Made in Britain - 3x

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BBC-4, 2011

The BBC takes a serious look at UK manufacturing. Evan Davis presents 'Made in Britain'

The first in a three-part show, he will be showing just exactly what the UK manufactures, highlighting high value added, niche manufactured goods that span defence to F1.

Providing context for its new series, the BBC observes that it is 100 years since the Empire Exhibition of 1911, 160 years since the Great Exhibition of 1851 and 60 years since the Festival of Britain in 1951, all of which celebrated our achievements as the workshop of the world.

Mr Davis will argue the country can't live without manufacturing, although it can't afford to compete with China in low-cost production. Fortunately, he observes, the country has not attempted to do either of these things. Britain today is still a manufacturing powerhouse, the sixth biggest in the world.

"We're not as bad as we often think at producing things, but we have a lot of work to do to fill the gaps left by the recession and the decline in financial services. I'm looking forward to running around the country to see what's flourishing and where the holes are," says Mr Davis.

The BBC notes too that modern manufacturing accounting for up to 15% of our economy – almost twice the size of the financial services industry (editor's note: the figure is also often put at 13% of GDP).

The programme release adds that UK manufacturing productivity has doubled in the last 10 years; four million people work in the sector; half of our exports are manufactured goods – taking in whisky and tweed, as wells as computer chips and software, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, JCBs and jet engines.

Mr Davis will explain that, as we become more productive at manufacturing, the sector inevitably employs fewer people. And he will show where value is created in the modern economy: sometimes in factories; sometimes through the sale of services; and sometimes in ways that combine the two.

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