Thank you for the clarification. Spent a lot of my youth on the London Underground, but wasn't sure exactly why a 4th rail was required.
