How We Used to Live was a long-running British educational history television series, produced for most of its run by Yorkshire Television. The series, encompassing drama and documentary, remained in sporadic production from 1968 to 2002, airing on ITV and Channel 4.
Written by Freda Kelsall, the series traced the lives and fortunes of various fictional Yorkshire families from the Victorian era until the early 1970s, in and around the fictional town of Bradley, using self-contained short dramas interspersed with archive footage.
{| class="infobox" style="width: 20em;" | style="text-align: center; background: #dfdfef; font-size: 90%;" | How We Used to Live EpisodesSeries 1: Late Victorians Original air date: autumn 1968, spring 1969 & summer 1969 (the final three episodes added to the series in spring & summer 1973) |- | style="font-size: 90%;" align="left" | The Big House The Small House House in the Middle The Parlour The Bedroom Kitchen What's Cooking? Spick and Span Lighting the Lamp Festive Season Keeping Warm Keeping in Touch Evenings at Home When We Were Ill Shopping Growing Up at Home Going to School On the Road Travelling by Train Sunday – the Day of Rest In the Country In the Garden Sport Clothes and Occasions At the Seaside Summing Up In the Street Children and the Law On the Farm
{| class="infobox" style="width: 20em;" | style="text-align: center; background: #dfdfef; font-size: 90%;" | How We Used to Live EpisodesSeries 2: 1908–1945 Original air date: autumn 1975 & spring 1976 |- | style="font-size: 90%;" align="left" | 1908: Moving Day 1908: Hard at Work 1909: Still at School 1909: A Home for Grandma 1910: An Evening Out 1910: Jane's First Job 1911: A Day in the Country 1913: Vote for Mum 1915: Going for a Soldier 1917-18: Armistice 1925: On the Air 1926: On Strike 1928: On the Mains 1931: On the Dole 1932: All at Sea 1939: Blackout 1940: Invasion 1940: Blitz 1943: In Short Supply 1945: Victory
{| class="infobox" style="width: 20em;" | style="text-align: center; background: #dfdfef; font-size: 90%;" | How We Used to Live EpisodesSeries 3: 1874–1887 Original air date: autumn 1978 & spring 1979 |- | style="font-size: 90%;" align="left" | 1874: New Arrivals 1874: Too Old for Nanny 1875: Too Young for the Mill 1876: Never too late to Learn 1876: Daily Round 1877: Evening Hours 1878: The Pledge 1879: Mud Lane 1880: Polling Day 1880: Christmas 1881: Remember the Sabbath 1882: On the Parish 1882: The Spa 1883: Fit for a Lady 1884: Ideas Unlimited 1885: Let the Punishment fit the Crime 1885: Green and Pleasant Land 1886: God Bless the Squire 1887: Proposals 1887: Wedding Bells
{| class="infobox" style="width: 20em;" | style="text-align: center; background: #dfdfef; font-size: 90%;" | How We Used to Live EpisodesSeries 4: 1936–1953 Original air date: autumn 1981 & spring 1982 |- | style="font-size: 90%;" align="left" |
1936: Head of the Family 1937: Counting the Cost 1938: Holiday With Pay 1939: Hospital Case 1939: Goodnight Children Everywhere 1940: Home from Home 1942: Stars and Stripes 1943: Make Do and Mend 1943: Take a Man's Place 1944: Peace on Earth 1945: Let us Face the Future 1946: Full Supporting Programme 1947: Cold Comfort 1947: A New Look 1948: Full Steam Ahead 1948: On the National Health 1949: On the Move 1951: A Tonic for the Nation 1952: We Have Travelled a Hard Road 1953: Your Undoubted Queen
{| class="infobox" style="width: 20em;" | style="text-align: center; background: #dfdfef; font-size: 90%;" | How We Used to Live EpisodesSeries 5: 1902–1926 Original air date: autumn 1984 & spring 1985 |- | style="font-size: 90%;" align="left" | 1902: Home from the War 1903: Chapel on Sunday 1905: Bank Holiday 1906: Vote for Change 1909: The People's Budget 1910: Out of Work 1911: In the Country 1912: The Children's Charter 1913: The Right to Vote 1914: Over by Christmas 1916: Called Up 1917: The Right to Serve 1918: The Need to Share 1919: Epidemic 1920: Hill Climb 1921: Roof Fall 1922: The Electric Light 1924: The Cat's Whisker 1925: The Roaring Twenties 1926: The General Strike
{| class="infobox" style="width: 20em;" | style="text-align: center; background: #dfdfef; font-size: 90%;" | How We Used to Live EpisodesSeries 6: 1954–1970 Original air date: autumn 1987 & spring 1988 |- | style="font-size: 90%;" align="left" | 1954: Land of Plenty 1955: Home Before Nine 1956: Keeping Britain Great 1957: Commercial Breaks 1958: Easter Holiday 1959: Separate Schools 1960: Women's Wrongs 1961: Rising High 1962: Strangers on the Shore 1963: Our Kind of Music 1964: Mini on the Motorway 1965: Last Train from Mill Road 1966: Amazing Reductions 1966: Eyes Down at the Roxy 1967: Flower Power 1967: The Big Clean Up 1968: No Fun Being Old 1969: On the Moon 1969: Twin Towns 1970: Coming of Age |} {| class="infobox" style="width: 20em;" | style="text-align: center; background: #dfdfef; font-size: 90%;" | How We Used to Live EpisodesSeries 7: Victorians: Early and Late Original air date: autumn 1990 |- | style="font-size: 90%;" align="left" | A Time of Change Family Cares Proper Jobs Fatal Mixture Rights And Wrongs Half A Century On A Model Village The Hidden Tenth A Bible and a Rose Utopia Limited |} {| class="infobox" style="width: 20em;" | style="text-align: center; background: #dfdfef; font-size: 90%;" | How We Used to Live EpisodesFrom Iron Ways to Victorian Days Original air date: 1996 |- | style="font-size: 90%;" align="left" | The Iron Cradle 1815: Geordie Lads & Cornish Men 1820–1821: Horses on the Wagon Way 1823–1825: The Quaker Railway Great Britons and Local Heroes
Transmission details Each series was broadcast as part of ITV Schools, on ITV between 1968 and 1987 and then on Channel 4 and S4C. The series, generally running for 20 programmes, was split into two-halves – with the first ten episodes transmitted in the autumn term (usually September – December), followed by the remainder of the series in the spring term (from the second week of January until late March). The programmes were repeated frequently, enabling new generations of children to learn about modern history.
The series was mainly shown during the main schools schedule, although it was occasionally transmitted at other times. The British Film Institute lists Thora Hird Introduces How We Used to Live for 30 August 1984, describing it as "a documentary on the making of the award-winning schools series". It further says that it was shown late at night on most of the ITV network.
Part of the first series was repeated late at night in its home region of Yorkshire Television in early 1969. Also, the episodes 'Blitz' and 'Victory', first shown in 1976, were repeated on the ITV network on 8 May 1985, the 40th anniversary of VE Day.
Series
There have been several series of How We Used to Live.Series 1 centred on the late Victorian era. It was first broadcast in 1968. Some additional episodes were added to this series in 1972/1973 but this was not a separate series. This series featured on-screen presenters including Geoffrey Wheeler and Redvers Kyle.
Series 2 covered the periods 1908–1918 (autumn term 1975) and 1925–1945 (spring term 1976). The first half of the series (Episodes 1-10) centred around the Ackerley family, who move into their new home, 13 Sultan Street, Bradley in 1908. Albert, the father, is an assistant at a printing works. He earns 22/- per week. His son Harry takes a job as a grocers boy, earning 5/- per week. The rent of their terraced house, with gas and water laid on, is 6/- per week. Albert's wife Daisy must make the rest of the income cover food, fuel and clothing. Jane, their daughter, is still at school until the age of 14 when she goes to work as a housemaid in a middle-class home. Episodes 11–15 see the Dawson family move into the house formerly occupied by the Ackerley family. Stanley Dawson, the father, works as a stores clerk in a factory, earning £3/2/6 per week. He becomes unemployed in the thirties and he, his wife Doris and son Gerald are forced to rely on the earnings of daughter Marjorie, who works as a library assistant. The Boothroyds move into the terraced house just before World War Two – the last five episodes describe how they cope with the varied hazards of civilian life in wartime Britain. The series is narrated by YTV continuity announcer John Crosse.
Series 3 covers a thirteen-year period, namely the years 1874–1887. This series was first broadcast in 1978/1979. This series contrasts the fortunes of three families that although linked, have very different lives. Dr Hughes has a successful medical practice in middle-class Upper Bradley. His fee-paying patients live in the better part of town, or in the country houses on the outskirts. He gives some of his time to the Bradley Free Hospital, and, as Medical Officer of Health, is appalled by conditions in poor working-class areas. His wife, his son and youngest daughter live comfortable lives in a large house with their every need taken care of by the hired help- namely housekeeper Mrs Tandy, Annie Fairhurst and Nanny. The Hughes eldest daughter, Dora, is married to Captain Bertram Selwyn. His father is the squire of Westmoor (a role Bertram is required to fulfil after the death of his father). They have two children: Humphrey (born in 1874) and Sophie (born 1881). The lifestyles of the middle class Hughes and mildly aristocratic Selwyn families is in sharp contrast to that of the Fairhurst's. Ben and Mary Fairhurst are poor working class mill workers with more children than they can afford to feed. Annie, the eldest, is in service for Dr Hughes. Among the other children are Matt, Flo, Maudie, Tommy and Dinah, as well as the others who died young.
Series 4 covered the period from 1936 until 1953. It centred on the lower middle-class Hodgkins family. First broadcast in 1981/1982, this series embraces the events during the reign of George VI as they affected the family of Arthur Hodgkins, a railwayman living in Bradley. Along with his housewife Mabel and his four children, Patricia, Jimmy, Avril & Edward, they endure the hardships of the Second World War and the subsequent austerity period. The series concludes with the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
Series 5 was first broadcast in 1984–1985. It covered the major events and social changes from the end of the Boer War in 1902 to the General Strike of 1926. The series tells the story of the friendship between two families of children who meet in Sunday school. The Holroyds, Maurice, Charlotte and Alexander are middle class. Their father owns the local textile mill. The Selbys, Maggie, Tom, Freddy, Albert & Alice are poor. Their father is a drunkard, their mother works long hours in the mill to support them. As they grow up into young adults, their lives become intertwined and the relationship, sometimes strained, shows the huge social changes which affected people in Britain during this time.
Series 6 covered the period 1954–1970. It was first broadcast in 1987–1988 and centred on the Brady family. Michael Brady, the father of the family, was a character originally introduced in series 5 when he was born to Maggie Selby and Patrick Brady. The series begins with he and his family (wife Joan and children Susan, Roger & Beverley) moving back to Bradley. The series also features Michael's Uncle Albert & Aunt Bertha (Selby) who were also in the fifth series. Characters introduced in the fourth series, Jimmy, Eileen and Edward Hodgkins and Laurence and Avril Butterworth are also regulars, and the characters of Tom and Charlotte Selby from Series 5 and Esme Birkett from Series 4 also make guest appearances. YTV announcer Redvers Kyle returned to narrate short segments featuring archive film footage.