- Title: The Worst Jobs In History - Series 1
- Date: 25th September 2004
- Description:Tony Robinson looks at our history in a new light,instead of concentrating on the Roman Emperors or the Kings and Queens,this six-part series is about the people who literally made our history. Tony Robinson looks at the jobs on the lowest rungs of the historical ladder and when he has established what he considers to be the worst job in any particular era; he has a go at it himself. (episode five) In the fifth part of the series that ignores history's great and good,Tony Robinson gets himself on the bottom rung of the Georgian careers ladder. They may have ushered in an age of elegance,but it was also a time of lawlessness,highwaymen and smugglers. Pity then the poor Riding Officer who had to enforce customs laws: he may have had a horse but was heavily outnumbered. Elsewhere,Tony discovers the workers - often prostitutes and inhabitants of the fever hospital - who suffered being strung up naked into position for hours on end as an artists' model to provide some of the finest works of British art. Others who suffered in the cause of culture included professional hermits in the Georgian mansions of the new 'squirearchy' and the rock stars of their age,the Castrati,who paid a high physical price for their fame. And behind Nelson's victory at Trafalgar lies a closed sea-bound world peopled by topmen,loblolly boys and powder monkeys. But none of them would have swapped places with the orphan child mule scavengers in the cotton mills of Manchester,risking death by crushing throughout a 12-hour day. Directed and produced by Patricia Murphy Presented by Tony Robinson
- Broadcaster:Channel 4
- Collection: Channel 4
- Genre:Documentary and Factual
- Producer:Spire Films Ltd.
- Programme Episode:Episode 5
- Transmission Date:25/09/2004
- Rights:Worldwide
- Decade: 2000s