Living In The Past

Storyline

Living in the Past is a BBC2 TV series of 12 programmes (reduced to 8 when repeated) about a group of volunteers who constructed and then lived for a year in a British Iron Age settlement set circa 300 BCE. There were 6 couples aged 22 - 30 and three sibling boys ages 3, 5 and 7. The programme was conceived and produced by BBC staff TV producer John Percival. He persuaded the BBC to allow him to run with his idea of seeing how a group of C20 volunteers would deal with a primitive lifestyle, and make a TV series of it. It was the first time a documentary style series had been used to follow the lives of people in a situation created by the TV company - later called Reality TV but that expression did not exist in the English language in 1978. The volunteers who had been selected in summer 1976 began the project in February 1977. To begin with they lived in tents at the site on Cranbourne Chase in Wiltshire whilst they built the replica Iron Age buildings. On 30th April 1978 the tents were dispensed with and on 1st May they 'went Iron Age'. The BBC supplied livestock typical of the era - cows, goats, sheep, pigs, hens, geese and bees - and also tools, clothes and a basic store of food to last until harvest. The group built and lived in one large thatched round house. It was 15 Metres in diameter, 9 metres high and was based on an actual Iron Age excavation. A fire for cooking and warmth burned in the centre of the house of the floor. The TV series documents the group throughout the year, showing the agricultural work, craft activities such as weaving, pottery, & forged iron work, and also the social interactions of the group including the celebration of Celtic festivals. In addition to the 12 programmes of the main series three 20 minute TV programmes for schools were made using different film stock. Follow up TV programmes were made 20 and 30 years after the 1978 series. 47 years on many members of the group are still in regular touch with each other.