BBC - Coast Series 8 (2013) Part 2 The Workers Coast

Coast Series 8

Coast, continues to explore the edge of our lives, the coastline that marries us to the sea. Through a history of assault from Nazi Germany, freshwater voles and the infamous Guernsey Privateers; the workers’ coast of shipbuilders, fishermen and seaside entertainers; the joys of sunbathing and the history of Thomas Cook; the magnificent estuaries of the Firth of Forth, the Severn and the Thames; this is the history of Britain as told from cliff to sea. Nick Crane is joined by a team of expert presenters including Neil Oliver, Miranda Krestovnikoff, Mark Horton, Tessa Dunlop, Andy Torbet, Ian McMillan, Ruth Goodman, Nick Hewitt and newcomers Sarah Beynon and Cassie Newland as they explore the riches to be found along our Coast.

Part 2: The Workers Coast
In the second episode of the new series, Coast is on a journey to celebrate the surprising stories of the workers from around our shores.. Nick Crane tells the chilling tale of an abandoned refrigeration plant whose workers kept Britain's biggest fishing fleet afloat. How did their ingenious production line create the tons of ice needed each day to keep the fish from Grimsby's trawlers fresh for the nation's plates? The extraordinary Grimsby Ice Factory, dating from 1901, was one of the few sites in the country that could freeze water on a truly industrial scale. The Ice Factory closed its doors for the last time in 1990, but the last man to work there returns to bring the whole process back to life. Neil Oliver relives a remarkable tale: when thousands of shipyard workers on the river Clyde fought job losses, not by walking out on strike, but by 'working-in'. In 1971 the famous Clydeside work-in was a revolutionary new tactic; the struggle to keep on working whatever the bosses said attracted world-wide financial support, including red roses and cash from John Lennon and Yoko Ono. It is credited with saving shipbuilding on the upper Clyde, but is the legend of the work-in all that it seems? For the first time, the man the government put in charge of the yards tells the story from his perspective, a version of events which re-writes the accepted history, Tessa Dunlop reveals the astonishing, untold story of the secret of the Royal Navy's sea power, some 200 years ago. In Nelson's navy the British guns were more accurate than our enemies',

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