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1993: Car Salesman Versus the RECESSION | Mart and Mandy | Classic BBC documentaries | BBC Archive
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38:20Now PlayingThis video contains strong language.
What has happened to "Essex man" in the 90s? The product of Margaret Thatcher 's economic policies of the 1980s, Martin Smith and his girlfriend Mandy epitomise many young people whose champagne lifestyle has suffered in the recession-hit 1990s. Encouraged to believe that when you saw the chance you should grab it, he had become a second-hand car dealer and she had set up as a mobile hairdresser. The 1980s were good for them, but what of the nouveaux riches now?
This film finds out what happened to one "Essex man" and his girlfriend and how they feel about the country now.
Photography: John Warwick
Sound: Mark Hatch
Edited and Directed by Peter Gordon
Clip taken from Forty Minutes: Mart and Mandy, originally broadcast on BBC TWO, 9 March, 1993.
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