Diploma Lecture 2014

Diploma Lecture 13 2005-2006

Kirsty Young looks at British working lives since the Second World War

Kirsty Young looks at British working lives since the Second World War. This programme combines the memories of ordinary working people with vivid archive from documentary, television and film to look at an era in which work was a great mass experience and work places were lively, welcoming communities.

In the second of this series on the history of work, Kirsty Young looks at the years in which the post-war baby boom generation joined the workforce, from the buoyant optimism of the 60s to the union versus management conflicts of the 70s.

Kirsty Young looks at work in the 80s and 90s, an era of startling contrasts where our jobs could enrich and exhilarate or humble and humiliate. Kirsty meets people who were flush with entrepreneurial spirit, building careers and starting their own businesses, but also those who fell out of work during the collapse of traditional heavy industry.

In the final episode of the series, Kirsty Young looks at how work has changed from the late 90s to the present. Using comedy, drama and archive from the period, she examines how work has crept into the very centre of our lives.