Episodes

At 8.0 am on New Year's Eve 1973, two ambulancemen called Jim Grummett and Colin Birch crossed the picket lines outside Sunderland Ambulance Depot and reported for work. From that day to January of this year the men were sent to Coventry' by their work-mates. Was it simply a case of obstinacy? Or bloody-mindedness? This Inside Story of a conflict of ideologies analyses the roots of the feud, and it portrays what happens in the hearts of ordinary men, when the unyielding force confronts the immovable spirit.

Film cameras follow City of London traders in foreign exchange, metals, stocks and shares; money lenders who deal in millions of pounds at a time; and Lloyds underwriters who bet than an accident will never happen and risk losing their shirt if it does. This is a world of frantic face to face dealing soon to be transformed by cheaper, computer-led dealing systems, satellite communications and fibre optic cables to create a fast-moving global market, worlds away from the street markets that they had once resembled.