Gadget-free 1970s was happiest period, says 'time-travelling' TV family
The Ashby-Hawkins family go back in time with presenter Giles Coren.
Photograph: Duncan Stingemore/BBC/Wall to Wall
The 1970s was the happiest decade for family life before the advent of
technology began to fracture the generations, according to the stars of the new
BBC2 time-travelling series Back in Time for the Weekend.
In the follow-up to the hit series Back in Time for Dinner, the
Ashby-Hawkins family from London was transported back last summer to the 1950s
to live through each successive decade and experience the change in their
family life and leisure time.
Their technology and creature comforts were stripped away and their house
and working lives transformed so each day reflected a new year.
But the thing that they noticed most was the effect the absence of
technology had on their relationships.
Father Rob told the Guardian that surveys have shown many people think the
best time to live was in the 1970s and that Back in Time for the Weekend showed
that.
“The 1970s proved to be one of the happiest times and backed up surveys
that say we were the happiest in that decade – we were totally immersed.”
His wife Steph, who works in IT, said the production team from Wall to Wall
gave them fun things to do such as space hopper races, camping, chopper bike
races, a disco and indoor golf – played by candlelight to simulate the power
cuts of the time.
“The 1970s were very hard to leave,” said Rob, with Steph adding that
although they also enjoyed the 1980s part of the experiment “technology started
to fracture our family life … we really felt the impact”.
“The 1980s was about individual leisure,” explained Rob. “When TV and music
videos and gadgets started to come into our lives, it started to fragment us
somewhat. It was quite strange … we could gradually feel being pulled apart. We
peaked in the 70s.”
Although the 1950s was one of the toughest for working mother Steph and
childminder Rob as they had to switch to old-fashioned roles, Rob said it was
“lovely the children not having tech” and seeing their children, 12-year-old
Seth and 16-year-old Daisy, play more with each other and devise card games
together.
“They became each other’s tech in some way, their own entertainment,”
observed Rob.
“They were profoundly changed, they had a closer relationship,” added
Steph.
She said the 1950s had been the hardest for her because she was “shoehorned
into this traditional role of doing everything domestically-speaking. It was
just weird – the logic of it wasn’t there for me. I’m looking at it from a
modernist feminist viewpoint. Being stuck in the 50s I felt totally trapped
because I was within four walls the whole time, I was inside the kitchen and
the house so much.”
Rob also said that decade had been taxing but that he had learnt new
skills, such as making a table and learning to garden.
Reflecting on what their experience has taught them, Steph said she thought
it has “made us think a lot about our approach to things and gadgets. There’s
such a huge amount of stuff added as the decades go on. It makes you think
twice about it – you think ‘I’m doing that in the modern day’.”
She explained: “We’re a fairly typical 21st-century family – we’ll use
iPhone, tablets, DVDs, stream music and films. We’ll often be in the lounge
with one of us watching telly while someone else is on Instagram, Facebook etc.
We have fairly separate lives to a certain extent. Sometimes when we’re together
though, we’re fairly strict for example on Seth’s screen time and no screens at
the table, but we do use a lot of tech. This experiment has been in stark
contrast to our normal lives.
“And I think it’s reinforced a number of things – the need for us as a
family to have a couple of devices to bring us together, for us it’s the dining
table. I don’t think we will ever get rid of the tech but I think it’s helped
us understand we enjoy being with each other so we need to have a mechanism for
that. I think it’s made us appreciate each other in terms of the role we play
in the family.”
Presenter Giles Coren, who also fronted Back in Time for Dinner, said this
series is “even more real than the last one” in terms of the visual effects
designed to make the transformation to a different era even more realistic.
“The 1980s in the house in the last series was obviously 1980s; this time
we have a chintzy version. Last time food was the way in, but this is a much
more important story, but harder to tell.”
During the show, which starts on BBC2 on Tuesday night, a number of
surprise guests also appear, including darts player Eric Bristow and TV
presenter Angela Rippon.
