I love the train conductor just constantly laughing at him as he suffers. The dude's an angel.

Tony Robinson may be the best sport in human history. I have the highest admiration for him and all those involved in this show.

Tony is a national treasure, don't even try to tell me he's not.

I love how Tony is always enthusiastically happy after he's done whatever is being demonstrated.

I'm so glad this is uploaded to youtube

Railway navvies were feared wherever they went. Heavy drinking often fighting. The work they did was punishing and deaths were caused from the work and outbreaks of disease and drunken violence. They took a lot of keeping in order. Some were skilled craftsman but the majority were unskilled agricultural labourers.

Many men in my family worked on the railroads during this era up until WW1. I glad this shines a spotlight on some of the work they did. Same with the farmers. I also have farmers in my family.

As someone with pet rats when he pulled the rat out of the hay stack and the rat was just like •-• it made my day because they really are just squishy and confused lmao

Please expand this series to other time periods (ancient, bronze age etc) and cultures (jobs, technology and the way things were done differed a lot)

Geez, all that lethal, backbreaking work, I'd take being a herring caller any day!

This is simply amazing. Love it and Tony Robinson is a national treasure.

Wonder what people 100 years from now will think the worst jobs of 2018 were?

How can you not just love Tony Robinson, he's such a good sport.....I wouldn't want to try any of these old jobs.

That little boy looked so uncomfortable but immediately he brightened up when Tony teased him, so cute, Tony's awesome

She was right. You couldn't imagine what the explosion would be like. The "special effects" proved that statement out quite well.

As someone who makes their own rawhide, the last bit at the tannery is spot on 🤣

I actually had to pick rocks as a kid for my grandparents' farm. It does suck, but I did find some cool quartz rocks doing it!

Honestly is my first show host or whatever he is, he is the best! I love how he actually try’s all these things, and he’s just got a great personality.

Well, I guess we now know why Victorians were big on flowers! The every day stench of the city must have been incredible!

I think they should have included Tony Robinson in the "farm vids" team of Ruth Goodman, Peter Ginn, Alex Langlands. Or borrowed him for the Railway series.

Lmao I love how the first guy just repeatedly laughs at Tony, non stop. "Oh you liked that did you".

I know that tannery smell. I lost my home after high school, and had to live near one for a couple weeks. X( It's the worst smell I've ever smelled, even above the Washington District of Columbia city morgue, and we had two corpses in the back seat of the hearse. Still, I'm seriously blessed compared to the peeps in the Victorian period. I at least finished high school, and was fed! :D

Suddenly, breaking down boxes in a supermarkets warehouse doesn't seem that bad... XD

i like how he shines the spot light like directly in that guys face lol 14:46

Tony Robinson and Mike Rowe need to team up and do a historical vs modern day worst jobs ever show. I saw Mike Rowe go down with some modern day sewer workers. They basically had to clean the machinery that keeps a city sewer system functioning. It was absolutely horrible work! Some things have not evolved much at all. That would be a great show with their two zany personalities.

Tony goes above and beyond to give us a real historical experience.

15:19 British people are hilarious without even trying

My grandfather worked as a tanner by the river. It's shutdown now, but you could smell it in parts of town depending on the wind

That train conducter is a savage 😂

I like Tony Robinson as the presenter.

I’m getting claustrophobic just watching him getting into the engine . No amount of $ could make me do that

Watching this makes you realize some of the reasons why life spans were considerably shorter in the 19th century.

I never knew it took so much work to make a railroad run ! With so many terrifying dangers!

My oldest ancestor with a known profession other than yeoman farmer, was a... tanner in a small French town in 1784.

Tony, if you get a chance to visit the U.S., try to see the huge reservoir in Newport News park, Newport News, Virginia that was the site of some key battles of the Peninsula Campaign during the American Civil War. This reservior was built with hand tools and animal power by the Confederate troops stationed there. They dug it so as to allow a portion of a river to flood this area and create a water barrier as an obstacle to protect their front lines. In addition to this monumental accomplishment, they erected miles of earthworks and trenches still visible all over the park. It's still an awe- inspiring site to see.

that engineer laugh is so awsome and hearty .

Oh my lord this man is hilarious! So glad I stumbled on these documentaries!

I love Tony! What a trooper!

The last time I heard from Tony, he had a brilliant plan.

Tony don't just talk about thease jobs he gets in and does them, well done Tony. 😉

I've never been happier that smellovision hasn't been invented yet.

i went to the bluebell railway with my dad and we enjoyed our visit when i watched the first part of this i can imagine tony robinson character baldwick from blackadder doing some of those jobs in this episode.

I have done mud larking at the Thames and it was quite fun, I was looking for fossils, jewellery, sailor clay pipes, etc. and found all sorts of things but I have to admit after a while doing it your skin feels dry and itchy because of all the chemicals going in the water, you can find tons of videos here in youtube of people doing it.

never knew i'd be so happy to hear Baldrick narrating and presenting a documentary.

As someone who did irrigation for a couple years I must agree, digging gets old pretty quick!! That train conductor!😂🤣

Omg that train conductor, he's lovin' it 😹😹😹

I was pleasantly surprised to see tony Robinson, a true man of culture.

seeing tony in distress with some of these jobs is satisfying 😅 guy gets stuck in absolute legend

when the host talked about going and dying in a corner…I felt for him. 🤣

As they described the Thames in Victorian times, with sewage, trash and dead animals, I suddenly thought of the Mighty River Ankh from Discworld, and began to wonder if the water back then was polluted enough to be flammable...

I thought he was going to say "One for the rock, one for the crow, one to rot and one to grow" was an old saying Victorians had about their kids, not about their crops

Such a great series so sad it's the end :((((((

Boy am I glad we don’t have to smell the smells poor Tony did while filming this episode! Excellent show!

3:24 - With the way the furnace is designed, it looks like it has two eyes, a nose and the opening makes the mouth. Not seeing Tony but hearing his voice come out of the furnace makes it look like the furnace is talking. I nearly choked on my food with laughter 😂😂😂

Tony: visibile suffering Train conductor: *happy laughter*

I might have missed my calling as a herring caller

That herring call made my day XD Thanks for these incredibly interesting videos!

I worked at the Detroit sewage treatment plant when i was an apprentice. The plant employees could have been considered Toshers. They had a stick and chair, they would watch the conveyor belt go by and watch for "prizes" to go by. One guy collected rubber balls to take to his grandkids.

I've been enjoying your videos. They have a lot of great information on how things were done back in the day, some of the jobs actually look like fun. However, you need to boost the audio bigtime. It's really quite weak and a detriment to enjoying these otherwise fine videos.

What a Star Tony Robinson is! 👍👏👏👏

All of the Tony Robinson videos are among the best on the web. But the sound mixing is just inexcusable.

I layed asphalt for two seasons. They have all the big equipment for the people doing whole roads, but I was on a patch crew. A busy day for us was 24-32 tons shoveled and raked by hand.

The engine cleaner jobs makes me feel claustrophobic

got to admire tony, he aint scared an WILL have a go at ANYTHING !! great guy .. great series , they could NOT have used anyone else

"they got stuck and couldn't get out, it was a tragic life" won't be very long tho if they can't get out

Respect and Tribute to all who built 🙏 and those who died building

"I don't think ... we can imagine it Tony " *mournful reflection * " "explosion time"

The poor workers. Shocking.

That why rock brakeing was given to prisoners to do. 🤔 it seems the more I watch of these the more I hear sayings and curses we use now. Like "I've got a bone to pick with you."

Damn it I'm the kind of guy who'd actually like doing the workhouse jobs... xD

Fun fact: Jack Black the rat catcher gave the friendliest rats to the fancy folks of the day, hence where the term fancy rat came from. This is one of the origins of the domesticated rats of today.

My late grandmother was a railworker

Mudlarks hours depended on the tides and slope of the river banks. They would start on the ebb as soon as the area they searched became uncovered, providing it was light enough to see. If in mud they risked broken glass and sharp objects by using bare feet to hunt with under the mud. They also had to protect their patch against others. Sometimes they could search twice a day. Flooding was the biggest risk as that meant the water would rise quickly, and if caught they could drown. Stone hammers are smaller than the sledgehammer Tony uses here. Oakum pickers would unwind the rope threads before picking apart. Sailors did it on long journeys, if ropes were no longer serviceable or poor quality, sometimes to make pillows, or to use as packing filler, old fashioned bubble wrap.

XD shines everyone directly in the face except for the park inspector

The woman watching him swing the sledge is more in danger of losing an eye then if she were the one swinging.

Some of these jobs don’t seem so bad, particularly the one where you just watch, or any of the gathering stuff to move it ones.

"A jolly good bang though you've got to admit" Saucy minx.

Herring caller doesn't seem to shabby. If I was one back then I'd just bring an easel and take up painting if I could. Or if I was literate write poetry or stories (maybe see if I couldn't get my hands on a typewriter or something) while looking out over the landscape. Would be pretty serene especially if I could put up some sort of shelter for bad weather.

Fun program. Pity some parts have been cut out.