I'd never clapped eyes on Mr. Sandbrook before, but he seemed to come across like he was to the70s what David Starkey is to the Tudors. Also he seemed a lot more comfortable with Margaret Thatcher, and the late 70's, than he did with the early period. I had to laugh when he tried to say the ideal of early 1970's masculinity was foppish TV character Jason King. I can't remember seeing anyone walking around looking like the dapper crime fighting novelist. It is like someone was having a joke with Mr. Sandbrook.
"Ere Dom do you know who all the men wanted to be in 1970?"
" No who?"
" Jason King, with the velvet suits, big moustache and flash sports car."
" Really?"
"Yeah you couldn't move along the High Street,back then, for Jason King look-alikes."
"Wow, thanks I'll put that in my new series."
Also Mr. Sandbrook painted a viciously grim portrait of the period, like it was Westeros with trade disputes. The only things missing was the beheading of Ned Stark and reports of White Walkers beyond the Wall. Perhaps the reason for this is because, this was essentially a middle class view of the 70s. At times, watching this show, it felt like the period was full of people buying cars, going on foreign holidays, and trotting off to the DIY store with only the pesky Unions in their way. But if you were a working class Herbert at least you could go see the Confessions films, which was Mr. Sandbrook's only nod to the cinema of the period. Also, according to Dominic, we had to make do with Pans People on Top of the Pops because Rod Stewart and The Rolling Stones had become tax exiles.
The last show, found Mr. Sandbrook on surer ground, as he related the rise of Margaret Thatcher, like she was the crusading hero of his story, his Luke Skywalker come to see the end of the evil Empire of the Unions. He is bound to do an 80s follow up so I think we can expect Simon LeBon as cultural icon and Margaret Thatcher teaming up with the Ewoks to defeat Arthur Scargill.
Over
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