Really interesting documentary on YouTube oldstyles might like

cdm

Hi all! Just popping in with news of a prog in a similar vein. 'Cathy come home' is on next week. It's on Sunday, 10.30 plan BBC 4. I was 11 when this was shown for the first time, and I was quite shocked. We weren't all roses round the door and idyllic living by any means, but I found it hard to believe that that was the reality of some people's lives.

Dclutterchique

I've finally got round to watching this programme and it really is a whole different world in every aspect. I was born the year the programme was made and I only knew one person who didn't have a inside toilet (they did have a bathroom). Although the toilet was incorporated into the floorplan of the bungalow, it was just that there was no door from the interior direct to the toilet, so it meant going through the kitchen and round to the back to get to the loo. The lady who lived there was the owner and she chose not to convert it to an inside toilet until very late in her life.

Apart from the living conditions in the programme there were two other things that stood out for me. The first that the people living in St Ann's were doing their best to keep their families fed, clothed and housed as best as possible and not use it as an excuse to give up and fall into squalor. Second, the programme makers didn't treat the participants or the viewers as idiots.

For everyone who wonders if conditions have change for people living with modern housing problems Channel 5 are showing a 1 off documentary on Tuesday 6th December at 22.00 call Slum Britain:50 years on comparing the situation then and now.
http://www.channel5.com/show/slum-britain-50-years-on

moneyistooshorttomention

Agh! 50 years back is the 1960s - ie the decade before modern day contraception/abortion.

Personally - I wonder if there is a comparator programme showing the difference between the 1980s and nowadays??? Then one could gauge matched comparator situations....

I would be left watching a programme about the 1960s feeling unable to compare to nowadays - because of such different background circumstances....:( 1960s is a different era (too far different to nowadays) - but 1980s would give something more "realistic" to compare to imo.

Dclutterchique

moneyistooshort, I suspect Channel 5 have gone for doing a comparison between 50 years ago and now because it is 50 years since 'Cathy Come Home', as mentioned by cdm, was first broadcast.

[Deleted User]

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Other shows well worth a watch are the coal house, the coal house at war, the 1940's house on you tube

Then look up poverty in the uk in the 1970's, some really heartbreaking stories on there

This was my family in the 1970s

Granddad had an outside toilet and tin bath into the late 1970s.

We bought clothes from charity shops when it was still embarrassing to do so, in winter we all had wet feet from holes in shoes and often there was no food to eat.

There would be a loaf of bread that was stale which you toasted. When it was moldy and stale you picked off the mouldy bits and then toasted it.

Today there is always food on the table. Even if the electric goes off I cook on top of the woodburner or use the camping stove. If you visit me I will offer homemade cake, or biscuits or a full meal. No one goes hungry in my house.

I also never waste food - ever. The other day I ate home- made red pepper, tomato and red lentil soup for breakfast. It was the only chance to use it up so I ate it then rather than waste it.