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Crude Britannia: The Story of North Sea Oil

Bill Lyons

Crude Britannia: The Story of North Sea Oil: Episode 1

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Episode 1

BBC Four - Crude Britannia: The Story of North Sea Oil, Episode 1

The men who discovered the oil and risked their lives to get it ashore tell their stories.

Series telling the story of North Sea oil and gas. This edition gives a voice to the men who made the discovery in the 1960s and who risked their lives to get the oil ashore.

Three-part series combining archive footage and eye-witness accounts to tell the dramatic narrative of North Sea oil and gas from the 1960s to the present. It charts the decades when the country made the most of its North Sea windfall, with scarcely a thought about where it came from or of the men and women who brought it to us. Through the story of oil, the series offers a fresh perspective on British politics and society and a timely insight into the state of our economy today.

Forty years ago, Britain was poised on the brink of an extraordinary discovery - oil, billions of gallons of it, deep beneath the harsh waters of the North Sea. This opening edition gives a voice to some of the men who made that discovery and who risked their lives in the North Sea to get the oil ashore. 

Theirs is a tale of dramatic risk-taking and high politics as the government and the oil companies raced to get their hands on the bonanza. The promise of enormous riches inspired technical innovation on a scale never seen before, but did the haste of the North Sea project put at risk the lives of men who were working in some of the most extreme conditions in the world?

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Series telling the story of North Sea oil and gas from the 1960s to the present

Series combining archive footage and eye-witness accounts to tell the story of North Sea oil and gas from the 1960s to the present, offering a fresh perspective on British politics and society

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Crude Britannia: The Story of North Sea Oil

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