Iron Age Man BBC Living in the Past 1977/78
Posted: May 26th, 2017, 5:41 pm
Yes and very interesting it was too, the only reality TV show I've ever really found to be worth watching. The reasons for this are explained early in the interview.
I disagreed with the interviewer though on the issue of group cohesion i.e. his assertion that unlike TV producers of today who choose groups of people who are guaranteed not to get on with each other - for the sake of those tension and dispute filled moments - they chose a group of people who had a good chance of getting on together and working together. Watching the first episode of that programme long ago, it was obvious to me that the couple with the two young children would inevitably in the end clash with the others for a variety of reasons but including very firmly held principles which were in conflict with some aspects of what the group were being asked to do. I found it difficult to believe that those who selected the group didn't know this right from the start but the interviewee was talking about the group voting for the other people they wanted to be with which was something I'd forgotten. It was interesting that some members of the group still meet up four times a year.
N.B. The couple and their children left before the end of the year because one of the children became ill and couldn't be treated in the physical context. The last programme in the series was a follow up with members of the group once the experiment was over and they'd gone their separate ways. At that stage the children would not talk about the village and acted as though it never happened and I've often wondered about the long term effects of the experience - not of the 'living in the past' as children are very flexible but of the tension between the group and their parents.