1981: BURGER BOOM - Will US fast-food CONQUER BRITAIN? | Newsround Extra | BBC Archive

Paul McDowell and reporter John Craven look at the influx into Britain of American fast food restaurant chains like Burger King and McDonalds. They're clean, they're family friendly, and they're very, very quick. Is this the end of the traditional British chippy?

Originally broadcast 8 May, 1981.

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[nickpook]

What struck me here was the fact that this segment in BBC Newsround, a programme for children, was more adult and in-depth in 1981 than most mainstream news programmes nowadays.

[Gadgetmonkey]

Wow! - archive footage of the last time a McDonalds milkshake machine worked.

[khlkhjhlk]

McDonalds in 1981: Takes 25 seconds to get your food

McDonalds now: Takes at least 8 minutes

[daviddixey]

People forget how revolutionary this was. Britain wasn't familiar with the American type food outlet. Particularly memorable was a quote on a documentary about fast food: "People saw these brightly lit places and were puzzled; they looked like launderettes."

[drummerbod]

£1.52 for a Big Mac meal in 1981. Using an inflation calculator that equates to £4.70 today. That meal is £4.69 now. Quite impressive tracking.

[mr.y.mysterious.video]

When a vintage kids news article is aimed at the same level as current adult news shows.

[theancientsancients]

What struck me the most was how intelligent and informed this kids were about business 😳

[Cirias]

As a kid in the mid 90s, it was amazing being able to have your birthday in McDonald's and have the whole experience with dressed up characters, a specific party room and staff providing everything. Great times.

[almatt]

3:25 Wow! Putin blended in nicely as a Wimpy's manager. This KGB agent will have a great political success in the future.

[zeddeka]

Really great social history - people just didn't eat out back then in the way they do now. Choice was incredibly limited and people tended to either make their food at home or return home to eat. Eating out was a rare treat. It's probably one of the origins of the obesity crisis there is now.

[CricketEngland]

Fish and Chips is a true British institution and will never go out of date.

[mogznwaz]

It amazes me (and makes me sad) just how much things have changed in such a short time. I remember the 80s and I’d swap the convenience and choice of today for the community and relative innocence and simplicity of then any day

[marshhen]

I am embarrassed to say that when I was a child my family drove 45 minutes to a city for shopping and the highlight of the trip for us was to eat in a McDonalds. There were just no child-friendly restaurants when I lived. My mother said that when she had us four young children, other customers in a regular restaurant would have looked at her disapprovingly for bringing us in there. She says it was quite hard as there were not alternatives. Restaurants were rather formal places for adults, not young children wanting child-friendly menus. A complete change from that today.

[arthurjarrett]

I completed my army basic training in Woolwich, London, in 1984. There were four burger "shops" in the town centre, McDonalds, Wimpy, American Burger and one I can't remember. Myself and a Welsh bloke I was training with used to go on "burger crawls" because of the novelty as we didn't have burger places where we came from. Cheeseburger on its own in each and we'd compare whilst going round town. Good times...

[BloodMoonASMR]

4:00 "Here in the Midlands"
*points to Newcastle Upon-Tyne*

[davidphilipsmusic]

Those kids at the end were more mature than most 25 year olds these days 😂😂

[rocon]

The service back in the 80s, without touchscreens or modern technology, was a hell of a lot faster than today. 25 seconds! Wow

[opo]

As an aside, it's wild to realize that all of the children you see in this documentary are now 50+ years old...

[sparky]

27 seconds to get your food in McDonalds is an impossible dream now. Instead you place your order on a giant screen, get a receipt with an order number on it and then stand there for 15 mins like you're in Argos.

[billy]

Rip wimpy, there is still one in my home town but my home towns still stuck in the 80s