BACK IN TIME FOR TEA - TUE 8pm bbc2

[Blondeshavemorefun]

Love these kind of programmes

Over the course of 6 episodes the Ellis family experience first hand what life was like for working families over the past 100 yrs

Beginning 1918

agree rushed frombread to holiday

and would a dad really eat more/better then let his kids starve

Yes I think they actually would if there was not enough food to go around, Blondes. Have heard of this before. The reasoning is that if they were in a manual job they probably used up a lot of calories, and as the whole family were dependant on them this is how the wives used to share the food out ......

I read something about a year or so ago which said this is why a lot of babies died at birth or in infancy, as the mothers were inadequately nourished . Wish I could remember if it was a book or article.

In fact, echoes of this still go on. I often see Mumsnet threads where the OP is complaining that her MIL (usually) gives all the men a much larger helping, especially of meat.

My mum was a child in the 1930s and she said her mum and dad always made sure the kids got fed first, but that it was unusual on their street. She said her mum would fry a bit of bacon, and give it to the kids, and the parents ate bread dipped in the bacon fat. She did say it was often the other way round in her friends' houses.

I really love how positive and cheerful the family are. And their lovely accents!

I can't believe I've missed it AGAIN!

Glad I found this thread. I love the back in time for tea programmes. I really liked the robshaws but I love the ellises!! What a lovely family. Glad they were getting a bit more to eat this week!

I love these sorts of programmes, have enjoyed 1900s house, 1940s house, various back in time programmes, one where there were about 5 households in a little mining village,

Yes I love these sort of shows too. DH and I were just discussing the various ones we remember and there is one I vaguely remember but can't recall it's name, whether it was a series or a one off or very much about it so maybe you good people can?

It was about holiday camps in the 50s or possibly 60s. They recreated something like a Butlins from that era with the very basic chalets, communal meals and "family fun" and put some modern families in.

Oh that one sounds good 5foot5

I liked the trio who lived for a year on a farm. They built it up from very little at all. They had to learn all sorts about breaking in a pony to pull their cart to building hedges to starting a fish farm (it failed)

Nobody has mentioned the Victorian slum. I loved the Victorian slum.

Also liked the Robshaws. Thought it was interesting that this new family are also two older sisters and a younger brother, shame they din’t vary that a bit and have maybe an older brother.

Pleased that this Mum does seem to know how to cook, unlike Rochelle, bless her.

loved the farm trio. learnt a lot from them. Carrots with everything during WW2, down to even making your clothes from the bags! black market stuff,

Interesting to note that the mum was aware of the 'excess' of the late 50s.

When sweets came off ration my mum said everyone went completely wild!! I was thinking 'this is the beginning of all the obesity nowadays.' But because everyone walked to most places and didn't have non stop screens in front of them. They didn't pile on the weight then!

I was thinking 'this is the beginning of all the obesity nowadays

I had the exact same thought! Then I thought maybe I was being silly but it does make sense.

Sweets came off the ration twice. On the first occasion the sweets disappeared so rapidly that the shelves were bare in a couple of days due to the adults buying them all, so rationing was re-imposed. The second time a few years later people were much more restrained, so we children were able to get a look in.

I' ll ask my mum about that eddie (not that I doubt you but I don't remember her saying it) I do remember my dm being careful to allow us to spend our meagre pocket money on sweets once a week, and not mentioning the rationing!!! But I was little. We started saving our pennies, stopped buying sweets, when we realised that was all we had!

Of course the little ones who'd been through the war wouldn't be soo keen on all the sugary stuff because they didn't have much of it!!!

The only thing that didn't chime as right last night was that they got a telly - they were extremely rare among working class families in the 50s.

They were rare but my UWC ILS bought one for the occasion of the coronation and they were so proud that the whole street came in to their front room to watch it . (They had one child and both worked FT).

Yes the TV struck me as massively expensive for their income levels. £19 initial payment???

But I just remembered that as a builder during the war my FIL owned a whole street of war damaged houses!! Though that was before inflation of course! He then gambled most of it away. (after buying the telly !).

My best friend's parents had a TV in 1953. On Coronation Day my mother took my brother and myself to watch the Coronation procession (Dad, being a republican, stayed at home). And after we had got home and had our tea, my friend and her Dad came round to see if I could go to their house to watch the repeat of the ceremony in Westminster Abbey.

The biggest expansion in TV ownership came with the Coronation. My Dad’s neighbours very wc area got one and the whole close went to watch

The cow heel pie brought back some memories for me last night. I remember my Grandad going to the UCP cafe and eating tripe and vinegar. I also remember my DM cooking him a pig's trotter for his tea. It still had some of the hairs attached to it. I was horrified. I was brought up in the 60s in the north but it feels like centuries ago now in regards to food.

I grew up in the fifties, and remember being allowed lots of cheap, chewy sweets after rationing ended. We did lots of running about, not many kids got fat, but boy, did our teeth suffer! Lost count of the number of fillings and extractions I had over the years.....

5foot5 I remember that, it was channel 4 and a 2 parter I think, I remember the adults carrying on with their evening while the DC went to bed and they had the listening service (lots of discussion on that) glamorous granny competitions and stuff, and the women doing exercises outside in a group "I must, I must, I must improve my bust" and the men taking the piss and saying "tick tock, tick tock, I must improve my cock"

I thought they were going to let them choose if they got a washing machine, fridge or TV!

I've now seen both of these and don't think it was Bradford Industrial Museum. There is another one a bit further west that was mentioned on Look North this week during a piece about it being the 200th anniversay of a mill fire where 17 girls aged 12-17 died .

Enjoying the show but agree that they should have had a Yorkshire presenter, not one from Lancashire, as they aren't the same, despite Sara Cox insinuating that food was the same across the north. We don't call it a barm or fill one with pies for example.