Life under the shadow of a gas-belching Grangemouth oil refinery
Every night in Falkirk in the central lowlands of Scotland, smoke from the nearby Grangemouth oil refinery engulfs the town, and the lights from the industrial complex make the fog glow bright orange. As a child, the writer and playwright Alan Bissett would look out at the factory and occasionally he’d see the unstable chemicals igniting, turning the smoke to flames. When the explosion eventually came, killing two workers and badly injuring his own father, it was a tragedy, but it wasn’t a surprise.
Director: Adam Stafford
Producer: Peter Gerard
videoWork
Like a cheery Sisyphus, Fred dismantles an industrial chimney one brick at a time
12 minutes
videoArchitecture
Steep climbs lead to sacred spaces carved high into the cliffs of Ethiopia
9 minutes
videoMedicine
Drinking wine from toxic cups was the 17th century’s own dubious ‘detox’ treatment
11 minutes
videoEngineering
How water-based clocks revolutionised the way we measure time
10 minutes
videoDemography and migration
In California’s farmlands, immigrant workers share their stories of toil and hope
17 minutes
videoArchitecture
A lush tour of Fallingwater – the Frank Lloyd Wright design that changed architecture
14 minutes
videoHome
Life moves slowly in a Romanian mountain village, shaped by care and the seasons
13 minutes
videoEnvironmental history
In Kazakhstan, ‘atomic lakes’ still scar the landscape decades after Soviet nuclear tests
13 minutes
videoGender
A catchy tune explains the world’s ‘isms’ – according to your mum doing the laundry
5 minutes