Television TV

How we used to live

This Memory is looking a little short on nostalgia! Have you got anything you could add?

This was a programme that we would watch in school during the 1970's. It was aimed at the 7-11 age group and told you all about social history from 1901 - 1945. It certainly gave me and a friend an interest in History and I wish it could be repeated today. I wonder how many remember this programme and others they would have watched in school.


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Do You Remember How we used to live?

Do You Remember How we used to live?

  • Anonymous user
    on
    Yes remember getting taken down to the tv room in primary school in the later half of the seventies, it was great , fascinating, what always sticks in my mind also was we were about to watch another episode and before we did the teacher announced we had our first female prime minister, it’s strange now I can remember the contents of the programme but not the cast or vaguely
  • Anonymous user
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    Used this for years when I was teaching. Anyone know if there are any DVDs of the 1936-1953 series?
  • Anonymous user
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    Hi my twins are studying the second world war and the 1936 - 53 series of 'How we used to live' I really gained so much from, back in 1981-82. Does anyone know how I can get copies of the series for this period... video or DVD? Many thanks. Sarah
  • Anonymous user
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    The series was, and still is, brilliant. I am a primary teacher and still love using it, though the yorkshire accents can be hard to follow for kids in other parts of the country. Does anyone have copies of the programme notes? Ann
  • Anonymous user
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    Hi Karrie, I watched the How We Used To Live series you mentioned which was set in 1936-1953 and one of the girls was Avril as you said. The other children were Jimmy, Patricia and Edward. How We Used To Live 1936-1953 is on YouTube and I hope someone will add the other series. My favourite is the How We Used To Live 1954-1970 series which also featured Jimmy and Avril (who both had their own children by then), together with Michael Brady (who was a boy in the later episodes of the 1902-1926 series), his wife and their children, as well as Michael's Uncle Albert and Auntie Bertha. Jimmy and Avril's brother Edward re-appears halfway though the series. As mentioned on an earlier post, Avril and her husband Laurence are indeed killed in a later episode when their mini is hit by a multicoloured Volkswagen van on the motorway. Strangely, despite Jimmy, Avril and Edward being in ther series, their parents were never mentioned and it seems they had died off screen as they didn't come to Avril's funeral - and not one mention of them was made when Avril and Laurence were killed, or when Edward married the Brady's older daughter.
  • Anonymous user
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    Horrible Histories is the closest you'd get to it now.
  • Anonymous user
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    Oh my, I would absolutely love to watch this again, my memory is fading and I do remember the family with 2 girls and 2 boys and I'm sure one of them was Avril. Does anyone know where and how I can view these on you tube? Be grateful if anyone can help it's bugging me! lol Thanks
  • Anonymous user
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    it was brilliant!Best schools and childrens programme ever. To this day I've kept a crush on he actress Julie Shipley who played the role of the older daughter Patricia. The four children were Patricia, Jimmy, Avril (who died instantly in a motorway accident coming home from London with her husband Lawrence)and Edward. I've got every episode of it on DVD which I copied from my videos. Anyone interested can contact me at dave_brown10uk@yahoo.co.uk Perhaps we can take it further
    • Anonymous user
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      I realise this post was some years ago but I wondered if you still have the DVD's I would love to show my grandchildren the series, I loved the programme Pam
    • Anonymous user
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      Hi I would like copies of how we used to live thanks john
    • Anonymous user
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      Hi, I just came across these posts, and I wondered if you still have the dvd's, as I would love copies of all the episodes. Thanks, Judy.
  • Anonymous user
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    Wasn't it the Hodgkin family, at least in the latter episodes? I remembour school class had a poster showing heach episode title and a still pic. One was "Full Steam Ahead", for some reason I remember that, and it was a steam train and the news section was about the nationalisation of the railways.
  • Anonymous user
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    I remember a girl called avril in it.