Every Tuesday I've been sitting down with my knitting and Jasper snoring his pretty little head off to watch Turn Back Time: The Family. Turn Back Time: The High Street was done a while ago where family businesses went through eras to see what it used to be like running a business. This time three brave families signed up to discover what family life was like through the eras, starting with the Edwardian era. Queue the long cotton dresses and scrubbing boards. 
All three families come from different backgrounds, but they live the lives of their ancestors. The houses they live in are in Morecambe next to each other, ranging from lower class to upper class. The families got a shock when one of them went from a successful comfortable life, to lower class all sleeping in the same room, desperately trying to put food on the table. The Meadows family from Berkshire with two daughters age 17 and 18 had to slave away working in the upper class house for hours washing up and doing so many chores that definitely chipped their nails. Not even Barry M can withold hours of scrubbing.The Taylor's were shocked when they found out they were living in the upper class house. At first they loved it, but then they found it hard after hardly seeing their children due to them constantly being looked after by a nanny. In the Edwardian era children were to be seen and not heard, which the families found hard to deal with, especially the adorable little children. The Goulding family were in the middle class family with the Dad working as a clerk. It was pretty funny seeing him dressed in a morning suit going to work in an office where everyone was on a computer wearing shirts and trousers. He wanted more discipline and respect from his family, so embraced the Edwardian father role. But then when he saw his children getting really upset and not wanting to spend time with him, he didn't like it as much as he thought he would. Think the Von Trapp family without the curtain outfits.
In the next episode which was last week the era ranged from 1920-1930, the years after when England was trying to recover from the devastating effects of the 'Great' war. At first the Meadows had it easier, but then when the Depression hit everything was taken away from them, including some of their jobs. They were left with two chairs and their beds after having to sell things to get some help from the Government. If only eBay was around in the 1920's.
The Goulding family weren't really effected due to having secure jobs, but the Taylor's were greatly effected due to all their money being tied up in the stock exchange. They had to make sacrifices including their gorgeous car and their staff, but they still had to keep up appearances so had to look like they weren't suffering. In 1929 there was the Great Depression in America where the stock exchange suffered a devastating collapse. It was the longest depression of the 20th century lasting until the late 1930's, middle 1940's. Like the depression now it didn't just affect America. It effected a cluster of nations across the world, especially people who had lots of shares in companies. You would think they would learn from this wouldn't you. David Cameron you are officially on the naughty step.
This programme is great and someone has seriously done their research. The houses contain gorgeous furniture and decor with the families wearing fabulous era appropriate clothes. As the years go on the street evolves and more families are added through to the 70's to reflect how Britain changed throughout the years. You can watch the last two episodes here. Oh and Ladies make sure you watch Tuesdays on BBC One at 9pm, it's all about World War Two a.k.a hunky men in uniform!
Second Hand Rose
XxxX
