Why don't they ask us?

I'm reviving an old thread of mine, here. I'm staying with my mother in the UK for a week, which means watching lots of TV, and we settled down last night to watch the wartime drama story "My mother and other strangers". The whole time I had an uncomfortable feeling about the way people were talking, and, in fact the way they spoke to each other.

Then when the American officer came up with the term "learning curve", that really did it for me. Not even the Americans had thought of the term "learning curve" in the 1930s, for heaven's sake. Even someone who is 30 today must remember when we had not heard of that expression.

The wonderful effect of Ciaran Hinds beautifully comforting voice, and the leading lady's lovely voice (she sounds just like Emma Thompson!) and the rest of the drama were lost on me from that moment, as I fumed about the anachronisms. As I said in the OP - why don't they ask US????????

Or The Hollow Crown when you know EVERY cast member is really in the Police.

It annoys me in costume dramas like Wolf Hall, when you can see a dress which has obviously got a zip in the back.

Another infuriating script howler is "use" for "need", i.e. "I could use a drink" instead of "I need a drink." This also turned up in the much-praised "Dickensian." OK, the English language is constantly changing, and I accept that, but to me these howlers ruin the authenticity of a drama as much as seeing a Roman soldier wearing a wristwatch would. Sorry about this - I have to get it out of my system!

we had vesta chinese dinners and angel delight in the seventies.

giblets come sealed in a bag stuffed up its...

my landlord in the late 80's still had a prickly horsehair sofa.

my ex has just inherited a set of seventies furniture when his parents downsized

We are still stuck somewhere in the early centurary as we still have a cathode ray tube tv. (and not many electronics much to ds's disgust!)

Not everyone is an early adopter of technology and styles. people tend to buy stuff and hang onto it (at least some of us)

Going back further, it annoys me when any drama set in the past uses slang or phrases which didn't appear until much later.
I agree that it's because the writers are young and careless, it would be easy to ask someone old to check before it 's broadcast.

DD lived in Lewisham when she was a student and short on cash (and when older). She always went there late on Saturday afternoon when everything was being remaindered and got the most amazing bargains. She turned a shopping habit she knew she couldn't afford into a bargain hunting habit.

When her DB (also then a student) visited he ended up treating her to fish and chips because he said having ate his way through two meals where he was told what a bargain everything on his plate was, where it was bought, when and how much it cost in comparison........ he decided he couldn't stand a third meal where the contents of the meal were the only subject of conversation.

We did have beehive haircuts in the 1960s because i did my hair like that. The smooth Mary Quant look didn't really come in until 1963/64 and even then both ran along side each other for some years.

Oh, how I agree with the "like" problem. I shriek "as if" at the television every time someone uses it. Another one is "bored of" instead of "bored with". How about "different to" instead of "different from"? Surely if a thing is different, you are moving away from it. Have you noticed how voices have changed too? Think Celia Johnson in "Brief Encounter". Does anyone speak like that any more? Probably a good thing - I know I'm too pedantic but I do like to keep up standards. Incidentally, I worked right through the fifties, and no-one expected me to stop when I got married. We were not all stay-at-home wives. I do recall, however, that the Civil Service as it was then would not employ married women and they had to leave on marriage (with a dowry, no less).

Completely off the subject!!!! Lewisham Market....used to go there as a student for exotic vegetables.

There was an open market in Deptford which sold live eels and they chopped them up when people bought them. Horrible. Used to buy old lady dresses, cut yards off the bottom...Very trendy.

Beehives were around at the beginning of the 60s. I had a friend at Art School in 1963 who had one, but she was beginning to look a bit old fashioned by then.

Have you noticed how often 'beehives' are mentioned as the trendy 60s hairstyle? If I recall correctly, beehives were in the 50s, we had Mary Quant smooth and shiny hair in the 60s, didn't we?

It always amazes me with TV period dramas that they go to enormous trouble and expense to get the sets and costumes right, but usually get the language wrong. I could give a lot of examples (though won't bore you with them). However, my pet bugbear is "like" for "as if". A character will say, for example "you look like you need a drink." Until about 20 years ago, a British person would have said "you look as if you need a drink." I heard this in "Dickensian" and even "Wolf Hall. The credits for most dramas list a script editor - what do these people actually do? Sorry about the rant. Does anybody else have examples that bug them, or is it just me being pernickety?

I still have to use that old tin opener on cans that modern ones won't work. I too remember going to Lewisham market on Christmas Eve to buy an auctioned Turkey. It still had its innards but my husband used to work in a grocers so was able to deal with it. No oven ready in those days. What happens to the giblets nowadays. Made lovely gravy.

Oops sorry, of course it's Coren I will blame my ever enthusiastic Kindle. Conrad was Shirley not Alan's son!

the Castle Museum has a 1950's room... just like ours used to look, very creepy!

Giles Coren not Conran.

I replaced my OH - 1946 model and well past his sell-by date

Oh, I love the Castle Museum! But I agree with you - my flat has a mix of lots of decades - centuries, even, if you count the grandfather clock. I'm on the verge of replacing my sofa, which was bought in 1976, so is pretty saggy, but am in no rush to replace anything else.

Yes mad Massey, those tin openers were lethal. What she didn't do was anchor the hook bit down before doing the turning. All tricks of the trade. Best thing they ever did was produce tins with a ring pull.

I always wonder about period room settings, such as the ones in the Castle Museum in York. While I do enjoy looking at them and I realise that they are not meant to be totally realistic, it occurs to me that we have several elderly chairs, not to mention a suite and a sound system from the 80s in our 20teens sitting room, and that most people have several bits and pieces from previous decades (or is it just us, and most people change everything at least every 10 years ?)

The mother on that show annoyed me with her tin opener fumblings. She couldn't cook at all, either. Also, she was the breadwinner in real life and her husband a house husband. Hardly typical of most people. I'm old fashioned and couldn't respect a "kept" man haha

I also wondered about the maize being grown while watching "Home fires". They hav been guilty of errors relating to some of the aircraft (seeming to exist before they were produced).
Another food one was "Back in time for dinner" (I think that was its title) presenting the family with 1950s canned food and an old-fashioned tin-opener. They had no idea how to open the cans and I was waiting for some horrible injuries as they hacked away from all directions. That really made me feel ancient. Surely they must have seen a tin-opener before?

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.

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 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.