A real-life drama played out on Dartmoor during the course of 1984. Rita Webber , a widow, finds herself obliged to put her family farmhouse up for auction. In the following weeks she discovers things about her home which she had never suspected and which bring about a most unexpected outcome to the sale.
Incomers looks at the splendid yet decaying Georgian houses of Spitalfields in London's East End. Dan Cruickshank and local enthusiasts ranging from artists, historians and architects, are committed to restoring these properties back to their former glory. The programme charts the restoration process as the buildings undergo a rapid transformation and once again become desirable London dwellings. But in doing so they have to resist the ambitions of property developers, thwart contracted demolition teams, recognise the housing needs of the local Bengali community and help relocate the local businesses that occupied workshops within some of the prized houses.
The Calder Valley in West Yorkshire is scattered with 19th-century textile mills - vast, magnificent, and mostly redundant. 'People take trips to Egypt to see the pyramids, to Greece to see temples, physical remains of great cultural leaps forward in the history of mankind. The greatest leap that's ever been taken by mankind was the Industrial Revolution. Where did it begin? It began here in the north of England. The pyramids were once quarried for their stone, the temples in Greece were demolished. The mills of the Pennines are suffering a similar fate today. We hope to stop it.'
'A vicar's job is to care for people who will one day go to heaven; buildings don't go to heaven.' This way of thinking is 'spiritual blindness', says The Rev David Wyatt. For him it represents the most insidious of the 'seven deadly sins', or attitudes of mind, which threaten Manchester's heritage of fine Victorian churches. The citizens of Manchester built no less than 76 churches during the Victorian era, but only 24 of them are still standing. When David Wyatt arrived in Salford he found his church about to be demolished. Today, after years of painstaking restoration, it survives as an inspiration to groups of Christians in parishes all over Manchester who are struggling to keep their churches open for worship.
Portsmouth Dockyard has been the home of the Royal Navy for 500 years. HMS Warrior has been brought there to join the Mary Rose and HMS Victory, creating the most important naval heritage centre in the world. Shipwright Brian Patterson insists that the docks and the skills of the craftsmen are just as fascinating as the great ships.
For the city of York, 1984 was a year to remember. In May Prince Charles opened its newest attraction, the Jorvik Viking Centre. Two months later it nearly lost its oldest one when York Minster's south transept was gutted by fire. This film, shot before and after the fire, looks at the problems of conserving the whole city within its medieval walls. York people are possessively proud of their ancient city, but they want modem amenities like everyone else, and they are obliged to accommodate an ever-increasing army of tourists.
