back in time for the weekend bbc tue 8pm

[Blondeshavemorefun]

anyone watching?

love programmes like these

1- the 50's

A family gives up their 21st-century technology and travels back in time. As they enter the 50s, it's goodbye to the flat-screen TV and hello to a piano and some darning.

Yep...it's my BIL and his family!

I am getting a bit ticked off with this at the moment. My mother trained as a nurse in the 1950s and my grandmother worked as a shop assistant in the Co-op and then a hardware store. Both worked full time. Mum did knit but didn't make our clothes or soft furnishings. My grandmother used to use the local laundry for shirts and bedding even on her shop worker wage.
Is the programme seems to be skewed very much to the middle class way of life?

Last sentence should be - Is the programme skewed towards the middle class way of life?

I didn't watch the first series, other than several clips on iPlayer.

Both series do seem very MC.

My mum was from East Croydon and was a teen in the mid 50's. She went to work, hung out in jazz clubs and rode a moped. She didn't do much hanging around dance halls and is was certainly no domestic goddess.

She was 12 and her brothers were doing National Service when her dad died and she effectively became the man of the house. Even now she's in her seventies you're much more likely to find her wielding and electric drill than an whisk .

Watched Giles say kids today wouldn't have an axe at the camp site,is this true ? are they not even given pen knifes these days ?

I love these series. I'll be watching later in the week though.

Was ok not as good as the last one. Was strange about axe because under adult supervision would be fine even if he's there it's a no-no.

When the mum put the lipstick on and went wow that's pretty wild or something like that.... And it perfectly matched her glasses and suit!

Can't believe going to smash up a perfectly good piano next week. What a waste.

I did watch, and I did enjoy it, but how is this one supposed to be different from the food one? If the focus on technology in this one?

I'm not finding this family anywhere near as likeable as the Robshaws. It's certainly very middle class, those immaculate outfits and the ballroom dancing! Very different from my mum's life. Loved the little lads cooking and enjoying spam fritters though!

I found it massively annoying the way they kept dwelling on the lack of freedom the mother and daughter felt because of the domestic chores. I'm sure it was edited to make this point, but it wasn't a particularly relevant comparison to take someone who did no housework at all and regress her to the hard labour of hand washing etc. The implication was that women nowadays are much better off and I'm not sure that's the case for everyone.

what did they do in the winter.

I found I was quite insulted, I was brought up in the 50`s, the mother and daughter assumed we were uneducated, stupid, slow and boring. We had to use what ever we could afford to make our lives interesting, which wasn't a lot, they mocked our lives. How dare they! One day the little girl, yes I call her that as she is not yet fully grown in her mind, will find she can't do something perfect as soon as she tackles it, find some patients in her small mind, and get a grip when she can't have everything she wants in her life!

I don't think the family came across very well. They didn't seem keen to take part, to "play the game". I thought the mum walking out if church was awful, just making a point. If she felt that strongly she should not have gone in the 1st place. She should have sat there, thought her own thoughts, she didn't need to actually listen or take part. Nor did any of them sing the national anthem.

I am not religious nor a royalist but i think they should have just got into the spirit of things and have done it without moaning.

im not sure if I would have felt quite as annoyed though had I not liked the Robshaws so much, they were fab, especially the dad. He always had a smile and made interesting points

I really enjoy those programmes. The boys' camping trio looked like great fun. DH would never have managed all that DIY!

they will never know what it was really like in the 50's and can go back to their I pads and phones so pretty pointless really doing it.

You didn't know any better back then.

I agree dottypotter, we were all actually behaving as we should, and expected, I would like to see a family appreciate how we did cope on a poor income, and realise what we didn't have we never missed.

i enjoy these sort of programmes but agree always make out the little woman must stay at home as females never worked

my nan and grandma worked

loved the making of the doorbell

didnt understand why wife walked out of church

makes a family spend time with each other in evening instead of all playing on gadgets

did they enjoy it ava

They had a great time apparently. We're seeing them in the next couple of weeks so will no doubt hear more about then.

I had to smile at MIL who did look like she'd actually stepped out of a time machine . I thought she did rather well!

I actually enjoyed this one better than the Robshaw one. I agree about the emphasis on the fact that women didn't have any freedom. I don't know of any women who didn't work; I think this is a myth. That mother didn't seem to get into the spirit, did she? There was quite a lot of moaning, even though the washing facilities were actually quite up to date for the time (I didn't have a proper machine until I was gone 40...).

I really liked the lad, though. He seemed wise beyond his years.

Thing is you know if applying for this you will be losing mod cons / doing it all by hand

That's part of the fun of it :)

The wind up drill made my DF laugh

Jobs would have taken forever

And agree son seems clued up bless him

Agree about the piano, the woman's lippy just happening to go with outfit and I was shocked she left church before the service ended.

From what I've heard, I'm pretty sure the majority of women didn't go out to work then? I'm prepared to be proved wrong though. (I'm not MC)

Nice family, as nice as the Robshaws IMO.

wotno I've been thinking about the work thing too. I'm from a wc background and I know my mother left school and worked until she had me in 1959. My auntie too-she worked in a shop and my gm, who was a housewife, looked after my cousin. They lived together. I think most women from my mum's background worked until they had children and then didn't return. My mum retired at 55 (local govt).

To clarify, I mean work outside the home! Housework was pretty heavy-duty in those days and went way beyond cooking, cleaning and washing. In our case, coal was delivered onto the pavement outside and had to be taken through the house into the "coal cwtch" at the back of the house by hand. This was a massive job in itself, and done by the women, as the men would have bern at work.

I was annoyed at the mother leaving the church too.

The playing out on Sunday thing was interesting too. This was the case in my day too (60s). No children played out, even if not in church/chapel.

"From what I've heard, I'm pretty sure the majority of women didn't go out to work then? "

Do you mean married women?

There must have been some who didn't give up work because it couldn't be afforded.

I think there were some jobs/careers where it was expected that a woman would stop work upon marriage.

In other cases I think it was a matter of "pride" for the man that he could afford to "keep" his wife.

My mum gave up work when she married & I think she was expected to by the company tbh.

There was no thought that either my sister or myself would when we married though.

Yes I was thinking married women, especially those with children, as the woman in the programme portrays.

Interesting point about pride diddl