How We Used To Live, 1968
Something a little different for our Friday Kid’s TV post.
Way back in the 1960’s we didn’t have living museums like we do today so TV seemed to be the best way of engaging kids with history.
How We Used To Live ran sporadically for over 140 episodes, over 7 series between 1968 and 2002.
Each series was broadcast as part of ITV Schools, between 1968 and 1987 and later on Channel 4 and S4.
Each series, generally ran for 20 programmes, 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.
Among the cast you may recognise Sue Jenkins who was in Coronation Street and Brookside and Peter Howitt of Bread fame.
Summary
How We Used To Live 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.
Clips
Cast
included
Sue Jenkins
Jane Hazlegrove
Peter Howitt
Diana Davies
Puneet Sira
Details
Channel: ITV (1968 – 1987), Channel 4, S4C (1987 – 2002)
Written By: Freada Kelsall
Produced by Yorkshire Television
Originally Transmitted: 1968 – 2002
Collectors Corner
All series of How We Used to Live from the 1975–1976 series to A Tudor Interlude (1993) were released on VHS in 1994 and 1995 by Yorkshire International Thomson Multimedia. These were intended for educational institutions only, but have since become collectable among a general audience and are often available on sites such as ebay.