An 11-part television history of Britain at work in the 20th century.

The car firms prospered when other industries were in decline in the 1930s. They were based on a new type of work - the moving track:

"Anyone could do it, it didn't matter whether it was an engineer or the man who swept the road. They could train him in five to ten minutes. it was really boring... but they did it for the money." (Assembly Worker)

Car workers and their bosses talk about the good times, when Britain's motor industry was second only to the Americans', profits and wages were high, and exports boomed after the war.

But the writing was on the wall. By the 1970s Britain's car makers were on the brink of collapse, from which they have been slow to recover.

Narrator John Woodvine

(R)