The haunting incidental music from 12:25 is by none other than Delia Derbyshire, recorded at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

“Phallic” and “impertinence” really stood out for me. He’s the definition of a Luddite. His pronunciation of NASA took me by surprise.

His pronunciation of NASA as Narser told me everything I needed to know.

I remember watching this years ago and even then was struck by Cameron's scoffing lounge lizard style. He's mocking his subject while simultaneously being utterly out of his depth in trying to comprehend it. His mind is closed to the technological and administrative miracle he's reporting on, and the fact that just 24 years after the second world war we were ready to step onto the moon. Contemporary BBC reporter James Burke, covering the same subject, captures the zeitgeist to perfection in my view.

Excellent work; fine writing; well-observed.

8 days later after this telecast, on 20th July 1969, They put a man on the moon...🐱👍🏿

the cinematography of this footage, is very close to current era

He narrates as if arrived from an earlier century. A curious presentation technique.

He's smoking a cigarette in the museum..shock!!

He’s so off the mark. It’s rather amusing. A relic afraid of change, fighting the inevitable future.

Where is the full programme, “Cameron Country: Nobody Ever Asks Why”, available?

wow

Interesting. You can tell if he had his way the world have stopped advancing at about 1880. We had trains, indoor lighting and Heating and Plumbing and tea we didn't need anything else according to his attitude. 🤣 I don't always like what modern advances and technological or sociological advancement bring but to not Advance is stagnation and stagnation is death. For an individual or a society or an entire race.

3:27 It's Sheldon Cooper, lol

It's worth remembering that the idea that the US would get to the moon before the Soviets was such a far stretch that when it happened the Soviets thought it was propaganda initially. It was only after they were able to confirm it that they contacted the US and congratulated them. May have had tensions, but it was still an achievement worth putting disagreements aside for to recognise. Still, the USSR didn't see the Moon Landing as part of the space race (or even recognise a space race) because they weren't prepared to make the journey yet. So it was mostly a homeland marketting thing to rally people behind.

11:35 This is the software because it's made of people 🤔 🙄

It's very amusing to watch the early space propganada, really gets me laughing hard. Keep on uploading these gems lads.

Hard to believe James Cameron is only 50 here, more like 70.

6:19 "One thing we know: that the fuel that powers the vast engines of space, the driving force of the great phallic emblems of patriotic virility, is only partly chemical. The true motive power is conquest. The charting of the firmament is history's great contemporary joust, where men are making holes in the sky in which to plant a flag." That my friends is poetry.

"Here lies Narsar" FFS

Aha!

This is not sceptical view either, it's more pessimistic view, if anything

One of the things I try very hard never to forget, is how surface-credible but misleading journalist coverage can be. I - now - know a lot about this era and the technology that underpinned it and its very clear from watching this that Cameron had no real understanding of any of it or the purposes and benefits of the overall effort. Yet, had I watched him walking around NASA puffing on his ciggies back in the days it was made, I would probably have come away from it sharing his scepticism! But, as I said, we should all beware Journalistic coverage. I'm sure most of us have had that experence of seeing or reading a piece on a subject in which we have expertise, and realising that the person who wrote the piece had no real understanding of the subject they were writing about. The trap is that when we read coverage of subjects we know little about, we tend to forget that and take what we read as true or accurate! A dangerous double-think.

Comment section shows how uncomfortable some people get when someone says; "I'm not so sure about this here status quo" .

Cameron was known for waffle - this is a prime example- the BBC was full anti- science "commentators" who spent their time looking down their nose at everything -did it stand the test of time? - we all remember the excellent James Burke - who remembers Cameron ?

They need to get off the computers and firstly get a life then get a real job, seriously they need to grow up.

The United States government was spending millions of dollars every day in 1969 on the Vietnam War. It amazes me they could still afford the colossal cost of the Space Race.

12:42 Computers are made "by the very people who obediently assemble the things that will no doubt one day enslave them. How long before the electronics take over. [...] How long before they start demanding their rights?" If you've played with ChatGPT you know the answer--not very long from now.

If you look carefully you can see a young Stanley Kubrick in the background at 3:01

Soo many factual errors in this documentary

A rat done bit my sister Nell. (with Whitey on the moon) Her face and arms began to swell. (and Whitey's on the moon) I can't pay no doctor bill. (but Whitey's on the moon) Ten years from now I'll be payin' still. (while Whitey's on the moon) The man jus' upped my rent las' night. ('cause Whitey's on the moon) No hot water, no toilets, no lights. (but Whitey's on the moon)

Surely the most tepid of hot takes; a proto-woke disdain for the popular thing, barely camouflaged in passive-aggressive equivocations, as tart as a stale blancmange, already yellowing at its edges.

Hate bbc but earlier broadcasts documentary were well done not like today bbc