Electric Dreams Review: The 1970s Family Experiment

One of the jewels in the BBC crown in recent years, as far as I am concerned, has been a number of programmes which have pitched families into the past and required them to live like their predecessors. The appeal has been the reactions of the families to obsolete technology, the opportunity for people like me to return to their childhood and teenage years and the background provided by social scientists. The ‘Back in Time’ strand has done this very effectively with series looking at the Weekend, Dinner, Tea, Corner Shop and Christmas. Sadly, this mix of social and cultural history has seemingly vanished in recent years, as have the programmes themselves which are not available on iPlayer or YouTube except as snippets. When I discovered Electric Dreams on YouTube I was extremely happy, but knowing the way that YouTube can remove videos at little or no notice I thought I had better watch them fairly quickly. I decided to review the programmes to give those readers of my blog who are also fans of this type of programme the opportunity to watch it themselves before (in case) it disappears. So, with thanks to Nick Ranger here is Episode 1 of Electric Dreams.

The Background

Electric Dreams was something of a trailblazer for the social and cultural history strand mentioned above, being shown on BBC Four as part of the Electric Revolution season of programmes. However, it wasn’t entirely a new idea. Other programmes like the 1900 House (1999) and the 1940s House (2001) had appeared on Channel 4, and in the case of the first programme is still available on MY4 here. What Electric Dreams did that was new was to focus on the technology and social history in an academic context, and in fact it was commissioned by the Open University. The series featured the Sullivan-Barnes family from Reading. The Mum and Dad, Adam Barnes and Georgie Sullivan, with children Hamish, Ellie, Steff and Jude. Their own house was used for the experiment. For each decade, builders and designers went into the house to close off or reshape certain rooms to make it as near to the living conditions of the time as possible. In the 1970s, for example, the parents’ en-suite bathroom was closed off as this wouldn’t have been common at the time, the kitchen was reduced in size and the lounge became smaller and darker as it was no longer connected to the dining room. Their guides are a tech team, Gia Millinovich, Ben Highmore and Tom Wrigglesworth, who are charged with providing, and occasionally repairing, the old technology. The now familiar pieces to camera were delivered by all the participants, as they reacted to the experiment in real time.

Episode 1 The 1970s

Starting in 1970, the family move forward one year a day, and at various points new technology will arrive. They return to their house wearing the appropriate 70s clothes and hairstyles, which makes them look different from their 2009 selves already. It’s interesting how that happens in all of these programmes, because I think you forget how much fashions in clothing shapes not only your appearance but your interaction with the world. Their initial reaction to the house is a mixture of fascination at some points and thinly disguised dismay at others! The children are quickly aware of the way that their lives will change with Hamish saying he will spend far more time downstairs due to his bedroom full of tech now containing only a transistor radio. On the first night, for example, which is 1970, they watch black and white TV and play Kerplunk. The first tech delivery to their house is a Goblin Teasmade which Georgie loves, despite some sexist comments in the instruction book, and which Adam thinks of as a waste of time. The following morning the milk is delivered by, I think, Unigate! Adam goes off to work in his Ford Cortina listening to news about Decimalisation! Very quickly he realises that there are many shortcomings to the car, however good it looks on the outside. Georgie realises that being a housewife is a full time job with a twin tub washing machine taking two hours of work and no freezer meaning that she has to shop every day. Adam is worried about all the dangers in the 1970s house, while the kids are finding homework a chore with no internet. The second delivery is a parcel full of cameras to document their experience prior to a slide show at the end of the decade! The music centre that arrives the following year is equipped with a record player, along with a tape deck which will help with the mixtape the family need to accompany the slide show. Hamish in particular is very impressed with the tactile nature of vinyl. 1973 of course requires the family to experience a power cut!

With a paper round to be done, Hamish is up at 5am, meaning that Georgie also has to be up at that time. Perhaps the Raleigh Choppers delivered to the children will help, although the 70s style approach of Hamish later that day, going out early and returning at 7.30 does not go down well with Georgie, who has obviously forgotten what a 70s style childhood was like. Adam, though, really likes his planning and independence, and I was definitely with Adam here. The arrival of the deep freezer definitely helped Georgie who was over the moon with it, but, as was very common at the time, the chest freezer could only fit in the garage. Colour TV in 1976 was demonstrated using Generation Game and Come Dancing, but the real excitement for the house came with the delivery of Pong. I remember having one in our house, but as with most other games I was not possessed of the required hand/eye coordination! There is a short interview with Sir Clive Sinclair who introduced the pocket calculator to the masses, but Adam and Georgie use it to write BOOBS (58008) of course as we all did!

In 1978, South East England had a very snowy winter and, fittingly, the Sullivan-Barnes have their own snowstorm in 2009! Adam decides to cheat a little, using the 4×4 instead of the fundamentally unsafe Cortina. When he gets to the office, however, he finds out that an email was sent to the staff telling them to work from home so he is the only one there! He has been given a work computer, but its lack of memory and usability is a shock to Adam. He has to get to grips with a Commodore PET, loaded up with a programme via cassette tape, and as Gia points out, her 2009 mobile is already 16,000 times more powerful, so goodness knows how much more powerful today’s are. Adam gives up on work early and returns to join in with snowy games in the garden. I was really surprised to find out that 70s parents spent just an average of 25 minutes with their children each day, so it wasn’t the family time we perhaps remember. The final day of the decade sees the party for friends and neighbours, complete with typical 70s food and drink.

Final Thoughts

As I hadn’t seen this since it was first broadcast, the programme itself was a nostalgia piece. The mix of a really clear premise and a family who clearly enjoyed the opportunity they had been given, and were prepared to be very balanced in their reactions, gave this television experiment a focus that laid the foundation for Back in Time. I loved little touches of personal recognition like beaded curtains, big TVs, board games and bikes which took me straight back to my 70s childhood, and the snatches of music were very well chosen. Next time, it’s the 80s.