Oh What A Time... - #160 Comebacks (Part 1)

Episode Date: February 9, 2026

This week we’re looking at some of the greatest comebacks history has to offer. Where else to begin than the epic comeback that is Skoda cars! And what about the comeback of the West German economy after world war 2?! And finally, a literal comeback, Apollo 13’s incredible return from the moon after disaster struck.Elsewhere, how good is the tip as a day out? Has history anything better to offer in terms of pure enjoyment? If you know, let us know: [e-mail] And if you want more Oh What A Time, you should sign up for our Patreon! On there you’ll now find:•The full archive of bonus episodes•Brand new bonus episodes each month•OWAT subscriber group chats•Loads of extra perks for supporters of the show•PLUS ad-free episodes earlier than everyone elseJoin us at 👉 patreon.com/ohwhatatimeAnd as a special thank you for joining, use the code CUSTARD for 25% off your first month.You can also follow us on: X (formerly Twitter) at @ohwhatatimepodAnd Instagram at @ohwhatatimepodAaannnd if you like it, why not drop us a review in your podcast app of choice?Thank you to Dan Evans for the artwork (idrawforfood.co.uk).Chris, Elis and Tom x Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oh, Whatter Time is now on Patreon. You can get main feed episodes before everyone else. Add free. Plus access to our full archive of bonus content, two bonus episodes every month, early access to live show tickets and access to the O Watertime Group chat. Plus, if you become an O Watertime All-Timer, myself, Tom and Ellis, will riff on your name to postulate

where else in history you might have popped up. For all your options, you can go to patreon.com forward slash O Watertime. Hello and welcome to Oh What a Time, the history podcast that dares ask the question, what on earth did we do with the stuff we didn't want before the charity shop? I know. I've got the answer to this question. Because today we gave away a lot of stuff to Charity Shop and it was stuff that's decent like books, the kids don't read anymore, clothes that are fine that the kids have grown out of. What were we doing? Christopher, please enlighten me.

One of my favorite things to do as a kid, I'd put this in the top three things to do. My dad would go, do you want to go to the tip? And the tip back in the early 90s, late 80s, was a giant mound of stuff. Yes, yes. Glass, mirrors, whatever, and you could throw it on there, smash to throw rocks at glass. Chris, this isn't a thing in the 80s. We went on Saturday and my kids loved it. They absolutely loved it.

We got back home and they were looking around the house for other stuff. stuff we could take to the tip. Charlie would come up to my room with good stuff from the house. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You luck at all. Or kettle or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's like, no. But they were desperate to go back and just hurl it into the sort of mountain of glass and shards of metal there. I've been to the tip the last two Sundays running and I'm going again on this Sunday. My mother always says that it's a really good day out the tip in Camarthen.

Yeah, yeah. What's your favourite bit of the tip? Is it A, the, the, lobbing it's something. There is a satisfaction to the style of throw. I like a sort of basketball three-point shot. I quite enjoy that. Yeah.

But I also quite look. Sometimes they have like tables of nice stuff art here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They have basically a few tables where the people who run it thought, I can't believe people have chucked this stuff away. And there's often quite nice stuff there. Like there's like a, what was there? Like a wooden cuckoo clock that was still working.

Nice. It's the feeling of relief, I guess. get, when I get back in the car, I've got rid of something that I needed to get rid of about three years ago. A body. If I could bottle that feeling. I love everything about the tip. I love the collecting the stuff. Also, it's such a dad job to go out of the house on your own. You're like running an errand like, oh, I've got to go to the tip, but I actually love it. Going to the tip, maybe listen to a podcast on the way there, you chucked up away the freedom of lobbing a plane of glass as far as you can. I think it might be in my top five.

favourite things to do. I would agree with that. And that's not a lie. I think going to the tip might be my top five. The last two Sundays, I'm going again this Sunday. You've got a season ticket. I had a season ticket. I had Rod Cliff and McConae on the radio. Yeah. Car full of stuff I didn't really, we didn't need, that couldn't be recycled, crucially. Some stuff that could be recycled because they do it all at my tip.

And it's just also, when you get to know the guys and you're on and you're on that. I saw one of my local tipping scenes, the other day. Little nod, he was like, he knows me, I'm a tip guy. I'm probably one of his favorite tip guys, I imagine, banter-wise,

it's up there. I've got one thing I prefer more than the tip, but it's very much in the same world, which is the satisfaction of taking, for example, some old kids' books or maybe a toy they no longer play with and putting it on the wall outside your house. And then looking out,

through the windows every so often, oh, it's still there. Oh, it's still there. And then the third time you'll look and it's gone. And it's gone to another home and they want it. They want to play with it. Not just rubbish. I mean, like a toy that they no longer play with it, another kid will get pleasure from.

But it's decluttering. And it's also really satisfying because you haven't had to travel anywhere to do that. The kids' books especially, because as children grow out of books. But obviously, they're fine for another three or four-year-old child. Yeah, yeah. So it is a nice feeling of it. I stayed in a flat in Edinburgh in 2019. And almost all my adult life I've had to separate my recycling.

There was nothing in this flat. I don't know if I've said this before, but there was nothing in this flat explaining where the recycling went or how it was sorted or there was no recycling bin. There was nothing. And I went outside. It was a classic block of Edinburgh flats. And the only bins outside seem to be general waste.

And having contacted the landlord and he wasn't getting back to me. me. It was just like, it's all general waste. And obviously, that's wrong. And obviously, we've got to recycle. Obviously, you've got to think about, you know, the climate, etc. What I would say, though, when you're not separating stuff out, the kitchen cleaner at the end of the night, it's quick, man. It is so quick. One big bag.

All in the bag. See you later. Tom. It is so quick. Tom, you mentioned then, putting your books out the front for other neighbours to collect. Love it. I don't think I've told this story on the podcast before. Many years ago, Josh Whitacom, guest the other week,

bought me for my birthday as a joke. A David Ike 9-11 was an inside job book, right? And there it sat in our bookcase for years until my wife decided, I'm going to have a clear out of some of these old books. She put them all outside the house. A lot of it was quite harmless stuff. But I came home from work, and there was one book left. It was the David Ike, Nile-L-Ares in his side job book,

sat outside the front of the house. I said, what is this doing here? She said, I bought all your books outside the house, that's the only one left. I said, the whole neighbourhood would think we're like that job. That's so funny. I said, do you know what this book is? I remember buying a book of classic conspiracy theories

because I thought there might be standard material. Yeah. Got it. Ported Central London. Reading it on the tube, desperately searching for stuff I could. write material about. And then I thought, I'm now the guy on the tube on public transport, reading a book of conspiracy theories. You know, just nodding in agreement with everyone.

Yeah, it seems legit. Sounds about right to me. I had my moment of incredible embarrassment in Central in Soho, this is two days ago. Do you know the electronics store, C-E-X? You've heard of this? It's like computer electronic exchange or something of that. Anyway, It's a place where you can get, like, charges and stuff like that, little bits for Nintendo Switch and all whatever happens to be. I need to go there to get it. I was walking through Soho, had my map thing out loud speaking. And this is what it said.

I made it play it again and recorded it on my phone because it was so embarrassing. I don't know if you want to hear this. Starting route to sex. Starting route to sex. And this is in Soho. Central London, a place which is famously full of Massad Parlor's starting route to sex. Another story I haven't told you. Years ago, when I was quite young and I first started working in Soho, I turned up to work

with a shirt that had like an atomic bomb going off on this shirt. It was like the late naughties. And suddenly I was like, oh, I've actually got an important meeting this afternoon. So I'll have to change my shirt. So I walked out in Soho and found myself on Old Compton Street. unfamiliar with it. And I was like, that looks like a close shop.

I'll go in there. I walked in. And I immediately realized it was prowler. And it was just S&M gear everywhere. It took me a second to clock. I would never be able to explain that.

If I tried to tell someone what had just happened, they wouldn't believe me. I'm here to buy a T-shirt for a meeting. Have you got anything that doesn't have sort of nipple clumps? But genuinely, I think I'd rather go to a meeting wearing rubber braces than a

shirt with an atomic bomb on it, given the choice. Right. Welcome to Oh, What to Time, the history podcast. And today's subject, I think it's a really fun one today, actually. We're talking about the greatest comebacks of all time. Later today, I'm going to be telling you about an incredible, basically, death-to-life comeback out in deep space. What are you guys going to be talking about? I'll be telling you all about the comeback of West Germany. No, not the 1990 World Cup semi-final against England. I'll be telling you about their economic recovery after the Second World War. Oh, fascinating.

I'm going to be talking about the comeback of Skoda. Oh, yes. Right. Before we do that, though, should we crack into a little bit of correspondence? Yes, please. So, you sent us some correspondence, have you? Well, let's take a look at you then. Now, this email is from Kaleb Baukett,

and contains a sentence, in it, which I'm not too keen on. Let's see if you can pick out which sentence in here wounds me most, but we'll get to it in time. Oh, what's the time. Hello guys. I'm a remote rescue medical technician, RRMT, RIMT instructor and medical officer in Mountain Rescue. That's pretty cool, isn't it? What a job. What a cool listener. And felt I'd answer the call from your latest episode and email in. Now, during last week when we had Josh on, we were talking about, Chris suggested that the worst injury could have in war was, do you remember what that you say? Because it's shot in the calf bone in World War I?

The thigh bone is what you'd claim, yeah, exactly. And we joked about the idea that actually I think probably the head's the one you want to avoid. Well, Caleb has some information on this. A broken thigh bone, known as a femur, is indeed a serious injury and can be life-threatening. A broken femur is incredibly painful. However, the main issue is it can cause a lot internal bleeding. In fact, around 1.5 litres of blood. blood can collect around a broken femur. So Chris, maybe you were right. This is as

ends as I don't love. I'll dumb this down a little too so Tom can follow along. Now, when you break a bone, imagine this bone bleeds. Each bone in your body has an estimated value of blood loss linked to it. So, for example, breaking a rib may cause 20 milliliters of blood loss with a femur potentially causing one and a half liters of blood loss. This means you don't need many more injuries to reach irreversible shock. Fortunately, there is a rather simple way. of stabilising this injury using something called attraction splint.

Do you know what attraction splint is? It's interesting this. Yeah, I think this is one of the great inventions of World War I. Yes, we do get to this point in this email. What do you think attraction splint is then, Chris? It's like a cage, right, that keeps your bones into a certain,

puts the bones into a certain position. And they're elevated. Because being in traction, in World War I films, that's often what they say about an injured soldier. Ah, okay. So attraction splint, it doesn't just splint the limb, but is a mechanical advantage device

allowing the medical responder to pull traction on the limb. So simply put, this device allows you to pull the two overlapping bone halves back roughly into position. Once back into position, the muscle mass applies pressure within the limb to help control the bleeding. It's not a pleasant experience due to the pain. However, once the traction has been pulled on the limb, casualties do report a lower baseline pain score.

This is an amazing stat this one here. In World War I, they did, in fact, have a rather primitive traction splint called the Thomas splint designed by a Welsh orthopedic surgeon called Hugh Owen Thomas. There you go, Al. Hello.

Get this for an achievement which reduce fatalities from around 80% to 20%. Wow. Isn't that amazing? I'm looking at it now my description wasn't that bad. It's like a cat, isn't it?

It pulls the leg, holds it in place with bars and a Thomas splint looks a little bit like a cage. Yes. Because in modern pre-hospital trauma life support courses it is also taught that tourniquets can be used at a push to control the blood loss. However, a traction splint should be the go-to. Tornikas were invented by the Romans, so they had those two.

Isn't that fascinating? So, World War I, the invention of this treatment of this particular wound in the body, this Welsh orthopedic surgeon, deaths dropped from 80% to 20%. What an impact to have had. Incredible. And also, real validation that I actually know what I'm talking about. Absolutely. What's the opposite of Corrections Corner?

Validation Corner Validation Boulevard That would be A real low for this podcast If you want to send it an email Just tell us how great we are And I'm sort of Yeah

Please hello and I what a time Have you heard anything you've been particularly impressed by Yeah Then do get in contact Do you know what Caleb A little bit hurt That I'm perceived as a show Thicko But you know what? That's a very interesting email. And what an achievement? What an achievement by Hugh Owen Thomas, 80% down to 20% because of this one change in the way they treated those injuries? Incredible. If you have any other amazing historical facts like Caleb, here's how you get in contact with the show.

All right, you horrible lot. Here's how you can stay in touch with the show. You can email us at hello at oldwattetime.com. And you can follow us on Instagram and Twitter at Oh What a Time pod. Now, clear off. Very good. Now, one of the benefits of supporting the show via Patreon, getting bonus episodes, sure you get all that. Absolutely. Add free episodes, yeah, you get that too.

But if you sign up to our top tier, the Oh What Time All Time Tier, we will riff on your name and try and figure out where in history you might have been. And we've got a very futuristic name for you this week. And that name is Cyclone 3-2-4,000-9. Ultra-glass boy. Close. Kit Prime.

Kit Prime. That is actually quite futuristic, isn't it? You like that. Kit Prime has just been employed by Mark Zuckerberg and earns $250 million a year. And he's 16. He was a hacker. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kit Prime, he's been head-hunted by all of Silicon

Valley in California. He's the most wanted 16-year-old boy on earth. Because he broke into boots, as in online, and shared everyone's sort of national insurance numbers at the age of 60, while still in sick form. Elon Musk has noticed him and realised he's got skills. That is such a cool name. Yeah, that's brilliant. Kit Prime isn't a name from history, is it? It's our first ever name from the future. This is the first name I've heard that I'm jealous of that I wish I was called Kit Prime,

Genuinely. You know, it's not like Kit Prime was one of Edward the Confessor's most trusted advisors. Yeah. Kit Prime hasn't been born yet. Yeah. Kit Prime is going to be president of the USA in about 2150. If I started secondary school, Al, and someone introduced me to Kit Prime, I think, well, he's definitely the coolest kid in school. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Hello, you're the coolest person I've ever met. Can I be your friend? Is that a laser gun in your pocket? Wow. Would you get that I made it? on my 3D printer. Wow, Kit Prime, you're amazing. The problem with Kit Prime, very cool name.

It could be absolutely ruined by the wrong middle name. Kit, do email in. What is your middle name? What's sandwich between these two excellent names? We want to know more. Kit Bernard Prime. Kit Pastis Prime. Yeah.

Kit Bernard Prime. I don't actually like the name Bernard, so I prefer it if you call me Kit Prime, please, or because of KP. That's mine, that. Love it. What a name. Yeah, thank you for subscribing. Kit, becoming a know what a time,

All-Timer. Congratulations on a fantastic name. And if you want to support the show, here's how you can do so. Hello again, you horrible lot. Enjoying the show. Well, why not show the love by becoming a Patreon

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Okay, shall we crack into some history? I think this is going to be a really fun episode. I love the stuff I'm talking about later. As I say, I'm going to be talking about this incredible near-death, back to life, turn around, way out in space at the end of the show. Chris, what are you talking about? I'm talking about the economic recovery, the miracle that was West Germany's economy after the Second World War. And I am going to be talking about the fall and rise of Scotland. Now, the three of us are old enough to remember all of the Scoda jokes.

We talked about this on a previous episode, which is... Kit Prime does not drive us to him. Kit Prime hasn't heard of these jokes. It might, ironically, because he's that cold. Well, yeah, that's the thing, because Scoda's made an enormous comeback. So the thing with Scorder, the three of us are old enough to remember this, in the 1980s, there weren't many car companies, apart from Lada, in my experience, with a butt of more jokes than the Czech

sort of car manufacturer of SCADA. So here's a selection of the best and I remember every single one of these. And I think I told them all as well. I'm so excited for this. It was the kind of joke that if you were around at your mate's house, you'd say to sort of impress his stepdad. It was very stepdaddy, okay?

So here we go. What do you call a scoda with a sunroof? A skip. Oh, nice. What do you call a scoda at the top of a hill? A miracle. That's a great joke. What do you call two scoders at the top of a hill?

A mirage. That's not as strong. This is my favourite. What's on pages four and five of the scoda uses manual? The bus and train timetable. That's good. I like that. What did the Ford say to the scoda,

Would you like a toe? That was my favourite one. That was the one I would tell. He's a good. To make sort of men in their late 30s like me in about 1989. And also, Elle, they're all clean. And that's so rare nowadays, isn't it? It just show you don't need to be filthy to get a good laugh.

You could do that on a cruise ship, you could do it at a corporate event. Good stuff. And who can forget the pinnacle of Scolors jokes. Crazy Vaclav's place of automobiles in The Simpsons. From whom Homer buys a car. It drives 300 hectares on a single tank of kerosene. Their manufacturing company no longer exists. And Homer was told to put it into H to drive.

And the other letters are all in Cyrillic. That's good stuff. And it's best. I don't think there was any sitcom that could compare to this. Yeah, incredible. Absolutely. Scorda cars in the West at least were objects of considerable derision and laughter. And they became emblems of the inefficiency on poor quality

of communist manufacturing. The same was true of the larder. The trubant. Now the trubant's an interesting one. The trubant or the trabbie. The larder is such an unsexy name, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Lardar, just like a place where you store your excess rice.

If you don't have a fridge. Yeah. But the triban is made a big comeback. I was in Berlin when England got to the final of the euros. I went there and people drive around tribands. I've never heard of the trubant. The thing with the trubant, because I read a, I went through a big East Germany phase at the end of the end of the year.

at the end of last year and I read a lot of books about the history of East Germany, yeah. We all did on this podcast. And that was the car you drove in Communist East Germany. And there was a massive waiting list for Trebantz. There's actually someone who lives on my street

who was East German, who's a bit older than me and I think she was about 18 when the wall came down. And so I've talked to her about the Triband. She was like, oh yeah, I loved our family, Travi. That was our car. And what's happened is their focus points for real affection in the Old East Germany. So they become kind of weird hipster cars, the trubant.

There was also a car called the Watberg, the Executive Zim. Executive Zim. And various Chinese brands, like the Beijing BJ and the Honki, which means a red flag. However, fast forward to today and Scor is one of the most respected cars in the market. Loads of people I know have got Scolars. They all speak super highly of them. There was a stand-up comedian. I remember he was big into stats and he worked out.

that for the kind of mileage of standard a circuit comic has, the Skoda Octavia was basically the best car you could buy. Right. Was that John Robbins? No, it was, but he did buy one. Wait, what was Scoda Fabia, but it was Gary Delaney, I think. Yeah, I think it's now become one of those cars for people who sort of actually understand value.

That's not the way they're perceived now, isn't it? People actually realise, oh no, you're actually getting a very good car for your money there. Well, they're owned by Volkswagen, aren't they? So like most car makers of a certain vintage start, Scoda started up as a well-regarded company. It was founded in, Lada Boleslav, some 28 miles northeast of Prague in 1925.

But it had business routes via motorcycles, munitions and push bikes. Imagine buying a car from a company that almost made guns. They also made guns and bullets. And push bikes, they would make push bikes as well. And this stretch back to the 1950s. So in the interwar years, Scoda cars were appreciated for their build quality and their robustness and their reliability. So much so that in 1935, Skoda came second in the Monte Carlo rally.

Wow. So it got off to a great start. So the company combined luxury appeal. They had premium models, which is the V8 Superb. The V8 Superb? I think that's too on the nose and name. When you're in a meeting, how do we make this car sound good? They've just run out of names now, haven't they?

The old Mazda Bongo. You can't beat it. Very good. You had models like the popular and the Scoda Rapids. So by 1936, scored it over tickets. its rivals become the largest carfirm in Czechoslovakia, and then the Nazis came, and obviously everyone knows how that story goes. So following the election of the Communist Party of the World War II, Czechoslovakia, very quickly fell into Soviet influence, and Skoda, together with its rivals, Prague and

Tatra, was nationalised. So in this period, that's the late 1940s and 1950s, Scoda was able to sustain its pre-war reputation of equality, offering updated models such as the Flissia and the Octavia. What's interesting I've noticed is that Skoda, the names are the same as they were during this period. Interesting. Like you can still buy a Skoda superb and Escoder Octavia. Wow. Whereas Ford has changed that you can't buy a Ford Escort anymore. Yeah. Or a Ford Orion. I should bring them back. They're good names. They brought back the Capri's

isn't they? But it looks very different to the 1970s Capri. But in the late 1950s a deal was reached to export Scorder cars to the US. So the The first batch of 600 of 6,000, expected into the deal, arrived in April 58, and it appeared on dealership forecourt to New England and California. No less than Pakistan's then ambassadors to the United Nations, Ali Khan, was a high-profile fan, and he gifted his favourite ladies in New York and Hollywood, these cute little Skoda cars. So one celebrity gossip column has put it at the time. That's a great bit of sort of celebrity goss, isn't it?

The Pakistani ambassador to the UN gave his favourite ladies in New York and Hollywood a cute scoda car. Marilyn Monroe, a scoda. So Escoda Felicia cost $2,000 in 1960 or about $22,000 these days. That's a lot, isn't it? We had budget reliability. Yeah, as well as cuteness, but they had a problem. So it was described in Britain in used car outfits as economical cars. But the issue was it was where Scoda was based with the Cold War raging,

the ideological allegiance of the company now cost it very dear, especially in the US. So it's the height of the Cold War. You don't basically want to buy a car from a communist country. That's really interesting. So the idea was how could it be true that the Reds made anything good? Right. Okay, yeah. So in the US, sales fell sharply in the 60s, so that after 1968, Scorder left the car market in the US and has never returned.

Britain, on the other hand, Scorda remained. And it became part of that range of budget cars available, most commonly bought sort of, you know, by poorer people in society. So as technology advanced elsewhere, Scorder fell behind because the company was unable to access the latest innovations from behind the Iron Curtain. That's so interesting. So even in the UK, the adverts were full of euphemisms. distinctive.

It's like a terrible estate agent. I like this. Room to improve. One said, yeah, one said, no fancy equipment. Buy it if you find modern cars intimidating. And another, this is real top gear mode. A third advert said, it can hardly be described as a sporting car, but it seems cheap. The model in question was the Skoda Checkmate, which is such a funny name for a car.

Yeah. So that was launched in 1976. So initially people laughed at Skoda cars because they were all fashioned up because they were bad. Okay. So it was just the fact that the technology was outdated. It wasn't that the cars were made badly. It was the technology. They seemed old fashioned.

They seemed old fashioned in comparison with modern British, European and American. When I think about my mate's dads who had Scodas, they had them for years. Like they just kept going. It might not have been a fashionable comedy. it obviously worked well. I did a gig in Estonia and in Tallinn. I was picked up by the promoter at Tallinn Airport. And his Mercedes was from 1966.

He just basically, his dad had bought it or something years ago and it just looked after it and it was still going. But I'd never been in a car that old. There was, my friend, his mum and dad bought the other end of the spectrum. Do you remember there was a Citron car in the 90s? which had this really complicated suspension. It was called like the XM or the Zantia or something of that. Oh, yeah.

Basically, you could go up and down in the back, which obviously everyone thought was really cool, but it meant that their car was constantly breaking down. It's one of those ones, but it's like at the forefront of new technology, but just constantly goes wrong because basically technology isn't there at that point. So it's kind of aspirational from the company's point of view

to be releasing this, but it's beset with issues. So remember, although they had this incredibly snazy car, He was always going to school on the bus. His mum could never take him in because the car was always broken, although it looked amazing. I don't want any new technology. Yeah, exactly. Whereas we're in the Morris Minor and our Morris Minor worked.

I want technology that's four years old. There was one episode of Top Gear where Jeremy Clarkson reviewed a newer car. And they had one feature. I remember he said about this one feature, whatever it was. He said it just feels like something else to go wrong. Yes. And I think about that all the time with innovation in a car. The car I had before this one

It had like a perfume dispenser So the car could have a scent I was like Yeah, yeah That's going to cost me 50 quid Every time I service it Well I bought quite a posh car At the end of last year

Having had the same car For about 15 years And you know that word Inshitification It was like It was that word of the year In the Oxford English Dictionary Could be years

I don't know what does that mean Basically means Modern stuff That is unnecessarily complex And actually makes what was previously a fairly normal user experience worse. So the way you turn the volume up

like you're a conductor. Oh yes. See, I tried to show you this. You and I, Tom, on New Year's Eve, on New Year's Day, we drove to buy a curry. Yes. And I gave you a lift. And I was trying to turn the volume up like a conductor.

And obviously, it works about one day and every 20. The orchestra are only listening. One day a mum. I didn't need this. Yeah, yeah. I never asked for this. A volume knob has never bothered me. Yeah.

I've never been like, God, this is hard work. I'm turning the music down. Oh my God, my thumb and forefinger are absolutely knackered. When have you ever complained about it? Yeah, absolutely. You're solving a problem that didn't exist. But let's get back to Scorda. In the 1980s, things really do.

don't go wrong. And Scorder came to symbolise the inevitable collapse of the communist system in Czechos of Acquois and models were slow. They were these hulking relics of the past

delivered in any colours as long as it was beige. And they were, and they were, the larder was beige and it was a sort of car you'd buy because you could afford nothing else.

But they were still so. So the turnaround came in the 1990s following the collapse of communism and scored as partnership with Volkswagen, which began in 1991. So in a rapid succession, sales improved,

as did Reve. and satisfaction reached new levels of positivity. So by the early 2000s, Scoda now wholly owned by Volkswagen, could even lean into its former reputation and it was making jokes about itself to bring customers along with the changes taking place. So it was an advertising marketing risk, but it did pay off. So in 1990, Scoda sold 10,4008 cars in the UK

as compared with over half a million Fords. The figure rose steadily through the decade. So in 1997, it reached 16.5,000. By now, it's closer to 85,000. Right. A percentage increase over 35 years of around 700%. Yeah. So global figures are equally impressive,

shifting from 172,000 Scorda cars in 1990 to around 1.04 million in 2025. Wow. So the last laugh belonged to Scoda. You know, there aren't many more remarkable stories in the history of motor car manufacturing. So if you're a cynic, you would say that it was a German success story, not a Czech one. Right. But, you know, cynics always have something to say. So in the end, Scorder, which was such an unlikely company for this,

it was the great communist or post-communist comeback kid. Yeah, that's so interesting. That's so interesting about how cultural feelings towards that part of the world during the Cold War would have affected a company. Well, certainly in the US. Yeah, absolutely. You seem to be driving a, you know, a communist car. My one cultural touchstone for how Soviet and Eastern European goods were kind of treated

in the 80s and 90s is only Fawes and Horses. And Del Boy was always selling like Romanian video recorders. Or like Soviet Soviet TVs. So I think maybe it speaks to how people assessed

electronic goods from behind the iron curtains. Yes, of course. And they'd be video cameras and they'd have night vision but they'd have been used by the Soviet army and they were actually so incredibly dangerous. Yeah. Well, I tell you, I actually read a book. I read a book on Vladimir Putin a couple of years ago.

And one of the things he used to do in East Germany, where he was like a KGB officer, he used to run a black market ring with, they would import Western electronics and sell them in the black market. It was kind of like a government enterprise to smuggling Western electronic goods. So obviously, they must have been rubbish.

Their own tech. I've now got a vision of your day. your night book and your Putin book out on your wall outside of your house. There's a great bit, quite a moving bit at the end of Beyond the Wall, the Katja-Hoja book, about living in East Germany, where as soon as the wall comes down and people are walking into West Berlin, they couldn't believe how many different kinds of video recorder they were, and many different kinds of washing machine and cassette player. Why would you need more than one?

Yeah, yeah. And so they would see homeless people for the first time, but also they're like, wow, so there's eight different kinds of microwave. That's so interesting. There you go, that's the end of part one. If you want part two of great comebacks, you can have it right now by going over to our patron, patreon.com forward slash oh, what a time,

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