The 1940s House is a British historical reenactment reality television series made by Wall to Wall/Channel 4 in 2001 about a modern family that tries to live as a typical middle-class family in London during The Blitz of World War II.Cooper, Annette. Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television. Reprint ed. Florence, Ky.: Routledge, 2005. The program was broadcast on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom in 2001, and in 2002 on PBS in the United States, ABC Television in Australia,Owen, Rob. "A Trip Back in Time: 'The 1940s House'." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 3 November 2002. and TVNZ in New Zealand. The series was narrated in the UK by Geoffrey Palmer.Quigley, Eileen S. International Television & Video Almanac 2006. 51st ed. Groton, Mass.: Quigley Pub. Co., 1998.
Production Conception The success of The 1900 House led Channel 4 to revisit the idea of taking a family back in time again.Wasko, Janet. A Companion to Television. Indianapolis, Ind.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2005. Stonehouse, Cheryl. "After Life In the 1940s House, It Is Difficult to Let Go of the Past." Daily Express. 27 December 2000. The 1940s House was originally conceived with only four episodes.Worthington, Simon. "Wanted: Spirited Family to Live Through the Blitz (Rations to be Set by War Cabinet)." Evening Standard. 7 January 2000. The concept of the show was different from that of The 1900 House: instead of focusing on the family's ability to cope without modern conveniences, this one focused on the family's ability to pull together under uncertainty and fear.Jardine, Cassandra. "Oh, What An Interesting War..." Daily Telegraph. 8 December 2000.Heavens, Al. "Re-Creating How Britain's Middle Class Survived in the 1940s." Philadelphia Inquirer. 2 February 2003.
Filming and Location The house is at 17 Braemar Gardens, West Wickham, Kent, in the United Kingdom (now a suburb of Greater London).Sturgis, Matthew. "Number 17: The Unsung Hero of the War." Sunday Telegraph. 31 December 2000.Levesque, John. "Family Shows War Is Tough At Home, Too." Seattle Post-Intelligencer. 5 November 2002.Poole, Oliver. "TV Family Finds Living in Forties Simply Fulfilling." The Daily Telegraph. 3 December 2000."The 1940s House." Channel4.com. No date. Accessed 29 June 2009."Forty Day Saga." Evening Chronicle. 2 January 2001. Series art director Lia Kramer, who had helped create The 1900 House, identified the property and oversaw its restoration. The Tudorbethan house, originally built in 1932 by Bradfield Bros & Murphy, was retrofitted to reflect the technology and fashions of a middle-class English home of the late 1930s. It is a gable-ended, three-bedroom, semi-detached home. A boiler fuelled by coke provided hot water,Edwards, Charlotte. "TV Choice: Life's A Bit Tough On the Home Front." The Independent. 31 December 2000. and there was no telephone or refrigerator."Life on the Home Front." Design Week. 5 January 2001. Sold for 875 pounds in 1932, the producers purchased the house for £187,000 in 1999. The house was in excellent structural condition, and no major renovations had occurred. Restoration included the removal of central heating and radiators, the custom-fitted kitchen cabinets and appliances, and the carpeting. Removal of the carpeting revealed checkerboard floor tiles. Several fireplaces were restored to working condition, and the original French doors which led outside to the patio were reinstalled. The producers discovered that the house had incurred bomb damage during World War II, and that the owner of the home had suffered a fatal heart attack putting out a fire caused by a bomb in the backyard garden in 1942. The home's original paint was uncovered, and discovered to be bright blues, pinks, and greens. 1940s-era floral wallpaper was purchased and reinstalled in some areas of the home (including the entryway). The house was decorated in a style typical of the 1930s, which included some used Victorian furniture and a small number of Art Deco pieces. The existing beds were replaced by iron bedsteads (including twin beds for Michael and Lyn). When neighbours learned of the project, many donated period home furnishings for free. A 1930s-style gas-fired cooking stove, Belfast sink, draining board, metal-topped table, and fold-down work shelf were installed in the kitchen. The garden was revamped to be typical of a victory garden.
The family had to act like a typical family of the time, which included the sewing of blackout curtains, building an air-raid shelter, and confronting wartime food rationing. Air raids were simulated during the show, forcing the family to take refuge in its air-raid shelter.Eden, Jenny. "How the War Led to a Family Battle." Daily Mirror. 30 December 2000. The near-nightly sound of the air-raid siren (fixed in a hallway in the home) left the family unnerved, even after they returned to their regular lives.McMullen, Marion. "Could You Survive the 1940s?" Coventry Evening Telegraph. 6 January 2001.<ref name="Pattinson">Pattinson, Georgina. "Hitching A Ride On The Home Front." Birmingham Post.''' 6 January 2001.</ref> The family had to stay in character all the time, including when the boys went to school. Period clothing (including underwear) were worn at all times. At night, Lyn and Kirstie had to set their hair in rollers. Even minor aspects of life (such as the depth of water in the bath tub, which could be no deeper than five inches) were regulated.
A special section was established in the rear of a local delicatessen where the family could shop for 1940s-era food, but which also suffered from "wartime rationing" to mimic real conditions.Barnard, Peter. "Fresh Blasts From the Past." The Times. 3 January 2001.
Filming began on 15 April 2000, and lasted nine weeks."Make Do And Mend." History Today. 1 January 2001. Unlike other historical reality television shows, the Hymers were not isolated. Their neighbours helped them dig their air-raid shelter, the family visited a retirement home (in costume and in character), and the house was visited by individuals who worked in government or the military during the Blitz. Nonetheless, Lyn Hymers later said in an interview that the family did feel isolated, and never got the sense of community spirit that people living in the 1940s would have felt.
The 1940s House was put on the market for £212,000 and sold to a private owner after production wrapped.
Broadcast and Release There were five episodes: Episode 1: The Home Front (2 January 2001) - The series is introduced, the family moves in, war breaks out, and food rationing is confronted for the first time. Episode 2: Into the Unknown (4 January 2001) - Michael Hymers leaves the house for three weeks for work-related reasons, and the family confronts additional rationing. Episode 3: Women at War (11 January 2001) - Lyn and Kirstie join the Women's Voluntary Service and work in the war industry. Episode 4: The Beginning of the End (18 January 2001) - 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. Episode 5: The Homecoming (25 January 2001) - Six months later, the Hymers reflect on their time in 1940s House.De Groot, Jerome. Consuming History. Florence, Ky.: Taylor & Francis, 2008.
PBS aired the series in the U.S. between 4 November and 2 December 2002,Kadar, Marlene; Warley, Linda; Perreault, Jeanne; and Egan, Susanna. Tracing the Autobiographical. Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2005. which reviewers and members of the Hymers family felt reduced American viewership. The series also screened in Australia on ABC Television in 2002, airing several months before its predecessor, The 1900 House.Bunbury, Stephanie and Heinrich, Karen. "Retro Reality." The Age. 18 June 2002.Bignell, Jonathan; Orlebar, Jeremy; and Holland, Patricia. The Television Handbook. 3rd ed. Florence, Ky.: Taylor & Francis, 2005.
The Hymers family The 1940s House was inhabited by the Hymers family: Father Michael; mother Lyn; daughter Kirstie (age 29 when the series was produced); and Kirstie's sons Ben (age 10) and Thomas (age 7). The family applied to be on the series after reading an ad in Radio Times. More than 300 families auditioned for the show. Michael Hymers is a 1940s enthusiast, which was a factor in getting the family chosen for the show. The producers also felt the Hymers were well-spoken but also argumentative, which would make for good television as well as showcase a 1940s family's need to pull together.
The family and producers were advised by a "war cabinet" of historians and others who helped advise on the home's renovation, educated the Hymers about life in 1940-1941, and evaluated the family's behaviour during the show to ensure it conformed to 1940s standards. The show's chief advisor was British historian Juliet Gardiner. The family was advised on cooking and air-raid issues by home economist Marguerite Patten. The "war cabinet" also challenged the family at times: At one point, grandson Ben was named "fuel warden" and was given supervision of the family's fuel consumption. However, the family did admit to some cheating: Michael Hymers used Brylcreem for his hair, Thomas secretly listened to music by S Club 7, and both boys obtained modern snacks such as crisps from schoolmates. Lyn Hymers attempted to trade some of the show's authentic 1940s props to the neighbours for cigarettes. At another point, the family members refused to slaughter rabbits for food, and the producers had to provide them with dressed rabbit carcasses instead.
The family was significantly affected by the experience in the 1940s House. Michael and Lyn Hymers' relationship nearly ruptured, as Michael was away at work much of the time and was not aware of how difficult life was for the rest of the family. Kirstie worried that her children were not getting enough to eat and considered leaving the show. Most family members lost weight and believed their health and physical fitness improved. The Hymers' younger daughter, Jodie, visited the set, and enjoyed making a puppet show with Ben and Thomas but then Lyn and Michael resolved not to see anyone from outside the show thereafter. Jodie and her husband Iain attended a themed party with the rest of the family dressing up in 1940s attire. After the show, however, Lyn Hymers became as much of a 1940s enthusiast as her husband, the family bought a car manufactured in 1949, Michael and Lyn Hymers shopped at neighbourhood stores rather than supermarkets, Lyn Hymers did much more home cooking, and Michael Hymers used a tin bathtub heated by the home fireplace.Moore, Wendy. "Oh! What A Lovely Diet." The Observer. 14 January 2001. Although Ben and Thomas have not given up video games completely, their experiences without them in the 1940s House led them to prefer board games or their own made-up games now. The family developed such a taste for Spam and served it as a birthday dish. Lyn Hymers admitted that she suffered from depression after the series ended, overwhelmed by how hard life had been for women in the 1940s. Although the family felt the work was hard, the adults also agreed there was less emotional and intellectual pressure and they became much closer during the show.
Reception