trashfuture

A heartfelt note to our $10/month subscribers (Patreon)

Published:

2024-04-29 14:02:32

Imported:

2024-05

Content

Hello everyone,

Nate here, and I'm reaching out to apologize for the delay on this month's second Britainology. As you may have heard from recent episodes, Milo is both still in Oceania and also very ill from food poisoning. By contrast, I am presently in England and both taking care of an infant who's too ill to go to nursery as well as being ill with whatever stomach bug it is that she's brought home from nursery. It's an all round toilet-centric situation that doesn't lend itself to podcasting.

We very much appreciate the fact that you're a subscriber, and the plan is to record as soon as possible and release catch-up episodes for those of you still owed a second Britainology. The hope is to be caught up by mid-May, but I didn't want to give the impression that we'd just fucked off and forgotten about it.

In the interim, please enjoy this segment of the 1979 BBC docu-film 'Fred Dibnah, Steeplejack.' We're absolutely going to do an episode about this, but I figured I should share it since I happened to have a 2+ minute segment of it appear in my twitter feed with almost zero context. Deep in the throes of whatever infectious disease it is that's going around the nursery this month, viewing this felt like such a concentrated, uncut specimen of Britainology that would seem surreal and inscrutable to me even just seven years ago. Of course I had to pass it along.

Thank you so much again for your support and enthusiasm for the show, and I promise you'll hear from us soon.

Yours in gastric distress,

Nate

Files

1979: FRED DIBNAH and his wife TOPPLE HUGE CHIMNEY with FIRE | Steeplejack | 1970s | BBC Archive

Legendary steeplejack and demolition expert Fred Dibnah attempts to topple an enormous chimney stack in Rochdale, by making a hole in the base, supporting it with wooden props and then setting it alight. Fred's wife Alison is on hand to perform her traditional role of fire starter. When the wooden props are burnt away, the chimney is no longer supported and will collapse - hopefully in the right direction. With a narrow corridor in which the enormous structure must fall to avoid smashing into the surrounding buildings, and the local area evacuated by police as a precaution, the stakes couldn't be higher. But will Fred's plan work? Clip taken from Fred Dibnah: Steeplejack, originally broadcast on BBC Two, 6 September, 1979. You have now entered the BBC Archive, a time machine that will transport you back to the golden age of TV to educate, entertain and enlighten you with classic clips from the BBC vaults. Make sure you subscribe so that you never miss a single stop on our amazing journey through the BBC Archive - https://www.youtube.com/c/BBCArchive?sub_confirmation=1