1970: Is WIGAN Becoming TOO MODERN? | Nationwide | Voice of the People | BBC Archive

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  • Опубликовано: 20 фев 2024
  • "It's trendy, it's swinging, it has all the signs of a go-ahead town determined to get on the modern map and to show that this is where it's all happening. And where exactly is this architectural apocalypse, this town of tomorrow? Would you believe, Wigan."
    Jack Pizzey reports from Wigan, where folk singer Keith Roberts is mounting a one-man, musical resistance movement, against the urban planners that are determined to modernise his beloved town. Keith mourns the vanishing cobbled streets and the removal of the tramlines, he despairs at the rising concrete jungle and the town's seemingly inexorable move towards trendiness.
    Keith takes Jack to the former site of the infamous Wigan Pier, which was likely a coal-loading staithe. Despite being the butt of countless jokes, Keith believes Wigan Pier is a significant feature of the town, and should be preserved. More than anything, Keith fears that the people in charge of redevelopment, in their haste to modernise, might unwittingly take away the character, and the very heart of the town.
    Clip taken from Nationwide, originally broadcast on BBC One, Tuesday 22 September, 1970.
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Комментарии • 130

  • @MichaelBosley
    @MichaelBosley 3 месяца назад +61

    "Is WIGAN Becoming TOO MODERN?" - A question that hasn't been uttered since TV went colour.

    • @anonUK
      @anonUK 3 месяца назад +3

      This would have been in colour- but the OB cameras' colour circuits conked out somewhere round Stoke...

    • @TinLeadHammer
      @TinLeadHammer 3 месяца назад

      ​@@anonUKThis is film.

    • @Hascienda27
      @Hascienda27 3 месяца назад

      @@TinLeadHammerthe Beatles filmed in colour 5 years earlier 😂

  • @ryanwarren2970
    @ryanwarren2970 3 месяца назад +35

    The announcer is really laying into Wigan. It's like some kind of Monty Python style mockumentary. And those songs are wild. I have gotten better laughs out of this than anything else all week.

  • @nellyfett2681
    @nellyfett2681 3 месяца назад +38

    This has been a presentation by the Wigan tourist board.

  • @brianmmacu
    @brianmmacu 3 месяца назад +58

    The people singing along to the song looked like they were being held hostage

    • @heraldeventsandfilms5970
      @heraldeventsandfilms5970 3 месяца назад

      Those poor b'stards.

    • @Pikestnt
      @Pikestnt 3 месяца назад +11

      That, at least, hasn’t changed in 54 years. Singalongs at folk clubs still look forced.
      😀

    • @indigohammer5732
      @indigohammer5732 3 месяца назад +15

      Like the ones Hamas are holding?

    • @Pikestnt
      @Pikestnt 3 месяца назад +7

      Well if we’re throwing out random non sequiturs:
      “So-called BBC”
      “Brexit” and
      “Modern comedy isn’t funny”

    • @heraldeventsandfilms5970
      @heraldeventsandfilms5970 3 месяца назад

      Therefore you are attending them. Why?

  • @crankjazz
    @crankjazz 3 месяца назад +15

    The postmark for wigan in the 1970s read "Modern Wigan has no peer".

    • @sglenny001
      @sglenny001 2 месяца назад

      Lol

    • @uphollandlatic
      @uphollandlatic 2 месяца назад +1

      Sorry to be pedantic but it was “..no pier.” This was a three way pun. ‘No pier’ - getting rid of the old image. ‘No peer’ - nowhere better and ‘No peer’ - Wigan’s resident member of the House of Lords, I think Lord Ashton, had recently died.

  • @philipmilner9638
    @philipmilner9638 3 месяца назад +20

    I think in this day and age, would prefer to live in a 19th century built houses, than the modern concrete monstrosities

    • @DissociatedWomenIncorporated
      @DissociatedWomenIncorporated 3 месяца назад

      @@PGHEngineer if you’re an engineer, shouldn’t you live aboard a starship?

    • @DissociatedWomenIncorporated
      @DissociatedWomenIncorporated 3 месяца назад +1

      @@PGHEngineer I grew up with TNG, and it formed a solid foundation for my ethics and sociopolitical viewpoints, to this day I’d still describe my political ideology as “Star Trek”. As a nerdy little girl with a very rough childhood, I was really lucky to find a show that provided the positive role models that didn’t exist in my real life. But yes, it does have the side effect that the 21st century is rather disappointing. Not so much the tech side of it, I mean sure I’d love us to be more advanced but it is what it is, more so in the slow pace of ethical and social development. I want us to be the Federation, instead we’re the Ferengi.

  • @sharefail
    @sharefail 3 месяца назад +15

    Me looking down on the other watchers of this video looking down on the presenter looking down on wigan looking down on the past

  • @nicholasbuttery511
    @nicholasbuttery511 3 месяца назад +12

    Home of Britains oldest BMX Shop since 1981 called ALAN`S.

    • @linalmeemow
      @linalmeemow 3 месяца назад +2

      Spent a fortune in there on records when it was on Mesnes Street - best punk rock record shop in the country!

    • @johnmcmahon5670
      @johnmcmahon5670 2 месяца назад +2

      Same. It's a shame Alan's doesn't still sell music, but there's a great mainly second hand LP emporium - Static Records - in The Old Courts

    • @linalmeemow
      @linalmeemow 2 месяца назад

      @@johnmcmahon5670 I moved to Leicester in the mid 90s, haven't been to Wigan since...

  • @martinbingham2127
    @martinbingham2127 3 месяца назад +13

    Wigan became a better town when the reporter left.

  • @Evemeister12
    @Evemeister12 2 месяца назад +6

    The words "wigan" and "modern" in the same sentence is a rare thing.

  • @chrisbayes2972
    @chrisbayes2972 3 месяца назад +11

    People from Wigan are called Wiganers, they surely should have known that!

  • @borealico
    @borealico 3 месяца назад +17

    The photograph in this is amazing. Beautiful filming and what a document. How is Wigan today? Was it preserved as it was once on a time?

    • @pcalf101
      @pcalf101 3 месяца назад +14

      😂 no it's thoroughly awful. Born and bred there. I try to escape as often as possible.

    • @jamesanthony9316
      @jamesanthony9316 3 месяца назад +18

      Crusty folk singer with his protest songs was right. Wigan became just another anonymous Northern town

    • @borealico
      @borealico 3 месяца назад +9

      @@jamesanthony9316so sad. Same thing happened to lots of small cities in Sweden around 60s and 70s. Yes the folk singer was indeed right.

    • @stubamford1405
      @stubamford1405 3 месяца назад +3

      I got out of this shite hole 20 yrs ago and have never been back

    • @apathyintheuk265
      @apathyintheuk265 3 месяца назад

      @@jamesanthony9316 Well, it was destined only to be a museum piece otherwise.

  • @WhatwouldRoddyPiperdo
    @WhatwouldRoddyPiperdo 3 месяца назад +11

    Im in absolute tears this is like an accidental sketch 😂

  • @Mr.1.i
    @Mr.1.i 17 дней назад

    I come from wigan grew up on an estate called norley hall in pemberton it was built in the 1950s its a nice estate with trees along the avenues and fields

  • @andydixon2980
    @andydixon2980 3 месяца назад +14

    Richard Ashcroft was to be born the following year and put Wigan on the musical map in 26years.

    • @whiteyvegas
      @whiteyvegas 3 месяца назад +2

      George Formby played golf?

    • @andydixon2980
      @andydixon2980 3 месяца назад +1

      Oh I forgot about George 'Turned out nice again...hee hee' Formby.@@whiteyvegas

    • @robt4390
      @robt4390 3 месяца назад +2

      Northern Soul and Wigan Casino (largely thanks to amazing rail links) put the town on the map long before t’Verve took liberties with that Rolling Stones orchestral sample (and momentarily became known the world over), thank you very much.

    • @bid84
      @bid84 3 месяца назад

      What is a Wigan?

    • @nickmitchell6443
      @nickmitchell6443 2 месяца назад

      Such a shame his lyrics are terrible

  • @Hascienda27
    @Hascienda27 3 месяца назад +6

    Well, there's A headline you'll never read again

  • @ahassen1236
    @ahassen1236 3 месяца назад +5

    From Los Angeles to Liverpool as they say 😊

    • @RDJ1997
      @RDJ1997 4 дня назад

      Being from Liverpool, I often find myself doing a double take before realising I’m actually not in LA

  • @user-jr3dx7wl6j
    @user-jr3dx7wl6j 3 месяца назад +27

    This reporters delivery is almost comically snide and condescending. Turns the stomach

    • @pcalf101
      @pcalf101 3 месяца назад +7

      On reflection it is a little unfair. As all northern and Midlands towns and cities were socioeconomic wastelands, not just poor old Wigan.

  • @spooj
    @spooj 3 месяца назад +6

    I read this too quickly and for a second thought it said is Wogan becoming too modern, oh Tel!!!

  • @Thomas-px2lh
    @Thomas-px2lh 3 месяца назад +11

    People from Wigan are called pie eaters.

    • @GBPaddling
      @GBPaddling 3 месяца назад +3

      Leythers are Lobby Gobblers.

  • @nottinghamsoul7790
    @nottinghamsoul7790 4 дня назад

    Nice clip of the Casino before the all nighters started in '73

  • @stuartsaint4581
    @stuartsaint4581 3 месяца назад +5

    Was that song about the Douglas reused for Phoenix Nights?

    • @simonhodgetts6530
      @simonhodgetts6530 3 месяца назад +2

      It’s close…….but it’s also a generic folk type song! Reminds me, where’s me sneakers……….

    • @Hascienda27
      @Hascienda27 3 месяца назад

      @@simonhodgetts6530send the buggers back 😂

  • @briangray966
    @briangray966 2 месяца назад +2

    Now I know where REEVES AND MORTIMER got the influence from for MULLIGAN AND O'HARE

  • @jblogs1000
    @jblogs1000 2 месяца назад +4

    this was when wigan was part of lanc,s then was pushed into manchester the worse day for wigan

  • @edwardmclaughlin7935
    @edwardmclaughlin7935 2 месяца назад +3

    The presenter sounds like Michael Palin acting like a presenter.

  • @themadplotter
    @themadplotter 2 месяца назад +3

    This could be Rotterdam or Liverpool or Wigan or Rome? Cos Wigan is anywhere, anywhere alone….

  • @Scottinuk
    @Scottinuk 3 месяца назад +3

    I could swear that’s Jarvis Cocker at 2:44 😂

  • @matthewbland8765
    @matthewbland8765 3 месяца назад +3

    Mulligan and O'Hare

  • @ozzie-sk9dh
    @ozzie-sk9dh 3 месяца назад +19

    Did the reporter get out of Wigan alive back to the south? He didn’t deserve to. 😂

    • @missmuffet3874
      @missmuffet3874 3 месяца назад

      Agreed. What an absolute @rsewipe he was.

  • @stonehengeminstrel
    @stonehengeminstrel 3 месяца назад +11

    Wigan Pier may only be a 2 foot jetty sticking out of the canal footpath in reality, but it still remains 2 foot longer than the thousands of towns without one 🤣. It's a case of my 2 foot pier is still bigger than yours! 😊 Oh the irony...

  • @matthewtrow5698
    @matthewtrow5698 3 месяца назад +5

    The guitarist at 1:25 - never knew Jeremy Corbyn was that old! - blimey!

    • @sglenny001
      @sglenny001 2 месяца назад

      Never knew he could play gigtar

    • @FlatDerrick
      @FlatDerrick 2 месяца назад +1

      You might want to invest in a pair of glasses. They look nothing like each other.

  • @jasonayres
    @jasonayres 3 месяца назад +15

    (1:45} That reminds me. I must cut my fingernails tonight.

    • @simonhodgetts6530
      @simonhodgetts6530 3 месяца назад +3

      And clean them…..maybe he’d been digging spuds that afternoon…….

    • @unclejoe7958
      @unclejoe7958 3 месяца назад +1

      Black, but from what I remember Wigan lads weren’t known for their hygiene.
      A lot of lads only got wet at Wigan baths.
      Dirty fingernails were the norm considering most men were working with either metal or coal.

  • @ukmud6218
    @ukmud6218 2 месяца назад

    Quite alot of the buildings shown are gone

  • @dawnyWestScotland
    @dawnyWestScotland 3 месяца назад +10

    Shame there’s always something thrown and dumped in todays waters, usually a supermarket trolley 😢

  • @ianbrodie8658
    @ianbrodie8658 2 месяца назад +1

    Shame about the Casino.

  • @CinemaMusic55
    @CinemaMusic55 Месяц назад

    Look at the state of this so-called folk singer's nails.....and this man was a school teacher!

  • @parzivalthewanderer9687
    @parzivalthewanderer9687 Месяц назад

    Ironic that the old walkable housing and cobbled streets, which he calls dreary and ugly, are now the desirable places over the concrete modern places, which have aged into a dreary unkempt mess without color or character.

  • @mikeatcora
    @mikeatcora 2 месяца назад

    A snapshot of Wigan that's slowly being destroyed by small minded planners with big ideas. There's a lot of this film that has buildings that are still there, the cooling towers were demolished in 1989, the Grand hotel is still there (Buddy Holly stayed there whilst touring). The place still has lots to offer and is always worth a visit, best if the sun is shining to see the parks etc. There are no functioning mills, all posh flats now for the better off.

  • @rymacreeks2k07
    @rymacreeks2k07 2 месяца назад +1

    Wigan got cooked so bad here LMAOOO

  • @sarahyoung3033
    @sarahyoung3033 3 месяца назад +3

    I'm from Skelmersdale and would go on weekends and it was awful. I recently took my fiancé there and he was shocked. Hardly any shops, smells so bad and not worth going

    • @tinyplanet_360
      @tinyplanet_360 3 месяца назад +8

      This coming from someone from skem 😂😂😂

    • @sensemaya1
      @sensemaya1 3 месяца назад +5

      Skem is worse.

    • @linalmeemow
      @linalmeemow 3 месяца назад

      Ah, Skem - when Britain is given an enema, Skem's where they stick the tube...

    • @Delicious_J
      @Delicious_J Месяц назад

      Frig off your from Skem hahahaha

    • @sarahyoung3033
      @sarahyoung3033 Месяц назад

      I really don't care. Skelmersdale is an awful place. I admit it

  • @jmorris023
    @jmorris023 3 месяца назад

    Is it insane to move to Wigan?

  • @evertonshorts9376
    @evertonshorts9376 3 месяца назад +1

    The folk club is still going...

  • @da90sReAlvloc
    @da90sReAlvloc 3 месяца назад +1

    Wasn't the wrestler dynamite kid. From Wigan

    • @bobclover4634
      @bobclover4634 3 месяца назад +1

      Yes, him and The British Bulldog both came from Wigan.

    • @GBPaddling
      @GBPaddling 3 месяца назад

      Golborne.

    • @nationaltwin
      @nationaltwin Месяц назад

      @@GBPaddling Isn't Golborne in Wigan?

    • @GBPaddling
      @GBPaddling Месяц назад

      @@nationaltwin Yes, so is Leigh, but they're not happy about that either.

    • @nationaltwin
      @nationaltwin Месяц назад +1

      @@GBPaddling Fair enough

  • @marine4lyfe85
    @marine4lyfe85 3 месяца назад +7

    Like putting a beauty spot on the face of a plain woman..lol

  • @dukedepommefrite1467
    @dukedepommefrite1467 3 месяца назад +7

    That dudes dirty fingernails 🤮

  • @TheGinglymus
    @TheGinglymus 3 месяца назад +1

    It's funny all this romanticism towards the Victorian industrial revolution, which was modern and a past that was very harsh to most people. Post war development was actually to give everyone something in a contemporary way.

    • @bengaliinplatforms1268
      @bengaliinplatforms1268 2 месяца назад

      And it did nothing but destroy it. Name one community that actually improved after these projects? Giving everyone something is not good for the soul of an Englishman, it's the path to his demise.
      Better sanitation and public housing doesn't mean the death of beauty. And these
      creeps would tear down one beautiful building after another for their own narcissism, not for the people that went in them.

  • @cunkmusic8748
    @cunkmusic8748 Месяц назад

    Wigan.... Where the m6 is cobbled..

  • @tsr207
    @tsr207 3 месяца назад +4

    The BBC seems to enjoy putting these patronising reports on line with the presenter mocking the locals. Cant really find fault with the decision makers of the time as they had really seen poverty and must have been desperate to improve the town.

    • @csr7080
      @csr7080 3 месяца назад +8

      This is something often forgotten now. Those soulless big concrete or brick housing estates? Yeah they're not beautiful nor very inspiring, and probably weren't when they were new, but there was so much really really *really* bad quality housing that I'm sure a lot of people were exceedingly happy to move out of.
      Same goes for the typical Russian (Soviet) "commie block" btw. Yeah it's awful in many ways, but back when they went and built thousands of them everywhere all over the Soviet Union, a lot of people were living in huts or old army barracks. It was extremely bad. A shared commie block flat was great in comparison, as much as it sounds awful from today's perspective.

  • @richardkrispell7904
    @richardkrispell7904 2 месяца назад

    Dreary grey Wigan, can it get any worse… then someone starts singing nasal folk songs to cheer the locals up. Hilarious.

  • @mc-yt2rc
    @mc-yt2rc 2 месяца назад

    how did the human race survive the 70's look???

  • @NoosaHeads
    @NoosaHeads 3 месяца назад +9

    The photography was superb, but the singer was as bad as I've ever heard in my life.

    • @BadgerBotherer1
      @BadgerBotherer1 3 месяца назад +7

      I thought he was quite good. Certainly better than today's corporate, manufactured, pap pop.

  • @jamesbomd3503
    @jamesbomd3503 2 месяца назад

    FUNNY FROM 1935 TO 1942 THE HIGEST PAID MOVIE STAR IN THE WORLD CAME FROM WIGAN
    GUESS WHO ?

  • @scotmorley8526
    @scotmorley8526 3 месяца назад +1

    I'm putting nothing in my mouth from Wigan

  • @ekurisona663
    @ekurisona663 3 месяца назад +5

    what awful reportage 🤮

  • @user-jn2gc8fk6q
    @user-jn2gc8fk6q 3 месяца назад +1

    Wigan is and always will be a dump with useless rugby and football team's 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

    • @linalmeemow
      @linalmeemow 3 месяца назад +3

      They know how to use apostrophes though - I'm assuming you're a semi-literate Saints fan? The irony of your comment given Wigan were crowned world club champions just a couple of days later is delicious.

    • @user-jn2gc8fk6q
      @user-jn2gc8fk6q 3 месяца назад

      @linalmeemow no, I am not a Saints fan is being picky over an apostrophe the best your intelligence can do. I did work in Wigan for eight years. What a dump

    • @linalmeemow
      @linalmeemow 3 месяца назад

      @@user-jn2gc8fk6q I could also pick on the rest of your dreadful grammar and punctuation if you like? What about the world club championship win then, or would commenting on how wrong you got that show your lack of intelligence?

    • @heiltd1286
      @heiltd1286 2 месяца назад +2

      No apostrophe 's' in plurals in English. This is basic grammar not rocket science. The plural of 'TEAM' is 'TEAMS' not 'TEAM'S'.

    • @user-jn2gc8fk6q
      @user-jn2gc8fk6q 2 месяца назад

      @heiltd1286 Do the letters 4.Q mean anything to you? Nobody bothers with the English lessons except morons from Wigan