The story of Jodrell Bank could serve as a metaphor for post-war British scientific and industrial development. Built in an atmosphere of argument and recrimination over its cost, and plagued by constant union disputes and sniping press comment, it nevertheless triumphed against all the odds, contributing greatly to Britain's scientific reputation and to our understanding of deep space.

When Lovell first proposed building the telescope in 1948, he estimated that it would cost around £60,000 to build. After work began in 1950, it was soon clear that these figures were wildly optimistic; and, in 1952, a more "realistic" sum of £333,000 was agreed on, to be shared equally between the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and the Nuffield Foundation.

But this, too, soon turned out to be an underestimate (the telescope ultimately cost £670,000), as the building work was plagued by strikes, bureaucratic delays, delivery failures and escalating raw material costs. The project became the subject of heated debates in Parliament, and at one point, burdened by a debt of around a third of a million pounds and in trouble with the Public Accounts Committee, Lovell faced possible imprisonment for the alleged overspending of public money.