Worst Jobs In History - Television Tropes & Idioms

Tony Robinson, of Blackadder and Time Team fame, introduces us to the Worst Jobs In History: occupations that are dangerous, unhealthy, boringly monotonous, disgusting, immoral or otherwise terrible from throughout most of British history. The show has aired two seasons, the first of six episodes, each focusing on the worst jobs in a given era (Roman and Anglo-Saxon, Middle Ages, Tudors, Stuarts, Georgian and Victorian), a Christmas Episode, and then a second season of five episodes, each describing the remaining awful jobs in five different fields (urban, royal, industrial, maritime, and rural).

Regardless of how terrible all the occupations were, Tony Robinson himself reenacted nearly every job; the only exceptions were those which were too dangerous to reproduce for television. An amazing feat, considering that Tony was in his late fifties when the show was being made.

Examples of the Worst Jobs:

Body Horror: On top of being castrated and rendered incapable of leading a normal lifestyle, Castrati also ran the risk of being quite horribly disfigured by the lack of certain chemicals in their body.
- Phossy Jaw, as suffered by the Bryant & May matchgirls.
- Quite a few of the other industrial diseases suffered by factory workers fall under this heading; cup handle-makers ran the risk of slowly crushing their internal organs.
Boring, but Practical: To lift massive pieces of masonry, get something like a giant hamster wheel and use it with a pulley system. In fact, a large number of the jobs were dull and repetitive, but they worked (and there wasn't any other way to do them anyway).
Butt Monkey: Tony.
Captain Obvious: Tony, during the Castrati segment, asking if the procedure hurt.
- Played for laughs in the Industrial Age Episode: with a boiler's engine jacket about to explode, the air full of smoke and alarm bells clanging, Tony can only shout "I THINK WE'VE PUT ENOUGH COAL IN!"
- And again in the Maritime Age Episode:
Tony: How come we've just got onto the boat and it's already full of water?
Andy De-Martine: ... it leaks.
Career Killers: The Tudor Executioner, undoubtedly on the "Hitman" end of the scale; unskilled, underpaid, despised by the entire community, and often Driven to Suicide.
The Cast Showoff: Used in the Georgian episode, when the musical expert brought in to explain the Castrati demonstrates his countertenor singing voice- the nearest thing to the Castrati tone available today. In the same segment, Tony briefly displays a very high and surprisingly pleasant singing voice.
Crapsack World: Everything, really.
Darkest Hour: The very Worst jobs of the episode, reserved for the very end of each episode and concerning only the most boring, dangerous or just plain revolting out of all the already terrible jobs reviewed: Tony's least favourite out of all of these was the Tanner- for very good reason.
The Dung Ages: The Dark Ages episode, which features an in-depth examination of wattle-and-daub construction: one of the key ingredients is, somewhat unsurprisingly, manure.
Groin Attack: The Castrati were a natural recipient of this.
- Coin-stampers trying to make a little extra money by clipping bits of silver off the coins were punished by castration.
No OSHA Compliance: Played straight and subverted: it's made clear that most of the jobs examined in the show would have had very few safety precautions, especially the work of Steeplejack; Tony, however, is given as much safety equipment possible under the circumstances.
Precision F-Strike: While playing the part of a Guillemot Egg Collector and making a very perilous climb down a cliff, an unexpected stumble makes Tony yell "Oh shite!"
- Though muffled by a scold's bridle, Tony (now playing a Fishwife) can be heard telling one of the men jostling him to fuck off.
- When asked about where the Saltepetre Men went to collect their product, Robert Smith is very frank in explaining that the best sources would have been large concentrations of "feces, urine- shit, basically."
Throw the Dog a Bone: The job of Tudour Spitboy; long, monotonous and back-straining though it was, it allowed Tony to sample some of the chickens roasting on the spit. He even said that it was his first decent experience in the entire program.
Too Much Information: Used in one or two situations where Tony learns far more than he intended about the jobs he was about to perform. For example, when studying the work of the Royal Food Taster, he's given a bowl of food to eat while a scientist explains what would happen if it had been laced with arsenic; Tony spends most of this discussion looking more and more horrified, and eventually asks her to stop explaining altogether when the topic of "purging" is brought up.
Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Used in the Christmas Special when Tony is playing the part of the Puke Collector.

Woof

British Series

The Worst Week Of My Life

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Examples of the Worst Jobs:

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Examples of the Worst Jobs:

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