Brian Cox's Jute Journey [DVD]

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The actor remembers the last days of the jute industry, and considers the pioneering spirit of the jute emigrants to be something he has in common with them. The rumour is that these women went out and were all wiped out very quickly, because their immune systems couldn't cope and it ended pretty horribly for them. He said: "When you're born in Dundee, the thing you're very much aware of is the River Tay and the water.

Dundee - Blogger JOST A MON: The Jutewallahs of Dundee - Blogger

There was a mass exodus of expatriates out of Bengal, and by the early 1950s, most of Calcutta’s mills had passed into Indian ownership. Despite now enjoying a life of luxury in NewYork, Brian can identify with the mixed fortunes of his city's forebears. Many Jutewallahs thought that the mills would collapse once they left and the Indians took over; the know-how, after all, was with them and not the natives.

Workers in the local factories were thereby given a grandstand view of the animal that had enabled the other of Dundee’s duumvirate of industries – jute mills. At the club, Cox and the crew met Mimi Dutt, a city-based broker of jute who deals in jute products, and historian Dr Sumita Sen. They could get used to the heat and humidity, mainly because they were constantly changing their clothes. Half and ten and nineBy the time she wrote these lines, the time of jute in Dundee was already passing. Metred taxis, Mopa airport, post-pandemic woes prevail… “Now that we have fitted metres, the government without consulting us decides to create an app for us and to be operated by us.

BBC Four - Schedules, Sunday 11 June 2023 BBC Four - Schedules, Sunday 11 June 2023

The majority of Calcutta’s mills were owned by expatriate British businessmen, but they were run by Dundonians. The cramped quarters ruined the health of the residents; by the time of the Great War, most of Dundee men were considered too weak to fight.The workers at each mill were interviewed, with Cox spending some personal time — off-camera — with them. For many of them, the move to India paved the way for a lavish lifestyle of parties and luxurious living. Still generation followed generation into the mills, entire families occupied in creating wealth for Dundee. This was the day that the crew in general, and Cox in particular, was looking forward to, as they were to shoot at the jute mills on the outskirts of the city.