Over the last 40 years, technology has developed with dizzying speed.
But how has it transformed our homes?
And what has it done to our families?
To find out, the Sullivan-Barnes from Reading are taking part in a unique experiment.
They will be stripped of all modern technology, and their own home will be turned into a time machine.
What on earth have they done with our kitchen?
I would never have chosen it. I hate it.
Beginning in the digital wilderness of 1970,
the family will be fast-forwarded at the rate of a year per day. Wow.
The digital age. Through three decades of technological progress.
Each day, new gadgets will be delivered to their door
so they can see first-hand their impact on family life.
Wait. Why can't you be more patient?
An expert technical support team have a task of sourcing vintage technology and getting it to work.
The challenge for us is great, and I'm not really sure that we are going to be able to do it.
In this episode, the family go on the ultimate nostalgia trip as they speed through the 1970s.
I can't find the second gear.
Without their 21st-century technology, how will it change the way they live?
In the '70s, you probably would have got smacked.
Will they spend more time together, or just more time doing housework?
How did people cook with this on a regular basis and not have serious stress problems?
Has technological progress always been for the better?
And has it fulfilled our Electric Dreams?
# We'll always be together
# However far it seems
# We'll always be together
# Together in electric dreams. #
It's the Sullivan-Barnes last night in 2009.
Tomorrow, they will be moving out of their house so it can be turned into a 1970s home.
Adam is an accountant, and Georgie is a senior NHS Executive.
Between them, they have got four children - Hamish, Ellie, Jude and Adam's daughter, Steph.
Though she mostly lives with her mum, she is here for the whole experience.
A thoroughly modern family, the own three games consoles,
three DVD players, five mobile phones, six televisions and seven computers.
But Adam can't wait to leave all this behind and travel back in time to his youth.
I think the nostalgia for me of revisiting some of those old gadgets
I can remember from a kid will be a real thrill.
For the children, it is a journey into the unknown.
If I had to list one thing that everyone would miss, I'd say that I would probably miss my computer.
I'd miss my phone. What do you think you'd miss? Probably computer,
because I use the computer for most of my homework and stuff.
I spend the most time in my bedroom just away from civilisation.
Mum Georgie is not so sure all this technology is such a good thing.
I feel as though they are missing out, but you can't live your life in front of a screen.
It would be fantastic at the end of it if we were less hooked on all the techno stuff.
I'd love it if having less technology means that we can spend more time together as a family.
It will be interesting to see how all the children and the rest of us
interact with each other when all this kit is gone.
Next time the family come home, it will be 1970.
Across Reading, the family's very own technical support team
are gathering the vintage technology which they will soon have to live with.
Tom Wigglesworth will provide audio and communication devices.
We are going to have to deliver every gadget and gizmo
that arrived in British houses in the 1970s to their doorstep.
Even when we've sourced it, we've got to get it working.
Gia Milinovich is a technology journalist and computer expert.
I am going to be busy in the '80s, certainly in the '90s.
But in the '70s, what do I have?
I mean, this, maybe? This is it.
Wow.
Sociologist Dr Ben Highmore will put it all in context.
A family that is used to interacting with technology most of the day,
when all that is taken away from them, what are they going to do?
It is time for the tech team to put the final touches to the house.
# ..The place I am going to
# Ch-ch-ch-ch changes Turn and face... #
But the decor has already been taken back to the '70s.
To make it more like an average home of the era, rooms have been resized, and others have disappeared.
The kitchen is now just a third of the size.
Instead of two bathrooms, there is now just one.
The girls will be sharing,
and instead of two receptions, the family are left with a single cosy sitting room.
It is getting there, isn't it?
This room is looking really good.
Originally it was a knock-through dining room, sitting room.
But we've boarded that back up and made it into just a sitting room on its own.
The 1970 house is a completely different house in terms of how it was used to the houses we have now.
Much darker, much more claustrophobic.
Partly, this is about heating. If you have central heating, you can have through rooms.
You can have big, open spaces.
Now, this is the biggest change in the house.
Because of course Hamish had his whole entire life here, it was just computers and games and everything.
All I have left him is this little radio.
He is going to have to reacquaint himself with the rest of the family now downstairs.
Each day in the house is going to be one year, so we've got them this to remind them what year it is.
There we go, 1969.
Armstrong was limbering up.
Magic.
The transformation is complete.
It is time for the family to move back in.
And they have been transformed, too, with 1970s outfits.
They have no idea what now lies behind their own front door.
OK, Jude, this way.
Oh! What on earth have they done with our kitchen? It is so small.
I don't like it.
I hate it! Oh, look at the floor!
Oh, my goodness.
What do you think of the colour scheme? Are you impressed?
I would never have chosen it, but it kind of works.
Where's the fridge?
No, that's the washing machine. So where is the fridge? Here! There.
No dishwasher.
We definitely don't have a microwave.
What about a freezer? That's just a fridge. Right now, I love it. I think it's fab.
But by the time I try to cook dinner later, and I've done 10 days living and cooking and washing in it,
you might want to ask me again and get a different answer.
Jude, I love the bead curtain.
Oh, no!
This wallpaper is so cool, isn't it?
Look at that TV.
Is it old?
It's black and white!
Oh, fabulous. Is that ITV? It must be ITV.
Look, it's Dr Who!
The family will only be able to watch TV at the hours it was available in the 1970s.
Which means often no daytime TV at all, and shutdown before midnight.
I reckon I'm going to be watching telly more now, just because it's so different.
Do you like black and white, then? No.
Oh, my God!
I love it!
It is amazing.
We are sharing a room! I love it.
I want it to stay like this, I really do.
Wow, the wallpaper is groovy.
Oh, look! Oh, my God!
We can have a little room reading music here.
We have got a record player up here. How cool.
Whoa!
Oh, wow!
I love it!
I love the wallpaper. This is so cool.
A bit of Simon and Garfunkel on. Adam? Yeah.
Have you noticed what we haven't got any more? What? A bathroom?
The en suite is gone!
Oh, no! That means we have got to share a bathroom with the kids!
How hideous. How disgusting.
I definitely do not think I am going to be spending so much time in my room.
I am going to be downstairs on the guitar and watching Doctor Who on the black-and-white TV.
That's it.
# All lies and jest
# Still the man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest... #
Oh, look! Our lovely bedroom.
It is just fabulous. So romantic. I'm so pleased.
TV: Now on BBC 1, 24 hours with Kenneth Allsop.
It just evokes so many memories of childhood
that you kind of regress to a different mental state, I think.
There is very little here. There's a radio, a couple of TV channels,
and there's some music through LPs.
And that is pretty much it, from what I could see.
Georgie is getting to grips with her kitchen circa 1970.
Which means no freezer, microwave, automatic washing machine or tumble dryer.
My brain is going... whirring like mad. I'm trying to think about things like the washing,
and there's a twin-tub washing machine over there, which I am dreading getting to grips with.
By the time I've worked out how to manage the functions
of being a mum with a house of four children,
it'll be... more than past my bedtime.
There is part of me that is hoping that the kids'll get on fine
and enjoy not sitting in front of the telly all the time,
and there's a cruel streak in me that makes me think, "Ha-ha!
"Let's see what they will do without all that stuff now."
CLATTERING LAUGHING
The children don't want to go up to their 1970s bedrooms, which are cold and empty of anything entertaining.
So, unlike 2009, television viewing is a shared family experience.
We stopped producing workers throughout...
The news shows a Britain the kids have never known,
a country that proudly manufactured its own cars, clothes and electrical goods.
But it was also a nation in crisis.
This was the start of a decade of industrial unrest.
While the strike lasts, there will be no new telephones installed and delays over repair.
This is the era of collective bargaining and strike action.
Post Office strikes were even threatening the telephone network.
PHONE RINGS
But at least, unions permitting, the Sullivan-Barnes have a phone,
albeit a single fixed handset tethered in their draughty hallway. It's ringing.
They're lucky. In 1970, half of British homes didn't yet have a phone line.
Hello? Hello, Hamish, it's Tom from the tech team. Hi.
How you doing? Fine, thanks.
Could you tell your family that only 25 per cent of the population had central heating in 1970,
so, as a result, we have switched your central heating off. However, on the front doorstep,
there is your first gadget, and it will make the morning chill a little bit easier.
Right, let's hope they like tea.
Uh, guys,
we have us a parcel.
It's from Tom and the rest of the technical support team. Is that what the phone call was?
Yes. Only 25 percent of people in the 1970s had central heating, so they have turned ours off.
We don't have central heating any more, but this is to help make your mornings a bit warmer.
Hee hee hee!
Yes!
What is it? Is it a teasmaid?
I believe so.
It's for Adam and I to have in our bedroom.
So we can have a nice cup of tea in the morning.
So it'll make YOUR morning warmer.
Yay(!) Thanks(!) Why did they give us that?
Is only benefiting you two.
The technical support team's first delivery comes with original '70s instructions and '70s chauvinism.
So, "You now have a Goblin teasmaid, the second-best tea-maker in the world.
"Naturally, we would never dream of competing with a woman."
Ha! How dare they?
Steph wasn't very impressed with the teasmaid.
I think she was hoping it would be something for us or for her.
What about our present from the tech team tonight, the teasmaid?
Hey, we've got that charged up and ready to go, haven't we?
Waking up with a cup of tea,
nobody having to be the brave person that ventures out in the cold with no central heating.
What is that whole central heating thing? They obviously have a sadistic streak somewhere
where somebody out there wants us to be cold and not very happy.
A new day means a new year.
BUZZER
Tea, dear?
Oh, yes, please, darling!
The teasmaid was an expensive luxury, costing around a week's salary.
Like most electrical goods of the 1970s, it was made in Britain - in this case by Goblin of Leatherhead.
Morning.
The teasmaid 's popularity would fade during the 1970s as ever more homes got central heating.
By the year 2000, the Goblin teasmaid was no more.
What a total waste of time.
What on earth were they thinking?
What is so great about having a thing that's really noisy sitting next to your bed
to make you a cup of tea when you could go downstairs and make one?
I don't understand!
I don't understand what you don't like about it.
Why wouldn't that be brilliant? Neither of us have had to get out of bed.
"MORNING HAS BROKEN" PLAYS Monday morning.
It's school for the children and work for Adam.
First, time to check out another '70s gadget.
You can smell it a bit. It reminds me of my old train set.
It's not actually cutting anything.
Where's everybody got to? Maybe they're queuing up for the bathroom.
Georgie's taking the day off work to get the housework done without the aid of modern technology.
I've got my uniform on, ready to get on with a bit more washing up.
I do seem to be taking up station by the kitchen sink and waiting for the next bit of washing up to arrive.
So far, no offers of help from the family.
RADIO: The change to decimal currency has been a big operation.
Tills to be changed, sales girls trained...
Adam's of to work in his Ford Cortina, Britain's best-selling car of the 1970s.
It seems to be working OK.
Clunk Click Every Trip, thanks to Jimmy Saville.
I'm sure it will drive as well as it looks.
But it doesn't take long for his warm bubble of nostalgia to burst.
It's got no wing mirrors, so I've got no idea what's going on behind me.
Absolutely none.
Though just about roadworthy, modern safety regulations wouldn't allow a car like this to be built today.
There are no air bags, no rear seatbelts,
no head restraints and, of course, no power brakes or steering.
This is a big test because the brakes...
I've got no brakes! I've got no brakes.
Oh, God, here we go.
Just going round a corner takes a real effort, just because the...
I can't find that second gear.
I can't... I can't find the second gear.
I've got to tell you, my modern car is streets ahead of this.
It's a lovely car to look at, but boy oh boy, this is a death trap, I think.
Georgie is trying to throw herself into life as a '70s housewife.
This is quite heavy.
I do the cooking, I've just made the children's beds.
Brilliant!
That's great, that's just what I'd want for myself and for my daughters to see happening. Perfect.
Generally, I'm a really busy working mum.
There's a house of four kids and Adam to look after.
He's as much work as the children a lot of the time.
It's fun for now, but if I was coming home at the end of a working day and sitting down
trying to work out what we're going to cook tomorrow and how I'd buy the ingredients as we've no storage -
we've a tiny fridge, no freezer -
I couldn't do a weekly shop for fresh goods and I've no idea when I'd buy them.
Washing with a twin tub is a two hour ritual, taking over the entire kitchen.
In the 21st century, the kitchen is often the social hub of the home.
But in the 1970s it was a no-frills centre for domestic labour.
It smells not right now.
It smells...
There's an electrical smell as though the motor is about to object to life.
I've turned it off, I'm not very happy to be using it with that smell.
Georgie's finding the kitchen full of trials.
Even cooking tonight's desert is perilous.
Domestic microwave ovens weren't launched until 1974,
so to cook a pudding in half the time meant boiling it under pressure to over 250 degrees Fahrenheit.
It's the first time I've ever used a pressure cooker.
This is where you really wish you've got a microwave.
By that time the children return from school, Georgie has spent the whole day in the kitchen.
Homework without computers is their idea of a chore.
Adam is also home.
Hello, darling. Your slippers are upstairs.
And he's seeing danger all over the house.
It's that whole kind of kitchen set up just gives me horrors, especially with the little one around.
The kettle is dangerous, this is dangerous because of its edges.
The fire's dangerous.
Anything around the cooker is dangerous.
Pressure cooker or micro - no competition.
It's so scary, how could people cook with this on a regular basis and not have serious stress problems?
I think it might be like a bomb. If we open it now, it might just go boom!
I really like everybody being busy when we came home,
rather than just lounging around watching telly, that kind of thing.
I like the fact that all the meals for everybody, we've sat down and eaten as a family.
And I like the business around the cooking in the kitchen
and that everyone's been around and chilled.
Now time for the pressure cooker pudding.
Oh, it looks disgusting!
Who would have thought that anything could survive what was going on inside that pressure cooker
and come out looking even a tiny bit edible?
What's it taste like? It's really nice.
Oh, God, does that mean we have to make it again?
After dinner, there's another delivery on the doorstep.
There's nobody there.
Look, there's a parcel.
We've got another parcel.
Put it in the living room for later.
With 35mm cameras, the technical support team have sent the family a note.
In the 1970s, families would turn their pictures into slides.
We suggest you host a slide-show evening at the end of the decade.
The tech team want the family to use the cameras to document their time in the 1970s,
and then put on a slide show for their friends and neighbours.
Kind of a joke in the '70s was people boring other people with their slide shows.
For music, the family now depend on a true relic of the analogue age.
The radiogram, in mahogany and in mono.
I use my MP3 player a lot.
I use it in the car, on the way to work, on the way home from work.
I use it when I get home to put some music on.
There's always noise going on in our house.
NEEDLE SCRATCHES
EASY LISTENING MUSIC PLAYS
How groovy is that?
Another piece of technology that doesn't quite live up to Adam's nostalgic expectations.
I don't think I would crave one of these in my sitting room.
But he won't have to wait long for progress.
'If you've got a space so big by so big, you've got room for a music centre with a full-size...'
In the early 70s, the stereo music centre arrived in Britain.
It's futuristic Japanese design broke free of the radiogram's fuddy-duddy British image.
No longer did it attempt to hide its knobs and dials behind mock mahogany doors.
Technology was coming out of the closet.
Tom, from the technical support team, is on a mission to find one for the family.
The dad is a big music nut, so I'm going to get a music centre with a compact cassette.
The key innovation of the music centre was the cassette deck.
The magical component that changed how we listen to music.
For the first time, the average consumer could actually record as well as play records.
But Tom is struggling to find one in working order.
Considered trashy by hi-fi buffs, few '70s music centres survive.
On eBay I've typed in 1970 to narrow my search, because it was coming up with a load of modern tosh.
This... Oh! This one wasn't on before.
This is perfect.
This is in Oakhampton in Devon.
This music centre was class-leading in it's day.
"As far as I'm aware, everything works. Comes with Sony speakers.
"I used the turntable and radio recently, so know they are OK,
"but I cannot guarantee the function of the cassette player."
"Cannot guarantee the function of the cassette player?" Everything worked a minute ago!
Perfect. There's a photo there. This is exactly what I need.
Once Tom has got the music centre back to his workshop,
he still has to coax the aged cassette recorder back to life.
There you go. Quick reset. Lovely.
It is anyone's guess whether this is gonna work.
The cassette format was originally designed for dictation, so quality wasn't important.
But its compact size meant it was also ideal for music.
Hey, it's working!
Now you could slip an entire album into your pocket.
We're off. We can give the family a fully working system.
LAUGHING
Look, it's got a tape deck and everything! Wow!
What a change. How brilliant!
The Tech Team have asked Adam to use the new music centre
to create a mix tape for their end-of-decade slide show.
This is a leap in technology from this thing.
But even now, you just think, "Nah!"
To help with the mix tape, the Tech Team have sent music writer
and former NME journalist David Quantick.
Hello, I'm David. Nice to meet you.
How are you doing?
Nice to meet you, David.
At their peak, over 83 million blank cassette tapes were sold each year in the UK.
Now, with music downloads, they're virtually extinct.
And so is the art of creating a mix tape.
It became a way of talking to people.
If you wanted to impress girls, particularly.
Or impressing your friends. Roxy Music is a great one to impress your friends.
A Roxy Music album track says, "I'm sophisticated.
"I smoke, I drink Campari.
"I'm stylish." Of course, the signal it also sends out is, you have no life.
So it's a fine balance!
We're in the heat of the moment here.
We're creating art.
Right, you can tell the gaps between the songs because you can see them.
You have to be a bit of a marksmen really to do this.
You need to find the exact point.
Now you've got to take the risk. You've got to jump in, just lower it.
Another way to do it is just trial-and-error.
Because it is only a piece of plastic in the end. That's great.
So... Whilst it's in the groove, might as well just go for it. Now?
Now. LAUGHTER Right...!
What? No, it's fine, you did well. You didn't do too badly. It's what I would have done.
It's all bit like a Japanese tea ceremony.
It's all ritual, and knowing when to go in and when to come out.
You put an iPod in a dock, and play it through computer speakers,
it's just not the same as putting a needle on a piece of plastic. Crunch!
It's dirty, you know, it's nasty. How long have you got till your slide show? We're gonna have to delay it.
MUSIC: "A Song For Europe" by Roxy Music
13-year-old Hamish, who had never played a record until today, is impressed.
When you go and buy a record,
you go and buy it, and it's like a thing that you can hold and you can see and you can feel.
Whereas if you download something, it's like there, but you can't touch it.
And I think I prefer being able to hold the thing, and say, "Look, here it is."
It's 1973.
POP MUSIC PLAYS
Outside the home, Britain was far from harmonious, as industrial unrest escalated.
Ted Heath was trying to cap pay rises, so the miners were working to rule.
All this, at a time when ever more domestic technology meant an increasing demand for electricity.
As coal supplies ran low, Britain struggled to cope.
We do reckon we can match...
To give the family an authentic evening in 1973, the Tech Team have a surprise for them.
Multiply that by 12, we get...
SCREAMS
Where are the torches? I'll find some. Sit down, please, sit down!
Don't, because there's... It could knock anything over, it could be dangerous.
Wait for Adam to get the torch.
Give one to Mum. Darling, there's some candles in the cupboard.
How long do you think it's gonna last?
Georgie calls the Tech Team.
Have you got any power cut advice for us?
Though whole towns were plunged into darkness by power cuts, life went on - by gaslight.
'70s families learnt to prepare themselves, so the Tech Team
have provided candles, torches, and a camping stove. Good night.
Erm, it's as a result of the miners' industrial action, and the power cut will last until the morning.
GAS RAGES
Blimey, that's a bit fierce!
Blimey O'Reilly! Ooh, listen to that noise and that smell, really remind me of camping holidays.
Is that secure? No, darling, it isn't secure. It's a little tiny trivet
with a pan on it.
The miners may have downed tools, but a true homemaker never does.
I need to make the jelly now, because I've got to go to work, even if there is a power cut.
There won't be pudding for tomorrow if I haven't got on with it now.
Buckaroo or Cluedo?
Oh, Buckaroo, definitely.
For just a little bit of one-night fun, it brings back huge memories, of family togetherness!
Which has why I said, let's play games! Let's play games and make jelly!
LAUGHTER
It's not that funny.
Oh dear! I think the fact that we haven't got that much to do here makes it extra-special as well.
It's not like we're missing anything.
I was quite enjoying Dr Who.
Adam, if you haven't got much to do, just let me know.
Because I don't seem to stop, I'm constantly washing up or cooking or cleaning, so...
Chip in, if you're feeling a bit bored! Oh...
I don't think life was that great. You have to do a lot more for yourself.
Yeah, you had to do a lot more for yourself. There was lots of power cuts, lots of strikes.
No central heating.
No phones.
No like hi-tech... Night.
The power has returned to the house, and so has the heating.
By the mid-'70s, half of British homes were centrally heated,
which is just as well for Hamish and Georgie, who are up at 5am.
Hamish is about to start his first proper job - a paper round.
If Hamish does get into trouble, then he's not going to be
able to telephone me on his mobile or anything like that.
But you'll enjoy the paper round.
Quick, quick, you're gonna be late.
Hurry up!
Paper rounds were a big part of a '70s childhood.
But today, newsagents struggle to recruit paper boys and girls -
mainly because modern parents fear for their kids' safety, walking the streets alone.
DOG BARKS
Even so, Georgie is keen for the children to spend more time playing outside, like she did.
So the Tech Team have a surprise for them, back at the house.
Oh, my God! What's this? I did my cycling proficiency on that thing!
I am loving these bikes.
That is my bike! If there was one thing that if I could keep, I would, it's the bike.
But cycling 1970s-style create some dilemmas for Georgie and Adam.
If they were going out on bikes in the '70s, they wouldn't have had mobile phones.
I never used to wear a helmet, I don't know about you. They would have to wear a helmet.
Mobile phones? The mobile phones, so often when I try to ring one of
the kids, it's either turned off, or they've got it in the bag and they can't hear it ringing anyway.
Or they've forgotten it. The mobile phone probably lulls you into a false sense of security.
And at least we had our instructions in those days, that you had to be back at whatever time for tea.
So, no, I think they'll be OK.
Modern children spend less than a fifth of the time playing outside than their '70s counterparts.
# Bicycle, bicycle... #
With less to entertain them in the house,
the great outdoors is proving a draw for the Sullivan-Barnes kids, too.
# I want to ride my bicycle... #
But Hamish may have taken his '70s freedoms too far.
He's decided to cycle into town, without a mobile phone, or asking Georgie.
It's seven o'clock, and Hamish still isn't back.
This is the note that he's let.
"To Mum - I'm probably in town as we speak.
"I cycled in and borrowed your helmet since I couldn't find mine.
"I have a bike lock and will be with George. Call him if there's a problem, or I am needed.
"I've gone into town. I promise not to do anything outside my time, ie, the '70s."
I can't believe that! On the Chopper that he got yesterday,
that will probably get stolen, in the dark, in winter. No lights.
And he could have rung me at work. I'm furious. Absolutely furious.
Well, when he gets home, he's gonna go to bed without any supper tonight.
Because in the '70s, he probably would have got smacked, but I can't do that. No, don't do that.
He doesn't have a mobile and he's suggested that I might call his friend on his mobile.
But I haven't got his friend's mobile number, cos it's on my confiscated mobile!
This could be him. At half seven, Hamish finally returns.
It is him.
Hi, Mum. Don't hi me. Go and put the helmet in the porch. What?
And come back in here. I'm really angry with you.
You know that that wouldn't have been all right with me, going into town on the Chopper.
And you could have rung me at work. You're not having supper. You're going upstairs now.
You can have a bath and then you can go to bed.
In the 2000s, I wouldn't have sent him to his room as a punishment, because
everything that he loves his up their - his computer, his PlayStation.
But in 1970, it's colder upstairs, and there's not really very much to do.
Maybe I should ban the typewriter!
People in the '70s
didn't like communicate when they went out, they just planned ahead.
I'm sure if I'd planned ahead, I wouldn't have even been allowed to go out.
In the 2000s, Hamish would have sent me a text message at work to tell me what he was doing.
And he would certainly know that to go into town without doing that would have definitely not been OK.
But not having the opportunity to text me, he just decided that he would just chance it.
I think it's quite cool, actually!
I was quite impressed with it!
Just with the way it was all planned and executed! And the typed letter.
The typed letter, which must have taken ages, and the fact he thinks the Chopper's really cool.
Cos I think the Chopper's really cool, too.
Hamish is in a bit of a mood, because Mum told him off because he went into town with the Chopper.
So, Mum was angry, told him to go to his room.
And he couldn't have dinner.
Now, he's gone to bed in a strop. Now he's already asleep.
It's power cut jelly! That looks quite good.
The family are halfway through their time in the '70s. I like it.
And the demanding schedule of domestic chores is taking its toll on Georgie.
Normally I'd be doing other stuff in the evening. I'd do a bit of work, or I'd make some phone calls, or
do some housework or something, that I don't seem to be able to fit in at the moment.
It would be fantastic to have a freezer.
Even if I did not have the convenience foods, to have the freezer and to cook an extra meal,
and put it in the freezer, and take it out, and almost use it like convenience food,
would definitely be a big plus.
Georgie won't have to wait long for her dreams to come true.
Freezers were initially sold as a place to store home-grown fruit and veg, or even a whole pig.
In the mid-'70s, Britain took the deep freeze to its heart, but used it for entirely different purposes.
Dr Ben Mymore has managed to find what he hopes is a '70s model.
This is massive! Yeah, it's your proper, original chest freezer.
During the '70s, women were moving away from traditional roles
as housewives, to joining the workforce.
One of the things that allowed them to do that was the freezer. It freed them up from the daily shop.
Now they could just do a weekly shop, and have the corner shop in the home.
But I'm slightly worried whether it is a '70s freezer at all, or whether it's a 1980s, early-'80s freezer.
Whoah! Oh! Smells like it's from the, er... You're gonna have to clean that.
Chest freezers would basically be fairly standardised in technology.
So I'm thinking that we just clean it up, and maybe kind
of give it a bit of a makeover, to make it look a bit more '70s.
It's gonna look ridiculous. It's gonna look great!
Customising appliances with sticky-backed plastic was common practice in the '70s.
This way, any appliance could blend in with the brown all round.
How's that looking? Quite cool, isn't it? But it looks '70s, more than it did.
It does look very '70s. OK, I'm gonna take it round to the family.
By 1975, half of British homes had a deep freeze,
despite the fact that the cost almost £1,000 in today's money, and took up an awful lot of space.
Good morning! Georgie, hello. Got a delivery for you. All my dreams have come true!
I feel really disloyal to womankind, being excited about a piece of...
So you should, so you should. ..electric kitchen apparatus! Where d'you want us to put it?
I don't know. It's bigger than the fridge! It is huge. Maybe the garage?
You almost need a garage to fit one of these in.
You look like pallbearers. So, do you want to show us where you'd like us to put it?
Erm, probably quite near the garage door, so I don't have to... Maybe here?
Right... One of the first things you're gonna need to do, Georgie, is stock this up.
Get in the Cortina, drive to a supermarket, and get those frozen goods in there.
The chest freezer found its purpose in an era that saw
an increase in car ownership and the rise of supermarkets.
For the first time ever, the weekly rather than the daily shop became a reality.
Georgie's shopping for the slideshow party, but she's only allowed to buy
products that would have been available in the '70s.
Wow! A lobster. That's really '70s.
Cook from frozen. So, perfect.
I can go to the garage, grab it, stick it on a tray.
Put it straight on the table ready for everybody to eat.
Just so completely different to making dinner last night. Just all these frozen lumps of...stuff.
Mmm. This looks good! Does it look good? Yeah, it looks good.
Because all of that was in the freezer half-an-hour ago.
# I can see clearly now... #
1976 - the year the number of colour television licences
overtook those of black-and-white for the first time.
POT BLACK THEME TUNE
Alan Weeks! God! There he is! Welcome to Pot Black's gala night...
I hate snooker. Do you have to watch it in black and white as well?
Snooker was brought to TV by BBC2 controller David Attenborough,
to make the most of the new colour service.
Kind of an interesting game.
When you're watching it in black and white, it becomes even more challenging.
But the family won't have to struggle with snooker in black-and-white for much longer.
Out with the old...
Tom from the Tech Team is delivering them a new colour TV.
Fire her up, then. There we are.
Can I try it? Are you ready to see what would happen if a rainbow leaked into your old TV?
Hurray! Whoo!
Hurray, it's colour! Whoo!
Fantastic!
That's worth leaving the washing up for.
Television viewing was Britain's biggest pastime in the 1970s, even though there wasn't much to watch,
which probably explains how The Generation Game
regularly ended up with almost half the country tuning in.
Erm, UV light... Coffee. UV light.
Blender. Fan heater. Electric light.
Cuddly toy. Didn't he do well? Didn't he do well?! Oi! Oi!
Didn't he do well?!
I can feel the family getting sucked into the technology, and...
I'm still making Jello in the kitchen.
Good rumba action, strong legs...
But the colour TV doesn't seem to offer much excitement to Hamish.
I still don't think I'm gonna be watching it as much.
The TV I'm used to,
it has satellite.
So there's lots more channels to go through.
It hasn't got a remote so you have to get up and press the buttons all the time.
Ooo, ooo, ooo...! The three TV channels are about to face their first rival.
Tom is back with the very latest in electronics,
containing the first computer chip to enter the '70s home.
When we first saw you, you were all playing video games. Yeah.
Everybody in the house seemed to up to be hooked up to some sort of television. Yes.
So this is the first rung on that ladder, back to your normality, of video games.
It's absolutely brilliant.
Oh, brilliant! I remember this!
Hamish! The sad news is, it's in monochrome. So you'll enjoy that.
Here's a brand new idea from the United States,
which can turn your television set into a game that two can play.
Unplug the aerial, plug in the electronic game simulator,
switch on the set again, and now, who's for tennis?
Right, Wimbledon, here we come.
Are you ready? Play.
Oh, yeah, there we go. Is that sharp or...?
VIDEO GAME BEEPS
What...? This is weird.
Created by Atari in 1972, Pong is recognised as the first home video game.
Soon, manufacturers worldwide made their own versions,
and over 500 different systems flooded the market.
Though the controls were kept to a bare minimum -
a single rotary knob - this is the beginning of the television as an entertainment emporium.
It's quite clever, for what it is, but...
VIDEO GAME BEEPS
Obviously, Adam has more experience in these kinds of games.
It's 1977.
# God save the Queen... #
While the Queen's Silver Jubilee flew the flag for tradition, revolution was breaking out.
The computer revolution.
Computers were starting to make inroads into the workplace.
But the era of the home computer was at least five years away.
Gia is in search of any sort of computing power she can offer the family.
Clearly I can't give them a computer in the '70s.
So I think it's got to be a calculator.
And there's only one man to go to.
He's the guy who brought calculators to the masses - my hero, Sir Clive Sinclair.
When I told people that I'm coming to meet you today, everyone said
you have to tell him how important he is to me. He's changed my life so thank you very much.
Did you feel that it was important that
the average person have some kind of contact with computers and calculators, and...?
They were magical. Prior to that,
calculations were elaborate, and you either used a slide rule or log tables.
And then suddenly, pocket calculators came along, and changed it all.
These were something that was space-agey, and they caused
a lot of excitement, and that was rather fun to be involved with.
Well, I've got the calculator for the family. Sinclair Cambridge.
When these came out in the early '70s, they were incredibly expensive.
But by now, they were affordable, they were about £8.95.
So anyone could afford these things.
And they were still a bit of a status symbol, still very exciting to own.
So, I'm gonna give it to them now.
Oh, look at that! It's a calculator!
And your maths homework will be so quick and easy now, because you can do it all on the calculator.
D'you remember doing rude words on them? Like boobs? D'you remember what the number was?
Yeah, I think it's 58008, and then you look at it upside down.
It's so infantile, I can't believe you know that.
Hamish has found a proper use for the calculator - his maths homework.
Teachers at the time were anxious about their potential impact on children's arithmetical ability.
Even so, the pocket calculator was unstoppable.
In 1977, Britain bought nearly five million of them.
But the meagre computing achievements of the '70s - Pong and the calculator -
have brought home to Hamish how much he's missing 21st century technology.
I'm quite bored. There's nothing really to do.
I'd normally have my computer.
Games and...stuff.
He's even resorted to helping Georgie with the housework.
1978 - and industrial relations had reached a new low.
Britain is stricken with its worst industrial problems for years...
While Denis Healey was attempting to freeze wages, Britain was shivering through the winter of discontent.
30-odd years later, snow covers Britain again,
and Adam has a dilemma - whether or not to go into the office.
Normally I probably wouldn't go to work, actually.
I'd probably work at home. Cos I've got broadband connections, and, you know, a direct link into the office.
And mobiles, and all the technology that allows me to be mobile, and work anywhere, really.
Probably 30 years ago, I probably would have struggled in, I guess!
Going to work in this Cortina is crazy. It's not up to the job. It's not engineered for this!
But having said that, people in the '70s did.
So, why shouldn't I? Is the question.
Oh, I'm not taking a Cortina out in this. It's crazy.
I've got a 4x4. I'm taking that.
But before Adam arrives at his office, Gia is making a few modifications.
Out goes the internet workstation, and in comes a Commodore Pet computer.
Work is certainly the first place people would have encountered a computer.
And this one was, you know, massively high tech.
Software is loaded using a tape deck, which is both unreliable and slow.
But the Pet, with a basic word processor and spreadsheet,
was a popular business machine into the '80s.
Hello. Morning!
Ha-ha-ha-ha!
Look at that! 1978 today. I didn't think it was 1978.
These came out in 1977. Commodore Pet...
Really? I just assumed it was a lot later than that.
So, I know that you work in accountancy.
I've got you a finance programme.
OK. Hopefully you'll be able to do something.
This should be interesting.
This came with
4-8K of RAM. My mobile phone for example has 64 Meg.
So, mobile-phone is 16,000 times more RAM than this.
So, it's gonna be a bit slow!
Does it actually do anything? It does. I've loaded up a programme here for you.
But Adam struggles to do his 21st century job with a '70s computer.
The lack of any connection to the outside world is its biggest shortcoming.
D'you think it would be possible to do your normal, daily work
on a computer like this? Absolutely not.
Lack of technology back home has caused another problem for Adam.
Turns out that an e-mail was sent out very early this morning to all staff, saying, because of
the weather conditions outside, don't come in. Work at home.
And clearly, I can't work at home.
And I can't get e-mails! So, I didn't know about it!
So I've come in and battled my way in, only to be met with an empty office.
Adam returns home early.
And all the family head outside for some good, old-fashioned fun.
It didn't come about quite in the way that I thought it might do.
But I've got what I wanted.
I've got more time together as a family, doing the same activity, and enjoying each other's company.
Despite Georgie's nostalgia for the past, '70s parents would actually
spend as little as 25 minutes a day with their children.
Today, the average is over an hour and a half, nearly four times as much!
..mouth now, just needs your nose...
This is the '70s re-created in your back garden!
Tomorrow is the last day of the '70s, and I'm gutted.
I've really liked the '70s. I like not having the technology.
Each year we tick on and we get more gadgets, it's kind of disappointing, really.
I'd just like to freeze-frame here and stay here a bit longer.
That would be great.
But back inside, they discover there's a problem with their favourite piece of '70s technology.
Adam, could you have a look at the TV? It's broken.
What makes you think I'll fix it, then?
It was working a second ago, as well.
Anything happening? It's getting more broken.
It's started making a little desperate humming noise, and it's now completely dead.
Erm, our TV is broken...
Hamish phones the tech support team for help.
Anything up? In the '70s, the TV repairman was a common visitor.
Colour sets cost around £3,000, in today's money.
What seems to be the problem? It won't switch on.
But they were also consistently unreliable, so it's little wonder 70% of families rented.
90% of TVs in the '70s broke down at least once a year.
A few sets, about 20% of sets, actually broke down five times or more.
But then, the Japanese - mainly Japanese - imported sets were made to a higher standard.
They didn't break down anywhere near as much.
Occasionally, they were even dangerous, getting so hot,
they'd set fire to the room, earning them the nickname curtain burners among TV repairman.
It's always the thing on these Baird sets, the last screw never goes in. It was John Logie's idea of a joke.
OPEN UNIVERSITY THEME PLAYS
First of all, welcome to the course...
Nice beard!
Look at that jacket, it's absolutely ridiculous.
..came down to solving a quadratic equation...
I'll leave you to Bob Coats and his mathematical equations, Adam.
..equals two times y over x...
Give me a call if any other problems arise.
The decade is nearly over.
Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. And where there is despair, may we bring hope.
Tonight, the Sullivan-Barnes family are putting on a slide show for
friends to see their time-travelling adventures.
Georgie has been busy in the kitchen all day preparing food for the party.
Freezer food has made the job easier, but she's still not getting much help from the boys.
I need some cheese grated.
Can you please help, and stop playing with watches?
Go on, help.
Georgie has done a lovely spread of '70s staples - vol-au-vents and fondue. That looks fine.
Adam is in charge of the era's favourite drinks.
That's all right. Is that OK? Yeah. The snowballs are here!
Although no-one's impressed with the Soda Stream.
The fondue's good. You should try the fondue.
Hamish provides the music, with his mix tape.
Adam with his Chopper! That's a nice one!
I've always been fond of my Chopper!
I told you Georgie was rather keen on the Cortina!
For the family, it's a chance to reflect on their '70s experience.
I think most of it is nostalgia, and just having so many happy memories
from childhood, that keep being rekindled.
That you just don't want to leave them behind, really.
Georgie got what she thought she wanted, a home free of high-tech distractions.
But it has come at a price.
I've liked being fairly low on the technology front.
But it's meant the inconveniences - cooking a meal, doing some cleaning,
everything was very hands-on, and took a long time to do.
Technology has made domestic life easier. But the children have realised that some modern tech,
like mobile phones, for example, has its downside.
I do think, in the '70s, children had more freedom.
Because I think nowadays parents are more cautious.
As children in the '70s, we felt a lot freer, and a lot more able to go off and just do things.
I look today and I sometimes see our kids sort of at home, glued to the computer.
And it quite saddens me.
I do think the kids saw the value of the family time together.
And they certainly saw how much I enjoyed it.
I think we will make an effort to do stuff as a family, even
if poor old Hamish would rather be playing on his games console.
I don't think I'll miss the '70s, really.
Cos there wasn't much to do in the '70s.
Really sad, actually, that it's over for the '70s. Really sad.
I really am quite sad to leave the '70s!
Next time, the family enter the 1980s, and are faced with an explosion of domestic technology.
Complete leap of technology.
This is more like it. But will the '80s bring them labour-saving must haves, or time-wasting boys' toys?
ELECTRONIC JINGLE
Ha-ha! I've got it working!
Can modern kids get to grips with the primitive electronics of the day?
Wait, wait, wait! Why, why can't you be more patient?
Nothing ever works!
And you can continue your journey through the decades online, with
the BBC and the Open University, by visiting:
# We'll always be together
# However far it seems
# Love never ends
# We'll always be together
# Together in electric dreams. #