1971: The Man Who MODERNISED BIRMINGHAM | Miracles Take A Little Longer | BBC Archive

"We would knock down these bloody awful buildings and give them a chance to live in a decent way, as they deserved, because they were decent, decent people."
Sir Frank Price - the former Lord Mayor of Birmingham - recalls how growing up in the impoverished back-to-backs of Hockley made him determined to modernise the inner city, and improve the living conditions for the city's working class residents.
This clip is from Miracles Take A Little Longer, originally broadcast 31 July, 1971.
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[@markgrehan3726]

I do really like watching these old films as they show the hope of the time that with all these new ideas and technology, paradise was just around the corner and we can all have a better future. And I think that many really did believe they could do it. Unfortunately, money, people, and technology whilst making things better never made the big jump they were hoping for but we do forget how bad things really were in the past.

[@czcz5149]

What a well balanced outlook

[@rjjcms1]

Well put.

[@lawtonloraine4144]

We never had chairs in morning assembly we sat on the floor

[@user-eh3ou7oq4w]

Birmingham people are some of the best people I have met.

[@l3eatalphal3eatalpha]

Classic 1970s footage and editing with flair and storytelling.

[@Jack_Warner]

Brilliant piece of history. I was about the same age as those kids in the assembly in 1971. Good morning Mr (name), Good morning everybody.

[@angelacooper2661]

I was just thirteen months old and in the pushchair then. Not old enough to understand or remember that period first time round. Now in my early fifties!

[@EErail26]

Fascinating. Imagine how the city centre was transformed around then and was how I remember growing up, and has now changed again over the last decade or so.

[@dean6816]

9:33 "good morning everybodeee" Love the Brummie accent!!

[@weementaldavy5987]

Yaw oruyt chuyf ?

[@DemonetisedZone]

9.01 "Keep power under scrutiny" That newspaper editor would never get that job now!

[@nicholasbuttery511]

I remember the Bus Tickets that were handed to you on those Buses they were about one and a half inch`s square grey with very faint Monogram and Numerical print and how the Bus Conducters could read them is a mystery ? I also like the short clip with the Birmingham Battery chimney in the backround wich was loaded for the last time before it was toppled.

[@harrycooke6349]

My god a boby on his beat 😂don't see that now do we😂

[@angelacooper2661]

My late father was a Community Beat Officer in the Midlands (he left the Force in 1988 on medical grounds and died eleven years ago!)

[@tutornick]

Incredible footage.

[@tommysteele9487]

Classic film brought tears to my eyes

[@alanbeaumont4848]

The irony is the 1970s housing lasted less well than the Victorian slums they replaced. What we could do with now is less every-man-for-himself and more of the collective spirit we see here.

[@rjjcms1]

Whole streets of perfectly good Victorian/early 20th Century houses were being demolished the decade before last in northern towns and cities (such as Middlesbrough) because,sadly,sufficient jobs weren't there to sustain the community so most were being vacated to sit empty and then being stripped by the criminal element and trashed by vandals. Those houses were sturdier and more spacious than many of these new housing developments which are presented to look flashy but turn out to be smaller and boxier than they appear outwardly.

[@angelacooper2661]

Shame that I was too young to understand or remember that period, Alan. The programme aired when I would have been just thirteen months old and in the pushchair!

[@crozwayne]

That will never ever happen, the people think the likes of Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage actually care about them, when in reality all they care about is their own personal wealth

[@Packyboy]

The right to buy was the start of the ruin of social housing

[@carlsalmons5331]

A dated video but covers so much of Birmingham society of this time - thank you for sharing

[@johncregg1159]

The intention was here, but the actualisation never truly materialised. Old slums cleared only to create new slums of tomorrow. Rather than spreading the cost over a longer period in order to gain a superior quality product, the budget was used to produce more units. The noteable difference today is not in its architecture but in the standard of society. Yes, back then, decent people required decent accommodation, but sadly, they were sold short. Based on Stuttgart in Germany, which was developed after WW2, the difference in quality is there to see. The old saying, "Buy cheap, buy twice," has never been truer.

[@lawtonloraine4144]

How is he from Hockley and speaks like he does. Must be a Villa fan. I left small Heath in 1978 and still have a bit of brummie in my voice/. Tough city of tough honest workers.

[@kevindavison8657]

My mother grew up in Aston and knew Frank Price ,he was a,Villa fan .She moved to Small Heath and bought up six Bluenoses(our father was a Geordie who loved Newcastle United) I a!so moved away in1976 and lost my accent but every now and again a word will slip out that sounds SO Brummie :)

[@blossie33]

I bet he didn't speak like that when he was a lad 😅 got into speaking 'posh' when he went into politics!

[@craiggilchrist4223]

UTV

[@dean6816]

The video quality's amazing. Must have been recorded on film not video tape!!

[@unnamedchannel1237]

You can tell it’s film from the small flickers where there is defects in the film. From my little knowledge video tape does not do this.

[@DrCassette]

This was indeed recorded on film

[@swanvictor887]

16mm film. Sound recorded separately, as a rule.

[@dean6816]

@@DrCassette why am I not subscribed to you? I am now. 👍

[@christopherhulse8385]

​@@swanvictor887BBC used separate sound for quite a while, whilst ITV used sound on film.

[@PeowPeowPeowLasers]

Notice how there's no background music. None. That's because the subject matter is interesting. Modern directors take note - if you feel the need to add background music, your film is boring.

[@professormcclaine5738]

Amen to that. 👍🏻

[@danmayberry1185]

Yes, our ever-shrinking attention spans are coddled through the disappearance of static shots, and constant supply of graphic overlays and soundbeds. The "tune-out factor" is the enemy of ad sales, so you mustn't give content room to breathe. This film begins with 3½ minutes of establishing shots - a city waking up - free of dialogue, but rich with empathy inducing audio. Footsteps ... a milk float and clinking bottles. And the old film patina was so comforting in a nostalgic sense, that I was almost disappointed when the voice-over began.

[@Ian-gw2vx]

@@danmayberry1185 And don't forget at the start of any programme they spend about 3 mins previewing what we are about to watch in the next hour. Then if it's on a commercial channel, before the ads it's - "coming up........" with another preview, treating us all as if we are thick. Tv has dumbed down massively. That's why these BBC archives are priceless.

[@danmayberry1185]

@@Ian-gw2vx Quite right, and if it's depression you're after, compare the opening crawlers in new and old movies. Not sure what it's called, but historical context was set up in lengthy paragraph at the start of black and white movies, and appeared for about ten seconds. Opening text grew shorter by the mid-70s (A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...), and now viewers seem to require thirty seconds to read two or three brief sentences broken into separate shots.

[@rjjcms1]

Loved those scenes,as the day begins peacefully and gradually gets busier. Real slice of life.

[@bullringbirminghamnostalgi2527]

God those school days takes me back. The whole ‘Good Morning Mr …., Good morning everyone.’ And the hym’s.

[@stingray4real]

The housing in Birmingham before it was regenerated reminded me of Peaky Blinder.

[@ricolasbest6861]

It's weird to see typewriters on the tables instead of computers. :)

[@rjjcms1]

That sweeping change came in the 80s. It went from the kind of setup you see here to a modern computerised in the space of that decade.

[@angelacooper2661]

When I started work in 1989, I used typewriters, not computers. Having left school at 1986 aged sixteen, I was a YTS Trainee and learned how to type, obtaining an RSA 1 Typing qualification, then RSA 2 in due course. Until 1997, technology didn't reach the company. I am not a techno geek!

[@Appnin89]

Frank Price obviously had elocution lessons lol. I don't mean that to be offensive to Brummies, i'm from just outside Brum. I just find it amusing when you see well known people like politicians, actors etc, talking about their tough, slum backgrounds in posh accents. Michael Caine said he was told to talk posh in interviews when he first became famous, but after a while just went back to his natural cockney accent.

[@colmbrady8350]

Look at Birmingham now and tell me diversity is a strength

[@swanvictor887]

Amazing time-capsule film, great to see. Loved the Bus-porn and the old cars lol. In my lifetime, our society has changed almost beyond recognition, mostly due to technology. Wonder what Brum will look like in another 52 years....not that I will be here to see lol.

[@angelacooper2661]

I would have been just thirteen months old and in the pushchair then. Too young to understand or remember that period first time round. Am now in my early fifties!

[@jonguiry5999]

Frank Windsor doing the narration?

[@Tommii38]

Birmingham doesn’t appear on film that much so this documentary was nice to see.

[@stermindelves4251]

Must be Chelmsley Wood being built @ 01:21

[@madcarew5168]

Or "The Vale".....

[@stevenhoughton1406]

Definitely Chelmsley Wood I can tell by the flats and some of the houses

[@peterwilliamallen1063]

@@stevenhoughton1406 Birmingham Council Houses built by Birmingham City council were of the same desighn whether they were built on a new housing estate in Birmingham or in Tamworth, Daventry, Telford or Chelmsley wood, the only way you can tell that this is Chelmsley wood is the desighn on lamp post which Birmingham never had concrete style lamp posts

[@Biigfish559]

Waiting for Angus Young's guitar to start the long intro to the mighty Hells Bells....

[@daffyduk77]

great sequences of social historical significance. Amazing school dinner footage, bet the main meal was lukewarm by the time the kids got them

[@theendofeverything6356]

The curse of 'progress'. Always top-down, never asked for and utterly destructive of real, organic communities.

[@garryleeks4848]

8:18 drive you mad listening to them typewriters all day, DRIVE U MAD😬

[@unnamedchannel1237]

I was thinking the same thing . However when you are around cetain sounds for long enough your mind has a clever way of ignoring sounds after a while

[@moominmay]

@@unnamedchannel1237agree! When I first moved to east London for uni from a quiet West Midlands suburb, the night time sound of heavy traffic, buses and police/ambulance sirens constantly going off made me think I’d never sleep again! After a couple of weeks though the brain just categorises under white background noise and it was no bother at all - except when I went home for the holidays I then found sleep difficult because it was far too silent lol 😅

[@TruculentSheep]

"All authority must be kept under constant scrutiny" - which is why letting the press be dominated by Murdoch, Tory appointees to the BBC and Facebook is a terrible idea.

[@Erdnase23]

Absolutely this.

[@davedogge2280]

All in all, you're just another brick in the wall.

[@marine4lyfe85]

Isn't Birmingham where Heavy Metal was born? Bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden?

[@wolfeflambe]

Yes it was. Black Sabbath especially.

[@angelacooper2661]

Does that include headbanging?

[@Spellchec]

Yep, Black Sabbath released their debut album the year before this was filmed.

[@davidflaneau2810]

I thought Telly Savalas modernised Birmingham. Responsible partly for the Industrial Revolution indeed.

[@CyberspacedLoner]

Birming Hammer ?

[@pigeon_the_brit565]

Birmingham should have saved. instead it was slaughtered, by the developers, by the council who used the stigma generated by the awful slums to excuse the demolishing of quality victorian commercial and public buildings to make money, the buildings they built are already being wiped off the face of the city, they were of so low quality. it seems clear to me that the architects and the councillors of this era did not have the resouces to build adequate replacements for the city they slaughtered and today it remains a car and capatilist infested place almost entirely without beauty, and the bits left are precious.

[@hondapete1]

Hi from Ontario Canada born in Birmingham, but unfortunately had to leave at age 27 in 1981 because of what i could see where the city was going ,well he didn't transform anything ,he completely screwed it up, sorry for the negative comment

[@peterwilliamallen1063]

Well before making silly comments about him screwing Birminghm up from acroos the pond in Canada I suggest you come to Birmingham now and see the finnished product of a totaly Modern and Green City

[@hondapete1]

@@peterwilliamallen1063 Hi i did come over to Birmingham in 2015 , that's why i made the comment, its a mess full of people from other cultures, that want to change the British culture , to suit them and that's not acceptable, so I won't be making anymore silly remarks it's all yours and at 70 years old, i will not be coming back again, but i thank you for your comment

[@weementaldavy5987]

Why , has it been modernised ?

[@peterwilliamallen1063]

Yes Birmingham is now modernised, this film is about Birmingham in the 1960's

[@Drsdmjones]

Now Bankrupt!

[@peterwilliamallen1063]

Like other councils, it s the Council that is bankrupt not the City

[@robbflynn4325]

I grew up in a dilapidated two up two down terrace with an outdoor toilet in Wigan. My parents worked hard. They moved up the housing ladder, and we eventually moved to the USA when I was 16. If you work hard enough and make the right decisions, you can get out of poverty.

[@TruculentSheep]

If luck smiles upon you. There are plenty of perfectly decent, sensible people who work until they bleed, and who never get anywhere.

[@thescrutineer7022]

It would be a dream to move to the USA. I think there’s a lot more opportunity to succeed than here in the UK.

[@christopherhulse8385]

Spraying paraffin onto the walls? really? never heard of that before, certainly not a safe thing to do.

[@Jimfowler82]

We now know hitler didn’t die in that bunker.

[@badgerboy4448]

Birmingham has been modernised?

[@hschsc1300]

Birmingham is modernized? Not so sure about that.

[@peterwilliamallen1063]

Well I suggest you take a day trip to Birmingham and find out for your self

[@UnIimited_Power]

8:09 Wow they even hired trans women back then!

[@nicholasgargano7396]

Wow so many white faces!

[@tutornick]

Your point is?

[@kevinashby291]

You not see the diversity in the School Assembly?

[@jimmypenn]

🙄

[@moominmay]

@@tutornickah the token ‘covert’ racist never commenting on the actual film but instead trying to improve their sad lonely life by attempting dissent in the comments 🙄

[@MeTheRob]

@@tutornick I think his point is - look at Birmingham today.

[@stewartmackay]

And this is the wealth enjoyed from the days of the British Empire, is it? The British people have never had any of the wealth the UK has generated. We should have got rid of the aristocracy, like the French did. Victorian businessmen using people like worker ants. The next time a Brexiteer whines on about rule Britannia, show him this.

[@ignotumperignotius630]

The wealth of the empire went into the war and, if you would believe it (and you should) into foreign investment, PARTICULARLY the Americas. A very similar story for France but investment into Germany and Russia.

[@stewartmackay]

@@ignotumperignotius630 "The wealth of the empire went into the war" - that just isnt true. Britain made money for 200 years before that.

[@peterwilliamallen1063]

@@stewartmackay This is not about Britain, this video is about Birmingham only and no the wealth of the empire never went into the 2nd World war as Great Britain came out of it broke with rationing of food nd so what if Britain made money for 200 years before that !!

[@stewartmackay]

@@peterwilliamallen1063 I think you need to re-read my comment.

[@madcarew5168]

Few seconds of a Copper walking his beat...needs to be a recruits training film..that'll discourage Woke,Lefties,having to wash and get exercise!!!

[@madcarew5168]

My thoughts exactly!!!

[@Tso007]

this was before the invasion of 🚢 people ✊🏻🇺🇸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿👍🏻😎 vote Farage and make Britain 🇬🇧 GREAT BRITAIN AGAIN 💪🏻✊🏻🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿👍🏻

[@nigeats6733]

White Privellege.

[@sexobscura]

*Yes, he did modernise the city. I heard rumours that they've just had a telephone exchange connected*

[@UnIimited_Power]

8:09 Wow they even hired trans women back then!

[@KILKennyLaDa9898-js2nr]

Looks like a woman to me? Do you mean the typist?