BBC2 is going back in time again with a follow-up to hit time-travelling culinary series Back in Time for Dinner but looking this time at how we used to spend our weekends in the days before the advent of televisions, tablets and smartphones.
Back in Time for the Weekend will “unplug” a family and take them through five decades of weekend activities – from the 1950s to the turn of the millennium – such as home maintenance, crafts and hobbies such as model trains to see if spending quality time together reconnects them.
Following the success of Back in Time for Dinner – which averaged about 3 million viewers – producers Wall to Wall and the BBC were keen to see if the concept of exploring how food has shaped family dynamics through the latter half of the 20th century could be applied to other areas of family life.
Back in Time for Dinner, which was one of BBC2’s most popular factual programmes of this year, saw the Robshaw family from London live a different year every day, with their house remodelled to reflect that of the same era.
Back in Time for the Weekend will follow the same format. Details are still being worked out but activities that became popular in different decades, such as tennis in the 1970s, scouting in the 1950s and board games such as Twister in the 1960s could feature.
The 1950s are likely to prove most challenging to modern families as widespread shortages meant that ordinary families spent much of their leisure time repairing or making things from scratch, whereas now we are more likely to buy a new toaster than try to fix a broken one and browsing Facebook, shopping and the occasional spa visit have taken over as popular ways to spend weekends.
The Robshaws are not taking part in Back in Time for the Weekend but mother Rochelle said “it was a fantastically positive experience for the whole family” while her husband Brandon added: “Our eldest daughter said she had never laughed as much as she did that summer of filming. It was a highly educative experience. We look back on it with a lot of pleasure.”
Wall to Wall is now looking for a new family who have at least two children aged 10 or more to take part in the new show.
Back in Time for the Weekend was commissioned by factual, features and formats commissioner Alison Kirkham and BBC2 and BBC4 controller Kim Shillinglaw.
Shillinglaw said once again the programme will be based on facts from documented social history in the Family Expenditure Survey – the annual survey of household incomes and expenditure that took place during the latter half of the last century.
She said: “The success of Back in Time for Dinner shows how much BBC2 viewers love intelligent, lively programmes packed with content and I’m delighted we’re travelling back in time again, this time for a revealing insight into how family life has been shaped by the way we spend out leisure time, this time based on the real evidence of the Family Expenditure Survey.”
Wall to Wall Media chief executive Leanne Klein said: “We are absolutely delighted that the BBC have recommissioned this wonderful series, and we very much look forward to finding another family as fun and engaging as the Robshaws to undertake this fascinating and challenging adventure.”
