The film combines material shot on the Braunstone estate with newsreel archive relating to British working class poverty. The audio combines the voices of people living on the estate with those directly involved such as housing officers and social workers together with political speeches (including Margaret Thatcher, Norman Tebbit and Neil Kinnock) and pop songs. None of the contributors are identified, introduced or credited.
There are many quick or stylised shots that are not listed below.
Wide shot - Braunstone Estate; c/u television aerials on roofs (music is 'Why Worry')
Shots of a family at home eating tea off their laps; man smoking; people on street
b/w newsreel - workers leaving factory
c/u vandalised telephone box
b/w newsreel - new buildings on 1950s/1960s estate
g/v's boxer training in gym; dole queue; children playing in street; c/u's walking feet (cut to Bryan Adams song)
g/v drinkers smoking in pub; Leicester bus pulling up and man on top deck of bus
b/w newsreel - riot (General Strike?)
g/v's man carrying furniture down street (cut to 'Road To Nowhere')
b/w newsreel - 1930s unemployed men
shots of an elderly couple with a poor stove being visited by social services (?)
clips - from British Gas, electricity board, and After Eights mints television commercials cut with shots of an old woman eating her meals-on-wheels, a family who have no gas or electricity and are eating by candle light and people on the street
b/w newsreel - 1930s political speech
g/v's people on street, Meals on Wheels volunteers, supermarket shoppers and a man out hunting rabbits with a ferret
b/w archive - telephone switchboard
quick shot traffic cut with b/w archive - newsreel an aircraft and a ship
g/v's men collecting lost golf balls from a stream
g/v a woman phoning social services on behalf of a family who look on
shots of boxer training (cut to 'We've Got To Get Out of This Place') and a marching band then a Movietone newsreel clip of Neville Chamberlain as Chancellor of the Exchequer
shots of children playing, a mother with a pushchair and a woman at home with her children
tracking shot past boarded up Braunstone houses, wide shot of estate, children sitting on pavement, graffiti and an old woman on street
housing officer and social services in offices and on home visit
men entering DHSS building and litter on estate
slo mo shots of boxer (same one who has been seen training) during fight - shots of him losing are cut with a wildly spinning camera shot on the estate.
Photography: Peter Salkeld
Sound: Mike Claydon
Production Assistant: Val Nieberle
Assistant Film Editor - Sue Kennett
Graphic - Design - Stuart Kettle
Research - Simon Massey, Ron Olsen
Film Editor - Barbara Pluck
Produced and Directed by Mike Connor
Central Television production number 7536/86.
This episode of the series replaced the billed episode 'Streetlife - Roadshow' which was postponed until 25 July 1986.