Season 1, Episode 2
Romancing the Stone
May 1, 2009
Overview
Chief executive Simon Thurley's programme of modernisation leads to the project of saving Sheffield's Park Hill Estate, a crumbling 1950s monolith that dominated the city's skyline. The decision to list the site proved highly unpopular with the local population and plunged English Heritage into a bitter dispute, costing the taxpayer over ~£40 million. It also brought one of the UK's major property developers to the brink of collapse after the onset of the credit crunch meant they ran out of money. Could Thurley find a way forward to restore this eyesore?