Beyond the days of 'something for the weekend, sir'?

Davina McCall’s Pill Revolution?(Channel 4) encapsulates, in just one hour, probably the single biggest social change that has taken place within western society since the Industrial Revolution. It isn’t just through what was said, but what wasn’t.

The pill wasn’t widely available in the UK until the second part of the 1960s. Those of us who went through our adolescence before then, became aware, often through smutty jokes but sometimes in the carefully coded advice columns in our mothers’ women’s magazine that contraception was very much the responsibility of the husband. Not “partner”, and certainly not boyfriend or fiancé.

It is stunning to think back then, when even pharmacies didn’t stock condoms. They were bought by mail order, through specialist small shops, or most iconically, at men’s barbers where customers were routinely asked, “Something for the weekend, sir?”

All that changed when contraception became medicalised and by prescription. Women who did not want children became “patients” and were offered the pill, followed by a variety of other methods. Davina McColl in effect picks up the story after it was taken for granted that women could and would,??spend a large part of their adult life avoiding pregnancy.

There were two surprising things about McCall’s approach: firstly, men were hardly mentioned; they seemed to be completely out of the picture. There was no mention of abstinence, condoms, vasectomies, or alternative sexual practises. Secondly, so many of the women interviewed or surveyed were unhappy or uncomfortable about their chosen method of contraception.??77% of women complained of painful side effects, often affecting both their physical and mental health, and 1 in 3 simply stopped taking the pill altogether.?

McColl gives a lot of medical information, which is explained in simple terms, and makes the plea for women to be offered more choice and accurate information.??Easy access to contraception hasn’t been the Utopia many in the 1960s assumed it would be. This programme isn’t entertaining, but may be helpful to those who have to give pastoral support, especially to young people.

One of the joys of writing a regular review is that I come across programmes I wouldn’t normally have heard or seen.?The Essay: Black Country Secrets?(Radio 3) is an entertaining five-part podcast, now on BBC Sounds, that gives an insight into one of the first industrial areas in the world. Poet Emma Purshouse takes us on a verbal tour of Wednesbury, and introduces a church with a lectern fashioned as a fighting cock, rather than an eagle and wonders about the bricks thrown at John Wesley during the turmoil which engulfed the town during his visits in the 1740s. Liz Berry speculates about the ghost stories she heard as a child during a night time drive to Sedgley. This is a beautiful series and it’s such a pleasure to hear authentic Black Country (not Brummie!) accents on national radio.

The Black Country is now my adopted home; I’ve even written a book about one of its most notable Methodists, but after fifty years my heart is still in East London.?Jay Blades’s East End through Time?(Channel 5) took us back to the origins of the East End that many of us learnt to love. The first thing we hear is that the lands immediately to the east of the walled City of London were owned by various parts of the church who prevented development for many centuries. It was only after Henry VIII’s Reformation in the 1530s, when he confiscated the land and sold it on to speculators, that there was any building. One of the first structures was the Curtain Theatre where Shakespeare, as an aspirant actor and play-write, produced the first performances of ‘Romeo and Juliet’. To this day there is a ‘Curtain Road’, its where I had my first job in 1965: but until recent research, the location has been a bit of a mystery.?

Last year, in May, I reviewed a programme called ‘Should I Buy an Electric Car?’ I wasn’t persuaded and thought it an expensive and cumbersome way to save the planet.??Since then, I have dipped a toe in the water and bought a self-charging hybrid, so I was wondering if things had changed in the last twelve months or so. Alas, Panorama’s?Electric Cars: Is it Time to Buy??(BBC 1) suggests that there are still lots of problems, especially around the availability and accessibility to charging points. The government have, typically, left provision to ‘the market’ and we now have a hotch-potch of fuel suppliers who insist on registration before use through various apps and websites. Once registered the charging points are often broken and even then, can take up to an hour.?

Batteries for electric cars are both expensive and very heavy. Many are now imported from China and one of the industry experts warned that, unless we created the capacity in the UK, we could say farewell to our own car industry and the 800,000 jobs that go with it.

The first TV outing of the 2016 remake of?Whisky Galore?(BBC 2) provided some wonderful comedy. It is based on a story by Compton Mackenzie, which apparently has some basis in fact. It tells the story of Scottish island that was bereft of alcohol but received an unexpected supply when a cargo ship, laden with whisky, ran aground on their shore.??It is great fun!probably the single biggest social change that has taken place within western society since the Industrial Revolution. It isn’t just through what was said, but what wasn’t.

David has brought his reviews for 2022 into a single volume. A great souvenir of a momentous year. Click on the pic for more details.