Back in time for school, episode 1

Another in the ‘Back in time for…’ series, which is very popular but unfortunately not always well made.
These shows often concentrate on only a part of life in the past and ignore the rest so participants don’t really spend time ‘living’ like our predecessors.
For example, they spend time cooking and eating like they did a century ago but when the filming is done go to modern bedrooms, have access to their mobile phones, etc.
In short, it often isn’t really a full living history adventure in these shows but more just a bunch of historical themed experiences.
Which is fine of course, but when you’re spoiled by shows like ‘The 1940s house’, it is a little disappointing.
Another problem with the ‘Back in time for…’ series in my view is that they try to put too much into them.
A whole century in just six episode, trying too much and thus ending up with rushing some things.

But this is a whole new subject; school life.
Something that we’ve seen done before in other shows.
In short 15 modern day pupils and their teachers (that is a new thing, original, I like it) are going to experience a century of school.
That is 100 years in 8 episodes, so we already know some decades will receive less attention than others.
On top of just learning how our ancestors were taught, it seems like they’ll also be showing some of what life was like outside of school.
So I guess we can already see that again they’re putting way too much into this show.

As always we start the episode with spoilers, so unless you like having your show ruined, skip to 1:45.

Episode 1, the Victorians & Edwardians

Well there’s nothing wrong with the location, what a great building.

The modern, horrible, looking classroom is converted into a Victorian one, of course it is quite an improvement.
A shame they left the electrical stuff but I can understand the school not giving permission for the production team to rip that all out, even though it is easily re-installed.

The presenter says that the smell of coal burners is wafting through the corridors… is it really though?
We know how this show in the past has so often just used modern day cookers and pretended they were old, are we to believe they finally dared to use real coal this time?
Although they did a decent job of making this range, I’m pretty sure it is another fake.

Thank you cameraman for the close-up that helps us spot the modern day electric hotplate…

That portrait of Victoria looks a bit odd, not a nice painted one or colour printed, but a very close black and white portrait.
Somehow it seems more like something they found online and printed on paper than a genuine Victorian portrait of the Queen.
It doesn’t even have glass in the frame.

Here come the pupils, as always in historical clothes modern day people suddenly look a lot better.
Dresses at first sight don’t look too bad, I do wonder if they’re wearing authentic undergarments as well, which makes a huge difference as it has an impact on how you walk, sit, your general posture etc.
The teachers seem to be at least wearing corsets.
They have cut a few corners with the clothes though, the boys suits and hats don’t look quite right.
It is a shame that we didn’t see the moment when the participants got their clothes, hair done, etc.
It is always fun to see modern people trying on historical clothes for the first time.

The pupils seem like an nice bunch of kids though, they’re keen and ready to get stuck in.

But why are the men and boys keeping their caps and hats on indoors?!
Even the headteacher!
That goes against all etiquette.

It is great that they found one of those hip “let’s be friends” teachers to be in charge.
Personally I always got annoyed by friendly pal-like teachers when I was in school many, many years ago, especially if they also dressed and acted “cool”.
But of course this makes the contrast between his normal life and his life back in time bigger and thus more interesting.
It is going to be entertaining to see him deal with discipline, order and a bit of formality.
Something I, as a professional grumpy old person, of course find lacking in modern society.

Let’s take a look at the school rules.
Are these supposed to be shocking? They seem pretty logical to me.

Of course the teachers are all upset about even the idea of thrashing a child who has broken the rules, we’ve been well conditioned to find corporal punishment abhorrent.
I bet my teachers back in the 1980s would have loved to been allowed to do so.
I would have had no problem with handing out severe punishment if I had been a teacher in this show and if I had been one of the kids in this show I would have had no problem with signing a waiver that would allow the teachers to strike me.
After all, you’re in it for the historical experience aren’t you and what is the good old fashioned British school without being caned?
Of course I’m glad it is no longer a thing, it’s wrong.
But this is a historical experiment, besides if this was a television drama, if you were an actor, would you be ok with for a close up scene being really slapped because staged fighting sometimes just doesn’t work?
I would have.

Are those fake display books?!

Lovely historical footage, as always.

Time for a hygiene inspection, we could have done with that in my school back in the 1980s.

First class, glad to see the boys have finally removed their caps.
Although I do know that some Victorian schools had mixed classes, I’m not so sure if they would have allowed boys and girls to share a bench.

Class monitors are a great idea and I love that one kid tells the teacher about one kid using his left hand, I can’t help wondering if that was spontaneous or staged though.
I love how so many kids are upset, my class would have all just laughed and pointed.

According to the narration steam was invented.
Who knew!

Great to see exciting tests being done in the classroom, that once almost made me interested in science.
But sad to see the ugly modern plastic safety glasses.
Protective eye-wear wasn’t really a thing back then but of course with today’s health & safety laws it becomes almost impossible for TV makers to be allowed to do something that is even remotely risky, if of course participants would be willing to do it without.
And even if the production team had at least made something that looked like the (very cool) Edwardian safety glasses (that would be just as safe as the modern plastic ones), it would probably be a long difficult process to convince the civil servants and perhaps even the production’s legal advisor of this.
So I guess just being honest about it and using modern ones is probably the better solution.
But it does break the immersion a bit.
Of course another solution would be to film this from over the teacher’s shoulder, so we wouldn’t see the glasses, just the flash and the pupils reaction, which would make more sense to begin with.

The class sure needs to learn a bit about discipline and order though, goodness me, what a ruckus.

Always nice to hear a child talk about how liberating it is to be without their mobile phone for a bit.

Next lesson, geography.
Ah the “good old days” of the Empire.
It is a bit odd that the teacher is horrified about having to write something down that isn’t PC.
Yes yes, we get that it is wrong and bad according, but surely you can’t be surprised about it and why make it so obvious that you don’t like it in front of a classroom?
She is portraying a Victorian teacher, it would have been more interesting if she had just given the lesson without sharing her modern opinion of the subject in front of the pupils.
Just like we shouldn’t have heard the pupils their opinion during the lesson either.
This is not a Victorian class, this is a modern day discussion.
What they should have done is just have the lesson, be Victorian, and then afterwards have the kids and teachers separately share their opinion.
That way they could have told us how they felt but after first having to sit through it.
Of course this is not the participants fault, the director probably asked them for their opinion at that moment in stead of waiting for a better situation.

Apparently there’s more than enough time to talk Victorian education but for some reason we now go and do something totally unrelated.
This is what I meant with the ‘Back in time for…’ series trying to put too much in these shows.
They could and should just concentrate on what school was like in Victorian times, in stead we’re going to play tennis.
I find sports the most boring thing in the world, so forgive me for skipping this bit.

A new era, a new royal, a new peculiar portrait.
It too looks a bit like a picture from the internet printed out and (badly) glued into an dodgy frame.
I guess they couldn’t find a genuine old portrait.

It is nice to hear the teacher’s opinions, it really is, they’re lovely people with interesting opinions I want to hear,  but every time they share it in front of the pupils it sort of breaks the immersion.
I think it would have been better if they had maintained their Edwardian teacher stance while interacting with the pupils, keeping order, being formal, and then later share their opinions in the teacher’s lounge or elsewhere in private.
In other shows this worked rather well, you’d have people doing something that really upset them or excited them, but sticking to their role, only to let it all come out in front of a video camera hidden in a little room.
They do have that in this show as well, but they also speak their mind during events and classes.
Which I think doesn’t work as well.

We’re going Edwardian now, this means separating the genders and giving more gender specific lessons.
Much to all the modern children’s dismay.
The boys are now wearing their new caps in class and look at the teacher, coming down to the pupil’s level, laughing, joking.
I think he is a great teacher, liked by his pupils, but to me this is the behaviour of a modern teacher.
I think the production team and the director perhaps should have been a little clearer and stricter about what kind of behaviour was expected in certain situations.

As boring as sewing and wallpapering  lessons are, I do wish I’d had some of those.
So useful!

Empire day!
What a splendid display and parade, of course there’s lots of feeling bad about celebrating imperialism, as expected.
I don’t want to sound like one of those right wingers who shouts at the tv about political correctness gone mad, but well, we get it, we know, we know, no need for everyone to keep repeating how bad they feel about these things.

The first free school dinners, quite an amazing thing, something that never quite caught on in my country unfortunately.
From the Edwardian perspective there is a serious lack of discipline and basic table manners, lots of chit chat, messing about.
A dinner meal break is indeed something modern kids should have again though, like the teacher says, an enforced moment of peace and relaxation is a good thing in today’s hurried world.

Domestic science lessons, how to make beds, clean, wallpapering, etc.
Boring lessons but actually quite useful, stuff I wish I had learned.

The boys are having shooting lessons from a gentleman they couldn’t find an Edwardian outfit for.
I would have loved a lesson like that in school.

Now what?
A purple haired suffragette having a fight with some scoundrel with rather long hair?
Don’t get me wrong, I love that these children already knew a bit about the suffragettes and I love that viewers are being taught about the jiu-jitsu fighting women of that era.
But surely this would not be taught in schools.
What is this teaching viewers?
I’m not an expert on the Edwardian era or even on the suffragette movement in the UK, but I reckon this whole situation was not very historically accurate, this is not an Edwardian school lesson.

Just like with every ‘Back in time for…’ series, each episode appears to end with a little party.
Handing out prices to students who’ve done well is a wonderful thing, I wish this still was a thing.

Both boys and girls learned from their experience, which is always wonderful.
I find it sad that it was liberating for the girls to be without makeup and told how to dress.
The pressure on them to be pretty and fashionable must be so much harder than it was in my time.
It’s also sad that it takes something like putting their phones away for children to actually behave like children again and play and have some proper fun.

But was this a proper historical immersive experience?
Not quite.
For starters they’ve rushed through a decade of history in just a few days and we don’t know what happened after the school day ended.
Did they sleep at home, did they stay somewhere where they had access to mobile phones, modern clothes and the internet?
Did they get a few days break in-between episodes?
I don’t know, but this does happen with some of the other ‘Back in time for…’ shows.

Imagine how much more impressive this experience would have been if they just spend all their time in the past, day and night, from the first episode to the last!

As always, my issues are not with the contestants, they are trying hard and are clearly having a great time.
I have nothing bad to say about them.
The things I do not like are pretty much all related to the production, little mistakes and choices made by the people who make the show, the ones behind the camera.

This show seems to be like just like most of the other “Back in time for…” shows.
I’m not looking forward to the rest, but will soldier on, for Queen and Empire!

Next episode.