i think in my acting days, i did a tiny bit of bbc radio. oh, you did? it might have been in this very studio some 60 odd years ago. really, here? fantastic. well, we ve got to dig those performances from the vault. i can t think what it was. it was something. ken loach, welcome to this cultural life. it s a great pleasure to come. and good to see you. you too. you were born in 1936. you grew up in the midlands. tell me about your family. what did your parents do? my father was an electrical engineer. took his apprenticeship in the mines. the whole family, my father s family were miners from the warwickshire coalfields, and he worked at alfred herbert s machine tool factory all his life ao odd years. skilled worker, then? yes, a skilled worker. electrician. and he had a work ethic that was formidable. he worked seven days a week. and my mother had been a hairdresser, but like women of that time, it was a matter of pride for my father that she should not have to work. but.lo
That simply wasnt made to last. Raac was a postwar solution, now causing a headache for 21st century britain. More than 100 schools in britain have been told they need to close. Labour has announced it will force the government to reveal a complete list of affected schools, and now calls for transparency on the scale of the problem and for fast solutions. Its been known for a while and what we have also known for a while is there is a squeeze on school funding, and my committee has highlighted that repeatedly, and my committee has highlighted that and when you dont invest in maintenance and improvements in schools you get these problems arising but with raac its a systemic failure of the actual material used to build them. Hospital buildings and Court Buildings among those impacted and internal documents obtained by The Sunday Times suggest hospitals could be at risk of catastrophic collapse. The concerns about this have been swirling around for so long. Trusts have been trying to cope
Studio some 60 odd years ago. Really, here . Fantastic. Well, weve got to dig those performances from the vault. I cant think what it was. It was something. Ken loach, welcome to this cultural life. Its a great pleasure to come. And good to see you. You, too. You were born in 1936. You grew up in the midlands. Tell me about your family. What did your parents do . My father was an electrical engineer. Took his apprenticeship in the mines. The whole family, my fathers family were miners from the warwickshire coalfields, and he worked at Alfred Herberts machine tool factory all his life. Ao odd years. Skilled worker, then . Yes, a skilled worker. Electrician. And he had a work ethic that was formidable. He worked seven days a week. And my mother had been a hairdresser, but like women of that time, it was a matter of pride for my father that she should not have to work. But. Lovely woman, very kind. What sort of cultural upbringing did you have at home . Well, it was a very normal, i guess
Story in this way. but as far as i m concerned, i do put nuclear weapons in a different class. i think they are a very specific and singular threat against humanity. what oppenheimer did was he gave us the power to destroy ourselves, and that had never happened before. it didn t exist before, and it will never go away. in that way, he irrevocably changed life on earth. i d like to talk a bit about yourfilm making processes and practices. i mean, everybody i ve spoken to about you describes your level of professionalism that your films always come in on budget, they re always on time, they re commercial successes. i think it s $5 billion taken at the box office for various all yourfilms, you ve made huge numbers of awards. i even had actually that you encourage people not to sit down on set. you re never in a director s chair. does that does that help with keeping it, keeping
Into the hallway and we found a door open, came in, the woman shut the door and we went upstairs. they made us a cup of tea while she looked out of the window to see if everything was all right. and it wasn t long after when she said, ok, you can go now. now, she saved our lives. ernest marke there, talking to the bbc back in 1989. remember, you can watch witness history each month on the bbc news channel, or you can catch up on all of ourfilms, along with more than 1,000 radio programmes, in our online archive. head to. next, when yvonne conolly became britain s first black female head teacher in 1969, she received so many racist threats she needed a minder for her first day in the job.