Focus: 19.02.1981: The Writing on the Wall

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Summary

A look a the gradual decline of British Leyland tracing its history back twenty five years to the industrial problems experienced by BMC in the mid 1950s.

Year:

1981

Duration:

0:18:36

Film type:

B&W/Colour / Sound

Company:

ATV

Master format:

16mm

Description

The surviving film insert is made up of a series of short interview clips and archive sections. Subjects discussed in relation to the British motor industry are: the lack of an enterprising spirit in the UK, the post-war rise of the German and Japanese car industries, the problems with quality control after the 1968 merger of BMC and Leyland, the high number of strikes, trade union mergers, problems caused by the introduction of Purchase Tax, regional unemployment which led to the disastrous policy of Midlands car manufactures being forced to set up new factories in high unemployment areas in Scotland and North West England, and the problem of British finance not being interested in investing in manufacturing. The archive footage includes sections printed from Midlands News showing the 1956 BMC strike, 1956 petrol rationing, an interview with Lord Stokes of British Leyland from 1969 and a montage of car and motorcycle production line shots cut to 'Rock Around the Clock'. There is also a b/w print section that is not from ATV that shows mid 1950s car production (Austin Metropolitan) and workers leaving the Standard factory. There are also colour extracts from a Toyota promotional film.


Credits

No credits specified


Notes

Production number 8596.