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5 Episodes 2012 - 2012
Episode 1
Three houses are reconstructed to the way they would have been in the early 1900s. House #1 is a four story home at the height of upper class luxury with five servants, electricity, and a boiler for hot water. House #2 is an average middle class home with 7 rooms and running water but no electricity. The last is a two room "typical working class dwelling" with only one bedroom and no bathroom where each member of the family must work manual labor all day. Three modern day families each live in one for a week, determined by the status of their own Edwardian ancestors.
Episode 2
Three houses are reconstructed to the way they would have been in the interwar period. House #1 is a lavish upper class house with four servants and many material possessions including a washing machine where no one needs to work. House #2 is an average middle class home with electricity, hot and cold water, and a gas stove where the father is the sole provider. House #3 is a working class home with two bedrooms but no indoor plumbing where each member of the family must work. Three modern day families each live in one for a week, determined by the status of their own interwar era ancestors. They live through the Roaring Twenties and experience the Great Depression.
Episode 3
Three houses are reconstructed to the way they would have been during World War II. House #1 is a lavish upper middle class house with an air raid shelter. House #2 is an average middle class home that must deal with a limited food supply. House #3 is a working class home with livestock and a vegetable garden to provide their own food. Three modern day families each live in one for a week, determined by the status of their own 1940s ancestors. They live through wartime on the home front with food rationing. One mother is an ARP warden, all three fathers join the Local Defence Volunteers, two fathers get drafted, the wives join the workforce, and the children are sent away (except the three teenage girls who join the Women's Land Army).
Episode 4
Episode 5
Three houses are reconstructed to the way they would have been during the 1970s. House #1 has been carved into flats with one family's single mother being the upstairs landlady and another single mom living downstairs in a tight space with minimal luxuries. House #2 is an average middle class home with a video player, a chest freezer, and duvets on their beds. House #3 is a working class home with furry wallpaper. Four modern day families each live in one for a week, determined by the status of their own 1970s ancestors. The adults relive their childhoods but, this time, as the parents. They live through a time of political unrest, work strikes, power cuts, the three day week, a water shortage, women's lib, the Winter of Discontent, and Tupperware parties. All the mothers work (a café waitress, a district nurse, a lollipop lady, and a landlady). All the children go to school except one 18-year-old, who is a teaching assistant. The two fathers see themselves doing most of the housework and cooking.