- Title: The Worst Jobs In History - Series 1
- Date: 4th 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 two) Tony Robinson continues to investigate life in the underbelly of history and finds some of the rubbish careers that propped up the Age of Chivalry. Being a knight in shining armour was all very glamorous,but what about the arming squire who had to clean out the armour after a terrifying eight-hour battle (and no toilet breaks)? There would have been no medieval cathedrals without legions of masons and quarriers,not to mention the deadly job of lime-burning,and the utter tedium of being a treadmill worker in a medieval crane. And Tony finds how heavily worms featured in medieval medicine and his bare legs come in for a bashing as he walks through marshes as a leech-gatherer. The worst job comes from the wool industry as Tony gets up to his knees in two-week-old human urine as a fuller (apparently the ammonia in the urine improves the texture of wool). Directed and Produced by Nigel Walk Presented by Tony Robinson
- Broadcaster:Channel 4
- Collection: Channel 4
- Genre:Documentary and Factual
- Producer:Spire Films Ltd.
- Programme Episode:Episode 2
- Transmission Date:04/09/2004
- Rights:Worldwide
- Decade: 2000s