Episode 3
Recreating British farming as it was during World War II. The team tackle the conditions faced in the winter of 1940, including celebrating Christmas under the limits of rationing.
The team tackles the conditions faced by the British farmers in late 1940, when Britain's cities were heavily bombed by the Nazis.
The Blitz resulted in one of the biggest mass movements of people in British history as three million city dwellers fled to the countryside. To make outbuildings habitable as refugee shelters, Alex and Peter resort to the age-old craft of making tiles by hand - which means camping out for two days and nights in freezing cold to tend the tile-making kiln. They are visited by a 94-year-old conscientious objector who was conscripted as a farm labourer because he refused to fight on religious grounds.
Ruth gets involved in the work of the Royal Observer Corps, who often enlisted farmers in the work of spotting enemy planes. Alex and Peter also learn how to set up 'decoy fires' to lure German bombers off target, a project known as Operation Starfish.
With December approaching, the team look forward to celebrating Christmas 1940-style. People were understandably eager to put the horrors of war behind them - if only for a day - but this was the first Christmas under rationing and compromises had to be made. Alex looks at government solutions to the national 'toy shortage', whilst Peter discovers that soap had become the nation's favourite Christmas gift. With turkeys few and far between, Ruth cooks up an alternative - known as 'mock turkey' or 'murkey' - made from apples, onion and a dash of sausage meat, with a pair of parsnips for legs.
Last on
Clip
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A wartime dance at the Farm
Duration: 01:38
Credits
Role | Contributor |
---|---|
Presenter | Ruth Goodman |
Presenter | Alex Langlands |
Producer | Stuart Elliott |
Director | Stuart Elliott |
Executive Producer | David Upshal |
Presenter | Peter Ginn |
Broadcasts
- Thu 20 Sep 2012 20:00成人快手 HD & 成人快手 Two
- Sat 22 Sep 2012 16:10成人快手 Two England & Wales only
- Sat 22 Sep 2012 18:25成人快手 Two Scotland & Northern Ireland only
- Tue 16 Oct 2012 00:25成人快手 One except Northern Ireland, Scotland & Wales
- Thu 18 Oct 2012 00:25成人快手 One Northern Ireland
- Wed 22 Nov 2017 16:15成人快手 Two except Wales
- Thu 23 Nov 2017 15:45成人快手 Two Wales
- Mon 15 Oct 2018 14:45