1970s Back in Time for Dinner

Meet the Robshaws -

Brandon, Rochelle, Miranda, Roz and Fred.

Let's go.

For one summer, this food-loving family is embarking

on an extraordinary time-travelling adventure,

to discover how a post-war revolution in what we eat

has transformed the way we live.

That is just...amazing. Look at them.

Britain has gone from meagre rations

to ready meals at the touch of a button in just 50 years.

Blip-blip-blip-blip...

But how has this changed our health? Our homes?

-We've got a pull-out larder!

-LAUGHTER

And our family dynamic?

Can't do it any more. This is what would make a woman break.

To find out,

the Robshaws are going to shop, cook and eat their way through history.

It's 1974!

Whoa!

I think that is enough sugar now though, darling...

No, I haven't put hardly any on.

Starting in 1950, their own home will be their time machine...

Oh, my goodness!

This carpet hurts my eyes. Who designed that?

Someone who was colour-blind.

..fast forwarding them through a new year each day,

as they experience first-hand

the culinary fads, fashions and gadgets of each age.

-Catch!

-Wow!

They've already lived through the austerity of the 1950s...

Oh, my goodness.

..and the rapid advances of the '60s.

This week, it's back to the decade that taste forgot - the 1970s...

Ugh, it smells like fish food.

..as they discover how our changing relationship with food

has shaped all of our lives.

Ooh!

Got flour that comes out of heads.

Pickled onions with faces.

It's like the whole kitchen is mocking me.

MUSIC: All Right Now by Free

It's the next chapter of our time-travelling adventure,

in which the Robshaw family are giving up their modern diet

and spending six weeks eating the food of the past.

It's not just the food that's changing -

their sleek and compact '60s house from last week

has had a radical transformation.

An extension has been added, making a huge kitchen diner

and the sitting and dining rooms have been knocked through

to create one big lounge.

I'm back with food historian Polly Russell

to unleash the '70s on the family.

Wow.

Yeah, we've hit the '70s and it's much bigger.

Yeah. So this is the moment

where the kitchen and the dining room become one.

This is not just a place for Rochelle to be working on her own,

this is a space for the whole family to come and socialise,

as well as cook and prepare food.

..and hang out on some stripy orange Hessian.

And look - they've got these wheat sheaves,

incongruously on tiles all over the place, as if they were

living a very sort of home-spun, natural hippy-ish life. Is that how it was?

Well, there's this look of the rustic, but what you see

when you look at the National Food Survey is that actually,

people are predominantly not eating

what we think of as The Good Life diet.

They're not... They don't keep their own chickens,

they're not making their own yoghurt,

they're actually increasingly reliant on convenience food,

because it's readily available and it's also inexpensive.

The '70s was a decade of economic and political turbulence...

Come and join us!

..with burgeoning women's liberation and green movements,

industrial disputes and high inflation

each exerting their own influence on family life.

The price of food has gone up 18%.

I mean, what are we supposed to do?

MUSIC: Staying Alive by The Bee Gees

It's time for the Robshaws to strut into 1970.

In their modern lives,

teacher Rochelle usually shares the cooking with Brandon,

but for the first two decades of this experiment,

she's been trapped in the kitchen.

In the '50s, I could understand

the labour that was involved in being at home.

It was hard work, but there seemed to be something honest about it -

it needed to happen.

And in the '60s,

I found myself becoming increasingly frustrated,

increasingly restricted.

I found it was a decade not for middle-aged women.

So, with the '70s, I want to break free

and be part of something that is much bigger than the home.

I've had an easy ride so far, in the '50s and '60s.

I didn't really have to do very much at all.

And I'm thinking in the '70s

that I'll get more opportunity to get in the kitchen and cook.

MUSIC: 20th Century Boy by T-Rex

This is the first decade that Rochelle and Brandon

are going to remember having lived through.

Oh...

-Oh, my goodness!

-Oh, wow.

There's the coal effect electric fire,

music centre...

It's just so, so familiar to me

and it just feels like being catapulted back into the past.

My trousers blend in.

This carpet hurts my eyes. Who designed that?

Someone who was colour-blind.

THEY GASP

Oh, my lord. This is just fantastic.

Isn't it? It's absolutely fantastic.

Just this...this orange, this orange. The orange.

It is so completely different.

It's just extraordinary.

I mean, it's just double the size!

This is not a kitchen - this is a proper room, isn't it?

This is an eating room.

Got a slow electric cooker,

-we've got an electric knife.

-Scary.

I just can't get over how this used to be our kitchen.

Can't even remember it before.

I think it will be a more pleasant space to cook in

than either of the two last kitchens.

But is all of this going to fall on me?

That's...

That's what I'm wondering.

-Hello, chaps.

-Hi.

So this is your all-important 1970s manual, which contains

all the information about how you're going to live,

the sorts of things you're going to eat and most importantly,

you're going to be eating the actual meals that,

-according to the National Food Survey...

-Right.

..real families were eating, day to day in the 1970s.

Every year, from 1940 to 2000,

thousands of households

detailed all the food that they bought and ate in a week

for the National Food Survey.

I'm using this unique insight into the developing taste of the nation

to guide the Robshaws' diet.

MUSIC: Who Are You? by The Who

Although it's the 1970s and feminism is on the horizon,

early in the decade I'm afraid, Rochelle,

you're still in the kitchen.

-To underline that, Brandon, you're off to the pub.

-Get in.

You can go and have a nice time.

Rochelle, you're cooking the first bona fide 1970s meal.

I think it'll be quite an exciting meal. There's your manual.

-Thanks very much.

-And...best of luck.

-All right. All right. Thanks. Bye.

-Cheerio.

Whilst Brandon is out with his mate,

Rochelle, who has already cooked 50 meals during this experiment,

is stuck in the kitchen.

We'll be eating the same tea

which was served up by a housewife in Paisley

to her husband and five children.

Gammon, eggs, home-made chips,

beans, beetroot, tomatoes.

How much? That's a massive amount of lard, isn't it?

I don't know how long it will last.

Maybe it'll last a whole decade.

The National Food Survey shows that at this time,

lard was the standard cooking fat.

Is it a slice of pork?

-Yeah.

-Is it?

So Rochelle is frying the whole meal -

meat, egg and chips in lard.

It's pig cooked in pig, served with pig.

Ugh.

It doesn't feel all that healthy.

It doesn't feel like the sort of meal

that I would like to feed them, really.

I don't know - Brandon might be a little bit tipsy,

then he'll probably be quite happy to have this.

MUSIC: The Boys Are Back In Town by Thin Lizzy

Two points of IPA, please.

Brandon meanwhile, who usually cooks the dinner

is getting stuck into a classic male leisure pursuit of the era.

So I hope you're going to charge us in the old money(!)

LAUGHTER

-About 3p, wasn't it?

-Exactly.

Pubs in the '70s were thriving.

90% of beer was consumed there, compared to only 50% today.

A male-dominated environment,

it was still legal to refuse to serve an unaccompanied woman.

Cheers. Clink.

I mean, it's kind of enjoyable to be just sitting here having a drink

-and eating peanuts and talking.

-Yes.

-What's not to like?

-You know, what's not to like?

And I've got somebody cooking a meal for me.

I can't condone, but I can understand why

-men were so reluctant to give up these privileges.

-Yeah.

Rochelle might be a bit miffed that I've sloped off.

I've left her to deal with the dinner,

while I've just been enjoying myself with my old pal in the pub.

I might feel the odd pang of remorse...

but that's quite quickly dealt with, by just having another swig of beer.

The thing is... Also, you can't be contacted.

I know. Got no mobile, have I?

-No-one's going to phone you, right?

-No.

-Just carry on...

-Gets better and better!

-Exactly!

MUSIC: Fire by Ohio Players

Back in the heat of the kitchen,

Rochelle needs to get to grips with some perilous '70s kit.

Right, this is a chip pan thing.

Nine years before oven chips hit the market,

chip pans were the only option,

but a dangerous one.

House fires reached an all-time high in the '70s...

..so the government launched

a memorable series of public information films,

warning of their hazards.

Overfill a fat pan...

and this could be the result.

Make sure your fat pan

is never more than half full.

How is that going to cook?

Well, it's not, is it? Oh, there's not enough fat.

-What are you doing?

-Putting more fat in.

You can't. You mustn't.

You mustn't do that, just leave it, go...

Stand back, move away from the chips and let me manage this.

Now it's smoking.

Ugh, Mum turn it off - it shouldn't smoke, ever.

Oh, yeah - it shouldn't smoke, ever.

Never put chips in the pan if the oil has started smoking.

If this happens, turn off the heat if it is safe to do so

and leave the oil to cool down.

-Can we have waffles yet?

-No.

I can't do it. I can't...

It's too many years of fear of chip pans.

Mum, do you think Dad would have done this better?

Well, the thing is...

Probably. LAUGHTER

Mum, what have you done to these eggs?

I don't know. Don't ask. LAUGHTER

Don't ask. It's all a complete disaster.

I suppose this is what would make a woman break, who...

Her husband's been in the pub all evening, she's been left here.

There's a fear of the chip pan.

It would make anybody break.

It's enough. It's just enough.

It's just... it's just time to move on.

It's time to get out of the kitchen.

Brandon is back from the pub, eager for his first taste of '70s grub.

-Thank you.

-No, no, no. Just... Look, there's one chip...

There's enough for one chip each.

"Beans, beans, good for your heart. The more you eat the more you..."

Just eat your beans, all right?

The National Food Survey reveals the average Briton's consumption of fat

peaked in 1970, each person eating

the equivalent of nearly a block and a half of butter per week.

Now we eat half as much.

This is very fatty food, but...

people did tend to only eat three meals a day.

I don't think portions generally were as...

were as big as they are now.

Were people definitely not fat, then?

Do you not remember seeing any fat people?

They weren't as fat then as they are now.

It's just...food smothered in fat and salt and oil.

Nice.

I do feel a certain spirit of unrest...

dissatisfaction...

Fed up that Brandon went off to the pub as soon as we got here.

Just was left to do this horrible fat frying,

so I hope things can only get better.

MUSIC: Jungle Fever by Chakachas

It's a new day and in this experiment, that means a new year -

and change is in the air for Rochelle.

I'm sending in the very latest in kitchen appliances...

-Oh.

-..one that played a crucial role

in the transformation of women's lives over the 1970s.

It's a deep freeze.

-Oh, my goodness me.

-Fantastic.

Better bring it in.

The freezer offered liberation to the housewife.

For the first time,

she could prepare dishes that could be frozen and eaten at a later date.

By the end of the decade, half of us had one.

"Today, you have taken delivery of your revolutionary

"brand-new chest freezer.

"A model like this would have cost nearly £1,000 in today's money."

That is a lot of money.

MUSIC: Jean Genie by David Bowie

It's time to hit the shops,

to embrace the very '70s pursuit of stocking the freezer.

Let's go!

Slowly.

What are you talking about? I'm doing under 20!

The early '70s saw dedicated freezer centres open

to meet this new demand,

including Bejam, Sainsbury's Freezer Centres and Iceland.

The new stores focused on selling frozen meat and vegetables in bulk.

'Women claim that buying frozen food in bulk saves time and money.'

To help the Robshaws tackle this new shopping experience,

I've arranged for them to meet a familiar face.

LAUGHTER

-Delighted to meet you.

-Rochelle. Hello.

Oh, what a gorgeous dress.

So, Brandon, Rochelle, I'm here to help you with your shopping.

In the '70s, Mary Berry was a well-known cookery presenter

and frequently appeared on TV,

extolling the virtues of home freezing to a nervous public.

Hello Mary, welcome.

And you've got some things which are ideal for freezing.

Eggs freeze very well. I freeze mine in an egg box.

Put the whites this side and then when you do the yolks,

add a little salt or sugar,

according to what you're going to use them up for afterwards.

Freezing was revolutionary.

People were really suspicious of freezing.

They didn't really trust it.

You know, they saw those big chest freezers,

they didn't know what to do with it, so I wrote a book -

and I did sort of step-by-step guides,

because people were nervous.

I had to hold their hand through the whole procedure of freezing.

There were relatively few of the frozen convenience foods

we take for granted today in the early '70s.

Instead, the National Food Survey shows that shoppers stocked up

on frozen meat and veg, like this 29-year-old housewife from Warwick,

whose shopping list includes...

Frozen peas, frozen beans,

frozen baby carrots, all loose.

Well, this is how we bought food in Iceland in the '70s.

-It was all loose and you weighed it out yourself...

-Yeah, yeah.

and I think this was exciting for the housewife,

because it was all prepared. They didn't have to peel or chop.

-Seems almost completely new, doesn't it?

-Yes.

We get used to seeing it all packaged and bagged up.

It just seems like an innovation.

Well, it was an innovation and it was very exciting.

Once people got over the fact that

freezing was a wonderful form of preservation,

they realised they could buy things in bulk and freeze them.

They could eat things like runner beans all year round.

They forgot about seasons.

It changed people's lives.

Britain went crazy for frozen food.

Households spent a mammoth £165 million -

over 2 billion in today's money -

on frozen foods in 1971.

And sales kept going up by an average of 21%,

every year of the '70s.

So, Rochelle, it's up to you now to go and organise your freezer

and I do hope that this helps you.

-Thank you very much indeed.

-Thanks very much.

Back at home,

it's time to sort out their new freezer - the Berry way.

We need a freezer record book.

We also need colour identification.

Red is meat. Blue is fish. Yellow is fruit. Green is vegetables.

Black, prepared dishes. Oh, God, it's just extremely complicated.

Mary advised putting frozen food in colour-coded bags

and keeping a record of food types,

date, weight and location in the freezer.

Large carrots. Good.

What's the package size?

Two pounds.

All afternoon doing this?

I think it's ridiculous.

Personally, I have to say,

I do think it'd be better without the bags on it.

Cos you could actually see what was in your freezer.

Because this way, I haven't got a clue what's in it!

It's just a load of plastic bags.

That really is wasting time, isn't it?

Mary's book gave other organizational tips,

like batch cooking,

which allowed housewives to prepare frozen meals in advance.

So Rochelle is making a moussaka for the freezer.

Let's get the flour.

Ooh!

What a stupid thing!

It's like the kitchen has become animated.

You've got chicken salt and pepper,

flour that comes out of heads,

pickled onions with faces...

It's like the whole kitchen is mocking me

and adding to my frustration.

It's trying to make me feel that I should be happy here,

but I'm fed up with it, really.

I've been in the kitchen for 20 years now and I just need something else.

I need more stimulation and...

You know, reading a book about how to label stuff for your freezer,

I don't think is really going to do it for me.

MUSIC: Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now by McFadden and Whitehead

It's 1972 and Rochelle is preparing a breakfast

served by a 59-year-old housewife to her family in London.

Shredded Wheat, toast and marmalade,

tea, milk and sugar, Rise And Shine.

Food manufacturers were harnessing science

to create novelty and convenience.

Enter Rise And Shine -

10% freeze-dried orange crystals with added vitamin C.

Wow. That's amazing!

That actually does look like orange juice.

Who wants some?

-I'll have some.

-Oh, I'll try some.

It's all right, but it's not orange juice.

Tastes like really bad orange juice.

PHONE RINGS

Oh, blimey.

-You going to get that?

-I hope it's not my mum.

LAUGHTER

-Hello?

-'Hi, Rochelle.

'Just wanted to let you know ...'

OK, great. All right. Thanks very much. Bye.

What is it?

What's the news?

Giles has got me a job!

Get out of here. What's the job?

I don't know.

I'm just so pleased I have a job, I forgot to ask.

Might be down the mines.

Let's toast Mum's new job.

Liberated from the kitchen,

Rochelle is realising the benefits of her newest appliance.

The family will have to cope.

There isn't an option.

And we have the freezer,

so there's stuff in the freezer that they can sort of pull out.

Well, good luck. Good luck. I'm sure it'll go really well.

All right, thank you.

The rapidly rising cost of living over the 1970s

meant it was a necessity for many women to go out to work.

MUSIC: I'm Every Woman by Chaka Khan

At one time, if you wanted a new television set

or you wanted a new carpet, the wife went out to work to help you,

but now, she's got to go out to work to supplement her husband's wages.

The number of married women working rose from 35% in 1961

to almost 50% in 1972,

with the vast majority working in poorly-paid factory,

shop and office jobs.

But women in the workplace met with some resistance.

I think it's disgusting.

They can't do their jobs.

They should stick to the household -

washing, looking after children...

and have their entertainment at the weekend, that's it.

Imagine a female, telling a man what to do.

I've got Rochelle, who is normally a teacher,

a part-time secretarial job at a local museum.

It's a bit slow, actually.

I really wish I had the computer - then I could do a nice spreadsheet.

It's terrible, really.

It's terrible.

I don't know how I got this job.

Even though I'm finding this quite difficult,

I'm not missing the kitchen, I'm not missing cooking.

Not missing cleaning.

It's quite nice to be out.

It's been very nice to see other people

and to sort of see other women working.

So no, I'm not missing the home.

MUSIC: School's Out by Alice Cooper

While Rochelle and Brandon are both at work,

Miranda, Roz and Fred get a chance to become latchkey kids

and can enjoy the freedom of the streets.

Eight out of ten ten-year-olds like Fred

were allowed to roam unsupervised,

as opposed to just four in ten today.

I think it's really good that kids played outside.

I think it's a shame that it's something that a lot of kids

don't really tend to do any more.

You feel a sort of more wholesome happiness

from sort of being in the air,

rather than beating a level on a video game.

It's different.

With no adults around, kids were also free to raid the kitchen

and for the first time since the experiment began,

there's food they can actually snack on.

We've definitely noticed that from the '70s,

there's just a lot more food about and we can help ourselves to it

and it's much less formal than in the '50s and '60s.

-I'm pleased about being able to snack.

-I've missed it.

I'm so used to going into the kitchen

and grabbing a packet of crisps and then walking out, so...

I'm basically overjoyed that I can do that again.

Rochelle has finished her first day of work.

-I'm back.

-Are you back? How was your day?

-It was good, thank you.

-Did you enjoy it?

-Yeah, I did enjoy it, yeah.

-Oh, well done.

-So what about supper?

-Haven't really thought about it.

-No-one's... And you haven't, have you?

-No.

-And you haven't?

-No.

-No.

Right. I'd better get on with that, hadn't I?

Rochelle turns to a National Food Survey menu

cooked by a 22-year-old housewife for family tea in Wallsend.

Chops, peas, potatoes, sprouts.

Tea, milk and sugar.

I think it's very hard to be out working on that first day

and to be expected to come home and cook.

And in my contemporary life,

that wouldn't happen, if I'd been at a new job.

Brandon would cook a special meal for when I came back.

I suppose it's just so ingrained

that men do not help in the kitchen,

so this is a generation where women are changing and men are not.

And for men not to be shifting at the same rate as women

does seem complacent.

-Oh!

-ALL TALK OVER EACH OVER

It's all right. It's a power cut.

Mum, where are the candles?

I just want to finish this game.

Look, we'll have to forget about this game, just for the time being.

Rosaline, do you know where the matches are?

The only thing is, how do I continue cooking dinner?

-Because it's an electric cooker.

-Yeah.

Early in 1972, Britain's miners went on strike over pay.

Official picket line, as you know. If you go in, you're scabbing on us.

Britain was hugely dependent on coal for its electricity supplies

and within three weeks, many power stations were forced to shut down.

The government had to implement planned power cuts.

During today's extended power cut,

it was almost impossible for many families

to cook or to eat and light their homes.

This is novel, isn't it?

Living without electricity became a regular feature of life.

Sales of camping stoves went through the roof.

"Insert the cartridge into the cartridge holder.

"Always change the cartridge well away from naked flames."

-Is this dangerous?

-Probably.

Is this the bottom bit that screws on, does it?

Have you ever used one of these before?

Um...

I've cooked on one.

I don't remember ever putting one together.

Oh, Brandon, I'm scared.

-Doesn't seem totally straight, does it?

-I think it's upside down.

Thing is, Brandon, it doesn't look like that at all.

Yeah. That's just a bad drawing.

I don't know what this bit is, that's what puzzling me.

-Should we just leave it out of the reckoning?

-No, no!

Sorry, but I don't want to get blown up,

so I'm just going to go over here.

I don't think it should make that noise.

I think we need to light it. Everyone stand back.

-I don't think you should light it, Brandon.

-Stand well back, OK?

-Brandon!

-No, no, no!

Honestly...

-There you go.

-Oh.

How long is that going to take?

You might as well do it over a match.

What do you think?

I mean, it's going to take ages, because they're thick.

We can't eat raw meat - we're not animals.

Think we'll just have to have a cold supper.

With the chops abandoned,

Rochelle opts for some salad with cold peas and cold new potatoes.

MUSIC: Moondance by Van Morrison

I like this feeling of us all being together,

round the table in the dark with a flickering candle.

It is a really nice family experience. I do remember that.

There is this sense of being... you know, a family unit together,

all kind of huddled in the darkness and it's really nice.

MUSIC: A Fifth Of Beethoven by Walter Murphy

In 1973, despite more women working,

there was still pressure to keep up the domestic role

just as perfectly as in the '50s and '60s.

'70s women were expected to do it all -

to be Superwoman.

Whilst some turned to the burgeoning women's liberation movement...

We want equality!

..Delia Smith, a married working woman herself,

came up with an alternative -

cheating.

Polly has challenged Rochelle to use Delia's book

to cook a dinner party for guests, including me.

"Your challenge is to use Delia Smith's first book,

"How To Cheat At Cooking, to cook them a lovely dinner

"that no-one will realise is made from convenience food.

"Consomme soup...

"Minced beef...

"Tinned potatoes".

It's all tinned. Wow.

This is just ridiculous.

I'd have to start doing this on the bus, coming home from work.

You try, I can't do it.

I'd like to shake the hand of the person

who invented the ring pull can -

probably done more for sort of women's liberation than anything.

LAUGHTER

So, Smash. We're going to serve six,

so we need a point of boiling water and four level measures.

Instant potato was marketed as "space age"

and people relished the speed

at which the freeze-dried potato flakes became mash.

The Earth people eat a great many of these.

They boil them for 20 of their minutes.

LAUGHTER

They are clearly a most primitive people!

It's really, really easy and it's taken about...

five minutes, if that.

Delia Smith's cheating book encouraged women to use short cuts

and disguise convenience foods with herbs, wine and cream.

So even the most discriminating guest would have no idea

how little time was spent in the kitchen.

I think Giles has got a palate

that will detect any tinned produce.

I feel like a sense of panic.

I'm worried I'm going to be found out.

MUSIC: Forever And Ever by Demis Roussos

It's time to get all Abigail's Party.

-Go on through.

-Thank you.

The other guests are journalists Liz Hodgkinson and Mary Gwinn,

both married working women in the '70s

and, like me, both completely unaware of Rochelle's deceit.

The carrot and potato soup is made with canned consomme,

canned potato and canned carrots,

with a bit of cream and butter.

This is nice, Rochelle. Very nice.

Thank you very much, Rochelle.

Is this a recipe from the National Food Survey?

No, it's not. It's from a cook book of the time.

Well, it's delicious. It's all clearly made from scratch.

Yes.

Well, it's lovely, cos it tastes of vegetables.

I felt really bad. I felt really deceitful.

I don't know how anybody...

No wonder women kept quiet for so many years!

They were just full of guilt!

The cottage pie contains canned minced beef,

canned tomatoes and instant potato,

with dried herbs and cheese.

I think this is good, nice, savoury food.

I think the consistency is a little bit gloopy,

but that's the recipe, isn't it?

Is this a specific '70s recipe?

Yes, it is. Yeah.

Whose recipe is it?

It's one of Delia Smith's early recipes.

Is it her Cheats cooking?

Yes.

So Delia's Cheat cottage pie involves what?

Everything came out of a can.

Oh, fine. So the fact that it's absolutely disgusting is absolutely normal.

I just... I was trying to think, what am I going to say?

I'm being a 1970s gentlemen and you've cooked for me,

and you look wonderful, your dress is absolutely beautiful.

I wouldn't put this out to poison the foxes.

I think it's absolutely honking.

How do you feel about the fact that you've cheated?

I feel terrible.

I think it just sort of made me

quite sort of interested in the fact that you had to lie.

So you couldn't say, "Actually I'm not doing it, I can't do it,

"I can't manage to do it, I'm too busy, I'm not doing it."

But you had to sort of pretend you could do it all still.

Yeah, there was a lot of pressure and women had to impress.

'You can see how, in certain circumstances,'

that cookery book would have been a real life-saver for a woman

who's working, but it also creates this conflict.

So it was a sort of uncomfortable dinner party,

because you knew Rochelle wasn't really producing the food

she wanted to produce for the people that she had invited.

'I didn't like lying.

'And it made me really think that the suggestion that women could

'do it all during this decade is wrong.'

No-one can do it all.

MUSIC: Power In The Darkness by Tom Robinson Band

It's 1974!

Just one minute into the new year, a state of emergency was

implemented by the government.

A combination of spiralling oil prices and a second miners' strike

left the country with perilously low fuel reserves.

'As Prime Minister, I want to

'speak to you about the grave emergency now facing our country.

'We are limiting the use of electricity

'by almost all factories, shops and offices to three days a week.'

I've put Brandon on a three day week, too.

The three day order.

But no indication here is given of how long that's going to last,

so it obviously creates a feeling of uncertainty.

MUSIC: Changes by David Bowie

The upside of the three-day week is that after 25 years in the experiment,

Brandon can be back in charge of meals, whilst Rochelle is at work.

I've given Brandon the latest cookbook for men, published in 1974.

-See this book?

-Yeah.

-What's it called?

-Pots and Pants.

-Yeah.

-Not pots and pans, Pots and Pants.

It's a joke, isn't it, because men wear pants.

It's a cookery book for men.

I think it's to show women we can do without them.

So the recipe we're going to do is called coq au vin.

-What's that?

-It's French for chicken with wine.

So what we've really got to prove

is that we're not going to cock it up, OK?

MUSIC: Chicken Strut by The Meters

It's really loud and vibrates loads and will take ages.

I'm enjoying being back in the kitchen, Fred.

-I'm not.

-I haven't...

Well, I was kind of allowed in the kitchen

in the '60s, but even then I sort of had Giles telling me what to do.

Here, I feel I'm the master of my territory again.

Pots and Pants suggested that men should cook to impress the

girlfriend and taught them how to survive when the wife had the flu.

It does assume that you know absolutely

nothing at all about cooking.

Look, it actually shows you what a cooker looks like.

-Yeah.

-It actually says, "The thing marked C is the oven,

"you cook things inside the oven."

So it really is a sort of like idiots guide.

So let's put a good old shake of brandy in it.

And then... Wow!

Did you burn yourself?

No, but I nearly did.

And look at that, that's fantastic.

Ooh, Brandon. That looks fantastic.

-What is it, Brandon?

-It's a coq au vin.

Thank you, Brandon.

-This is quite a meal, isn't it?

-Yes.

A meal and a half.

It's a meal and a half, yeah.

I think it's really nice.

-It's a good meal.

-Thank you.

Did you enjoy being back in the kitchen?

Yes, I did, actually. I missed it.

'I've missed being in the kitchen a lot.

'I mean, there are times, I won't deny'

when it's nice just to put your feet up

and somebody else cooks for you,

but night after night after night of not doing any cooking,

I feel I'm sort of missing an activity

that's quite important to me.

MUSIC: He's The Greatest Dancer by Sister Sledge

By 1975, for working women who didn't have a husband like Brandon,

manufacturers were coming up with all manner of new convenient

frozen meals, stocked in every supermarket and corner shop.

They were heaven-sent for time-pressed women...

..like one 40-year-old working mum to four teenagers from South London,

whose National Food Survey shopping list includes...

Frozen chips, frozen Cornish pasties.

frozen steak and kidney pies...

..and '70s favourite...

Frozen cod in butter sauce.

Rochelle's taking a leaf out of her book.

Oh. I have fond memories of cod in butter sauce.

It was one of the first meals I had with Brandon.

I thought they were quite sophisticated,

so I think the kids are in for a treat.

It has a piece of fish in it.

Don't... Well, the piece of fish is so small,

you won't even notice it on your plate.

Look, Arctic Roll, Fred.

-That's like...

-It looks a bit artificial.

-..swiss roll with ice cream in it.

Yeah, it is artificial, but since when have you actually cared about that?

MUSIC: ABC by The Jackson 5

With Rochelle at work,

the kids can get on with making tea for themselves out of the freezer.

15 minutes, it takes.

Oh, cool.

Ugh. It smells like fish food.

Isn't it amazing how it does this? I think it's incredible.

-OK, that's done, I think.

-That's a lot of sauce, isn't it?

That is loads of sauce.

This looks grim.

I know.

This is so weird. I've never seen a weirder meal.

'Mr Benn changed into the cook's clothes.'

Ooh.

It's a bit plain.

Doesn't really have much flavour.

This actually tastes like a school dinner.

Yeah, no, it really, really does.

MUSIC: Never Going Back Again by Fleetwood Mac

Suddenly it seems every meal is made with tins or Smash

or convenience food,

and I'm surprised at how quickly the explosion happened.

MUSIC: Children Of The Revolution by T-Rex

But by the mid-'70s, a small minority

were rejecting the convenience food revolution.

Concerned about the impact of an increasingly processed diet

on our health and environment,

a counterculture sprang up

with its own health food shops and restaurants.

I've come to visit two pioneers of the 1970s health food movement,

who I assume is going to be two raging hippies,

whose tofu and mung beans and you know, hand-knitted yoghurt

is very easy to scoff at.

And I do. I'm not looking forward to it at all.

But who knows, they might be nice chaps and maybe they can cook.

-Brothers Gregory and Craig Sands...

-That's my brother Craig.

Hello, Craig, nice to meet you.

..started the first macrobiotic restaurant in London,

where John Lennon and Yoko Ono used to dine.

'London's latest macrobiotic restaurant concerned with

'the balance between yin and yang foods.

'They avoid extreme yin foods like sugar,

'and the aggressive yang foods like meat,

'and live mainly on brown rice.

'To many, macrobiotics is more than a diet, it's a way of life.'

What exactly is macrobiotic?

What it boils down to really is eat whole grains,

eat lots of vegetables, keep your dairy

and meat consumption quite low,

and only eat when you're hungry, basically.

And why do you think in the '70s people were so ready for it?

One of the reasons it took off well in Britain was that

the diet was so appalling.

If you took a typical diet of that era and sold it now

you'd go to prison,

because the food was coloured, preserved

and flavoured with ingredients that are no longer allowed.

You know, we really reached that sort of food technology low point.

On the menu today are buckwheat croquettes, carrots,

soy and seaweed salad, brown rice and tahini and miso spread.

That's not what I expected.

Initially when it goes in, it has that high, beery,

slightly sour flavour,

which if you're used to a diet like I am really, of dairy and sugar and

salt and lots of processed stuff, you initially reject, you go, "Ugh!"

Two or three mouthfuls in

you start to get accustomed to it and it tastes great.

The Sands brothers were the first to import tahini from Lebanon,

miso from Japan and brown rice from France.

This is delicious. Really delicious. And I'm not just saying it.

So was importing this stuff difficult?

We had customs opening up buckets of miso

and pouring out entire sacks of millet

trying to find out where we'd hidden the drugs.

They'd never seen this stuff before,

so it just made them feel uncomfortable.

And then, I guess, looking at us, they felt even more uncomfortable.

So how do you feel about the fact that now everyone does it,

and you were the first?

It's fantastic. I mean, in those days we were crazy hippies.

Just the, "you are what you eat" was a really far out concept,

and the only connection you could make between diet and health

was tooth decay with too much sugar.

And it's changed so much now, and it's really,

to me one of the pluses of all that work is I can go to

a supermarket and buy organic foods, which I never knew I'd see that day.

'How amazing. What a privilege -

'the two hippies who changed the world.'

I wasn't looking forward to my meal very much,

I thought it'd be disgusting.

It started off a bit weird, but gradually grew very tasty.

And it's not unlike healthy food we eat today. And it's all them.

It would have seemed bonkers at any other time in history,

and suddenly, we realised they were right.

MUSIC: The Good Life Theme Tune

Some people in the health food movement went the whole hog,

so I sent the Robshaws to the allotment.

John Seymour's seminal book, Self Sufficiency,

was published in '76, and it became a best seller.

We've got some cauliflower plants here.

It explained everything, including how to rotate crops,

shear a sheep and milk a goat.

So the idea is, we've got to milk it.

-Where do you start?

-There!

It does look like there's a lot of milk in there, so do...

How do you know?

Well, because it's got like a kind of swollen...thing.

So do we put the bucket underneath?

I think that bucket is quite...

You'll get something else.

I'm going to straddle it.

All right, goaty.

Oops.

Now stay still, goat.

Don't make sudden noises, cos that will startle her.

-Oh. Oh, Mum, it's going wide.

-It's tricky.

I think it will take about 24 hours to get a pint out of her.

So how much did we actually get?

Oh, all right. That's about enough for one cup of coffee, I suppose.

The extremes of self-sufficiency weren't for everyone.

Agh!

But the National Food Survey reveals that pressure on purses meant

many families began growing their own vegetables during the '70s.

With sky-high inflation,

food prices increased nearly tenfold over the decade.

One mother from Humberside noted...

"The cost of living is too high.

"Prices have gone up out of all proportion."

It's an absolute thrill to be getting fruit and vegetables and

it does feel that you're getting all this stuff for absolutely nothing.

It's nice to be eating something that is fresh,

that is food,

and not a chemical and is not processed.

MUSIC: Living In The Past by Jethro Tull

I think self-sufficiency is amazing.

And I really want to be self-sufficient

and we can have our own farm and plant lots of things all day.

I wouldn't like to be self-sufficient,

just because you have to be digging all the time, it's just boring.

Get it from the shop.

Back home, the girls have been inspired to make a vegetarian

meal from the National Food Survey.

Originally made by a 30-year-old housewife with three children

from Cambridge.

'Home-made houmous, pitta bread, soya bean stroganoff, brown rice.'

I'm actually kind of strangely excited

because it smells really nice so far.

And I just kind of want something healthy.

Houmous was exotic in the '70s, but today it's found in almost

half of British fridges, as we consume 47 million pots a year.

-This looks great.

-Thank you.

Considering what we have been eating, this is really quite unusual.

It's very different.

We haven't eaten anything quite like this,

-that tastes like this...

-Nothing like this.

..and has these kind of ingredients, and it's really nice.

It's just like one of the best meals we've had.

It still would be nice with a bit of chicken.

You think a bit of chicken on the side,

that would be quite a nice accompaniment, wouldn't it?

-I feel healthy already.

-Be full of beans.

-Literally.

-Yes.

By 1977, it was all very well for the houmous-eating few,

but the masses were eating convenience food by the bucket-load.

And things were about to get a whole lot more artificial.

As food science exploded, an army of flavour chemists engineered

an enormous 6,000 artificial flavours.

We're all part of a massive experiment.

Our food is being changed from a traditional

to a new, technologically-based diet.

And we don't know what the consequences of this are going to be.

Polly has come to meet leading flavour scientist Steve Pearce

to find out how '70s food science changed the way we ate forever.

It was a very exciting time for the flavour industry.

The advances in technology enabled us to suddenly be able to

analyse very quickly and with great precision

the components that were responsible for the flavour of foods.

And then, once we'd found those components,

we were synthesising them, and that opened up this massive

plethora of raw materials for the flavour chemists

and the food technologists to start recreating these flavours.

It sounds like it was a bit of a free for all in the '70s.

Yes, it was all about the fact that this had a nice flavour

and an impact and it was, to begin with, an exciting new product.

There was no real flavour legislation at that point.

That came much later on.

For crisps, the possibilities of artificial flavours were endless.

In the '70s, everything from prawn cocktail

to pickled onion flavour was produced.

And Polly and Steve are creating smoky bacon flavour.

-Some acetic acid, so you'll recognise it...

-Ooh!

That's a yes.

-..as vinegar.

-Vinegar.

Then a dash of dimethyl sulphide,

a sprinkle of furfuryl mercaptan,

guaiacol and ethyl guaiacol.

So there's one last component.

A lot of people describe this as being quite sweaty.

-An armpit meets roadkill.

-Yes, exactly. There you go.

This is isovaleric acid.

That's actually what we need in there.

-So there we are. We've made our liquid smoky bacon flavour.

-Fantastic.

Try that.

It's lovely and smoky.

MUSIC: God Save The Queen by The Sex Pistols

Something else big happened in '77.

The nation celebrated the Queen's Silver Jubilee.

So I have asked the Robshaws to hold a street party.

To get the party started,

Polly is bringing in the latest artificial crisp flavours.

-Hello, family Robshaw.

-Hello Polly.

-Hello.

I've come to bring you some treats for your street party.

Lots of crisps, Fred, because in the 1970s what you start to see in the

National Food Survey log books is an increased consumption of crisps.

You have about 20 different brands,

things like Quavers, Monster Munch, Wotsits, some of which you can

see here today and which you'll be able to eat, Fred.

FRED SQUEALS

Have you been missing crisps?

That's probably one of the biggest things I've missed.

Do you want to take a pack?

Why don't you be the first? Oh, you're going to take them all.

And you're going to have them on your own.

LAUGHTER

MUSIC: In The Summertime by Mungo Jerry

As the street gathers, it's not the Queen that is

the centre of attention.

Absolutely delicious.

Just like they used to be.

And I hope there's some more where these came from.

So, what do you think of the crisps?

If I'd just encountered them for the first time, I think

I would have been extremely excited by these different taste sensations.

When the crisps went out, people were just gobbling them,

gorging themselves, almost without noticing.

They're very easy and convenient to eat.

I think that the 1970s is really the moment

when you can start to see scientists really

stepping in to the kitchen, in alliance with the manufacturer

and the retailer, to produce food which is completely ersatz.

It's not real food, but it's clearly very popular and people love it.

1978! Whoo!

MUSIC: Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! by ABBA

The fake food juggernaut showed no sign of letting up

and there was a new favourite on the shelves.

-I don't know that we need four Pot Noodles.

-Yes, we do.

-We do.

-No, we don't.

-You can never have too many Pot Noodles.

'There must be a moment in your day

'when you'd welcome a hot, filling snack, something different,

'something really tasty.

'So here it is.

'New Pot Noodle, for those hungry moments in your day.'

Oh, Pot Noodles.

I was wondering when they would come out and they did.

I've got a little joke, actually.

What is the difference between a bulldog and this?

I don't know.

One is a Pot Noodle

and the other is a not poodle.

The concept of a dried noodle snack was developed in Japan

by inventor, Momofuku Ando, in the face of the country's huge

food shortages after the Second World War.

His company launched its first noodle product in 1958,

but it was another Japanese company, Golden Wonder, that brought

the pot noodle to Britain and the snack has never looked back.

I like the way when you've poured it in, it still, like,

bubbles around as the water fills up all the air pockets.

See that? Blip. Blip. Blip. Blip. Blip. Blip.

It is food, in as much as it's going into us.

But I don't really, really want to eat it.

I feel really embarrassed eating a Pot Noodle.

It's like being caught on the toilet or something.

-Oh, look, it's Brucie.

-Oh, how old do you think he is there?

He's probably about 70 there, isn't he?

-Mum, do you like it?

-I'm not mad about it.

I thought it would be better than this, somehow.

-Quick though, isn't it?

-Well...

-It was quick.

-The Pot Noodle?

It's like four minutes, and then you have a meal.

-Did you enjoy that, Frederick?

-Yeah, I haven't finished yet.

The worst thing about this food is, because it's got so many

additives and so many flavourings, you get, kind of,

instant hit from it. It's moreish. You, kind of, can't stop eating it.

It's only when you've finished, you think,

"Oh, I didn't really want that."

MUSIC: Chrome Sitar by T-Rex

While the Robshaws' home is filling up with convenience food,

out on the British high street,

there's a taste revolution going on.

The number of Indian restaurants in Britain

grew from 1,200 to 3,000 over the course of the '70s -

fuelled, in part, by the arrival of refugees from Bangladesh,

following the country's independence in 1971.

Hello, Rochelle. This is Enam.

Welcome to 1978.

Joining the Robshaws - Hairy Biker Dave Myers,

who's keen to share fond memories of his first curry,

when he was a teenager in the late '70s.

And, Enam Alee, whose family ran Indian restaurants in Britain

throughout the decade.

So, there's a lot more English dishes on here

than I would have expected.

-In the 1970s, 50% of dishes are all English.

-Right.

You know the rump steak, chicken and chips and mushroom omelette,

prawn cocktail and chips was, actually, half and half.

Half rice, half chips.

But you see so far in this experiment,

most of the food we've eaten is quite bland,

it hasn't had strong flavours.

My mouth is watering now.

Do you know, I'm going to recreate my very first curry.

It was food epiphany.

I had a mulligatawny soup, a poppadum and a chicken madras.

I think I'm man enough to take on a Vindaloo.

Can I have half chips, half rice, please?

Oh, mate.

Do you know, I've really missed curry on this experiment,

and I do think once you've had a curry,

-you can't go back, do you know what I mean?

-No. No.

But the thing is, we're only 20 years outside of rationing.

I mean, I can remember when I came down from Barrow In Furness,

I was 18, and the most exotic thing I'd had to eat was a courgette.

So, to go to an Indian restaurant, the kind of palate of flavour

and colours, was as if somebody had lit a firework in my soul.

Isn't it funny, though, looking at the Chicken Tikka Masala. I mean,

little did we realise that would become England's national dish.

-Yeah.

-Chicken Tikka existed in the North of India.

But when this came in this country, the customer was complaining.

People said it's too hot. They put in the yoghurt,

they put in some cream, some sugar.

So, Chicken Tikka Masala becomes very, very British.

I think it's the colours that really do it for me.

The food just looks completely different.

To me, this is just fantastic.

This is just like a kind of party going on in my mouth.

And, you know, I've broken out in a sweat because of it.

That's what I wanted, you know, I love that.

Why is it that men felt the need to test themselves with the curry?

I mean, women weren't impressed by that. I'm not impressed by that.

Well, do you know, I've finished that Vindaloo

and I feel like every cell in my body is going,

"Thanks, thanks."

LAUGHTER

MUSIC: Rapper's Delight by The Sugarhill Gang

1979 has arrived.

Sadly, I can't join the Robshaws, but I've sent Polly round

with a new gadget, to help celebrate the end of the decade.

-Hello, Polly. I think I know what that is.

-What's that?

It's official. Fun has arrived in the kitchen in 1979.

-What is it, Brandon?

-It's a Fondue set.

That is right. So, you light a flame, here,

and then you use these sticks to put bread or meat to

dip into the cheese and eat while you're sitting round the table.

To do it at the table in the middle of an admiring circle,

-that'll be great fun.

-Yeah, so this is food as theatre

and all of your guests are part of it, as well.

-It's participatory. Everybody joins in.

-Exactly.

This isn't something you'd ever do on your own, or even as a couple.

-Probably a slippery slope.

-What do you mean?

Well, sort of, like, if you're starting to invite people to share

the same bowl, it, sort of, could lead to other things.

Ah, yes.

You've only got a year for that to happen, cos it stops in the '80s.

MUSIC: You Sexy Thing by Hot Chocolate

"If you drop a bread cube in the Fondue

"you've got to give a kiss to the friend of your choice."

Oh, God. See, I told you.

Should we make beautiful Fondue together?

-How much cheese do we want?

-A lot.

Hello. So glad you could make it. Come in.

What we've got here is a classic Swiss Fondue

or Fon-dew, as we say.

So, in it goes, does a beautiful figure of eight,

emerges like this and then...

I'd say that's very good. I'd say...

I'd say, "Come and tuck in."

Dip away.

MUSIC: Le Freak by Chic

-No, I'm helping you.

-You're not.

-Cheers.

-Cheers.

'So, how have the Robshaws found the 1970s?'

Fred, what's it been like for you, in terms of food and eating?

Well, for the '50s and '60s, it was kind of like all old stuff,

which weren't very nice.

But now, it kind of feels like all the food is more modern.

So in the 1970s, this battle between the healthy vegetarian food

and the convenience food, what's going to win for the Robshaws?

For me, it was the healthy food.

It was the meal we all enjoyed the most

and we all felt so much better after eating it.

We might have wanted the natural food to win,

but I don't think it really did, because we ate fish in a bag

and Arctic Roll and Pot Noodle.

The fact is that over the decade, we ate a lot more of this

kind of factory food than we did actual food.

But I think the meals we enjoyed most were those cooked with

natural ingredients.

And, Rochelle, you're going out to work, but you're still

responsible for food in the home - how did you find that?

Well, I suppose it's given me a choice, you know,

whereas before, I was just in the kitchen.

So, being able to go out to work meant that it's broadened my life.

Did you feel that convenience food was your saviour?

There's aspects of convenience food which were good.

You've got the speed and convenience,

without an awareness of the negative side effects of too much

processed food in the diet.

But I couldn't have managed without the freezer

to keep meals available for the family.

With Rochelle, what you see is, 1950s, she's exhausted.

1960s, she's depressed.

1970s, there's a glimmer of hope.

She's beginning to feel that there are opportunities available for her.

-Oh.

-Oh.

-I've dropped it.

It's all right, you can kiss me with a mouth full of Fondue.

I think, looking back on this experiment, as a family,

I think we might see the '70s as a golden time.

I think we'll remember lots of things that we did together,

more than we did in the '60s or the '50s.

And even the ordeals that you have to go through, like the power cut,

that has a kind of bonding effect on the family, I think.

This has been a decade in which I actually feel quite sorry to leave.

It felt free. It felt like the kids were free.

It felt like I was becoming free.

Could almost be anything, within this decade.

MUSIC: West End Girls by Pet Shop Boys

Oh, blimey! Look at that go.

Next time, the Robshaws enter the excessive '80s.

Oh, my God, it's leaking.

HISSING

THEY LAUGH

MUSIC: Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! by ABBA