Electric Dreams - The 1970s 1 of 3

over the last 40 years technology has developed with dizzying speed but how has it transformed our homes and what is it done to our families to find out the Sullivan Barnes is from Redding are taking part in a unique experiment they'll be stripped of all modern technology and their own home will be turned into a time machine what on earth made of 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 digital age through three decades of technological progress each day new gadgets will be delivered to their door so they can see firsthand their impact on family life wait wait why need one could be more pensions okay an expert technical support team have the task of sourcing vintage technology and getting it to work the challenge for us is great and I'm not really sure that we're gonna 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 come on the section committee without their 21st century technology how will it change the way they live in sin TV probably would have got smacked will they spend more time together or just more time doing housework how do people cope with this on a regular basis and not have serious problems as technological progress always been for the better and has it fulfilled our electric dreams it's the Sullivan bounds last night in 2009 tomorrow they'll be moving out of their house so it can be turned into a 1970s home Adams an accountant and Georgia's a senior NHS executive between them they've got four children Hamish Ellie Jude and Adams daughter Steph though she mostly lives with her mum she's here for the whole experience a thoroughly modern family they 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 from a kid will be a real thrill for the children it's a journey into the unknown I do this like the one thing that everyone would miss I'd say that I probably miss like my computer I'd never talk and I miss our phone why do you think in there probably computer because I use I use computer food makes my homework and stuff I spend the most time in my bedroom just away from city s ations much mum Georgia's not so sure all this technology is such a good thing I feel is there they're missing out but you can't live your life in front of a screen be fantastic at the end of it if if we 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'll be interested to see how all the children and the rest of us interact with each other when all this kids come next time the family come home it'll be 1970 across reading the family's very own technical support team are gathering the vintage technology which they'll soon have to live with Tom wriggles Wirth will provide audio and communication devices well enough to deliver every gadget and gizmo that arrived in British houses in the 1970s to their doorstep and even when we've sourced it we've got to get it working Jia Milanovich is a technology journalist and computer expert I'm going to be busy in the 80s certainly in the 90s but in the 70s what do I have I mean this me with the bit Wow sociologist dr. Ben hai Moore will put it all in context a family that's used to interacting with technology most of the day when all that's taken away from them what are they going to do it's time for the tech team to put the final touches to the house but the decor has already been taken back to the seventies to make it more like an average home of the era rooms have been resized and others have disappeared the kitchens now just a third of the size instead of two bathrooms there's now just one the girls will be sharing and instead of two receptions the family are left with a single cozy sitting room it's getting there isn't it think yeah this rooms looking really good originally was a knock through dining room sitting room but we boarded that back up made into just a sitting room on its own 1970 house is a completely different house in terms of how it was used to their houses we have now much darker much more claustrophobic I mean partly this is about heating if you have central heating you can have through rooms you can have big open space now this I think 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've 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 on this to remind them what you is there we go 1969 Armstrong was limbering up magic the transformation is complete it's time for the family to move back in and they've been transformed to with 1970s outfits they have no idea what now lies behind their own front door juju hey Judas play Oh what on earth Lee done with our kitchen I don't like it ah I hate it look at the floor oh my goodness what do you think in the color scheme are you impressed with a color schedule I would never have chosen it but it kind of works let me see yeah no that's the washing machine where is the fridge there's the fridge then no dishwasher we definitely don't have a microwave Oh what about free look at this ketchup oh yeah that's just a fridge right now I love it I think it's fab but but I'm trying to cook dinner later and I've done 10 days living and cooking washing in it you might wanna ask me gonna get a different answer Jude I happen to beat Curtin oh this wallpaper is so cool isn't it whoa look at that TV Morocco white so fabulous to ITV that must be ITV look stop - who the family will only be able to watch TV at the hours it was available in the 1970s which means often with no daytime TV at all and shut down before midnight I reckon I'm gonna be watching penny more now just because it's so we're different you like black and white them you know amazing sherry I love it i layer upon it stay like there I really do Wow the wallpapers greevey oh look oh my god ah look making a little room reading music here we've got a record player up here cool Wow oh my gosh myself baby whooping boom boom it's bit of Simon & Garfunkel on Anton yeah we needs us what we haven't bought anymore what you know about the bathroom not sweets good oh no Louise I'm gonna share a bathroom with the class a hideous disgusting I definitely do not think I'm gonna be spending so much from my room I'm gonna be downstairs on the guitar and watching Doctor Who on the black-and-white TV was just preppin Sarah man tastes so pleased so you 124 eyes with Kenneth also just evokes so many memories of childhood that you you kind of kind of regress to a you know a different mental state I think very little here there's a radio there's a couple of TV channels and there's some music through through LPS and that's pretty much it from what I could see George is getting to grips with her kitchen circa 1970 which means no freezer and microwave automatic washing machine or tumble dryer my brain was going whirring like mad I'm trying to think about things like washing and there's the twin turbo she machine over there which I'm dreading getting to with my ton of work you know how to kind of manage the functions of being a mum with how-to for building it'll be young more than past my bedtime there's part of me that's hoping the kids will actually get on fine and enjoy not sitting in front of the telly all the time and there's a cruel streak in me that actually makes me think ha ha let's see what the hell do without all that stuff now the children don't want to go up to their nineteen seventy's bedrooms which are cold and empty of anything entertaining so unlike 2009 television viewing is a shared family experience we stopped producing workers blurbs on the news shows a Briton 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 laughs there'll be no new telephones installed and they'll be delayed over repair this is the era of collective bargaining and strike action you post office strikes we're even threatening the telephone network one to five and a week but at least unions permitting the Sullivan Barnes's have a phone albeit a single fixed handset tethered in their drafty hallway swinging their lucky in 1970 half of British homes didn't yet have a phone line hello Hamish it's Tom from the tech team oh thanks could you tell your family that only 25% of the population had central heating in 1970 so as a result we switched your central heating off mm-hmm however on the front doorstep there is your first gadget that will make the morning chill a little bit easier what's that sir let's hope the like to you guys have a cell Assam is ephemeral it's from Tom and the rest of the technical it's not on the phone call was yeah 25 percent pieces in 1970s had secreting they've timed ours off as the results we don't have central heating anymore but this is to help make all awnings yes yes what is it copy zitties made I believe six Fanta I too have in our bedrooms so make your morning warmer yes thanks thinking about that but this is only benefiting you to the technical support teams first delivery comes complete with original seventies instructions and authentic seventies chauvinism so you now have a goblin tease made the second best tea maker in the world naturally would never dream of competing with a woman Steff wasn't very impressed with the DS raid I think she's hoping it'd be something for us or for her what about our present from the tech team tonight the two things hey we've got that charged up ready to go me waking up with cup of tea maybe having to be the brave person that ventures out in the cold with no central heating yeah what is the whole central meeting tonight we'll see 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 tea dear oh yes please darling the tea's maid 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 warning the tea's maids popularity would fade during the 1970s as ever more homes got central heating but a puff by the year 2000 the Goblin teas made 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 just go downstairs and main one I don't understand I don't understand what you don't like about it why why wouldn't that be brilliant none of us have had to get out of bed in Hasbro Monday morning it's school for the children and work for Adam first time to check out another 70s gadget and smell it is your fight mostly mild transepts first it's actually cutting was everybody got to learn up maybe they're queueing up and bathroom George is taking the day off work to get the housework done without the aid of modern technology coming for more ready to get on the river washed up you seem to be taking up station by the kitchen sink and waiting for the next bit washing up to arrive and so far no offers of help from the family the change to decimal currency has been a big operation tills to be changed sales girls trained and all those atoms off to work in his Ford Cortina Britain's best-selling car of the 1970s seems to be working okay clunk click every trip Thank You Jimmy Sabol 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 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 airbags no rear seatbelts no head restraints and of course no power brakes or steering this is a big test because the brakes calibrate our a lot no brakes oh no bright Oh God there we go okay and just go around the corners that takes a real effort just because the carp on that second hit I can't come up on a second I've got to tell you my modern car streets ahead of this I mean it's a lovely car to look at but boy oh boy this is a deathtrap I think George is trying to throw herself into life as a seventies housewife oh it's heavy I did okay now I've just made the children's beds brilliant but that's great that's just what I want 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 a Adam to look after and 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 hobbled by the ingredients because we've no storage with a tiny fridge no freezer so I couldn't do a weekly shop for fresh kids and have no idea when I 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 Center for domestic labor smell not right now it smells like it was an electrical smell as though the motors about to object-- to life and turned it off I'm not very happy to be using it with that smell George is finding the kitchen full of trials even cooking tonight's dessert is perilous domestic microwave ovens weren't launched until 1974 so to cook a pudding in half the time meant boiling it under pressure at over 250 degrees Fahrenheit it's the first time I've ever used to pressure cooker in it this is where you really wish she got a microwave by the time the children returned from school George's spent the whole day in the kitchen homework without computers is their idea of a chore Adams also home and he's seeing danger all over the house it's just that whole kind of kitchen setup just just gives me horrors especially with a with a little one around the kettle's dangerous that this is dangerous because of its edges fires dangerous anything around the cooker is dangerous pressure cooker or microwave no competition so scary how people cope with this on a regular basis and not have serious stress problems it might be like a bomb I think if we open it now might just go I really liked everybody being busy when we came home rather than just being kind of lounging around or watching telly or you know that kind of thing like the fact that we've automail square everybody's being in her with sat down and ate and family and I like kind of the business around the cooking in the kitchen and that everyone's been sort of around and chilled now time for the pressure cooker pudding oh that's disgusting they 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 just something we might have to make it again after dinner there's another delivery on the doorstep we got another parcel with 35 millimeter cameras the technical support team have sent the family a note in the 1970s families returned their pictures into slots we suggest that 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 neighbors kind of a joke in the seventies was people boring other people with their slide show is the music the family now depend on a true relic of the analog age the radiogram in mahogany and in mono I used 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 it's the music on so there's always noise going on in our house Ruby is that another piece of technology that doesn't quite live up to Adams nostalgic expectations oh I don't think I would crave one of these in my sitting room right now 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 music center with a full-size in the early 70s the stereo music center arrived in Britain its futuristic Japanese design broke free of the radiograms 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 as we know the dad is a big music not so I'm gonna get a music center with a compact cassette the key innovation of the Music Centre was the cassette deck the magical components that changed how we listen to music for the first time the average consumer could actually record as well as play records but Tom's struggling to find one in working order considered trashy by hi-5 buffs few 70s music centres survive on eBay I've just typed in 1970 try an hour my search because it was coming up with a load of modern Tosh this oh this one was not before I this is perfect it's perfect this is in oak Hampton in Devon this movie Center was class-leading in its day besides I'm aware everything works comes with original selling speakers I'll use a turntable and radio recently so no they are ok but cannot guarantee the function of the cassette player cannot guarantee the function of the cassette player everything worked a minute ago this is perfect this part of it there and it is exactly once Tom's got the music sent her back to his workshop he still has to coax the aged cassette recorder back to life Hey counterfeit recept lovely there's 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 those working now you could slip an entire album into your pocket well we can give the family a fully working system look it's got a tape deck and everything wow what a change he'll put it the tech team have asked Adam to use the new music center to create a mixtape for their end of decade slideshow and this is a leap in technology from this thing but you know even even now you just think to help with the mixtape the tech team have sent music writer and former NME journalist David Quantic Aram David oh it's nice to meet you 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 mixtape it became a way of talking to people if you wanted to impress girls particularly or impressing your friends with Roxy music is a great one to impress your friends the roxy music album track says I'm sophisticated I smoke I drink Campari I'm stylish cause what it the signal it also sends out is you have no life so it's a fine balance going to hate at the moment here again we're creating art right you can tell the gaps between the songs because you can see them we have to be a bit of a bit of a marksman really to do this it is stuffing the exact point right now you want to take the risk you want to jump in just lower it another way to do is just trial and error because it is only a piece of plastic in the end that's great so they put one sits in the monsters in the green box we'll just go for it now now it's right now it's fine you did well you didn't do the glue gun it's all a bit like a Japanese tea ceremony it's all ritual and knowing when to go in and when to come out you put an iPhone in a dock or play through computers because it's just not the same as putting a needle on a piece of plastic crunch it's dirty you know it's nasty and why don't you go to your slide show we're gonna have to delay it this too careful thirteen-year-old Hamish who had never played a record until today is impressed when you've gone buy a record new and combine is a shock thing that you can hold and you can see you feel whereas if you download something that's like you can't touch it's like there but you can't touch it and I think I prefer being able to hold the finger and say look here it is it's 1973 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 evermore domestic technology meant an increasing demand for electricity as coal supplies ran low Britain struggled to cope increase but we do reckon that we can match master Noakes is amazing to give the family an authentic evening in 1973 the tech team have a surprise for them multiply that by 12 we go where the torches boom you are off on today now please sit down don't knock anything over could be dangers wait for Adam to get the torch don't give once a month darling there's some candles in the cupboard how long do you think it's gonna last Georgie calls the tech team haven't gotten any perico 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 um the result of the miners industrial action and power cut will last until the morning okay this no no Riley oh listen that boy's nuts now remind me of camping holidays is that secure no darling isn't secure so little tiny tribute with a panel man the miners may have downed tools but a true homemaker never does I need to make jelly now because I've got to go to work in the morning there is a power cut and there won't be any pudding for tomorrow night if I haven't got on with it now should we bring a mobile phone buckle really do Oh buckaroo definitely first just a little bit of one night fun it brings back huge Manny's doesn't have family togetherness which is why I said let's play games games a challenge it's not funny I think the fact that we haven't got that much to do it makes it extra special as well it's not like we're missing anything Adam actually I was quite sure how 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 I don't think life is that great anything you have to do more for yourself sit yeah you do a lot more peace health now sup power particles strikes nervous and cool heated no phones no like high-tech the powers returned to the house and so is 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 5:00 a.m. Hamish is about to start his first proper job a paper round if house doesn't get into trouble then he's not into telephony on his mobile or anything like that but no I think you'll enjoy doing the paper and quick-quick gonna be like hurry up paper rounds are a big part of a seventies childhood but today newsagent struggle to recruit paper boys and girls mainly because modern parents fear for their kids safety walking the streets alone even so George 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 I did my spiking proficiency on that thing is my boy those one thing that if I could keep I would fight but cycling 1970 style create some dilemmas for Georgie and Adam they were going out on bikes in the 70s they wouldn't have hadn't like they have now mobile phones I never used to wear a helmet and then obey you well they would have to wear not pose the mobile phones so often when I tried 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 that they forgot me the logo the mobile phone probably loves you into a false sense of security and at least you know we had our instructions in those days that you had to be back at whatever time 40 so oh no I think they'll be okay modern children spend less than a fifth of the time playing outside than their 70s counterparts and with less to entertain them in the house the great outdoors is proving a draw for the Sullivan Barnes kids too but Hamish may have taken his seventies freedoms too far he's decided to cycle into town without a mobile phone or asking Georgie it's 7 o'clock and Hamish still isn't back this is the note that he's left to mum I'm probably in town as we speak I cycled in and borrowed two helmets since I couldn't find mine I have a bike lot with me and will be with George so call him if there's a problem or I'm needed immediately we've gone into town and promised not to do anything outside my time ie the seventies can't believe that on the chopper that he got yesterday that'll probably get stolen in the dark in winter no lies 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 you know he doesn't have a mobile on him and he suggested I might call his friend on his mobile but of course I haven't got his friends mobile number because it's on my confiscated mobile this could be him and half 7:00 Hamish finally returns don't hi me go and put the helmet in the pork chop and come back in here I'm really angry with you you know that that would have been alright with me going into town on the chopper and you could have run me at work and I'm really cross so you're not having some hurt you're going upstairs now you can have a bath and wash your hair 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 is up there is computer it's PlayStation but in 1917 there's it's colder upstairs and there's not really very much to do maybe I should them gotten the typewriter people's empties deaden like communicate will do and how they just planned ahead okay I'm sure if I plant hello olive even be allowed to go out back in the 2000s a mish would have probably sent me a text message at work to tell me what he was staring and he would certainly know that to go into town without doing that would have definitely not been okay but not having opportunity to text me or recited that he would just chance it I was quite cool Ashley looks quite impressed with it sweet the way it was all planned and executed tight letter the tied letter which must have taken ages and the fact he thought he thinks the choppers really cool because I think the choppers really cool too hey this is David one day because mum told him off he went into town with a dropper so mum was angry told him to go his room and he can have dinner he's already asleep oh it's power-cut jelly well it's quite good the family are halfway through their time in the 1970s and the demanding schedule of domestic chores is taking its toll on Georgie normally I've been doing other stuff and evening I do a bit of work or I make some phone calls or do some housework or something that I don't seem to be able to quite fit in at the moment you fantastic to have a freezer even if you know I didn't have the convenience foods to have the fries and be able to cook an extra meal and put it in the freezer and and take it out and almost use it like convenience food would be definitely be a big plus Georgiy won't have to wait long for her dreams to come true freezers were initially sold as a place to store homegrown fruit and vege 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 Highmore has managed to find what he hopes is a 70s model this is massive yes your 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 doing the daily shop now they could just do a weekly shop but have the corner shop in the home but I'm slightly worried whether it is a nineteen seventies freezer at all or whether it's a 1980s early eighties freezer Oh smells like is firmly enough to clean that chest freezers would basically be fairly standardized 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 simple you're ridiculous it's gonna look great customizing appliances with sticky-backed plastic was common practice in the 70s this way any appliance could blend in with the brown or around house they're looking at this quite cool isn't it but in low seventies it is more simply now it looks very okay I'm gonna take you around the family then by 1975 half of British homes had a deep freeze despite the fact that they cost almost a thousand pounds in today's money and took up an awful lot of space come on yo G hello got a delivery oh my chains have come you feel really disloyal to women kind being excited about it there you should change electric kitchen outrageous where do you want us to put it gosh I don't know it's so big it's bigger than huge maybe the garage you'll almost need a garage to fit one of these in do you want to show us where you like like to put it probably quite near the garage door I don't write in maybe here right I think one of the first things you're going to need to do Georgie is stop 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 daily shop became a reality George is 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 coke from frozen yeah so perfect I'm go to the garage grab it stick it on the tray it's straight on the table ready for a book tweet it's just so completely different making dinner last night just all these frozen lumps of stuff this looks good does it look good because that was in the freezer half an hour ago I can see clear 1976 now in items and a year the number of color television licenses overtook those on black and white for the first time don't wait lyrium welcome to a pop black garden I'd hate sneakers it is you have to watch that enlightens our snooker was brought a television by BBC two controller David Attenborough to make the most of the new color service kind of an interesting game when you're watching it in black and white it becomes even more challenging at the but the family won't have to struggle with snooker in black and white for much longer with the old Tom from the tech teams delivering them a new colour TV there we are yeah are you ready to see what would happen if a rainbow leaked into your old TV that's worth leaving Ochsner 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 UV night coffee you video under a magneto electric light toy I can feel the family getting sucked into the technology and I'm still making jello in but the color TV doesn't seem to offer much excitement to Hamish I still have been funding me what forget as much the TV I'm used to it has some satellite so there's lots more channels to go through and it has got all the notes if the album of the one wall on the three TV channels are about to face their first rival Tom's back with the very latest in electronics containing the first computer chip to enter the 1970s home when we first saw you all playing video games you know everybody in the house seemed to be hooked up to some sort of television excitement so this is the first rung on that ladder back to your normality a video gaming it's absolutely I remember this hey miss the sad news is it's in monochrome yeah 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 you ready Jenn play oh yeah sharp created by Atari in 1972 pong is recognized as the first home video game soon manufacturers worldwide like biner tone made their own versions and over 500 different systems flooded the market because though the controls were kept to a bare minimum just a single rotary knob this is the beginning of the television as an entertainment Emporium it's quite clever obviously Adam has more experience in these kinds of games it's 1977 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 she 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 and I've told people that I'm coming to meet you today everyone just said you have to tell him how important he is to me he's changed my life which is just lovely so thank you very much did you feel that it was important that the average person has some kind of concept with computers and calculators and well they were magical of course because prior to that calculations were elaborate um to either use the slide rule or log tables and then suddenly pocket calculators gimel on and unchanged at all these were something that was so our space aging and they caused a lot of excitement and that was a lot of fun to be involved with well I've got the calculator for the family Sinclair Cambridge and when these things came out in the early 70s they were incredibly expensive but by now they were affordable they're about eight ninety five 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 do you remember doing read words on them what like boobs all right don't you remember the numbers yeah I think it's five eight zero zero eight and then you look at it upside down so infantile probably 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 arithmetic ability even so the pocket calculator was unstoppable in 1977 Britain bought nearly 5 million of them but the mega computing achievements of the seventies pong and the calculator have brought home to Hamish how much is missing 21st century technology fine quite more do something really can move my computing games stuff it's even resorted to helping Georgie with the housework 1978 and Industrial Relations had reached a new low retina stricken will at 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 because I've got broadband connections and you know direct link into the office and mobiles and all the technology that allows me to to be mobile and and work anywhere really probably 30 years ago I probably would have struggled in I guess going to work in this container is crazy it's just not up to the job it's not engineered for this kind of thing but having said that people in the 70s did hey yeah why should night what's the question I'm not taking a container and this is crazy I've got a 4x4 I'm taken out but before Adam arrives at his office Jia 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's 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 look at that 1978 today I didn't think it was 1978 these came up in um 1977 Commodore pet really insane it is low later than that so I know that you work in accountancy I've I've got you a finance program hopefully he'll be able to do something should be interesting this came with four to 8k of round my mobile phone for example has 64 Meg so my mobile phone is 16,000 times more round than this so it's gonna be a bit slow does it actually do anything it does I've load it up I've loaded up some program 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 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 email 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 email spec 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 better I've 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 George's nostalgia for the past seventies 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 now just place your [ __ ] nose this is the 73 created in your back garden floor is the last ever 70s and I've got it I've really liked 70s I like not having technology and each year we take on and we get more gadgets it's kind of disappointing really I think I just like to freeze frame here and stay here a bit longer that'd be great but back inside they discover there's a problem with their favorite piece of 70s technology couple cup TV so what do you think are fixing they would walk into second ago as well moving happily it's getting more broken it's not making gets little desperate humming noise and it's now completely dead our TV is broken hamish phones the tech support team for help living up in the 1970s the TV repairman was a common visitor car sets cost around 3000 pounds 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 them 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 exacta need mainly Japanese imported sets were made to a higher standard and they just didn't broke down anywhere near as much this is it occasionally they were even dangerous getting so hot they'd set fire to the room earning them the nickname curtain burners among TV repair so as a thing on this bad sets the last screw never goes in it was a John loggers idea of a joke and all welcome to the course nice beard our jackets absolutely ridiculous only came down solving a quadratic equation I'll leave you to Bob Coates and his mathematical equation that equals two times y over X maybe the color fat many of the problems arise the decades nearly over where there is doubt may we bring faith and where there's despair may we bring hope tonight the Sullivan Barnes family are putting on a slide show for friends to see their time-traveling adventures George has been busy in the kitchen all day preparing food for the party freezer foods made the job easier but she's still not getting much help from the boys she's betting can you please help and stop playing with watches what help George is done unlovely spread of seventies staples vaalu vaunt and fondue that looks fine Adams in charge of the IRA's favorite drinks that's right okay yeah the snowballs are here although no one's impressed with the SodaStream the father described holiday hamish provides the music with his mixtape I've always been fond of my chopper rather rather keen on the Cortina for the family it's a chance to reflect on their 70s experience think most of it is is nostalgia and just having so many happy memories from from childhood that keep being rekindled that you just you just don't want to leave them behind feeling Georgie got what she thought she wanted a home free of high-tech distractions but it's 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's made domestic life easier but the children have realized that some modern tech like mobile phones for example has its downside do you think in the 70 children had more freedom because I think nowadays parents more cautious as children in the 70s we felt a lot freer and a lot more able to to go off and just do things and I look today and I you know sometimes see see our kids sort of at home glued to the computer and it and it quite saddened me I do think the kids saw the value of the family time together and they certainly saw how much I enjoyed it think we will make an effort to do stuff as a family even if poor old Hamish would rather be playing on this cleanse console I don't think I'm missing seventies really so so much to do you know seventies really sad actually that it's it's over for the 70s really sad really that quite sad to leave the seventies 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 eighties bring them labor-saving must haves or time-wasting boys toys and can modern kids get to grips with the temperamental primitive electronics of the day right way way whiny [ __ ] I be more pensions different works and you can continue your journey through the decades online with the BBC and the Open University by visiting bbc.co.uk/topgear on BBC four next Tuesday and nine coming up tonight on BBC Four princesses Easter eggs and end-of-level bad guys Charlie Brooker leads us through the levels and bladders of the gaming wild games wipe is next

Channel: Nick Ranger

Views: 182,799

Keywords: Electric, Dreams, the, 70's, of, 1970s

Id: KYOyAs8ka0A

Length: 59min 15sec (3555 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 13 2012