More Jam Tomorrow

Hugely unpopular, the poll tax helped bring down Margaret Thatcher. But she had plenty of warnings. Why did the Tories press ahead anyway? Why do ageing lefties remember the protests with nostalgia? And what are the lessons for anyone who dares to try to reform property taxes?   Ros Taylor was talking to Tony Travers, the co-author of Failure in British Government: The Politics of the Poll Tax and...

Britain had only one colony in mainland South America – a coastal state next to Venezuela that it grabbed from the Dutch more than 200 years ago. This was British Guyana. By the 1950s, Britain had had enough – and the plan was to hold elections so the Guyanese could take over. But then the man they elected said he was inspired by Soviet Russia. The story of Britain's long exit from Guyana takes in...

For decades the Security Service did not officially exist. Now it posts on Instagram. But what is MI5? How has it transformed itself since the second world war? And what kind of people work there? Ros Taylor speaks to former Guardian security editor Richard Norton-Taylor and a former legal director of MI5, David Bickford. Richard Norton-Taylor is the former security editor of the Guardian and the...

Dynamic, dreary – Britain has 2,300 miles of motorways, and the country would grind to a halt without these tarmac arteries. But they were part of a fast, futuristic post-war vision. Will we ever build another one?   Ros Taylor talks to Chris Marshall, who runs roads.org.uk , and the musician and comedy writer Jason Hazeley. You can find a special MJT motorway playlist on Spotify , compiled by Jas...

Britain was one of the last countries to go decimal – and had Margaret Thatcher not abolished the Metrication Board, we might have abandoned miles and pints too. Ros Taylor finds out how Britons were persuaded of the merits of getting rid of shillings and farthings, and why the revolution went unfinished. Mark Stocker is an art historian who works with the Museum of New Zealand (Te Papa Tongarewa)...

"Ask a man whether women should wear slacks and the answer is almost certain to be a firm 'No.'" How did women get to wear the trousers? Ros Taylor talks to fashion expert Belinda Naylor and Purna Sen, who wore trousers to her sixth form in 1978 – and was thrown out. Belinda Naylor is a producer with an MA in fashion curation. Her Instagram, where you can find some of her favourite women in trouse...

In 1948 Britain declared an Emergency in Malaya It wasn't really an emergency. It was a guerrilla war. And Britain would spend 12 years trying to drive communists out of its territory. What were we doing there? Ros Taylor talks to Open University history professor Karl Hack and Economist bureau chief Dominic Ziegler about what the UK did in Malaya, and why Singapore cultivates positive memories of...

'Oh, bugger orf!' We all know Received Pronunciation when we hear it. But what makes this accent distinctive? Why do people still pay to learn how to speak RP – and does it really bring the advantages it used to? Ros Taylor talks to voice coach and actor Alix Dunmore and Professor of Phonetics Jane Setter about how to spot an RP speaker – and how the accent has changed over the past century. Speec...

No one dies of diphtheria or polio in Britain any more. Since World War Two, we've virtually wiped out the diseases that used to kill tens of thousands of children every year. But rolling out a vaccine isn't always easy.   Ros Taylor talks to public health historian Gareth Millward and Stuart Blume, the author of Immunisation, about jabs and why some people refuse them. Gareth Millward is an Assis...

It's built for cars. The buses are baffling. But it's got the most energy efficient housing in Britain. What did it take to build a city from almost nothing? And a university where there are no students on campus?  With architectural historian John Grindrod, Ros Taylor tells the story of Milton Keynes and the Open University. With thanks to John Grindrod , the author of Iconicon, Concretopia and O...

It was silly. It was addictive. For decades, millions of kids would gaze at the same people and laugh at the same jokes at the same time. How did children's TV shape their minds? And what will it look like in a world of unlimited digital content?   Ros Taylor talks to Anna Home, who joined the BBC in the 1950s, and screenwriters Chitro Soundar and Angela Salt.     Anna Home was an English TV produ...

More Jam Tomorrow is taking a two-episode break. We'll be back in less than a month, on 28th August. In the meantime, I have one big ask. Please let me know if you would support a fifth series of Jam. Just go to morejamtomorrow.com and hit the link at the top of the page that says "Have Your Say on Series 5." Or just click here: https://tally.so/r/wv85Xd   See you on 28th August, when we'll be bac...

Pound for pound, fish is small fry for the British economy – but it has long been vital to our sense of sovereignty. From skirmishes with Dutch boats to the Cod Wars and Brexit, Ros Taylor finds out why fish matter so much to us. Maritime historian Richard Blakemore and marine biologist Bryce Stewart join the show.   Richard Blakemore is an Associate Professor in social and maritime history at the...

"No matter how hard you work or how capable you are, you can't do it all yourself. You have to seek reliable help." Those were Margaret Thatcher's words in 1990. Who are the 'help'? How did they enable women to have successful careers?    Ros Taylor talks to Lucy Delap and Emma Casey about how the servant died out after the two world wars – but domestic help never went away.   Lucy Delap is Profes...

Cannabis. It's illegal in the UK without a prescription – and despite decriminalisation abroad, it's likely to stay that way. When did people start smoking cannabis in Britain? Why is the law against it so patchily enforced — but apparently impossible to repeal?   Ros Taylor talks to Prof Toby Seddon and former stoner Ian Dunt about the weed.   Keep More Jam Tomorrow going by contributing to our t...

Seventy years ago, on an island off Australia, we started something we couldn't finish. This is the story of Britain's nuclear deterrent, Trident — why we have it and why we can't let go of it. Keep More Jam Tomorrow going by contributing to our tip jar at  Ko-fi . Sweet. Prof Mary Kaldor is Director of the Conflict Research Programme at LSE IDEAS. Dr Matthew Grant is Reader and Head of the School...

When you need to see a GP, you can - though you might have to wait a couple of weeks.    But half the people who need an NHS dentist have no realistic chance of finding one.    Tooth pain is agonising. So why is dentistry so neglected by the government? Is it because we prefer to think bad teeth are … well … probably your own fault?   Ros Taylor asks professor of dentistry Ian Mills why it's so ha...

Queen Victoria loved a curry, but it took the entrepreneurial efforts of South Asian migrants for it to become part of the British diet. How did it go from Windsor Castle to M&S ready meals and Dishoom? Ros Taylor looks at how curry got political with historian Shrabani Basu and Professor Anand Menon of King's College, London.   You can support More Jam Tomorrow at https://ko-fi.com/morejamtomorro...

Episode 1: Channel Tunnel How did the Channel Tunnel get built? And why has it not quite lived up to its promise? You can support More Jam Tomorrow at https://ko-fi.com/morejamtomorrow     Show notes Jon Worth blogs about European rail . The opening speech is from Shakespeare's Richard II.  I am grateful to Terry Gourvish, the author of  The Official History of the Channel Tunnel (Routledge) for i...

How did it feel to watch the Channel Tunnel breaking through? The NHS made dentistry free – so why were British teeth still so bad? And what did police find at Club Eleven in 1950 that would change how we saw the world? All this and more in season 4 of MORE JAM TOMORROW. Subscribe now to get every episode. Support the newly independent podcast at ko-fi.com/morejamtomorrow and get a shout out on th...