Why don't they ask us?

Sorry JackyB, I see now that I read it wrong.

Lulydully, I so agree.mod/rockers 1964 , mods 1965, and moustaches and hippy stuff was 68 onwards.

I was 19 before woodstock/hippie/isle f twilight happened. 1969.

I always said half a crown or
2s 6d or 2/6 , what did you call it Jackie ?
I know what you mean about `Back in time for dinner` though . I stopped watching after the first one .

I didn't know anyone who had a whole house furnished in one style. I suppose our house would have been described as late 30s style - veneered oak or walnut - and most of the house was still furnished that way in the 90s when my parents died although we had a few more modern additions with the bookcase and my mother swapped the heavy oak table for a gate legged one. The furniture was prewar so good quality andit was regularly polished - loved that smell on polishing day when I came in from school! If I had known they were going to do so many period dramas I would have tried selling it to the TV props companies.
I remember my mother and aunts unpicking adult jumpers and re knitting them for children - they used the sleeve wool for the back as it got less wear. My mother made her wool into skeins and washed it first to get the crinkles out before re knitting it. Of course they could do this as most of the garments were hand knitted to start with. I hated being the one to hold the skeins while they were wound into balls.

They do it and get away with it because they think we're all thick.Maybe I am,but I can still pick out the ignorance or bordering on arrogance of the writer to assume we will accept it.(which of course we do) They can't do a period drama now,P Cness comes into it.Thats me finished,off it goes,

Oh yes welshwife the joy of passing time helping roll up the wool from a skein. I preferred the rolling end to the holding end.

In a recent episode of Grantchester, the contents of a dead man's wallet was described as "a couple of quid and a first class stamp". Grantchester is set in the early-to-mid fifties, a good 15 years before the introduction of first- and second-class post. Very careless.

Oh dear - sorry to have caused such confusion. Of course we said "half a crown" - it's just that people these days don't believe that we did.

"Back in Time for Dinner" was a classic example. They had a family re-enacting stuff, but the family themselves were so 21st century. The women didn't have the background or the common sense that a woman living at the time would have. Not even the 80s - remember it took them 2 1/2 hours to cook a Sunday lunch using just the microwave. And the way they were trying to cook chips in a pan - I wanted to throw the telly out the window!

My eldest set of grandchildren (12 and 9) were fascinated by the Giles Conran series 'Back in Time for Dinner'. I asked them if they wanted to watch the one set in the 1950's and they were glued to the television. Although, yes it was a little stereotyped, I think it caught the vibe of the times, well.

My grandchildren asked to watch the 1960's programme and later asked for yet another and would have watch the whole lot - not at the same time, I add. Just shows that children are interested - well my mob, anyway, in history and the past.

One of my grandchildren had problems differentiating between when Queen Elizabeth lived and when the Second World War took place. To her, they were almost one and the same - children do not seem to be taught history - at least not as we knew it. Or perhaps she's just dim (she's not)!!

I used to like Foyles War, and thought they got the feeling of those times very well. But there was always a strong story line to carry it along, so maybe you don't notice the odd anachronism.
Wartime Farm was good too.

We had a telly for the Coronation. Don't remember it being small but it must have been . I remember clearly being put to bed for dancing in front of the wretched thing. I must have been 3 and just soaking up the occasion.

We used to say 'Have you got . . . ' and 'I haven't got . . . ', and the response was 'No I haven't', using the word 'have'. Now it's all 'No I don't' and you hardly ever hear the word 'have' in this context. I notice this so often.

Our TV had a 12" screen which was smaller than the laptop I'm using now. There were at least 15 people and a boxer dog round it for the Coronation, peering at the screen. My uncle's TV had a 14" screen and was in a cabinet with doors - very posh. Did you have an X aerial or an H aerial?

I agree Foyle's War really seemed to get the setting and language right. Loved it!

Children do get taught history Candelle, but not in the chronological order we were. Victorians might be followed by Tudors or Egyptians. It's no wonder they can't work out what fits where.

I loved Foyles War and would happily watch repeats on afternoon TV! I have always liked Michael Kitchen and Honeysuckle Weeks whom I remember from a children's TV serial when my DSs were young. How could I ever forget a name like that?

My DGC are fans of the Horrible Histories by Terry Deary. As a result they are very good on the chronology of British history.

all the "back in time" series have been sterotypical - based I think on middle-class Londoners, certainly some of the things mentioned in some never seemed to reach south wales

Thank you everyone for expressing how I often feel when watching pre 60s TV series. The assumption that all women in the fifties were "just housewives" is particularly annoying! All my contempories had jobs or full time careers! A couple of years ago there was a TV series on secondary schools in the fifties. The school I attended in the forties was so much more go ahead - it even emphasised that all women could have some sort of career and didn't need a man to support them!

'They' will never ask us because they don't care that they are giving offence. thatbags will probably berate me for being bitter and twisted but in spite of our grey spending power and potential political power, we are still the invisible generation. My gripe about the derisory 30 minutes given to 'over 50s' fashion at the start of London fashion week still stands. The fashion students can't possibly have asked anyone over 50 how they'd like to dress since most of the stuff was so unflattering I just gaped in astonishment at their designs! ?

I remember 'Surprise Peas' which had to be reconstituted and tasted very sweet.

I also remember as a child that vegetables such as cauliflower often had lots of flies on them.

i don't mind when they are not factually correct on the TV because it brings back a memory long forgotten, and I quite enjoy that !

I wonder where the authors of these period programmes get their facts from. At my age and having and having a good memory I notice so many inaccuracies especially the Back in time series. A heart for Christmas dinner!! The wife got excited about getting a vacuum cleaner and washing machine. My mother had them just before the war. We said half a crown but wrote it 2/6d. A shilling we called a bob. My first wage in 1939 was 27/6d - twenty seven and six. We always had a radio starting with a "cats whisker" when I was a toddler. I could go on but won't.

The was a series called The Hour which was thoroughly enjoyable, apart from the anachronisms, which really jarred. It was set in the BBC in the 50s and had a fabulous cast. One character was a rebel and never wore a tie to work. I think he would have worn a tie and a courdoroy jacket - that would have shown how creative he was!

I think too much of it is done from what was written in newspapers and magazine. I got married in 1968 and I can remember, with bemusement reading one of those silly articles about how to structure your day as a new houswife. It was totally anachronistic then. Even sillier was one about combining work with running a home. It was the kind of article that got shared at work while we hooted with laughter.

My memories of the 1950s include a washing machine (approx 1951), fridge (1955), risotto, goulasch and spaghetti bolognaise being part of my mothers day to day meal repertoire. All the recipes for these dishes were in the recipe book that came with her pressure cooker, again in the mid 1950s.

Apart from the war years, when we usually ate one of our own chickens who had stopped laying, we always had turkey on Christmas day. DF grew up in the 1920s/30s and as a child he always had turkey atChristmas. My grandfather went to Deptford market late on Christmas eve when they were auctioning off all the unsold turkeys and bought one there. He had a large family and it was usually the larger turkeys that didn't sell and had to be auctioned.