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In their final decade of time travel, the Robshaws enter the 1940s and experience a decade overshadowed by war and entirely fuelled by rations.

The Robshaw family are experienced time travellers, but this time they are going further back than they have ever been before - to the turn of the 20th century, to discover how the food we ate and the way we ate it helped shape the modern family. An ordinary house in south London is their time machine, transporting them through five decades and two world wars. Guided by presenters Giles Coren and social historian Polly Russell, they trace the incredible changes to Britain's diet and the extraordinary social transformation they reveal.

In their final decade of time travel, the Robshaws enter the 1940s and experience a decade overshadowed by war and entirely fuelled by rations. In their second world war of the experiment, the Robshaws get used to a diet of duty and determination. Gone are the treats of the 20s and 30s and the Edwardian excess is a distant memory. Now it is powdered egg, nettles on toast and imitation brawn at the dining room table, and they are even one family member down as Fred is evacuated to the countryside.

But the war brings them together too as they share a woolton pie in their very own Anderson shelter, the girls go dancing with Debbie and some GIs, and the whole family start to recognise the power of the family meal to bring them together in the good and bad times.

59 minutes

Clips

Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:03

    Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five

    A Chicken Ain't Nothin' But A Bird

  • 00:07

    Alberto Dom铆nguez

    Frenesi

    Music Arranger: William Grant Still. Performer: Artie Shaw. Orchestra: Artie Shaw Orchestra.
  • 00:14

    Glenn Miller and His Orchestra

    Imagination

  • 00:15

    Deanna Durbin

    Annie Laurie

  • 00:16

    Glenn Miller

    String Of Pearls

  • 00:17

    Glenn Miller

    A String Of Pearls

  • 00:19

    Harry Roy

    The Hut-Sut Song

  • 00:22

    Harry Roy

    A Man and His Drum

  • 00:24

    Deanna Durbin

    Ave Maria

  • 00:24

    Lester Young Quartet

    Afternoon of A Basie-Ite

  • 00:27

    Harry James and His Orchestra

    Strictly Instrumental

  • 00:29

    Connie Haines & Gordon Jenkins & His Orchestra

    At Last

  • 00:34

    Flanagan and Allen

    Run Rabbit Run

  • 00:40

    Harry Roy

    They Can聮t Black Out The Moon

  • 00:50

    Bob Lamm & Francis Craig and His Orchestra

    Near You

  • 00:53

    Jack Beaver

    News Theatre

  • 00:56

    Patti Page

    All My Love

  • 00:57

    Joe Liggins & The Honeydrippers

    Blues For Tanya

  • 00:56

    Perry Como

    Bibbidi Bobbity Boo

  • 00:59

    Not Credited

    Get Happy

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Giles Coren
Presenter Polly Russell
Participant Adam Henson
Participant Rangan Chatterjee
Executive Producer Emily Shields
Executive Producer Emma Hindley
Series Producer Nancy Bornat
Producer Emma Frank
Director Emma Frank
Editor Matt Seccull
Production Company Wall to Wall Media

Broadcasts

Back in Time... watch clips from previous series

Back in Time... watch clips from previous series

Families travel back in time to experience how food, leisure and society has transformed.