I think this video shows off British efficiency at its best! Watch the film and you get informed about forthcoming upgrades to the British railway network. Once you’ve done that, the audio (Which in those days came on a separate open reel tape) can be taken aside and rewound for use at church on Sunday! ⛪️📼😁 Really nice to see how things were back then (Great to see GE/Alsthom heritage going that far back! 🚄🤟🏽❤️) - Thanks for the upload! 😇
The thing is those in authority knew the dangers with asbestos at that time, but continued to use it. I can imagine the inevitable future for the workman applying the stuff to the coach.
@@arthurdailey4514 My father worked with railway locos covered with asbestos insulation in the '50s but the stuff didn't kill him: it might kill me, though, even 60-odd years later.
And then shortly afterwards, there arrived Beeching and his infamous Report... operated by his puppet master & overlord Ernest Marples (the road lobby connected politician). The vestige of the great investment over 100 years, {worn out through overwork during two world wars} saw the rail network shrink/axed & the wholesale ditching of newer (post WW2) steam locos in the name of progress. A hatchet job on a significant transport sector. Now we can’t move for road traffic congestion and the atmospheric pollution caused by diesel road vehicles.
labour were in power when beeching made his report.they then did not close all of beechings recommendations but closed 100's of miles on top.After it was all done labour then gave beeching an award. not the torys or marples. the madness was stopped when the torys got in again in 1970
Indeed & it was Gerry Fiennes (BR Board Member) & author of "I tried to run a railway" fame, which repeatedly used the sarcastic phrase "The Great & Good Doctor", that got Gerry the sack by that "Wicked Witch" Barbara Castle (Labour Transport Minister) who had closed the S&D, & was in turn sacked by Harold Wilson (Labour PM) for not getting permission to sack a BR Board member. The furore in the press over this fiasco then lost Labour the next election. By which time "The Great & Good Doctor" had also got the chop.
At 16:17 a rare shot of the application of Sprayed “Limpet” Asbestos. A mix of 85% Crocidolite (Blue) Asbestos and 15% cement binder. Very unique footage!
Fascinating film. A lot of adverse comments below about the organ music background. Even though I'm a Bach enthusiast it does seem a strange choice over the usual generic library music. However, at the overhead electrification sequence at 5.00 it does seem to work quite well and has a sort of '2001 Space Odyssey' feel to it!
Hardly. The composition most think associated with Dracula is Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor. All organ music is not necessarily religious or horror movie in nature.I believe this is the Toccata Adagio & Fugue but I can't remember the key.
1 mile of track a day…only carried out Sundays, so that’s 52 miles a year, no wonder the infrastructure still isn’t upto modern train speed standards 😂
Such a momentous decision requires much consideration. I expect that you have been looking at papers, holding meetings, heard proposals, discussions, revisions, reported back. Months of fruitful work... - (If the right people don't have power, Yes Prime Minister, BBC.) Did you arrive at a mature and responsible conclusion?
The signal box at Wilmslow is long gone now. Though given the issues with the current installation, it may have been better to keep it! Fascinating to watch for so many reasons; the trains, the technology, fashion…
The electrification of the Manchester - Crewe line, which is mentioned at 5:00 was completed in 1960. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Coast_Main_Line#:~:text=The%20first%20stretch%20to%20be,then%20extended%20south%20to%20London.&text=Electrification%20of%20the%20Birmingham%20line%20was%20completed%20on%206%20March%201967.
This film captures the unique British eccentricity. Even the choice of intro music. Church organ music for a film about modernising our railways!!??! lol Would love to know the thinking behind choosing this music. Bonkers, but very British! Gotta love our eccentric nature. It really comes out in this film.
Interesting. It’s looks criminal now to see these people working without PPE or safety devices of any kind, I suppose life was a little cheaper back then and the employers could do it all cheaper. A lot has changed for the better since the 1950s!
I suppose the 25kv electric locomotive at 18:28 was as exciting to them as the latest Shinkansen would be to us now. How things have turned around from the UK leading in train technology to buying trains made by Hitachi in Japan.
Ahhh... the good ol'days. No safety helmets, no flo-glo vests, no hearing protection, and no gloves. Health and Safety? What's that? 😂 Joking aside, I learned something. I didn't know concrete sleepers were laid so long ago! 😎
And you could describe something as being 'gay' without getting funny looks!!! Also, how was the asbestos insulation being sprayed on that BR Mk 1!!!!!
Seeing the steam power crane picking up old track sections and a more modern one dropping a new section on the rail bed I thought was a visual hint with out with the old and in with the new that BR wanted to show. Understanding how long steam was used within the UK I don't really know if this wasn't just because. No fault of the UK for using steam power as long as they did. It was a need because of demand due to population growth and morderization race to gain a foot hold. Wacthing these old rail docs I am blown away the huge leaps made it upgrades in rail when started and the forethought in planning and time allocation for each hour spent on projects. Everyone involved should be proud of what was completed in those modernization builds times and that really has been true with many of Britsh infrastructor projects starting in the late 60's 70's and 80's.
Wet asbestos was a relatively safe medium I believe.. So many pipe fitters at my loco works were affected when they were required to scrape or grind away the dried asbestos in order to lay pipe brackets. The asbestos fibres were like a dust ready to be inhaled with often deadly consequences.
My dad who is now 75 will be having an absolute kittens that nobody is wearing hard hats, safety boots or high visibility clothing back in those days. How things have changed.
The best transport history film I have seen. Made in the days when you could describe something as being 'gay' without getting funny looks!!! Also, how was the asbestos insulation being sprayed on that BR Mk 1!!!!!
Interesting architect's model of Leeds City - different to the version that finally emerged in 1967, no sign of the little-mourned 'cow shed' that preceded today's overall roof.
The Shires at St Pancras. Marvellous 1960s decor and cuisine. What happened to this restaurant ? 🥺 Meanwhile fill the roof of the new coaches with blue asbestos. 😱
Thanks for the upload a great piece of archive footage, the organ music was a bit out of place though, I half expected Vincent Price to put in an appearance any second.
Es ist wirklich überraschend, Bachs Orgelmusik in diesem Film zu hören... Parallel könnte man die Ordnung, Schönheit, die Perfektion im Satz und Aufbau in der Musik nennen - technische Ingenieurkunst bei der Eisenbahn, musikalische Ingenieurkunst bei Bach. Es ist jedenfalls besser als irgend eine blöde Plastik-Musik. Ansonsten ein großartiger Film! 👍
Motive Power Depots cleaner,tea much better without soot in it,but everyone is smoking cigarettes, better without nicotine as well I should have thought!
The last bit about training the apprentices is what we should be doing now too. Give the youth of today some practical skills that are actually useful in life instead of the garbage they are filling their heads with in schools and colleges.
I loved the video part, very interesting, but i had to go to confession after watching this video…. The organ music set the medieval mood. Why would anybody, even back in 1959, choose organ music as soundtrack. No wonder the Beatles swept the world a few years later.
My guess, the music is supposed to underline the great achievements in progress. These days, after the wars supposed to end all wars, a bright future and prosperity seemed to be just around the corner. The miracle of electrification.
I see what you're trying to say but fwiw, the Beatles were hugely inspired by a very broad range of historical music, including church music. But I agree there it's a little incongruous. However Bach's organ works are timeless music of the very finest order, even as great as some of the Beatles' best... it seems that British Railways were trying to somehow align themselves with something equally magnificent. I'd be pretty pissed off if I were him, having my music used to try to somehow give credence to the mess which was made of Britain through the 1950s and 60s.
The music is being played by a one-armed man, rowing across the Atlantic, who only eats beans and uses the flatulence to try and eject an organ from his rear, which he accidentally swallowed when attempting to play Bach in an oven!
The Diesel loco program was a whole scandal of itself, needs thorough of investigation. Why so many different types. Steam was already standardised down to 6 or 7 types. So many different diesels i have lost count. Beeching has no excuse for this. As for Marples, he's a 😈 & more😮
Yes. I don't mean that it was composed specifically for the film, I mean that the piece was chosen for the background score and dubbed on during the films original editing and scoring process.
The organ playing is a bit mad, but the recounts in the vdeo are fascinating even to me who saw out the relays in my work and replaced them with transistorised circuits. And then into the 1980s, replacement of a lot of transistors and circuit boards with microprocessors. The Best of British, eroded by mass immigration, insane and corrupted politicians, and the nefarious goals of EU control.
What's a great film well presented and wrote what a great time in less than 50 years country distroyed by the black Asians and Europe and now the chinese and there flu, what a terrible world we live in, can you imagine 50 more years will have lesbians only gay pink trains running on solar power in the UK.
That church organ music is (just) too much. Does it signify that God Himself approved of all this railway improvement (and thus British Railways)? Huzzah, say I! Therefore Amen and Hallelujah (though the passengers continued to complain to the end of BR.)!
great we got are brexit done and can steam in to the future. we can now cormunicate with nation's out outside of the uk not just eu nation's and sell are product's cheeper and not have to stick to there high standard's. these are the day's we are going back two and i cant wait.
I think this video shows off British efficiency at its best! Watch the film and you get informed about forthcoming upgrades to the British railway network. Once you’ve done that, the audio (Which in those days came on a separate open reel tape) can be taken aside and rewound for use at church on Sunday! ⛪️📼😁
Really nice to see how things were back then (Great to see GE/Alsthom heritage going that far back! 🚄🤟🏽❤️) - Thanks for the upload! 😇
Yes it is! To this day! Let our engineers do their best without the Yoke of Politics!
16:26 That insulation would come back and bite them. It's blue asbestos.
I was wondering about that. It is asbestos !
The thing is those in authority knew the dangers with asbestos at that time, but continued to use it. I can imagine the inevitable future for the workman applying the stuff to the coach.
@@arthurdailey4514 My father worked with railway locos covered with asbestos insulation in the '50s but the stuff didn't kill him: it might kill me, though, even 60-odd years later.
And then shortly afterwards, there arrived Beeching and his infamous Report... operated by his puppet master & overlord Ernest Marples (the road lobby connected politician). The vestige of the great investment over 100 years, {worn out through overwork during two world wars} saw the rail network shrink/axed & the wholesale ditching of newer (post WW2) steam locos in the name of progress. A hatchet job on a significant transport sector. Now we can’t move for road traffic congestion and the atmospheric pollution caused by diesel road vehicles.
labour were in power when beeching made his report.they then did not close all of beechings recommendations but closed 100's of miles on top.After it was all done labour then gave beeching an award. not the torys or marples. the madness was stopped when the torys got in again in 1970
Indeed & it was Gerry Fiennes (BR Board Member) & author of "I tried to run a railway" fame, which repeatedly used the sarcastic phrase "The Great & Good Doctor", that got Gerry the sack by that "Wicked Witch" Barbara Castle (Labour Transport Minister) who had closed the S&D, & was in turn sacked by Harold Wilson (Labour PM) for not getting permission to sack a BR Board member. The furore in the press over this fiasco then lost Labour the next election. By which time "The Great & Good Doctor" had also got the chop.
I had no idea they were laying track like that in 1959!
Not too different to how they do it today.
Thoroughly watchable and enjoyable! Thank you for uploading!
Modern marshalling yards ....with 4 wheel wagons with link couplings!
I love this optimistic video. We need to reclaim this visioniary approach now we are a freestanding country again
13:14- rare glimpse of the class 80!
You can actually see some Class 83's Operating nowadays in Poland under the name "EP07"
At 16:17 a rare shot of the application of Sprayed “Limpet” Asbestos. A mix of 85% Crocidolite (Blue) Asbestos and 15% cement binder. Very unique footage!
Welded rails and concrete sleepers back then?
By the way, love the organ ❤️
Welded rails & concrete sleepers were being experimented width in 1938 !
That music makes me feel that I just heard a sermon of sorts. LOL.😊
Fascinating film. A lot of adverse comments below about the organ music background. Even though I'm a Bach enthusiast it does seem a strange choice over the usual generic library music. However, at the overhead electrification sequence at 5.00 it does seem to work quite well and has a sort of '2001 Space Odyssey' feel to it!
Thought-provoking. The GB railway future could have been oh so different if it weren't for the politics, vested interests and greed.
Very interesting, enjoyed that 👍
Poor wooden sleepers! Concrete sleepers have no soul.
All good except the Count Dracula organ
Hardly. The composition most think associated with Dracula is Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor. All organ music is not necessarily religious or horror movie in nature.I believe this is the Toccata Adagio & Fugue but I can't remember the key.
It's JS Bach. Just the greatest composer that ever lived.
1 mile of track a day…only carried out Sundays, so that’s 52 miles a year, no wonder the infrastructure still isn’t upto modern train speed standards 😂
Jesus Christ. I see what you mean.
@@The_DuMont_Network That's the association he made. I think we all did.
A real eye opener , as to the extremes the transport system needs to go to, to ensure its progress does not stand still,
Great look back!
Like your profile picture
I love the documentary videos. I'm gonna subscribe to you
@@martinr1834 umm yeah... is something wrong?
Such a momentous decision requires much consideration. I expect that you have been looking at papers, holding meetings, heard proposals, discussions, revisions, reported back. Months of fruitful work... - (If the right people don't have power, Yes Prime Minister, BBC.) Did you arrive at a mature and responsible conclusion?
Very nice. I did keep closing my eyes though and imagining I was at a Church service....what's with that enthusiastic organ playing!?
I like organ music but the music was hardly apt for the video
Music is painful. I would rather have just heard the hiss at crackle of the video tape !
Ah, clearly the music being played by the guys at 7:01.
@@lewis72 it was Simply inappropriate music.
Why they even thought they needed music anyway was beyond me
@@Steven_Rowe
Maybe it was acceptable in the '50s, the '50s.
The signal box at Wilmslow is long gone now. Though given the issues with the current installation, it may have been better to keep it! Fascinating to watch for so many reasons; the trains, the technology, fashion…
Beatiful please Share more !
The organ music is bliss!
Blimey. It was known that asbestos was a killer back in the 1880s... but apart from some Health and Safety nightmares, a brilliant film 👍👍👍
A superb film brimming with optimism. The music on the other hand is horrendous.
Thats J.S.Bach.............should have had 'my old mans a dustman............or EEE IIII Adio..........we won the Cup.........
@@jimusgrimus I’m quite a fan of Bach, but without wishing to offend you, the music track is simply mixed too high and should be held as incidental.
Interesting. 84001 (E3036) wasn't built until 1960... so I suspect this film was finished a little later than 1959.
The electrification of the Manchester - Crewe line, which is mentioned at 5:00 was completed in 1960.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Coast_Main_Line#:~:text=The%20first%20stretch%20to%20be,then%20extended%20south%20to%20London.&text=Electrification%20of%20the%20Birmingham%20line%20was%20completed%20on%206%20March%201967.
This film captures the unique British eccentricity. Even the choice of intro music. Church organ music for a film about modernising our railways!!??! lol Would love to know the thinking behind choosing this music. Bonkers, but very British! Gotta love our eccentric nature. It really comes out in this film.
Check out ‘The Pain Train’ it has a jazzy soundtrack and plenty of British snark. A great film!!
Still more advanced than the whole "modern" US rail network. That includes the "high speed" Acela!
You Americans were there just after Italy. Get rid of your Monopolist Politicians and you will fly electric!!
"Hello! He must have a train to miss."
😂
Interesting. It’s looks criminal now to see these people working without PPE or safety devices of any kind, I suppose life was a little cheaper back then and the employers could do it all cheaper. A lot has changed for the better since the 1950s!
And a lot for the worst.
And the spraying of asbestos insulation .. hindsight is a wonderful thing!
@@jsptravels nope. Even in the 40’s was asbestos known s dangerous. Certainly in the 60’s.
Mostly changed for the worst
Yeah , that's why homosexuality has become prolific !! ..... Back then men were men and puffs were beaten up !
I suppose the 25kv electric locomotive at 18:28 was as exciting to them as the latest Shinkansen would be to us now. How things have turned around from the UK leading in train technology to buying trains made by Hitachi in Japan.
Ahhh... the good ol'days. No safety helmets, no flo-glo vests, no hearing protection, and no gloves. Health and Safety? What's that? 😂 Joking aside, I learned something. I didn't know concrete sleepers were laid so long ago! 😎
And you could describe something as being 'gay' without getting funny looks!!! Also, how was the asbestos insulation being sprayed on that BR Mk 1!!!!!
Marvellous.
Eccentricity of BFI. With Bach.
Seeing the steam power crane picking up old track sections and a more modern one dropping a new section on the rail bed I thought was a visual hint with out with the old and in with the new that BR wanted to show. Understanding how long steam was used within the UK I don't really know if this wasn't just because. No fault of the UK for using steam power as long as they did. It was a need because of demand due to population growth and morderization race to gain a foot hold. Wacthing these old rail docs I am blown away the huge leaps made it upgrades in rail when started and the forethought in planning and time allocation for each hour spent on projects. Everyone involved should be proud of what was completed in those modernization builds times and that really has been true with many of Britsh infrastructor projects starting in the late 60's 70's and 80's.
IF YOU PAUSE IT AT 6.43 THE GUY IN THE WHITE SHIRT AND RED CARDIGAN LOOKS LIKE ADOLF HITLER
Yes someone should check his resume/cv, you know just in case.
Nice!! Very rare
I wonder how the laminated plywood structures at Longsite and Oxford road fared?
Oxford Road had to be thoroughly restored in time: they could probably see that coming back in '59.
Radcliffe, my home town at 13:20 mins in. Such a shame what the 1956 rebuild of Central Station has become as part of Metrolink.
I like the way that asbestos insulation was show being sprayed with abandon.
Wet asbestos was a relatively safe medium I believe.. So many pipe fitters at my loco works were affected when they were required to scrape or grind away the dried asbestos in order to lay pipe brackets. The asbestos fibres were like a dust ready to be inhaled with often deadly consequences.
Most enjoyable
Brilliant
Brush and wash-up? NO, WASH and BRUSH-UP! Interesting to see 60 years later.
My dad who is now 75 will be having an absolute kittens that nobody is wearing hard hats, safety boots or high visibility clothing back in those days. How things have changed.
LOVELY Organ recital- FAR better than some "pop" (music?). and the railway scenes were ace.
The best transport history film I have seen. Made in the days when you could describe something as being 'gay' without getting funny looks!!! Also, how was the asbestos insulation being sprayed on that BR Mk 1!!!!!
BTF. Always great !
10:16 Class AM4 (later Class 304) I think?
Interesting architect's model of Leeds City - different to the version that finally emerged in 1967, no sign of the little-mourned 'cow shed' that preceded today's overall roof.
The Shires at St Pancras. Marvellous 1960s decor and cuisine. What happened to this restaurant ? 🥺
Meanwhile fill the roof of the new coaches with blue asbestos. 😱
The Shires became a pub in the corner of St Pancras station, not sure what is it now though.
Just watched a vid about the construction of Peterborough freight depot
Thanks for the upload a great piece of archive footage, the organ music was a bit out of place though, I half expected Vincent Price to put in an appearance any second.
Es ist wirklich überraschend, Bachs Orgelmusik in diesem Film zu hören... Parallel könnte man die Ordnung, Schönheit, die Perfektion im Satz und Aufbau in der Musik nennen - technische Ingenieurkunst bei der Eisenbahn, musikalische Ingenieurkunst bei Bach. Es ist jedenfalls besser als irgend eine blöde Plastik-Musik.
Ansonsten ein großartiger Film! 👍
12.33 mins Margam marshalling yard has all but disappeared.
“...brush and wash up” . Shouldn’t that be “wash and brush up”?
Motive Power Depots cleaner,tea much better without soot in it,but everyone is smoking cigarettes, better without nicotine as well I should have thought!
Wat class of EMU was that?
Class 304 otherwise known as AM4.
Great video, but what's with the music? I kept expecting Bela Lugosi to appear as Count Dracula.
Arnt they still using some of these diesel railcars? Up north of course where the government doesn't give a toss.
A film on modernisation set to ancient music. Kind of sums-up the anachronism that railways are to me
Nice video, its just India is 60 years behind.
Well I’m sold. I’m partially looking forward to the arrival of the station buffet < going to be gay and bright apparently
Great film but what a bloody racket!!
The last bit about training the apprentices is what we should be doing now too. Give the youth of today some practical skills that are actually useful in life instead of the garbage they are filling their heads with in schools and colleges.
I loved the video part, very interesting, but i had to go to confession after watching this video…. The organ music set the medieval mood. Why would anybody, even back in 1959, choose organ music as soundtrack. No wonder the Beatles swept the world a few years later.
My guess, the music is supposed to underline the great achievements in progress. These days, after the wars supposed to end all wars, a bright future and prosperity seemed to be just around the corner. The miracle of electrification.
I see what you're trying to say but fwiw, the Beatles were hugely inspired by a very broad range of historical music, including church music. But I agree there it's a little incongruous.
However Bach's organ works are timeless music of the very finest order, even as great as some of the Beatles' best... it seems that British Railways were trying to somehow align themselves with something equally magnificent.
I'd be pretty pissed off if I were him, having my music used to try to somehow give credence to the mess which was made of Britain through the 1950s and 60s.
Did you hear that Perth got quarantined on the 1st?
Keep Holy the day of the Sabbath .
Great film, the railway of today is an embarrassment.
The music is being played by a one-armed man, rowing across the Atlantic, who only eats beans and uses the flatulence to try and eject an organ from his rear, which he accidentally swallowed when attempting to play Bach in an oven!
9:01 Even my soldering is better than that.
The Diesel loco program was a whole scandal of itself, needs thorough of investigation. Why so many different types. Steam was already standardised down to 6 or 7 types. So many different diesels i have lost count. Beeching has no excuse for this. As for Marples, he's a 😈 & more😮
Who thought of putting this dreadful organ soundtrack music to such a good nostalgic film? Its awful and off putting.
To the best of my knowledge, the score is original to the film.
@@BennettBrookRailway
It is. J S Bach Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C Major, BWV 564.
Yes. I don't mean that it was composed specifically for the film, I mean that the piece was chosen for the background score and dubbed on during the films original editing and scoring process.
Bach would be very hurt.
@@srfurley Thank you for that information. Do you know who's playing and on which organ? Francis Jackson at York Minster?
British Rail's 'brother in law' on this occasion was an organ scholar.
Bach's organ music can be extremely powerful ....however this was not it and should not have been used imho.
Is this a modernisation report or a tour of York Minister.
was the music soundtrack added by a disgruntled producer ? It makes the film unwatchable
The organ music is completely at odds with the subject matter. If possible please remove the music track to let us enjoy the documentary.
Thank you.
The organ music was part of the documentary, I believe.
Interesting film, but its background music volume seemed a little...
...Fugued up
😆😅😂🤣
The background music is really grim.
The organ playing is a bit mad, but the recounts in the vdeo are fascinating even to me who saw out the relays in my work and replaced them with transistorised circuits. And then into the 1980s, replacement of a lot of transistors and circuit boards with microprocessors. The Best of British, eroded by mass immigration, insane and corrupted politicians, and the nefarious goals of EU control.
Surely all these improvements weren't paid for as the narrator claims by revenue alone. Certainly a (huge) bit of taxpayers' money was financing them.
I KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN ABOUT THE ORGAN MUSIC ITS LIKE WATCHING THIS VIDEO IN CHURCH
Couldn't stand the music. Awful.
I usually can't stand the normal accompanying "music", but this was pretty reasonable.
I think they were going for a new/old juxtaposition but it really is horrific.
Upgrade to a laptop with a volume control!
@@steveluckhurst2350 Haha. Funny. (/sarcasm:off). That also turns down the narration. I actually turned the sound off and watched with captions.
@@peterjohnson4932 well there you go, there is always an answer!
What is with the church organ?
That organ music !!!.........dreadful !
What's a great film well presented and wrote what a great time in less than 50 years country distroyed by the black Asians and Europe and now the chinese and there flu, what a terrible world we live in, can you imagine 50 more years will have lesbians only gay pink trains running on solar power in the UK.
A great video but spoiled by the dreadful music.
Interesting documentary, but the Organ background droan is awful
and all of this is old outdated garbage today lol
could do without the church organist
Lets go back to Great Britain. Sod PPE and silly hard hats = Nafff
Very interesting...totally spoilt by that awful organ music. More approprate to a chaple of rest as apposed to a film background music.
I love the JC Bach organ music, lovely .
Dreadful music 😢
That church organ music is (just) too much. Does it signify that God Himself approved of all this railway improvement (and thus British Railways)? Huzzah, say I! Therefore Amen and Hallelujah (though the passengers continued to complain to the end of BR.)!
great we got are brexit done and can steam in to the future. we can now cormunicate with nation's out outside of the uk not just eu nation's and sell are product's cheeper and not have to stick to there high standard's. these are the day's we are going back two and i cant wait.
Go back to steam trains? - get real
I sincerely hope this is satire
Another fine example of the UK education system or a scriptwriter for Monty Python.