The Big Freeze | British Weather | Snow | TV Eye | 1982

Halfway through one of the worst winters on record in Britain, 'TV EYE' calculates the cost of the freeze.
Reporter, Peter Gill, went to the heart of the snow crisis, to
Mid-Glamorgan where the County Council, the poorest in Wales, is facing a major cash crisis.
In particular, the officials believe the government mis-led the public over the amount of extra financial help from Whitehall.
First shown: 21/01/1982
If you would like to license clips from this report, please e mail:
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Quote: VT26012

[@markmower1746]

This is when the world thought we were heading into a new ice age and we would be out of hydrocarbons by the year 2000...

[@SilverbackMatt]

Now look at us!!🙃

[@tidetalkwithwebb5391]

Always gotta have a fake catastrophe on the horizon.

[@markmower1746]

@@SilverbackMatt global warming! There's too much oil and gas we have to eliminate it!

[@nwgeorgia1]

I was in the American Air Force, stationed in the Midlands when this happened. If I recall correctly, they gave an official average depth of 18". Being from the state of Georgia, which is in the American South, this was, by far, the biggest snow I had ever seen. This was the first time in my life that I had walked through waist-deep snow drifts. They handled the situation very well, getting the major roads cleared very quickly. This is just one part of many wonderful memories I have from my two years living there.

[@MrDirkles]

As a 10 year old the most traumatic thing about this was when the snow melted :(. It was the greatest winter of my life so far.

[@OlafProt]

Ditto age. Not ditto about the snow.

[@agfagaevart]

Those soldiers are probably pensioners themselves now. And WHO is gonna help them today?

[@AYTAZED]

No one. Too many boat wankers arriving now.

[@jean2740]

Yes the forgotten heroes of yesterday by gone era, there's no care in the world now it's all about super rich keeping us down

[@user-el4uy3zo8k]

Oy I'm only 65 now lol but you are right what you saying. I'm the soldier on the left digging the old lady out

[@donduff4385]

World Health Organization maybe??

[@robinhughes8822]

The soldier cares so much , he makes up his responsibility to look after the old lady, Respect you so much for that , today we don’t look after each other and humans we have the obility too love and care ,I just wish more would

[@agfagaevart]

Remember it well! That big freeze began around november / december 1981. 11:38 Typical! 19:57 :-0

[@DashDrones]

Man they've been lying for so many years..🤦‍♂️

[@zezet0ni594]

The mid-Glamorgan accent is quite lovely 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 EVERYONE helped during this crisis, paying particular attention to the elderly who were at serious risk. Great video. Thank you for sharing.

[@user-ey6rl3oy7p]

A different world then. I wonder what people would be like if the same happened in 2023. If the Covid is anything to go by we are on our own.

[@angelacooper2661]

I was eleven and in my first year at senior school. Remember this era well and enjoyed playing out in the snow!

[@jamesnicholson2503]

I,was in the Royal regiment of Wales 95, good regiment.

[@regplasma7906]

5.54 Nice to see Les Dawson mucking in .

[@Extremebiker0]

Had to listen again when it said rent was £1/week - thought I'd misheard. If you adjust for inflation that's a whopping £3.50/week in 2022.

[@mozdickson]

and did you see the windows, old says windows no double glazing no insulation drafts as hell! That army lad communicated like a champion and they did so much hard work too.

[@davidbowie2046]

Rent was cheap back then, but food and electrical items were mega expensive

[@chrismccartney8668]

I want to move to this country for all of its faults but everyone was trying their best, like Churchill said to Hitler you do your worst and will will do our best !!

[@AYTAZED]

40 years later and the government is still screwing the working man over. Don't bother moving here.

[@lennylaa1686]

No mention that temperatures fell to a brutally bitter - 25' centigrade, some winters, we might go as low as a few degrees below 0' C in the Uk but that is rare,...usually it can hold steady at +6' - +7' c most winters. But '81/'82, it was exceptionally harsh, more a reminder of 1947 and 1963.

[@CJMVector321190]

With the low jet stream this year we could get a cold winter

[@roadgent7921]

10th Jan 1982 record was set for England in Newport Shropshire at -26c and Scotland in Braemar at -27c. These records stand to this day, although Altnahara in Scotland also recorded -27c in 1995.

[@win86wintfir33]

​@@CJMVector321190yes we are already seeing some signs i hope so

[@th8257]

I was 6 when this happened - remember it well to this day. One thing that struck me about your post was the way you used ' to mean degrees. Never seen that before. Is that perhaps an older practice that died out? I'm guessing so because you called it Centigrade rather than Celsius :-)

[@lennylaa1686]

@@th8257 Really wanted to use a tiny ''o'' but there is not a key on the pad for it. I think centigrade and celsius are one and the same thing.

[@carolsurridge4087]

I remember going to work knee deep in snow in the middle of a normally busy cross roads it took me two hours to walk there it normally took me only 20mins !! I will never forget that time

[@moirapettifr7127]

I remember this year (and into 1983) it was so cold in Boston and NYC, toilet water froze and we haf plumbing damage. It was -20 below in KC too and ferns by the winows died. People were worried but it got warmer.

[@williamevans9426]

I was seventeen at the time and living at home with my parents in Nantymoel, in the Ogmore Valley (see 20:25) , just west of the Rhondda in Mid Glamorgan, so one can appreciate the UK Government's 'offer' for my home area (and for many others) was far from reasonable. My family was, indeed, close friends with the family of local farmer, Mr John Pugh (see 20:36). I still remember the extreme conditions very well, even though I'm now fifty-nine. I now live in Oxford, so don't foresee similar conditions in my locality again in my lifetime! (Fingers crossed!)

[@ceismulcastle]

if the old lady in the basement was 77 in 1982 she would have been around for the winters of 1947 and 1963 both of which were worse than 1982 so I am guessing she didn't say that "she had never seen such weather" and it was journalistic licence

[@FiddlerNick]

The year the temperatures got so cold that the electronic ignition system stopped working in my car and I had to leave it in a snowdrift

[@phil2768]

I was 5, nearly 6 in Christmas 81/new year 82 - I remember the snow and the huge thick icicles outside out house from the roof drainpipe and the snow about 2-3ft up our back door. I loved it - great memories.

[@angelacooper2661]

I well remember this era and was eleven. It was my first year at senior school and I enjoyed playing out in the snow. Of course, it meant schools closing as teachers couldn't get through!

[@littlejackrussell01092]

You’re exactly the same age as me! I would have been 6 on 17th December that year but I can’t remember it but that might be because we lived in London at the time so it probably didn’t hit as bad there

[@roadgent7921]

I was 15. Snow in the middle of the street was 3ft deep. On way to school in the thick of it, my mates and I passed a girl (who we didn't like) stuck in this 3ft drift. She was left there. Our school didn't close a single day over that winter. Snorkel jackets were popular then. 😊

[@John-ed2wj]

I loved that winter

[@OldhamSteve52]

Remember it well. December 81, January 1982 was training for London marathon. It got down to minus 20 odd, colder than Russia.

[@PlanetImo]

I remember that big freeze - I was 6 or 7...

[@anauthor1440]

I was living in the mc in bargoed at that time

[@donduff4385]

Now we haven't got an army 😢

[@AJ.429]

What was the Show like TV Eye where it was a load of Asian presenter's sitting at a desk with a gold layout, ended in Eye. Can't remember what it is?

[@ModernHingeSociety]

I remember this year, my uncle Fremantle got me three mantles that year.

[@Moodymongul]

Look into recently declassified cia files, about how (during the cold war), the ussr tested/used Scalar weapons on the US (possibly, others too?). With one, trying to effect the weather. By using a Scalar weapon that dropped the tempurature to zero (in a specific location). It'll wake you up, to a part of the 'cold war' you were probably unaware of (kept secret by disinfomation). These weapons can have various effects. One of them, is Time dilation. This isn't star trek, this is technology of the now. And many countries research it in secret ...

[@davegeros9314]

Thatcherism aye, proved to be a monumental long reaching diaster, unfortunately other Commonwealth countries followed suit.

[@CARLIN4737]

The flame on my lighter froze that year?

[@MostlyLoveOfMusic]

what is Fremantle?

[@mozdickson]

a production company

[@MostlyLoveOfMusic]

@@mozdickson okay, bit annoying watermark for the videos though

[@andrewdaley5480]

​@@MostlyLoveOfMusic people steal content. its not that bad its at the bottom of the screen. 🇬🇧

[@Stan_o7]

FREMANTLE

[@msbo5171]

Harsh times.

[@agfagaevart]

The people who go on about "...going back..." and the past was better, and all that bull, need to watch this! Not everything was great. Some things were far worse in the past.

[@bernadettemurray8260]

I was 17

[@karenwilson9528]

That old lady in the beginning doesn't seem very greatful to the soldiers, does she?

[@hirsch4155]

Do blokes the soldiers age now still speak with such an accent ? He sounds like he’s 60.

[@jean2740]

That's what there acsent was

[@CJMVector321190]

Yes. Now we have fake british american crap accents. Or the young people cannot speak english properly.

[@rapman5363]

Pip Pip Cheerio Bob’s your Uncle