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As Tony slides down the careers ladder he discovers a weird and wonderful cast of vital bit parts from the great drama of history. With the help of historians, archaeologists, craftsmen and experts he brings
puggers, leggers, hurriers, trappers, trimmers, flying men and fighting women, sin eaters, fusée-chain makers, whipping boys, fur sweaters and snotties blinking into the light.
And this isn't just an academic quest. At every turn Tony gets down and dirty in an attempt to appreciate what people have had to do in the past to create the country we know today. Whether it's humping a barrel of water round Edinburgh as a water caddy, falling off a horse as a royal messenger, washing sheep in a freezing stream or feeling the terror of the early fire brigade's hook ladders, this is a very physical investigation.
What emerges is an alternative history of Britain. For instance, in The Worst Maritime Jobs in History, he discovers the key role of the underdog (the lower sawpit worker) in making the navy that beat the Armada. If it weren't for the flesh-charring work of the asphalt paviours who had the Worst Jobs in Urban History there would be no London buses or black cabs (or congestion charge). And, in the royal episode, even the very emblem of the British monarchy, purple coronation robes, depended on the disgusting, dangerous jobs of the purple dyer, who extracted purple by rotting shellfish in urine.
Such is Tony's dedication to duty that he even did the pure collector's job for real. Old women used to collect dog faeces from the streets to sell to tanneries. "Sometimes I think that being the presenter of The Worst Jobs in History must be the worst job of all time", says Tony. "When it came to take two of the pure collector all the crew made themselves very scarce. I ended up resetting my own dog poo!"
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