Season 1
6 episodes · 1969
1Dark Satanic Mills?
For the past hundred years the British have looked on their industrial landscape as something devoid of beauty. Ian Nairn believes that because of this attitude we are missing some of the most spectacular grandeur in Britain.
2The Mersey Style
Ian Nairn tries to analyse the unique appeal of Liverpool and shows that it lies as much in its people as in its magnificent civic buildings.
3Cornish Pastures
The rest of Britain looks at Comwall from the complacency of a deck-chair and through the tinted lenses of its sunglasses. Ian Nairn believes that the real nature of the county is industrial rather than tourist and that it is in danger of becoming, apart from brief summer months, a ghetto for the retired and elderly.
4...Yes, but would you want to live there?
Eventually one in ten Scotsmen will be living in a new town. The pattern of the urban living in the future is taking shape in Scotland now. Ian Nairn takes a critical look at Scotland's most famous new town - Cumbernauld.
5The Poetry of Town Planning
Ian Nairn believes that when new towns go wrong it's usually because they have been planned without flair or imagination. For him the planner is more important than the architect, and he looks at Gordon Cullen's plans for the Welsh hill town of Llantrisant.
6They Don't Build 'em Like They Used To!finale
Most drinkers are unanimous in their preference for Victorian city pubs or rural inns instead of the chrome and plate-glass of the modern pub. Ian Nairn shows that it is possible to build a good modern pub or successfully modernise an older one.