The Fred Dibnah Story

Fred Dibnah:
My main competition is the dynamite men. When it comes to felling a chimney, they'll come along and, you know, blow it up in half a day. So they only need quarter of t'money I want. So that's why, on television, every one you see going down is blown up. There's none of them done with the pit props and the big fire like they did it in 1899. Which, um... you know, I like doing it that way, cos it's more spectacular, and it's, um... you get a bit of a build-up to it. Whereas when you press the plunger, BOOM, that's it. It's over with. You've not really done so much. You've just destroyed something that it took a few men a long time to erect. A lot of hard, bloody sweat and labour. When they finished it off, no doubt, they put the Union Jack up. And you've just blown it up with pressing a button. Whereas if you've got to hack your way through three foot of brickwork at the bottom, with a few hundred tons squeezing on it, it's not died too easy, has it?