1996 episode of the BBC documentary series 'Timewatch'. Dramatisations of some of the interviews conducted by Henry Mayhew with London's poor in the 1840's, originally published in his work 'London Labour and the London Poor'.
My great grandfather lost his eye in a factory accident. He kept a selection of false eyes in a box. Brown ones to match his own colour. On a Sunday he had a blue one for reasons known only to himself.
Marvellous acting! I'm reading Mayhew's book now. It's fascinating but also incredibly sad - people working 18 hours a day, 7 days a week, for barely enough money to stay alive. I'm so grateful to live in more enlightened times.
I'm reading Mayhew also on and off (too much to digest with a quick read, and can't believe Queen Victoria would allow this misery among her own subjects to continue right under her nose there in London. She could have organized her wealthy ladies to do social reform and provide welfare for the helpless. As I understand England was at the top of the world in extreme wealth and power at that time. No excuse 🌿
I’m doing Ancestry at the moment and and found both my great grandmother and her mother were born in London workhouses, i have to say i have been deeply disturbed by what their lives must have been like. Women and children always came off worse, my grandfather was given away after he also was born in a workhouse. Please god we never go back to this way of life.
And there are people in todays world who think they are entitled to reparations,what about the descendants of these people,are they the ones who are supposed to pay them.what about our reparations,our ancestors were worse off than those slaves,they were not fed and housed and clothed as slaves were,a lot of poor people in Britain starved on the streets.
Also goes to show how hard it was to make a living and once you became sick of injured your life became impossible. Considering how easy it was to become sick and injured, how they remained positive is amazing
I do not recognize any of these actors names and each one is Oscar material but never got the chance to reach fame or fortune in their lifetimes. This video is one of the most remarkable that I have ever seen on U Tube. Thanks for this channel.
@@kaleahcollins4567 Leftist Propaganda! People today in these GODless times are many times unhappier and have significantly more problems than back then.
This is so fascinating. We are hearing the literal stories of people who lived once and are now forgotten...but this provided some snippet of their existence for posterity. I am not British but these are the voices of the forgotten ancestors of modern day British people. And that woman who lost all of her children...wow. That last man's story at the end was very moving; those poor people wanted more for their children but they realized the hopelessness of the system they lived under. It is no wonder British people today are more comfortable with policies that Americans call "socialist".
The Victorian period really is fascinating, it was such a harsh time for the British (workhouses, slums, war etc), but also a time of great discovery, with the Industrial Revolution and the maintenance of the Empire. People seemed to have a purpose to work towards a better future that I feel has been forgotten these days in favour of the introversion of screens, the internet and the constant battle of social opinion. Life was tough for the Victorian's, but they grew our nation to be what it was today and I just wish I could travel back and experience it for myself.
A really shocking book I listened to on you tube was ''People of the Abyss'' by Jack London. He lived as a ''Tramp'' in London late 1890's The desperate hunger of people thrown into poverty through industrial accidents &c was fairly common. No payouts or compensation in those days for industrial accidents.
@@Oakleaf700 I would wager that that there are less accidents these days due most of our industry being in China now and many injured at work these days aren’t payed at all or aren’t payed for quite some time as the insurance company’s are quick to take your money but paying it back is a whole other kettle of fish
I cannot BELIEVE this video has turned up in my random feed, I've never forgotten this program on TV and searched online so many times without any luck. I'm amazed. 👍👍👍 At last!! And by accident too!! Thankyou 👍
You wonder how surnames go extinct when you look at historical books and then hear stories of pure finding and see how easy it was for a whole family to vanish. Thank goodness for advancements in medicines and healthcare all due to the Victorians being curious about everything.
I LOVE Mayhew's books, so this is a great treat! Thank you. His Rocking horse maker {in the book} was fascinating {Old rocking horses are a passion of mine}...And reading about how the oldest ones were made from the 'timbers of old houses' showed how recycling is nothing new. I have a horse made around 1800 who had a solid body, who is very heavy for size, and even in the 1850's Mayhew states some of the horses were 'Very old' and had just come in for some restoration. All of course would be the beautiful 'Bow rocker' type. {Much more fragile than the swing stand types}
@@reasonablyserious Those who lived through War and rationing that I know are still very frugal, I threw out a centimetre of milk left in a small jug in the fridge and opened a fresh bottle at a relative's house, she she said ''I was saving that milk for my coffee!''..I just think the generations that came later are more wasteful. Unwrapping presents at Christmas and smoothing out the beautiful paper for re-use was another thing done in our family as children..some paper lasted 8 yrs or more, getting smaller each year, til in the end it was just suitable for for wrapping a box of Bengal Matches, or a tiny musical box. The saddest invention in the 20th C has to be plastics. The ''single use'' plastics trend is dire.
@@Oakleaf700 Haha, I have a burning semi-rational hatred of plastics. I just wished manufacturers used plastic more sparingly. Of course it's hard to source and process rubber, clay, ceramic, or glass; or at least, much easier to just use plastic for everything but I regret that fact greatly.
I just ordered the full book off audible, but I also want the hardcover when I’m finished. That clown’s account broke my soul (I come from a long line of musicians, I finally understand why no one wanted me to be a musician after them, but I love it and I can’t imagine what his daughter grew up to be, I’m sure she adored her dad and everything he did). 😭 my heart.
I'd love to know what happened to his his family. Hopefully they caught a break. His account of his life is so sad. I love reading/listening to stories of Victorian England but some of the stories are harrowing. ☹
Very saddening. Rotten jobs and rotten hours for not enough to eat in enough cases. No one to protect you or look after you, when you were sick or too old. That poor woman, who lost all of her eight children and was not making enough money anymore, collecting the dog poop. I'm rich as a princess compared to these people, as a regular middle class person nowadays, even when Corona has eaten all our money.
My grandfather had several eyes wrapped in cotton in his bedroom drawer. He lost his right eye working in a sawmill in the early 1940s. This is true history. The stuff of real life.
the performances at 6.10 and 20.50 would have been well suited to a Jeremy Brett episode, top work also thanks to the guy who documented these stories and whoever's idea it was to turn this into a show
I have a copy of Mayhew’s book. Both heartbreaking and funny. Like a trip with Dickens through London’s past. The pain in the Pure collector and the street clown’s voices are not for the feint of heart
What a fabulous production and what believable characters! I feel like we've all just stepped back in time and gotten the accounts right "out of the horse's mouth"!
What an amazing window on history. I didn’t realise how uneducated the masses where in those days. I suppose the microscope chap was the Victorian version of The Discovery Channel.
Mayhew died penniless and was buried as a pauper . So in these times quite often through no fault of their own one can be ' comfortable ' one moment and destitute the next . A very sad ending for someone with empathy and compassion for the ' lower' classes
These conditions were results of gov. controlled by landowners, snd to lesser extent large capitalists, who discouraged or fought poor,at times, workers attempts to organize, and to vote, but they had increasing successes in late 1800s and early to mid 1900s with socual welfare state, legalized unions and parties.
Dear me that was depressing. And to think there are a very many people who live in poverty in present day Britain, is not promising for society as a whole.
While many people are struggling in Britain today, you can't compare their poverty to the horrific circumstances of the poor in Mayhew's time (1840 - 60). There was no unemployment benefit or disability pension in that time - if you couldn't work, you starved.
I do a lot of Family History research and noticed yesterday, via the census, that one of my ancestors was a piano maker! Love to hear more about that 😀
Where I'm from, they're is an island, and the people still have the really old English accent.. like it sounds worse than these people sound, lol.. they've been featured in National Geographic. My grandfather had a full color page. Both grandparents were from there. It's called Smith Island and also Tangier Island. It's located near Maryland and Virginia. There last names were, Bradshaw and Evan's.
The way the government is pushing it they have the kids believing it was the newcomers that built this country. They are basically taking a great steaming one on all these people of the past.
Remember watching this first time round: BBC 1996, narrated by Jonathan Miller. 10 years or so later I read through Mayhew at the John Rylands library. The clown is the most Pathétique character (inspiration for Gilbert’s Jack Point a generation later?)
Mayhews London,and Mayhews London's underworld, were two of my favourite books as a teenager..... I had both in original copies.....25p each from an antiquarian bookshop in flaskwalk Hapstead .
For those who cry for the loss of 'the good old days', fret not. They are returning. And all the desperate misery they produced brought along with them.
I hope this is not a self fulfilling prophecy but I also have felt these vibes . I feel helpless thinking about it but if the public do not stick together and think of the common good then indeed these times will be relived by so many .
The fake guy going undetected reminds me of Michael bisping. He lost his eye due to damage from fighting in the UFC but he fought at least one and maybe two fights where he was looked over by doctors who had to sign off for him fighting. They did not detect that he had a fake eye in. Those are some pretty shabby doctors.
@@spicyhotmeat3898 if you're talkin about Michael bisping he is just blind in one eye. I didn't say anything different than that. How bad a doctor would you have to be to not be able to notice that?
