The 1940s House

Season

2001

UK

8.2

A couple, their daughter and two grandchildren volunteer to spend several weeks living under wartime conditions. That includes all their clothing, including underclothes and nightwear; being constantly pushed to keep up with traditional grooming methods and dealing with severe shortages of all grooming products such as tooth care products, all types of soap and shampoo, shaving supplies for Michael; learning to live with rationing (12 ounces of candy a month, 4 ounces of ham a week, etc.,) and digging up the back yard partly for extra vegetables and partly for an "Anderson" air raid shelter. Several historians and experts formed a War cabinet to direct events, and push the family through 6 years of war in those weeks.

Episode List

S1 • E1

The Home Front

Imagine living without central heating, telephone, fridge. Living in darkened rooms, being woken up and spend the rest of the night in a damp, underground shelter. Imagine not being able to pop to the shops for a little of what you fancy.

S1 • E2

Into the Unknown

Michael Hymers leaves the house for three weeks for work-related reasons, and the family confronts additional rationing.

S1 • E3

Women at War

S1 • E4

The Beginning of the End

The family suffers from air-raids, sleep deprivation, and bomb damage before learning that the war is over. They also listen to radio stories about the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.