Tue, Sep 15, 1970
Led Zeppelin were voted 'most popular group' in the Melody Makers Poll Winners Awards. Ray Coleman discusses the impact of Led Zeppelin's win. John Bonham and Robert Plant talk about how the music scene is changing.
Thu, Aug 23, 1973
Approximately 25,000 ice creams, 13,000 deckchairs and 45,000 toilet rolls - just some of the figures for a bank holiday weekend in Southend revealed in this Nationwide item. We meet the people who keep the town running smoothly, from the road-sweeper to the manager of the sweet factory. There are charming crooners and groovers, kiss-me-quick hats and a very pleased BBC reporter, who gets to present the prizes at the Miss Lovely contest.
Sun, Mar 24, 1974
Derek 'Blaster' Bates is a demolition expert. Blaster demolishes three chimneys. Old factory chimney, camera pans from l to 2 others. Blaster arrives, Danger Demolition signs. Crowd watch. Blaster retreats. Blast & 1st chimney falls. Crowd reaction. Blaster & assistant run from behind stack. Blast & it falls neatly behind wall.
Mon, Sep 22, 1975
In this report from a longer programme, Martin Young discovers that some people still have a passion for steam trains. There's the Forest of Dean Rail Preservation Society, whose engine travels on a remarkably short track, and a model railway enthusiast whose trains run to a strict 1938 timetable. Young also meets a vicar who has realised he has a talent for imitating steam engines and visits the Dart Valley Railway in Devon, the only fully commercial steam line in the country.
Thu, Apr 1, 1976
John Stapleton reports on the background of Belfast men Paul Hill and Gerry Conlon; as they were both serving sentences for the Guildford pub bombings Stapleton reports the established view of the time that they were Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) terrorists. Please see below for context on Guildford pub bombings. Paul Hill and Gerry Conlon attended St. Peter's Secondary Intermediate School in Belfast - there is news footage of the school and pupils outside. The boys left school as the Troubles were beginning in Northern Ireland, Stapleton states that, "Their adolescence was spent in an atmosphere of hatred and violence". Shots of young boys throwing stones at army vehicles follow; a group of boys sing the republican protest song, The Men Behind The Wire, about internment without trial introduced by Northern Ireland Prime Minister Brian Faulkner in August 1971.
Sun, Dec 18, 1977
A short segment made by the BBC for their "Nationwide" 6pm news magazine programme. Featured Denis Healey, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Liberal MP Cyril Smith, and Tom Jackson leader of the Post Office Workers Union. Smith was the heaviest MP of modern times, and the three where renowned as having the biggest eyebrows, biggest body and biggest handlebar moustache in public life.
Tue, Nov 21, 1978
To mark the 15th anniversary of Doctor Who (1963), Frank Bough interviews the series' star Tom Baker, his companion Mary Tamm and the original Doctor Who companion, Carole Ann Ford.
Mon, Aug 13, 1979
An interview with production designer Ken Adam about his work on the James Bond movie Moonraker (1979).
Sun, Sep 9, 1979
Comedy writer Eddie Braben explores his home town to meet the real people of Liverpool, including a street entertainer and a market trader. With a population that has halved in the last decade, Eddie laments the loss of the city's heart, and of some of its most famous sons and daughters. But there's still much to celebrate there: the Cavern Club that remains a Mecca to the world's music lovers; Europe's oldest Chinatown; the Mersey tunnels and two miles of promenade that runs alongside the River Mersey.
Thu, Sep 11, 1980
Nicholas Woolley reports on the background to the 1980 republican hunger strike at the Maze prison in Northern Ireland. The hunger strike involving seven men, Leo Green, Raymond McCartney, Sean McKenna, Tommy McKearney, John Nixon, Tom McFeeley and Brendan Hughes, began on 27th October 1980. Woolley links one of the hunger strikers, Tommy McKearney, to the killing of Stanley Adams who held two part time jobs: postman and UDR (Ulster Defence Regiment) soldier. He was shot dead in 1976 when he delivered a 'decoy' letter to an isolated farm. The following year McKearney was arrested and charged. He claimed he was beaten up at Castlereagh RUC station to make him confess. A prison doctor supported his claim which was then taken up by Amnesty International in a report that led indirectly to a reform of interrogation procedures. He was convicted by a judge sitting alone in a special court (known as a Diplock court) who deemed his confession admissible.
Mon, May 4, 1981
Nicholas Woolley reports on the aims of Bobby Sands and the republican hunger strikers in the Maze prison and looks at the efforts made by various groups to save his life. The report opens with the announcement of Sands' election while he was on the sixth week of a hunger strike that would eventually end with his death. The republican hunger strike was a strategy for the restoration of Special Category status that had been withdrawn by the British government in 1976. The election of Bobby Sands as an MP in the Westminster parliament focused international attention on his protest, with representatives of the Irish parliament, the former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, two members of the European Commission of Human Rights and the Pope's private secretary Monsignor John Magee all making visits to the prison in an attempt to persuade Sands to give up his fast.