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This series of programmes is about
a man's climb to a sort of fame,

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and the effect it had on his life.

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Fred Dibnah,
the Bolton steeplejack, was 40

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when, back in 1978, he took part
in the first of 19 films

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which would record
the ups and downs of his career.

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From his earliest days, Fred had
set his heart on a life at the top.

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When I were a very small boy, and
I used to go to school on the tram,

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you would see little fellas
with flat caps, way up in t'sky
on top of factory chimneys.

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It fascinated me as to how they got
all the platforms up round the top.

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And life passed by, like,

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and I, er, passed a scholarship
to the art school,

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where my attitude to life changed.

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I thought I'd end up
with a clean-hand job, you know?

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Well, they had different ideas.

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They said, "You're good with hammer
and chisel. Be a cabinet-maker."

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So they sent me to an undertaker's,
you see, where...

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Bloody hell, all them boxes!
And trestles. Even the undertaker
himself looked like a corpse!

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So I thought, "I don't fancy this."

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So I got on me bike and went
to t'Youth Employment Office.

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They said, "We've got a good job
joinering." So I became a joiner.

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At t'weekend, I'd go out
pointing houses, and I got
enough money to buy five ladders.

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One day, lo and behold, the vicar
of Bolton, Canon Norburn, rung up.

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"Will you come
and look at me church tower?"
It were the biggest thing in town.

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BELL PEALS

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All the other vicars round the town,

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I could waltz in and see them,
knowing I'd been allowed
to have a go at that.

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I could do their lesser churches.

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Then, after that, I've never been
out of work since. It made me day!

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# Praise God,
from whom all blessings flow;

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# Praise Him,
all creatures here below;

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# Praise Him above,
ye heavenly host;

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# Praise Father, Son
and Holy Ghost. #

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Fred's opening move in the factory
chimney side of the business

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had been to clap a little one
on his mother's house!

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For the rest of her life he had to
sweep it, because nobody else would.

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Where have you been? We're doing
our best. It'll be done smartly.
As speedily as possible.

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How long has it been smoking?
Oh, a month or two. A month
or two?! Why didn't you tell me?

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You normally do, don't you?

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Pardon? You normally cause bother...
You've not time to do anything
for me! Oh, I know.

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Right, stick it up, Donald.

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We've got it a bit...

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MOTHER: He's not a bricklayer,
but he built that.

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Ooh, it was awful.
I didn't want him to do that.

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The Evening News came round to take
the photograph when I was at work.

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I built this chimney
when I were about 17 years old.

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We had a stack like the one next
door, with five pots on. Four were
disused and smoke only went up one.

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I thought, "We'll take these four
down and build a chimney stack."

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I didn't design it. I just built it.
It just ended up that shape!

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Everybody said I were crazy!
But it's never cracked.

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And it's got a lovely draught on it.
Suck your house slippers off,
when it's going at t'bottom!

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He went to art school.

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When he was 17 you'd think he'd work
in an office, not doing what he does.

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LOUD WHOOSH

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Miaow!

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It's not so pleasant on
a Monday morning, when it's cold,
the wind's blowing and you look up,

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and you think, "Oh, good God!"
and so on!

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This year,
it's been windy nearly every day.

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I don't think we've had a month

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when the weather's been decent.

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It's either been blowing a force
nine, or raining, or... COUGHS

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..snowing, or freezing cold.

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So you suffer.

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Summer's best, when t'sun's shining,

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and everybody down below's
all sweating away inside,

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and you're up there with a nice,
cool breeze blowing. Beautiful!

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This particular job -
I've got the contract for £7,000
to knock it down, a brick at once,

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right down to the bottom.

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WIND HOWLS

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The reason for the price were
I didn't really want the job.

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If it had been a repair job,

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which, you know, on average takes a
month, five weeks, it's not so bad.

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But when it comes into months
and months, it's a bit different.

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Furthermore,
when there's only one of you,
and such a gigantic pile of bricks,

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you need a stout heart
to take it on.

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The Briary here - there's too many
buildings to drop the thing,
or blow it up, as some people do.

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The chairman of Courtaulds won't
let it be blown up, so I've got
to knock it down a brick at once.

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Now we're in with a chance to get
summat done. We've got everything
working according to how it should.

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Like the chute at the bottom.

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You can have trouble
if you don't get the plates right.

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They get bunged up and the bloke at
the bottom has to clear the bricks.

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You've got to make sure he's out
the way, cos if you drop one and
it hits him on t'neck, he's dead!

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Really, you're dicing with death
with a rotten old top
on the chimney.

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There's been a lot of men died
fiddling with them things.

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I've never fell off a big chimney.

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You only fall off one of them once!

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One day, I fell off a pair of steps
in a little girl's bedroom.

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I landed on a drilling machine
and knocked meself unconscious.

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I don't remember much about it,
but t'morning after
I couldn't get out of bed.

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I had to stay there
for three weeks! That's about the
only injury I've ever done meself.

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Donald, my labourer down there,
he's a very important man.

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You've got to have a man who's got
a reasonable amount in grey matter.

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Like here, this noise of these fans
going, it's impossible to shout.

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If you get some young lad,
his heart can be in t'right place,
but if he sees a girl,

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he wanders away when you need him.
You look down and he's gone!

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In the past, like, I've had lots of
labourers. Some drank rather a lot.

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Sort of led me astray, in a way!

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Donald, he's a staunch teetotaller,

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so in lots of ways
he's a good ambassador for me.
He keeps me out of the pub!

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Look at that! Summat gone wrong
with it, Donald! It is that, Fred!

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The bricks are coming out
at t'hole all right, aren't they?

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Cheese butties again!

102
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I don't think
we'll get a yard a day off. No.

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Just about time for doing holidays.
I'll be lucky.

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I get fed up if I keep
looking up there, you know?

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Most steeplejacks I know,

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people come and say, "He were
always drunk when he went up!"

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I wouldn't say
that I've ever done it drunk,

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but if you're banging away
with a big hammer all day,
a few pints don't do you any harm.

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It sort of kills the pain,
there's no doubt about that.

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I've had characters work for me who
in a morning, at nine o'clock, like,

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they've got the shakes and
have a hell of a job getting up.

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But after they'd had
about five pints at dinner time,
they were quite full of beans!

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In 20 years,
I've only ever had two calamities.

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One were a load of bricks
fell on top of a blacksmith's shop
and completely demolished it.

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And I thought, "This is the end
of my steeplejacking career!"

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I can laugh now, but I didn't then!

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When I come down, I were shaking
all over! In the pub!

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But Mr Courtauld decided
that what I'd wrecked
weren't worth keeping anyway,

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so there were only a very small
claim off the insurance people.

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Now, I have to have
a third party insurance policy
for people like Courtaulds.

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If I kill one of their operatives,
I'm in dire trouble!

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I mean, they'd commandeer
me traction engine or summat!

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Insurance men and me don't mix,
you know?

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The thing is, I don't intend dying.

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It's a bit like being a motor car
racer, or this fella who
jumps over cliffs on his motorbike.

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I bet he's not got life insurance!
If he has, it'll cost him a fortune.

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No, I don't really bother
with that side of it.

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I know one thing - I ain't gonna
die... There's no doubt I'm gonna
die in bed with me boots on!

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Has anybody rung up today?

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No. I went to town this morning,
shopping.

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Spending all me money again?

132
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Mummy, there HAS been a man
rung up for Daddy, when Jane phoned.

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That's right.
He didn't leave any name.

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What did he sound like?
I never spoke to him...

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Happy at work, devoted family man,

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Fred had a competing interest
to which he was addicted -

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this 1912 Aveling and Porter
steamroller, which had taken him
14 years to rebuild.

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This thing and me -
it's a "death do us part" job,

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because it's nearly caused divorce
and much upset in the household,

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and no holidays and all that.

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"You love your bloody steamroller
more than you love me!" and that.

142
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A lot of men who have these things
go through it, especially the ones
who have one engine and one wife!

143
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Me wife complains that I spend
more time here than I do over there
in the house, you see.

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I suppose in a way it's better
than being down the pub all night,

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or out womanising,
or breaking and entering or summat!

146
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Well, it never had a name
when I got it.

147
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So we were gonna christen it. When
it made loads of row, I thought,
"We'll call it Thunderbolt!"

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Then I thought I might gain some
grace if I call it after the wife.

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I keep telling her,
"It's not every woman who's got
a steamroller named after her."

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WHISTLE BLOWS

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CLATTERS LOUDLY

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Oh, steeplejacking's
a bit of a spasmodic job.

153
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So you can play
with your steam engine instead.

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It's a bit like being very rich.

155
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You know, you can just have
a day off when you want, like.

156
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Lots of people
who I've come to know over
the years with the chimneys say,

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"You spend too much time
playing with your steam engine!
You should get our job done."

158
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Which in some ways is very true.

159
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I have neglected me business
and, well, everything, really,

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for the sake of ten ton of iron.

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WHISTLE BLOWS

162
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Well, the job
is getting more urgent now.

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You've about 30 or 40 feet to point
and one or two bands want replacing.

164
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Really, we've got to get you on
the job. We can't wait much longer.
Don't worry!

165
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I'll... But I am worried, because
we want to get this job put right.

166
00:16:06,720 --> 00:16:13,760
We've got the mill in good order,
and we want the chimney in good
order. Nothing will fall off. Good.

167
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I'll be here as soon as the last
few bricks at the Lilac have gone.

168
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You will have me then
till your job's finished.
I won't go nowhere else. Good.

169
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Morning, Lenny.

170
00:16:32,080 --> 00:16:38,800
When could you do the job for us?
This is another problem.
It would be towards next winter.

171
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There again,
if summer's nice and healthy,
we might end up here pretty quick.

172
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Could you complete it
by the end of October? Possibly.

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TOOTS WHISTLE

174
00:16:53,600 --> 00:16:57,040
Morning, Mr Shephard. All right?

175
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Fred managed to keep his engine
in coal and his head above water

176
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with some big chimney felling jobs.

177
00:17:04,840 --> 00:17:08,880
On a Sunday in 1979,
he did one at Rochdale,

178
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which, unforeseeably,
set him on the road to fame.

179
00:17:12,960 --> 00:17:16,520
Fred,
these two chimneys want dropping.

180
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When you've got rid of t'mill,
there'll be plenty of room.

181
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I come the other day and had a look.

182
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There's an house over there on that
corner. If we can keep it away from
that... Go towards the canal side.

183
00:17:31,360 --> 00:17:36,880
And we don't block t'canal up
as well! Make sure we don't!

184
00:17:36,880 --> 00:17:41,320
Why not try and do both
at t'same time?!

185
00:17:41,320 --> 00:17:44,280
Two for the price of one(?) Oh, aye.

186
00:17:44,280 --> 00:17:47,000
Mmm. Well.

187
00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:51,920
Four hundred for t'little 'un,
and five hundred for t'big 'un.

188
00:17:51,920 --> 00:17:58,960
That's the cheapest you can do,
is it? Oh, aye. Aye. You'll soon
be a millionaire at that rate!

189
00:17:58,960 --> 00:18:03,960
Yeah, I think I can manage them
without blocking t'canal up,

190
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doing any damage, breaking windows.

191
00:18:07,320 --> 00:18:10,840
My main competition
is the dynamite men.

192
00:18:10,840 --> 00:18:18,280
When it comes to felling
a chimney, they'll come along and,
you know, blow it up in half a day.

193
00:18:18,280 --> 00:18:22,360
So they only need...
quarter of t'money I want.

194
00:18:22,360 --> 00:18:27,880
So that's why, on television, every
one you see going down is blown up.

195
00:18:27,880 --> 00:18:35,000
There's none of them done
with the pit props and the big fire
like they did it in 1899.

196
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Which, um...you know,
I like doing it that way, cos it's
more spectacular, and it's, um...

197
00:18:42,120 --> 00:18:44,800
You get a bit of a build-up to it.

198
00:18:44,800 --> 00:18:49,360
Whereas when you press that plunger,
boom, that's it.

199
00:18:49,360 --> 00:18:53,840
It's over with.
You've not really done so much.

200
00:18:53,840 --> 00:18:58,960
You've destroyed something that it
took a few men a long time to erect.

201
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A lot of hard, bloody sweat and
labour. When they finished it off,
no doubt, they put a Union Jack up.

202
00:19:06,240 --> 00:19:09,920
You've blown it up
pressing a button.

203
00:19:09,920 --> 00:19:16,800
Whereas if you've got
to hack your way through three foot
of brickwork at the bottom,

204
00:19:16,800 --> 00:19:21,840
with a few hundred ton squeezing on
it, it's not died too easy, has it?

205
00:19:24,920 --> 00:19:28,760
CHISELLING

206
00:19:48,600 --> 00:19:53,360
It's unbelievable, this!
We shouldn't be here today, really!

207
00:19:55,440 --> 00:20:03,640
I've had instances where people
have come, where I've wanted a
couple of hundred pounds, for £25!

208
00:20:03,640 --> 00:20:10,400
Madmen, you know?
No pit props, nothing. Just
chop the bottom out, like a tree.

209
00:20:10,400 --> 00:20:15,680
They don't know to an hour when
it's gonna go. Just keep bashing.

210
00:20:15,680 --> 00:20:21,040
And when it's creaking and
groaning, just run over the road!

211
00:20:21,040 --> 00:20:25,960
You don't need anything - only a
sledgehammer and a bit of lunacy -

212
00:20:25,960 --> 00:20:28,680
and you're in business!

213
00:20:34,200 --> 00:20:37,040
Then you come on the insurance men.

214
00:20:37,040 --> 00:20:43,920
They'll send some little lad out
from their office, who's
never seen a chimney fall down,

215
00:20:43,920 --> 00:20:46,600
and he's gotta work out the risks.

216
00:20:46,600 --> 00:20:54,240
By the time it's gone back to HQ,
it could have been Groucho Marx
knocking it down. Which upsets me.

217
00:20:54,240 --> 00:20:59,040
When I think of all the ones
I've done that have gone OK,

218
00:20:59,040 --> 00:21:02,640
and yet the premiums keep going up
all the time.

219
00:21:02,640 --> 00:21:05,320
Well, I've nearly given them up now.

220
00:21:05,320 --> 00:21:11,400
There's nowt in t'way I'll do it
and take it on me own back.
Good luck to them men.

221
00:21:11,400 --> 00:21:17,240
I mean, they've got big Jags
and pinstripe suits,
and what have I got?

222
00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:20,000
Second-hand bloody Army Land Rover.

223
00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:24,080
I just about manage
to keep that going!

224
00:21:26,600 --> 00:21:29,240
DRILLING

225
00:21:39,240 --> 00:21:45,280
Some years ago, I were doing one
that when you come home at night,

226
00:21:45,280 --> 00:21:52,240
I thought, "Christ! I hope
the bugger goes right!" Because
we'd only got 60ft to get it in.

227
00:21:52,240 --> 00:21:59,680
I came home and I'm having me tea
in the kitchen, and it come on the
TV, "Here's one that went wrong."

228
00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:03,400
I knew it were summat up
in t'chimney line.

229
00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:11,120
I run in t'front room just in time
to see this factory chimney, chhhh,
straight through the mill!

230
00:22:11,120 --> 00:22:18,800
Just been kitted out for a
three-shift system. It's still shut,
that mill, somewhere in Yorkshire.

231
00:22:18,800 --> 00:22:23,920
Chopped the mill in half!
Well, them were the dynamite men.

232
00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:30,120
Well, how do you think
I should feel after that?
When I've gotta do this one...

233
00:22:30,120 --> 00:22:35,200
They'd got a field to get theirs in.
I'd gotta get it down a 60ft slot.

234
00:22:35,200 --> 00:22:41,360
From that day to the Sunday
that we did it,
my nervous system weren't too good!

235
00:22:41,360 --> 00:22:44,920
HAMMERING

236
00:23:02,880 --> 00:23:05,920
A bit more wood round this side.

237
00:23:13,840 --> 00:23:17,000
Plenty wood on there.

238
00:23:20,360 --> 00:23:22,840
Morning.

239
00:23:31,120 --> 00:23:35,160
We'll give it
a general sousing over after.

240
00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:39,560
Ooh, yeah. Yeah, we'll hear it roar.

241
00:23:42,400 --> 00:23:48,080
Fred! What, love? How are you
going on? All right, love.

242
00:23:48,080 --> 00:23:50,640
How are you?

243
00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:56,720
We'll be safe over there, won't we?
I hope so! Yeah, I think so.

244
00:23:56,720 --> 00:24:01,360
D'you want me to light it,
like I usually do, or not?

245
00:24:01,360 --> 00:24:06,280
I usually light it, and then he...
Leave me alone! I don't know!

246
00:24:06,280 --> 00:24:11,320
Then he takes it off me. Oh, light
the fire, you mean? Mmm. Yeah, yeah.

247
00:24:16,440 --> 00:24:19,080
Oh, he's panicking like buggery.

248
00:24:19,080 --> 00:24:25,440
Who do you mean? The Welsh fella.
The factory inspector.
Everything's beautiful.

249
00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:30,480
You don't think it's gonna go that
way? The wind's blowing that way.

250
00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:35,840
"If it goes backwards," he says.
It's a three million to one chance!

251
00:24:35,840 --> 00:24:41,000
He says, "What's in that tank?" I
don't bloody know. He asked me too.

252
00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:45,040
He's nervous.
Anyway, that having been said,

253
00:24:45,040 --> 00:24:49,920
we will let you know when
we've got all the evacuation done.

254
00:24:49,920 --> 00:24:55,000
We're sealing this road off.
Yeah. With white incident tape.

255
00:24:58,360 --> 00:25:03,360
Can we have everybody out,
please? Beyond the white tape.

256
00:25:09,840 --> 00:25:12,480
A DOG BARKS

257
00:25:20,960 --> 00:25:25,480
Let it get going.
Turn it round a bit.

258
00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:30,400
That's it. Great. Now, then,
right in t'middle, there.

259
00:25:30,400 --> 00:25:33,200
Right, you can give it to me now.

260
00:25:33,200 --> 00:25:35,640
Thank you.

261
00:25:42,360 --> 00:25:44,960
Bloody thing won't burn!

262
00:26:37,800 --> 00:26:40,960
Won't be long now.

263
00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:53,440
D'you see it moving? The stick?

264
00:26:53,440 --> 00:26:56,280
That stick?

265
00:26:59,920 --> 00:27:02,680
I hope the bloody thing goes.

266
00:27:02,680 --> 00:27:05,200
It's going! Going!

267
00:27:05,200 --> 00:27:08,640
HE SOUNDS A HOOTER

268
00:27:30,080 --> 00:27:32,840
Do you like that?

269
00:27:35,080 --> 00:27:38,920
Right in the right shop, innit?

270
00:27:38,920 --> 00:27:41,560
Give us a kiss, love!

271
00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:44,040
Are you all right?

272
00:27:45,680 --> 00:27:53,160
It were a good 'un. I knew it.
I had every ounce of confidence
in that one. We just got it right.

273
00:28:32,520 --> 00:28:37,400
Subtitles by Judith Russell
BBC Scotland, 1996