How We Used to Live


How We Used to Live was a long-running British educational history television series, produced for most of its run by Yorkshire Television. The series, encompassing drama and documentary, remained in sporadic production from 1968 to 2002, airing on ITV and Channel 4.
Written by Freda Kelsall, the series traced the lives and fortunes of various fictional Yorkshire families from the Victorian era until the early 1970s, in and around the fictional town of Bradley, using self-contained short dramas interspersed with archive footage.

How We Used to Live Episodes
Series 1: Late Victorians
Original air date: autumn 1968, spring 1969 & summer 1969

  1. The Big House
  2. The Small House
  3. House in the Middle
  4. The Parlour
  5. The Bedroom
  6. Kitchen
  7. What's Cooking?
  8. Spick and Span
  9. Lighting the Lamp
  10. Festive Season
  11. Keeping Warm
  12. Keeping in Touch
  13. Evenings at Home
  14. When We Were Ill
  15. Shopping
  16. Growing Up at Home
  17. Going to School
  18. On the Road
  19. Travelling by Train
  20. Sunday - the Day of Rest
  21. In the Country
  22. In the Garden
  23. Sport
  24. Clothes and Occasions
  25. At the Seaside
  26. Summing Up
  27. In the Street
  28. Children and the Law
  29. On the Farm

How We Used to Live Episodes
Series 2: 1908-1945
Original air date: autumn 1975 & spring 1976

  1. 1908: Moving Day
  2. 1908: Hard at Work
  3. 1909: Still at School
  4. 1909: A Home for Grandma
  5. 1910: An Evening Out
  6. 1910: Jane's First Job
  7. 1911: A Day in the Country
  8. 1913: Vote for Mum
  9. 1915: Going for a Soldier
  10. 1917-18: Armistice
  11. 1925: On the Air
  12. 1926: On Strike
  13. 1928: On the Mains
  14. 1931: On the Dole
  15. 1932: All at Sea
  16. 1939: Blackout
  17. 1940: Invasion
  18. 1940: Blitz
  19. 1943: In Short Supply
  20. 1945: Victory

How We Used to Live Episodes
Series 3: 1874-1887
Original air date: autumn 1978 & spring 1979

  1. 1874: New Arrivals
  2. 1874: Too Old for Nanny
  3. 1875: Too Young for the Mill
  4. 1876: Never too late to Learn
  5. 1876: Daily Round
  6. 1877: Evening Hours
  7. 1878: The Pledge
  8. 1879: Mud Lane
  9. 1880: Polling Day
  10. 1880: Christmas
  11. 1881: Remember the Sabbath
  12. 1882: On the Parish
  13. 1882: The Spa
  14. 1883: Fit for a Lady
  15. 1884: Ideas Unlimited
  16. 1885: Let the Punishment fit the Crime
  17. 1885: Green and Pleasant Land
  18. 1886: God Bless the Squire
  19. 1887: Proposals
  20. 1887: Wedding Bells

How We Used to Live Episodes
Series 4: 1936-1953
Original air date: autumn 1981 & spring 1982

  1. 1936: Head of the Family
  2. 1937: Counting the Cost
  3. 1938: Holiday With Pay
  4. 1939: Hospital Case
  5. 1939: Goodnight Children Everywhere
  6. 1940: Home from Home
  7. 1942: Stars and Stripes
  8. 1943: Make Do and Mend
  9. 1943: Take a Man's Place
  10. 1944: Peace on Earth
  11. 1945: Let us Face the Future
  12. 1946: Full Supporting Programme
  13. 1947: Cold Comfort
  14. 1947: A New Look
  15. 1948: Full Steam Ahead
  16. 1948: On the National Health
  17. 1949: On the Move
  18. 1951: A Tonic for the Nation
  19. 1952: We Have Travelled a Hard Road
  20. 1953: Your Undoubted Queen

How We Used to Live Episodes
Series 5: 1902-1926
Original air date: autumn 1984 & spring 1985

  1. 1902: Home from the War
  2. 1903: Chapel on Sunday
  3. 1905: Bank Holiday
  4. 1906: Vote for Change
  5. 1909: The People's Budget
  6. 1910: Out of Work
  7. 1911: In the Country
  8. 1912: The Children's Charter
  9. 1913: The Right to Vote
  10. 1914: Over by Christmas
  11. 1916: Called Up
  12. 1917: The Right to Serve
  13. 1918: The Need to Share
  14. 1919: Epidemic
  15. 1920: Hill Climb
  16. 1921: Roof Fall
  17. 1922: The Electric Light
  18. 1924: The Cat's Whisker
  19. 1925: The Roaring Twenties
  20. 1926: The General Strike

How We Used to Live Episodes
Series 6: 1954-1970
Original air date: autumn 1987 & spring 1988

  1. 1954: Land of Plenty
  2. 1955: Home Before Nine
  3. 1956: Keeping Britain Great
  4. 1957: Commercial Breaks
  5. 1958: Easter Holiday
  6. 1959: Separate Schools
  7. 1960: Women's Wrongs
  8. 1961: Rising High
  9. 1962: Strangers on the Shore
  10. 1963: Our Kind of Music
  11. 1964: Mini on the Motorway
  12. 1965: Last Train from Mill Road
  13. 1966: Amazing Reductions
  14. 1966: Eyes Down at the Roxy
  15. 1967: Flower Power
  16. 1967: The Big Clean Up
  17. 1968: No Fun Being Old
  18. 1969: On the Moon
  19. 1969: Twin Towns
  20. 1970: Coming of Age

'How We Used to Live'' Episodes
From Iron Ways to Victorian Days
Original air date: 1996


  1. The Iron Cradle
  2. 1815: Geordie Lads & Cornish Men
  3. 1820-21: Horses on the Wagon Way
  4. 1823-25: The Quaker Railway
  5. Great Britons and Local Heroes

Transmission details

Each series was broadcast as part of ITV Schools, on ITV between 1968 and 1987 and then on Channel 4 and S4C. The series, generally running for 20 programmes, was split into two halves - with the first ten episodes transmitted in the autumn term, followed by the remainder of the series in the spring term. The programmes were repeated frequently, enabling new generations of children to learn about modern history.
The series was mainly shown during the main schools schedule, although it was occasionally transmitted at other times. The British Film Institute lists Thora Hird Introduces How We Used to Live for 30 August 1984, describing it as "a documentary on the making of the award-winning schools series". It further says that it was shown late at night on most of the ITV network.
Part of the first series was repeated late at night in its home region of Yorkshire Television in early 1969. Also, the episodes 'Blitz' and 'Victory', first shown in 1976, were repeated on the ITV network on 8 May 1985, the 40th anniversary of VE Day.

Series

There have been several series of How We Used to Live.
Series 1 centred on the late Victorian era. It was first broadcast in 1968. Some additional episodes were added to this series in 1972/73 but this was not a separate series. This was the only series to feature on-screen presenters including Geoffrey Wheeler and Redvers Kyle.
Series 2 covered the periods 1908-1918 and 1925-1945. The first half of the series centred around the Ackerley family, who move into their new home, 13 Sultan Street, Bradley in 1908. Albert, the father, is an assistant at a printing works. He earns 22/- per week. His son Harry takes a job as a grocers boy, earning 5/- per week. The rent of their terraced house, with gas and water laid on, is 6/- per week. Albert's wife Daisy must make the rest of the income cover food, fuel and clothing. Jane, their daughter, is still at school until the age of 14 when she goes to work as a housemaid in a middle-class home. Episodes 11 - 15 sees the Dawson family move into the house occupied by the Ackerley family. Stanley Dawson, the father, works as a stores clerk in a factory, earning £3/2/6 per week. He becomes unemployed in the thirties and he, his wife Doris and son Gerald are forced to rely on the earnings of daughter Marjorie, who works as a library assistant. The Boothroyds move into the terraced house just before World War Two - the last five episodes describe how they cope with the varied hazards of civilian life in wartime Britain. The series is narrated by YTV continuity announcer John Crosse.
Series 3 covers a thirteen-year period, namely the years 1874-1887. This series was first broadcast in 1978/1979. This series contrasts the fortunes of three families that although linked, have very different lives. Dr Hughes has a successful medical practice in middle-class Upper Bradley. His fee-paying patients live in the better of town, or in the country houses on the outskirts. He gives some of his time to the Bradley Free Hospital, and, as Medical Officer of Health, is appalled by conditions in poor working-class areas. His wife, his son and youngest daughter live comfortable lives in a large house with their every need taken care of by the hired help- namely housekeeper Mrs Tandy, Annie Fairhurst and Nanny. The Hughes eldest daughter, Dora, is married to Captain Bertram Selwyn. His father is the squire of Westmoor. They have two children: Humphrey and Sophie. The lifestyles of the middle class Hughes and mildly aristocratic Selwyn families is in sharp contrast to that of the Fairhurst's. Ben and Mary Fairhurst are poor working class mill workers with more children than they can afford to feed. Annie, the eldest, is in service for Dr Hughes. Among the other children are Matt, Flo, Maudie, Tommy and Dinah, as well as the others who died young.
Series 4 covered the period from 1936 until 1953. It centred on the lower middle-class Hodgkins family. First broadcast in 1981/82, this series embraces the events during the reign of George VI as they affected the family of Arthur Hodgkins, a railwayman living in Bradley. Along with his housewife Mabel and his four children, Patricia, Jimmy, Avril & Edward, they endure the hardships of the Second World War and the subsequent austerity period. The series concludes with the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
Series 5 was first broadcast in 1984–85. It covered the major events and social changes from the end of the Boer War in 1902 to the General Strike of 1926. The series tells the story of the friendship between two families of children who meet in Sunday school. The Holroyds, Maurice, Charlotte and Alexander are middle class. Their father owns the local textile mill. The Selbys, Maggie, Tom, Freddy, Albert & Alice are poor. Their father is a drunkard, their mother works long hours in the mill to support them. As they grow up into young adults, their lives become intertwined and the relationship, sometimes strained, shows the huge social changes which affected people in Britain during this time.
Series 6 covered the period 1954-1970. It was first broadcast in 1987-88 and centred on the Brady family. Michael Brady, the father of the family, was a character originally introduced in series 5 when he was born to Maggie Selby and Patrick Brady. The series begins with he and his family moving back to Bradley. The series also features Michael's Uncle Albert & Aunt Bertha who were also in the fifth series. Characters introduced in the fourth series, Jimmy, Eileen and Edward Hodgkins and Laurence & Avril Butterworth, are also regulars, and the characters of Tom and Charlotte Selby from Series 5 and Esme Birkett from Series 4 also make one-off appearances. YTV announcer Redvers Kyle returned to narrate short segments featuring archive film footage.
After six series, How We Used To Live changed its direction. The drama format was expanded in order to take in more documentary material, but the series length was cut.
Series 7 was in two halves. The first 10 episodes were called Victorians: Early and Late. These were first broadcast in 1990. In spring 1991, five programmes, under the title Expansion, Trade and Industry, followed the experience of a merchant family.
Subsequent series were In Civil War, A Tudor Interlude, Isaac Newton: Under the Stuarts and From Iron Ways to Victorian Days. Britons at War and The Spanish Armada were still produced by Yorkshire Television, but the remaining four units were made by independent companies - All Change, and Tudor Times, Tony Robinson's Local History Search and A Giant in Ancient Egypt. The last of these units was still regularly repeated until Channel 4 stopped showing schools programmes in 2009.

Cast and characters

Character name is in bold; actor names are in brackets. Many characters were played by multiple actors as the character grew up from year to year.

Series 2

The Ackerley family - 1908-1918
Other Characters
The Dawson Family 1925-1939
The Hodgkins family
Other Characters
Selby family
Holroyd family
Other characters
The Selby/Brady Family
The Hodgkins/Butterworth Family
Other Characters
Note: Michael Brady's mother Maggie has died before the series began, although her date of death is not mentioned - the character is referred to in the past tense once or twice throughout the series. Also, the characters of Arthur and Mabel Hodgkins appear to have died prior to 1965 as they are not at Avril and Laurence's funeral and don't appear on Edward and Susan's wedding photo.

Support materials

Each series was supported by a range of materials for teachers and their pupils.
To help teachers make the most from each programme, Teachers’ Notes provided a wealth of knowledge and ideas. Typically the notes contained:
Support material for the fifth series was funded via a non-broadcast sponsorship arrangement with Midland Bank. Any form of advertising or commercial sponsorship for ITV schools programming was otherwise prohibited by the Independent Broadcasting Authority.

Home media

All series of How We Used to Live from the 1975–76 series to A Tudor Interlude were released on VHS in 1994 and 1995 by Yorkshire International Thomson Multimedia. These were intended for educational institutions only, but have since become collectable among a general audience and are often available on sites such as eBay.