The 80s Back in Time for the Weekend

Meet the Ashby Hawkins family.

For one summer, they are giving up the trappings of their modern lives

and travelling back in time

to live through 50 years of British weekends.

Steph, Rob, Daisy and Seth will experience a radical transformation

-in how we spend our leisure time.

-I'm free!

-From the formal...

-I feel like I'm going to a wedding.

-..to the frivolous.

-We're going on holiday!

From do-it-yourself...

-..to doing almost nothing.

-You've turned into Wham.

-Starting in 1950...

-Oh, my...

..their own home will be their time machine...

It's 1961!

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

What on Earth are you doing?

We're making a massive dartboard.

It's beige!

Oh, there's a telly up in the corner as well, look.

..as they discover how a social...

-..technological...

-What's that?

-..and spending revolution...

-Oh, my God!

..has transformed our free time forever.

-Are you ready?

-Yes!

Last time, the Ashby Hawkins strutted their way

-through the 1970s...

-Oh!

..a decade filled with family togetherness.

I wanted to create memories...

and we have.

This time, they enter an era of aspiration - the 1980s.

This is a power suit. I'm going to look like a boxer.

But what will the multiple distractions on offer...

Hello, everybody. My mum has just returned from work.

-..mean for family life?

-We're all going in that direction,

I'm not sure what it is that's going to bring us back together again.

It's the next chapter in our time-travelling adventure.

It's 1980 and the family's eye-catching '70s house

has been transformed into a chintzy show home...

..and their humble Renault

exchanged for a top-of-the-range Vauxhall Cavalier.

I'm back with the social historian Polly Russell to let loose the '80s.

Oh, my eyes.

This is the decade that's most identified

with the rise in home ownership.

Your home is your biggest asset,

and evidence of your success and your taste.

There isn't one style here, is there? And I think that's

because, in this period, you know,

home decorating becomes the sort of national obsession.

People who hadn't really done any home decorating before

started in the '80s and you can see that it took them a while

-to get the hang of it.

-Yes, you've got a kind of mishmash of styles,

with the ruched curtains and all the flowers

and the chintz and the wallpaper that's giving you a headache.

A reminder that not everybody in the '80s lived in a pop video.

No, there's none of that kind of sleek coolness, is there?

It certainly looks a lot like my house that

-I grew up in during the '80s.

-Does it?

Yeah, I think my mother would be desperate

if she thought I was saying that.

Ah, totally open plan now.

And the colour palette is disgusting.

It's a kind of flesh.

Also, my beady eye for a design feature tells me

that it's a breakfast bar, the key '80s thing.

You run in, coffee, boom, off you go and then just run off

to the deregulated City and start making money.

It's about pleasure and fun, so it's not about labour.

I think what it's suggesting is really busy, affluent lives.

A year before the '80s began,

Margaret Thatcher had been elected Prime Minister

on a promise of freedom for the market and the individual.

There are many things to be done to set this nation on the road

to recovery and I don't mean economic recovery alone,

but a new independence of spirit and a zest for achievement.

What a nation we could be.

Aspiration was prized, even as inequality rose.

To keep up with the Joneses, many of us were spending beyond our means,

a trend seen clearly in the Family Expenditure Survey, which

asked thousands of households to record all their purchases,

from a meal out to a new car.

The original handwritten diaries had been shredded,

but the survey's data give us the best possible clue about what

families were doing in their leisure time.

We've had the Family Expenditures Survey analysed and what you see

is that expenditure goes up significantly

on leisure and entertainment.

It goes up by a whopping 60 billion over the decade.

Looking down here, it's VCRs, videos, home computers.

In the '50s, it was a shilling on fags.

This man owns five televisions, but how does this gel with the idea

of the '80s as the haves and the have-nots?

What you have to remember is that there's been deregulation of credit,

so you can spend a lot of money without necessarily having

the requisite income.

Here's a man who is 45 from Wales,

he earns £549 per week but he's got £741 credit card debt.

So sitting there and watching adverts and buying everything

that they tell him to buy, isn't he?

So even people who haven't got money are really stretching themselves

-trying to have it all.

-Yes, I think that's right.

The Family Expenditure Survey will guide everything

the Ashby Hawkins do in the 1980s.

The '70s, to me, was a real golden time in terms of spending it

with the family, so I'm hoping that we can keep that

kernel of fun together.

I sort of enjoyed spending time with my family,

but really hope we're going to be spending less time together

and more time on technology.

-DAISY:

-Look at the car!

-I can't wait to drive it.

Ew.

-SETH:

-This room is so small.

-Oh, it's lovely.

What a lot of furniture!

-Oh, it has a ghetto blaster!

-There's a lot of weird stuff.

I mean, look at that.

You've got a pretending-to-be Ming vase with silk flowers.

In a stately home, you could have a vase of that size,

but in a lounge in suburbia... what's all that about?

Look at the Hi-fi system. Look, twin deck!

HE GASPS

-It's very hi-tech though, isn't it?

-It's the future.

I had a ghetto blaster and I used to carry it around with me

on my shoulder and you could have a party anywhere when you took that.

-That is such a small TV.

-It's remote control.

-DAISY GASPS

-We don't have to get up now,

we can sit about lazing, watching TV all day.

-It's the tackiest taste I've ever seen.

-Is this edible?

-No, it's for smelling, look.

-It's air freshener.

It was an alternative to...

You'd smell it when you'd go into the toilet at my nan's house.

Smells like disinfectant.

-Oh! Whoa.

-Wow!

-DAISY:

-Look at this! It's bigger.

-It's beige!

-SETH:

-We have a microwave.

They've replaced the wall with work surface.

Look at the breakfast table, the breakfast table is awesome.

There's a telly in here as well.

Oh, look! It's like the first mobile phone, but you can't take it...

How was that mobile? You're attached by a cord.

Yeah, but you can take it around the house.

Yeah, we have got a lot of stuff, so it looks like we've been spending.

I remember in the '80s, appearance was important and substance less so

and this room epitomises that for me.

I've got to last a decade in this house

and I think I'm going to be going slightly mad...

by the end of it.

-Hello, Giles.

-Hello! You look amazing.

This is your exciting '80s show home.

This house is an expression of having it all but you're going to

need money to pay for it, so you're going to become

-a dual income family. Steph, you're going to be going out to work.

-Yay!

But there's still an expectation that you should be in the kitchen

cooking the dinner, so you're going to be doing both.

Rob, the job-for-life thing is gone,

so you're going to have to work longer and longer hours and although

most of you are going to find work creeping into your leisure time,

that won't be the case for you, Seth. You're going to have

-a lot more choice in your leisure time.

-OK, good.

So, there's your mail for the decade.

I'm going to leave you to get on with one of the most popular

pastimes of the 1980s, which is DIY, home improvement.

-We're all doing that?

-All of you are doing it

and if you can improve on this, I'll be really surprised.

-So have fun with that.

-That shouldn't be too hard.

-Excellent.

It's going to be flamboyant and frilly, isn't it?

-What is there to decorate?

-Everything.

Decorating gave property owners the chance to stamp their personality

all over their home.

The really important thing with stencils is that you don't

put too much paint on that because otherwise it just splurges.

The expansion of right-to-buy and mortgage deregulation in the '80s

saw home ownership grow by 10% across the decade.

And, thanks to newly opened DIY superstores, owners could

improve their properties with all the latest daring styles.

Carefully painting across the stencil.

This takes you into your wonderful fancy world

where you can have any pattern that you could ever imagine.

Oh, look! I don't think it's meant to do that...

Daisy! Stop stencilling your brother.

The Expenditure Survey reflects this obsession with redecoration,

like this 47-year-old man from the Southeast who

spent £40 on paint, the equivalent of £120 today.

No, no, no! We've got to live in here!

I don't even know what we were doing to that poor kitchen wall.

You can't have my mum, control freak number one,

and my sister, control freak number two, doing the same thing

and hope there to be complete peace. That will not happen.

I have to say, like it or loathe it,

we've certainly transformed the room.

Meanwhile...

Rob is busy making his own improvements.

Whoa!

-It totally changes this room.

-Why...

Why do people think that this would improve their housing?

I was looking outside at the road, no-one's got it.

Yeah, I wonder why(!)

When we weren't chintzing of our homes,

we spent most of our time doing one thing...watching TV.

# Video killed the radio star... #

The time we spent glued to the box

went up from 19 to 26 hours a week in the first half of the decade.

So I'm bringing the family a new gadget which will help them

cram even more telly into their lives.

-What is that?

-What is that?! Do you really mean, what is that?

-I think I might know. It can't be a DVD player.

-A DVD in 1980?

-Oh, is that a VCR?

-Yes! It is.

-That's brilliant.

Yeah, it means you can record things when you're out and come back

and watch them later. This is the birth of on-demand TV.

You can spend the entire week just watching telly.

A really expensive piece of kit.

-Do you remember how expensive it was?

-Really expensive!

A chap like this would have been £599,

which is about two grand, about £1,900 in today's money.

It's a month's salary. So people mostly rented them.

I'll put it down here and I'll leave you to try and work it out.

-Thank you.

-Cheerio.

-There we go!

-That's the eject button.

The Expenditure Survey is awash with this revolutionary

piece of home technology.

By the end of the decade, 60% of homes had one.

VCRs were just, like, the most exciting thing

when they first came out.

OK, it's on. It's flashing 12.

I think it's really cool that I should be able to record TV now.

-DAISY:

-When setting the length of the recording set,

the minute button must be first.

Read the instructions! That's how you record stuff,

that's the instructions on how to record it!

-Go away.

-For God's sake!

Oh, look, it's doing it, yes! Yay!

Right, insert this side into the recorder. It's a bit big...

What about that? This is called Dallas.

-Sounds like a cowboy Western.

-With JR Ewing.

-So should we record this so we can watch it later?

-Yeah.

In the early '80s, British viewers couldn't get enough of

US television imports like Dallas.

And our special relationship with all things American

didn't stop there.

The bond between Margaret Thatcher and new president Ronald Reagan

would define the decade.

This great friendship is, if anything,

stronger than it has ever been.

And American influences were everywhere.

Dinner time!

Oh, yay! What've we got, what've we got?

-Got a takeaway, got a takeaway.

-What is it?

Fries, burgers and fizzy drinks.

-Do you think we could do this every night, then?

-Yep.

-It's the shooting of JR.

-Yeah.

We're actually going to see JR get shot!

I had a mirror badge that said, "I shot JR".

THEME MUSIC PLAYS

It was about the American multimillionaires, so they

lived in these massive houses and people just aspired to be like them.

On the 26th May, 1980,

22 million Brits tuned in to watch arch-villain JR get shot.

Oh, the door is open. There he is!

-LOUD SHOT FROM TELLY

-Oh!

Bang, bang. Is he dead?

We don't even know if he's dead!

-Mom, he went, uggggh. And he got shot twice.

-Whoa!

I was more excited there than I was then, back in the '80s.

That was ultra exciting. Shall we watch it again?

We can rewind the tape and watch it again.

We're in a completely new era with a lot more technology.

Everything seems a bit more relaxed.

I've heard of a VCR, but I didn't actually know what it was.

They are really complicated and obviously Dallas, you know... Wow.

It's a new day at the Ashby Hawkins which, in this experiment,

means a new year.

It's 1981, the year of the wedding.

We may have been enthralled to all things American,

but some occasions had us proud to be British.

On 29th July, there was a national holiday to mark the marriage

of Charles and Diana,

and Britain celebrated in true '80s style by going shopping.

They put the Royal Wedding on everything.

From Royal Wedding sweatshirts to Royal Wedding beer

and even Royal Wedding trainers.

Like ten million of us, the Ashby Hawkins are going to have

a party for friends and neighbours at their local hall.

Really, is that Diana, do you think?

Oh, my God, that's terrible.

Wow, this is amazing!

Granny Jennifer is here to join in the festivities.

In 1981, over half a million people congregated in London,

hoping to capture a glimpse of the Royal party.

And to grab the prime spots, people camped for days.

-REPORTER:

-'You couldn't actually see an inch of pavement anywhere

'and money wouldn't buy you a space for most of these people.'

I hope to be involved in a piece of history being made.

On the streets that week was a ten-year-old Rob

and mum Jennifer, who slept outside St Paul's for five nights.

I just saw it on the television that people were gathering

and I'm thinking, "Why aren't I there?"

-You dropped everything for the Royal family.

-I did!

I did take a chance, really, taking you along, ten years old.

We were so close to the church,

I actually felt like one of the guests.

What I always remember, though, was right at the very last,

when you knew the carriages were leaving Buckingham Palace,

they were still vacuuming that carpet.

But not everyone was as captivated as Jennifer by the Royal event.

In 1981, a 16-year-old Steph went to a very different celebration.

There were an awful lot of people in the country that didn't care

and I kind of fell into that camp, really. Sorry!

There was a "Not The Royal Wedding" bash at my local which I went to

and no-one was allowed to mention the Royal wedding

or wear anything red, white or blue and it was great.

Hey, how are you?

We need more chairs?

Rob's recording the whole event on a state-of-the-art '80s camcorder,

precious family memories they can relive again and again on VCR.

I'm not overly excited about seeing the wedding.

I'm not really a big fan of the Royals. So I don't...

You say that, sitting next to me?!

These are made into coasters.

Is that them coming out? Oh, yes!

That's how close we were to it, huh? Incredible. I'm with Buzby.

It was just worth bunking off school for a once-in-a-lifetime

-opportunity, isn't it?

-That is really what I wanted you to answer.

There you go, see?

You can never have too many balloons!

Oh, it's time, it's time, I'm going to put the telly on!

What are you doing? Sit down in the front!

No messing around, the anthem is playing.

-She looks great, doesn't she?

-CROWD ROARS ON TELLY

Listen to the crowd.

The wedding was watched by over 28 million people,

more than half the UK population,

and globally reached a staggering 750 million viewers.

-Hang on a minute, we're going to see us in a minute.

-There!

-The flags!

-We were right there.

Right where those flags were.

She's looking over to us, look.

Wait, wait for the kiss, wait for the kiss.

-Oh, it's the famous kiss, of course.

-Yes!

That's not a proper kiss! Do it again!

I'd never seen it on television before, the only time I'd seen it

was live with my mother there,

so to actually watch it with my mum, it was a lovely experience.

I'd quite like to do it again, actually, it was really good.

'It was really sweet to be in the hall, decorations and getting

'dressed up and preparing food and the kids were messing about.

'I love a party.'

I just don't need the Royals as an excuse to do that.

1981...

'82!

-It's an important day for Steph.

-I'm starting work today.

And that's kind of nerve-racking and exciting at the same time.

In their normal lives, she's the family's main breadwinner,

but, for the first time in this experiment, Steph is going to be

joining the 35% of women who were working full-time.

OK, thank you, ma'am.

Are you wearing that to the office?

I'm feeling that I need a bit more shoulder pad going on and something

a bit more formal, something that makes me look more like a man.

You need a bowler hat and a tash.

Not to worry, I sent Steph THE wardrobe essential

for an '80s working woman.

Oh, now this...this is a power suit!

Look at the shoulders on that!

I'm going to look like a boxer!

Whoa!

What?

It's definitely intimidating.

I'm going to look like a powerful businesswoman.

Yeah, I'd do what I was told if you told me.

# I'm so excited

# And I just can't hide it. #

I love being at home and I love my family.

But, equally, it drives me stir crazy.

Steph's new job comes with the latest accessories.

A Filofax and a pager.

This, this, if anything in the '80s, was a real status symbol.

People used to wear them clipped on their belts

so that you could see that you were on call.

If you were on call, that meant you were indispensable

and, therefore, hugely important.

# Once in every lifetime comes a love like this

With both parents working full-time, Daisy and Seth are joining

a whole new generation of latchkey kids

who could do exactly what they liked...

# Darling, we're the young ones. #

..leaving them free to indulge in social media 1980s style.

-RADIO CRACKLES

-Hello?

-RADIO CRACKLES

-Hello!

-Ooh, God!

-Hello!

CB radio had been an illicit popular past-time in Britain for years.

Breaker one-four, breaker one-four.

Once legalised in the early '80s, thousands of kids got the bug.

-This is Kit Kat and Cherry Bomb as he likes to be known.

-Cherry Bomb.

What are your handles, guys?

RADIO CRACKLES

We are Crunchy and Doughnut!

Ooh! I really fancy both of those right now.

Who is that?

Ooh, God! you were so loud then. Oh, hello, Ella, how are you?

I'm good, how are you?

It's like talking to your grandmother.

-Like, hello!

-Hello!

-Yes, I'll repeat myself one more time!

-This is a very bad version of social media.

-Is Doughnut there?

LINE CRACKLES AND GOES DEAD

Is anyone there?

LINE CRACKLES

-Hello, Dad.

-CB radio!

-Yeah.

Oh, QSK, QSK, brilliant. I used to have one.

They're so cool. I had a friend who had one on his bike

-he used to ride around Worthing.

-Oh, that's cool.

With a big aerial sticking up the back. That's the best thing ever.

-Do you want to have a go?

-Yes, why not.

-We're talking to Crunchy and Doughnut.

-Crunchy and Doughnut?

Crunchy and Doughnut? This is Fallout.

My name's Fallout and I'm calling from south-west London.

After a full day at the office, Steph's back from work.

-Hey, hello!

-Hello, everybody, my mum's just returned from work.

-Daisy, do you want chicken or prawn?

-Erm, both.

In the '80s, despite more women working full-time than ever before,

they were still expected to do the housework when they got home.

It feels like I am still actually attached to the kitchen sink

but I've got one of those very, very long dog leads that allows me out.

But, actually, I still always get pulled back here.

Oh, kids!

Jesus, have you seen this lounge?

In a bid to keep up appearances,

women were doing two hours' more housework than a decade before.

No wonder, when advertisers were persuading us

that even our carpets needed to wear perfume.

ADVERT JINGLE

# Do the shake n' vac...

Steph's not the only one vacuuming in a power suit.

# Put the freshness back

# Do the shake n' vac and put the freshness back

# When your carpet smells fresh, your room does too

# Every time you vacuum, remember what to do...

I think I might open a window.

# Put the freshness back! #

Dinner means Steph can finally sit down.

BEEPING

-Not absolutely sure what that is.

-BEEPING

-It's coming from your handbag.

-Thank goodness for that.

-Oh, God, it's my pager.

-Have you got a pager coming?

BEEPING

-Seriously, you've got a pager?

-Yep.

In a world before mobiles, pagers were phenomenally popular

with 61 million users globally by the end of the decade.

The person who wants to send you the message

first phones up a control centre.

And an operator there keys it into a computer.

The message goes out in a series of coded pulses.

Sold as a way to free people from the office,

this new technology was a double-edged sword.

'All this immediacy of communication, it has its benefits

'but the reality of pagers was that you could never switch off.'

OK, cheers, thanks, bye.

'This device is probably the very start of that intrusion

'into your personal life, of work.

'It's a slippery slope.'

What it's saying is work is more important than family.

'That's the wrong way round.'

# Give me time. #

Wait for it.

1983.

-ALL:

-Yay!

A year when the country could cram even more telly into their day

with the launch of Breakfast TV.

TV MUSIC

The Family Expenditure Survey shows that,

for more and more families, one TV was no longer enough.

Thousands of households now had multiple sets. TV.

-TV:

-Hello, good morning.

The two main channels went head-to-head

with cheerful, unthreatening styles.

The BBC had Selina Scott.

Now, it's British Fashion Week and, all this week,

the best of British fashion is on show in London,

and here on Breakfast Time.

But ITV had a secret weapon.

Morning, Roland, what are you wearing this lot for?

Well, I thought I'd deck myself up this morning.

-Roland Rat!

-TV:

-But you're not Scottish.

I must say, you look very smart this morning, Nicko. Heh.

I mean, it's great that there's breakfast television.

They kind of waste it with a talking rat.

That thing's really creepy.

Heh.

Seth and his friend Harvey are heading off to try out

one of the most popular leisure activities

for boys in the early '80s.

Video games.

With local authority cuts closing many youth clubs,

'80s kids turned to the bright lights of the arcade.

Out on the street, you can't go around zapping things generally,

can you? But here, you can stick 10p in a slot

and you can zap things all you want.

Run, run, run!

'In the '70s, I was like, "Yay! I've got Pong."

'But it was really boring after, like, an hour.

'This is a lot more exciting.

'And it's in colour, it's a lot more advanced.'

Up, up, down!

I've got no proper supervision from my parents.

There's no-one there to tell me, let's go now.

I'm away from my parents and I kind of like it that way.

Back at home...

..Steph's got her hands on her own video technology.

She's trying out the latest American-inspired fitness fad.

Are you ready to do the workout?

Jane Fonda's workout was a top seller,

shifting 17 million copies worldwide.

Big circles.

'She looks amazing. And it is quite hypnotic watching her on the screen.

'It's a very aspirational thing.

'They're obviously having a really good time.

'It's something you could do at home.'

It's very elegant, isn't!

'If you're unfit and flabby, you can do it

'without too much shame in your own home.'

TV: EXERCISE MUSIC

Very good. You should be warmed up and ready

to go on to the arm exercise.

Oh, was that a warm-up? Holy Moses.

DOORBELL

It wasn't just women who aspired to have the perfect body in the '80s.

ROB LAUGHS

Men were also focusing on their appearance.

Steph, come and see.

We're going to get a tan. That is awesome, isn't it?

Dear Rob. In the '80s, pale and interesting won't cut it.

You need a tan. So, I've bought you a cutting-edge machine,

a tanning bed.

-Excellent!

-Wow.

-Will you turn me over when I'm done?

ROB GIGGLES

EIGHTIES PARTY MUSIC

Love the shorts.

Of the ridiculous things I've ever done in my lounge,

this is definitely up there.

In the '80s, we were told this was a safe way to tan.

And this is a pastime. I mean, at least in the '60s,

we went to the seaside to do this.

It was more of an occasion, wasn't it?

Seth! Come and see how ridiculous your father looks.

ROB LAUGHS

Look, look.

This is really weird. I don't even understand the point of this.

ROB LAUGHS

I could do with a pina colada, that might help.

But no bad boy's look would be complete

without the most popular finishing touch for men.

Oh!

Why have you put a jellyfish on my head?

Blond highlights.

MUSIC: Bad Boys by Wham!

Ooh. Ow! Oh. Urgh!

ROB SQUEALS

Tonight, Daisy is Rob's stylist.

THEY GIGGLE

DAISY LAUGHS

-I'm laughing with you really.

-Oh, yeah, that's right.

-ROB LAUGHS

-You could be Andrew Ridgley

and I could be George Michael. We could be Wham! together.

No! I'd die.

Yes, it's pretty good.

Yeah. Well done, Daisy.

# Whoo whoo! #

As the '80s moved on,

our leisure time was increasingly dominated by American imports.

Seth and Harvey are trying one out.

I've enlisted the help of break dancer B-boy, Steady,

to put them through their paces.

-Hi, guys.

-Hi.

-I'm Steady from Flawless.

-From the '80s, right?

-Yep.

-That's what we used to wear, nice.

Direct from New York, kids from Norwich to Newport

were breaking out the frog splash.

We're going to learn some top rock first,

and then a drop which is how we get to the floor. Then a six step.

-That sounds complicated.

-Yep.

Don't think too hard, just let your body do the work.

So, five, six, seven and cross.

-In, cross. In, cross. In, cross.

-Oh!

-You've got it!

-I went backwards, though.

OK, you made a little mistake, but you got it.

OK, this is a six step, OK?

One... STEADY LAUGHS

-Bend down.

-..two, three, four,

-five, six.

-Oh, no.

Jump up.

Right. Music time?

-MUSIC PLAYS

-Five, six, seven and

march, march, march, march.

-Yep.

-Cross.

# Good girl! #

Six step's nice.

Out.

I thought you said you were no good!

Most people I'm teaching that would take two or three lessons

just to learn that, you've learnt it in 20 minutes.

THEY LAUGH

I didn't really like break dancing, and the idea of it.

So, I was just a bit worried about it.

But when I got into it, I really enjoyed it.

Tat, tat, tat, tat.

High fives.

While Seth's breaking in the park...

I think I've twisted my ankle.

..Daisy's also fallen under the spell of all things American.

Ow!

But '80s fashion comes at a price.

Argh!

SHE SQUEALS

Are you trying to rip my hair out of my skull?

# Holiday!

Madonna burst onto the music scene in 1984.

Her radical style was immediately embraced by fans.

And high-street shops were soon selling out of lace gloves,

as Madonna-mania swept the country.

In the '50s, '60s and '70s, you weren't following a celebrity,

you were following what everyone else was wearing. Whereas this,

it's like you choose your celebrity and you look like them.

# Holiday!

I do think I can express myself more as I can put anything on

and someone will go, oh, that's totally normal.

-What's the dance in the '80s?

-# Holiday!

It's all like that.

# It would be so nice. #

MUSIC: Jump by Van Halen.

# I get up...

While the kids transform themselves,

Rob's taken up yet another craze from across the pond, jogging.

# You got it tough

# I've seen the toughest all around...

I'm pleased to be out.

I know I'm on my own but I like the isolation of exercising on my own.

So, I'm really pleased to be out,

and pleased to get rid of the excess energy that I have.

# Just how you feel. #

We were enthusiastically embracing American culture in 1984.

But there was one import from the USA that was far from popular.

-TV:

-The message was clear. Spring, said the organisers, brought life,

cruise missiles, death.

The year before, American cruise missiles

had arrived at Greenham Common.

And, as the Cold War intensified,

fears of a nuclear conflict were at a peak.

In 1984, seven million people tuned in to the BBC's drama Threads

which depicted the horror of nuclear war, and its aftermath.

-TV:

-If anyone dies while you are kept in your fallout room,

move the body to another room in the house.

That guy's voice, to this day, curdles my blood.

-Felt like it had taken away my future.

-It was horrible.

I remember thinking, I don't want to bring children into this world

if they're going to be living in a nuclear wasteland,

if they were lucky enough to survive it.

-TV:

-Attack. Warning red.

-Attack warning? Is it for real?

Attack warning? It's not bloody real!

TV: AIR RAID SIREN

TV: SCREAMS OF PANIC, ALARMS RING

TV: SIRENS

'It's making me think,

'what would you do in your last four minutes of living?'

Would you try and run and survive,

or would you try and embrace the last four minutes?

TV: SCREAMS OF PANIC

'It's really, really chilling.'

Oh, my God.

It's actually a cracking piece of television.

-STEPH SNIFFS

-I hate it.

I hate it.

I hate it.

I hate it as much the second time round as I did the first time round.

-TV:

-Jesus Christ, Tommy.

I spent that entire part of my life being angry, frightened,

resentful. Scared.

And it all came rushing back in Technicolor today

which is why I got emotional.

TV: PANICKED VOICES

By the mid-'80s, TV had become a powerful cultural force.

Ronald Reagan watched Threads, and the American equivalent,

The Day After, which he said changed his mind on nuclear policy.

Three years later, Russia and the USA signed a treaty

to reduce nuclear weapons.

One, two, three. Orange!

# Together! Together in electric dreams. #

It's 1985, and Polly is bringing the Ashby Hawkins

a bit of cutting-edge technology which would revolutionise our lives.

We're growing up into a computerised world

and, really, everyone's going to need one by the time they grow up.

-Hello.

-Hello, Polly.

-Ah, I see a keyboard.

-I'm bringing you the future.

-Wow.

-It's a home computer.

-Commodore 64.

-How happy is Seth, look.

By the mid-'80s, as many as three million households had one.

And there were multiple British brands to choose from.

As well as the ZX Spectrum or the BBC Micro,

there was also the Grundy New Brain.

The Jupiter Ace. And the Welsh-made Dragon computer.

But, in the end, we fell for another American import, the Commodore 64.

It would become the biggest seller of all time.

This model costs around £200. That's about £1,000 in today's money.

They sold 17 million in 12 years of its existence.

The expenditure survey shows an astounding number of us

jumping on the home computer bandwagon,

including this 30-year-old man from Scotland who bought one for £188.50.

# Einstein a go go. #

Unlike today's tablets and laptops,

you couldn't just download apps or games.

64K RAM. Normal computers are four gigabytes of RAM.

They were designed for you to create everything yourself

by writing your own computer code.

-Try this, type in ten.

-Yep.

-Space.

Question mark. Quote, Seth smells.

The thing with computers is,

although they're capable of very clever things,

they are actually very stupid.

20. Go to. Ten.

-There we go.

-It says "Steph smells"! That's not right!

But programming is no easy feat.

It is being extremely...stupid!

I don't like dollar signs any more!

it's still creating dollar signs. I'm pressing delete!

And now top, at the top again. Why is it doing that!

-Oh, my God!

-HE GROANS

I've waited 30 years so far for a computer.

I want my laptop back now. It's so much quicker than this.

He might not be sold on its charms,

but the kids who learned to programme on these computers

would go on to create the games Seth loves.

-Hey, Seth, are you sure you don't want to come outside?

-No.

And actually enjoy the sunshine?

I've got to do this.

It changes your brain, changes your behaviour

when you're on the screen all the time.

I can see how addictive it is.

That's why it's not working.

Ah!

But, on July 13, 1985, there's a huge global spectacle

that will tear even Seth away from his computer.

-TV:

-It's 12 noon in London, 7am in Philadelphia,

and, around the world, it's time for Live Aid!

It was the most amazing thing ever.

And you could not buy a blank videotape for love nor money

in the week leading up to this because everyone recorded it.

# I bought a ticket to the world

-CROWD:

-# But now I've come back again...

Pop singers Bob Geldof and Midge Ure galvanised the music industry

to stage the biggest global charity event in history

in an attempt to help the desperate situation in Ethiopia.

# I want the truth to be said. #

-TV:

-Dawn. And, as the sun breaks through the piercing chill of night

on the plain outside Korem, it lights up a biblical famine.

Don't go to the pub tonight. Please, stay in and give us the money.

There are people dying now.

He basically mobilised the whole country, didn't he?

This was unique.

McCartney, Bowie, there's Wham!

George Michael in the yellow shirt. Woohoo!

1.9 billion people tuned in worldwide,

one of the largest TV audiences ever,

and it raised a colossal £70 million.

-# Are the clanging chimes of doom...

-This is giving me goose bumps.

# Well, tonight, thank God it's them instead of you

# And there won't be snow in Africa... #

Thanks to Live Aid, charity fund raising took off.

And, in true British style, the sillier, the better.

-Where's your dad, what's he up to? Something weird again?

-Mm.

Woohoo!

-What is it?

-Best thing ever.

Gripped by the charity bug, Rob's got his hands

on the latest vehicle to hit the market, the Sinclair C5.

-I want one!

-Awesome.

-Let's go and raise money 1985-style.

-Wa-hey, hey.

How are we going to do that.

We're going to let people ride on it for money.

Madam, good afternoon. Welcome to Live Aid 1985.

-And pedal.

-You've got to press quite hard.

Don't forget, we've got your dog as deposit.

DOG BARKS

THE FAMILY WHOOP

Stop.

THEY LAUGH

Money for Live Aid!

'It's a really positive thing.

'And it's a real upbeat part of the '80s for me.

'I feel like the tide's turning and changing a bit.'

Because there's been quite a lot of dark stuff up to now.

As a pastime, it was fun, and we did it together.

And it was for a good cause.

The legacy of Live Aid remains,

and the charity is still taking donations today.

THEY CHATTER

COINS JINGLE

But a less glorious future awaited the C5.

So, pedal first, get it going and then push the button in.

It was hoped that this electric tricycle would replace cars.

STEPH LAUGHS

Nimble in traffic and easy to park, and only £399.

-Stop, stop!

-# We're on the road to nowhere... #

I wonder how fast you can go on this.

However, its exposure to the elements and low-profile

made it unsafe and uncomfortable.

I have seen so many youngsters just come straight across the road,

no signals, no nothing.

I do, I think they're an absolute hazard on the road.

Whoever brought out that, well,

wants putting up against a wall and shooting.

After only a few months on the market,

with poor sales and terrible press, it was a total flop.

I love it. I want one.

Live Aid is amazing.

Oh, my goodness, it's incredible.

That is the trigger of

every single Comic Relief, every Sports Relief.

It's stuck with us, and it's just awesome, it's really cool.

It had dreadful beginnings. But the actual event,

it really did bring hope.

It really restored my faith in people.

Despite a multitude of distractions...

How's it going, mate?

..one activity has dominated the family's activity time.

# The sun always shines on TV

# Hold me... #

Television.

We're watching a lot more television than in previous decades.

It's brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

'Long live my square eyes.'

In the '80, Britain was watching 50% more than a decade earlier.

And, naturally, it was the TV that told us

about brand-new things to buy.

What's up?

You know these British Gas shares? They're really easy to do.

-Give them a ring.

-CAR HORN

If you see Sid, tell him.

In 1986, the government began privatising

Britain's nationalised industries.

Most famously, British Gas.

People made a bucket-load of money almost instantly.

BELL

As thousands of buyers cashed in their new shares,

it meant the chance to buy even more stuff.

-Oh!

-Ooh, it's a Fiesta.

-Steph's car.

-It's really exciting.

HORN BEEPS

By the end of the decade, 23% of Britons were two-car families.

ENGINE STARTS

And, what better way to put them to use

than another favoured leisure pursuit.

Right, let's go shopping.

The Family Expenditure Survey indicates that

even men were catching the shopping bug,

and the male fashion market rocketed.

I've arranged for Rob and Steph to get some style tips

from expert Caryn Franklin.

Hello. Look at you, you look amazing.

In 1986, Caryn told the British public what to buy every week

on the Clothes Show.

With the massive choice available in your high streets

this very minute, there really is no excuse for looking shoddy.

Is there, boys?

-OK, Rob, I've got you these. Nice sloppy suit.

-Wow.

-Have a go.

-Look at the colours.

This was the time, really, when menswear was really blossoming.

Suddenly, the weekend was about shopping as a hobby.

And buying clothes, and buying style.

There were big shopping malls sprouting up,

where everything was under one roof.

So, we were encouraged to shop.

So, Rob, how are you getting on with that?

I am ready.

Let's have a look. Wa-hey!

-Whoa.

-Look at you,

-mister. Amazing.

-How do you feel?

-Comfortable and stylish,

a lot better than how I was dressed when I went in there.

I've got the finishing touch here. We've rolled up your sleeves,

because that's a big part of the look.

Don Johnson's really the look that we're channelling here.

He was the David Beckham of his day.

What he wore on telly influenced men

and women would have just tuned in to adore him.

-Have a look at yourself in the mirror.

-It's very comfortable.

Oh! I haven't seen it all.

-Whoo!

-Who's that?

-Wow, yeah.

No, I need now is a Ferrari Testarossa, and I'll be off.

MUSIC: I Heard It Through The Grapevine by Marvin Gaye

It wasn't just Miami Vice influencing us.

The '80s was the golden age of advertising.

# Ooh, I bet you're wondering how I knew

# About your plans... #

I've come to meet John Hegarty.

The man responsible for one of the decade's most memorable ads.

So, what changed in the 1980s?

Well, Thatcher came along.

She talked about individualism, achieving things yourself.

All of a sudden, there was a huge change

in the way people thought and felt.

People had this sense of, I can do it. I can achieve it.

Advertising used to be about us, the family. About togetherness and that.

And, I think, the '80s, advertising was about me.

What I can achieve. It's about me.

The amazing thing about the 501s ad with Nick Kamen was,

in theory, you were selling jeans.

But, in fact, you changed the kind of pants people wore.

My drawer full of Y-fronts became irrelevant.

My girlfriend bought me a pair of boxer shorts.

But what's funny about it is, the original script,

we had him stripping down to a pair of Y-fronts.

-Completely different ad.

-Completely different ad.

But I think the other thing that Levi's did with that campaign

was that they change the way people appreciated music.

They changed not only Levi's but fashion itself.

And it had an impact on how you could tell a story in advertising.

It could be sexy, it could be individual,

it could be very different. And I think it became a mark for that era.

As a spotty 17-year-old,

even I bought a pair of Levis in a bid to look like Nick Kamen.

And I've managed to get hold of a few pairs for the family.

I love these jeans.

The guy in the advert, cor, he was just sex on legs.

# Don't you know that I heard it through the grapevine... #

The advert was so successful, Levi's sales went up by 700%

and they struggled to keep up with demand.

# Oh, I heard it through the grapevine. #

I love these jeans. They feel really cool.

The last night out Steph had was bingo in the '60s.

Now, as a liberated '80s woman with a full Filofax,

she can go out with friends after work

to a new female-friendly wine bar.

-Shall I get a bottle of white?

-Yes. Mm.

-I'll go and get that.

# Sisters are doing it for themselves. #

Most pubs in the '80s were rowdy, male-dominated environments.

But the recently opened Pitcher & Piano was the first bar

to target working women with money to spend on socialising.

It banned fruit machines, and designed a look

that was a world away from the traditional British boozer.

-Cheers.

-Cheers.

-Cheers. Our first outing to a wine bar.

-Dartboard, pool table.

-Smoking.

-Smoking.

Horrible, grotty wallpaper. Sticky carpets.

But this, this is very different from a pub.

-It's open and light.

-Airy, clean.

-Posh.

I think it took a long time for the hospitality industry

to realise that women had got money to spend.

In true '80s style, the night out gives Steph to a chance

to name-drop about her latest purchases.

I've just got a car, I've got a Ford Fiesta.

-No! What colour?

-Blue?

You see, that's a girl's question. And it's my car.

-Rob's got the boring family car.

-What's he got?

He's got a Vauxhall Cavalier which is, it's maroon.

-Ooh.

-Ugh.

So far in this experiment,

Steph has done the lion's share of the housework.

However, in 1987, a new phrase came into common parlance, the new man.

# What have I, what have I, what have I done to deserve this? #

I feel more useful and comfortable now that

I'm back into what I would normally do in the contemporary life.

But, despite the hype, most men were actually only doing

a couple more minutes of housework a week.

Ugh.

HE MAKES A SUCTION NOISE

Whoo!

-Daisy has given him blond highlights in his hair.

-Oh, yes? No!

-He's got a tan.

-Really.

-Oh, God.

-It looks so funny.

'I'm not seeing her but at least I know she's having a good time

'instead of being chained to the sink.'

Look how important I am...

'It's really good. I've definitely got my freedom in this era.'

I haven't been out since the 1960s.

So, really, really chuffed to actually get out and have fun.

It was brilliant, that was so lovely.

It's much more like what I'm used to doing.

It felt like the old me a bit.

I felt like I'd got my mojo back a bit.

-RADIO:

-This is Bruno Brookes live in London with a brand-new Top 40.

A direct computer link with Gallup headquarters tells us

the news as it comes in minute by minute.

It's Sunday.

Daisy's taping the Top 40.

Pump up the volume.

Ah, 1988, my hard-working one.

Already? Wow. Time flies.

Now Rob and Steph are both working full-time,

they're using the very latest tools to bring the garden

up to the standards of their '80s show home.

One false move and your topiary's done for, isn't it?

While his parents are gardening,

Seth and his friend Harvey are off to the video shop.

Pre-recorded tapes were expensive to buy,

but the expenditure survey shows countless video rental entries.

Like this family from the south-east who spent £3.99 on renting videos.

-TV ARCHIVE:

-Britain has more video recorders

per head of population than any other country in the world.

The rise of the video shop left cinemas struggling,

as audiences dipped to their lowest levels ever in the mid-'80s.

-Ghostbusters?

-Seen it. Seen Indiana Jones. Seen that.

Karate Kid? Maybe not.

-Er. Crocodile Dundee.

-No.

Dirty Dancing! First dance, first love, the time of your life.

That is for girls. Flashdance? No!

-There's Top Gun.

-Yeah.

I've not seen that one yet.

Top Gun's good, yeah. What about Ferris Bueller's Day Off?

-Ah, that's supposed to be good. OK, let's go.

-Let's go play.

As the decade progresses,

the family are spending less and less time together.

In the '60s and '70s, we did gardening out here together.

But Seth's got other shiny distractions,

and Daisy's going off and doing her own thing.

I worry we're all going in that direction.

I'm not sure what will bring back together again.

It's almost like we're divorced from our children.

Which is sad, I don't like it. I miss them.

# I went to the danger zone... #

Instead of visiting the cinema like we did in the '50s,

Seth can now watch films back-to-back

in the comfort of his own home.

-I feel the need.

-ALL:

-The need for speed!

# Danger zone

# Highway to the danger zone. #

It's all the stuff we've been given.

what it seems to do is make my house smaller,

and push me further away from my family.

You're replacing emotion and feeling with plastic and whirring.

I think the '80s is much more about money,

and being able to buy things, as opposed to create our own happiness.

I feel materially richer, but I don't feel spiritually richer.

# I see! I see! I see! #

Away from home, as the '80s drew to a close,

a new youth counterculture emerged.

-RADIO:

-Party crew, listen up.

party crew, Fantasia girls and all the Saturday night party crew,

-listen up.

-Where is it, mate?

Now, you get to The Cross, at Junction 4, A506, that's A506.

Wait there for more info. Wait there. It's going to be a large one.

-Tell your mates.

-Tell our mates?

-Tell our mates. If we had any.

-How can we tell them without a mobile?

Growing out of the pirate radio scene,

acid house was a rejection of the brand-led consumerism of the '80s.

With illegal parties in deserted warehouses,

it was definitely not something to share with your parents.

This is what it's like to be a proper teenager.

Going out to raves, being rebellious and being cool.

We are not cool in any way. We sit on our phones all day.

Why don't we just do this? I really wish we did this.

# No, no. #

I want to go to a rave, like, right now.

It's 1989.

To celebrate the end of the decade,

the family are hosting a cocktail party.

The '80s saw a renaissance in cocktail making.

The more flamboyant, the better.

It's no longer a breakfast bar.

-Cocktail bar.

-Cool.

So, it's much more fun.

After Tom Cruise made bar keeping cool.

Oh!

How you mixed the drink was almost as important as what went in it.

-There it is, there's vodka.

-One measure of vodka.

Three-quarters of a measure of tequila.

-Quite an alcoholic one.

-Measure of tequila.

While Rob and Steph tend bar, Seth's found a job too.

-What are you playing?

-Paperboy.

-I used to play Paperboy.

-Is it good, Seth?

-No, it sucks.

-Watch the cat.

-That's a dog.

You should have gone on to the pavement then. There we go.

Oh! Yeah.

-Whoa!

-Oh, what!

-Uh. Game over.

-Yeah.

That looks like you could probably clean any stain off anything with.

-Shall we try them?

-You first, yeah?

-Straw each. So, this is a Blue Moon.

It tastes like something you'd clean a toilet with as well.

It's really nice. Do you not like that?

DOORBELL

Bonjour!

THEY CHATTER

Polly and I are back to find out

what the '80s has meant to the family.

I've just prepared a Harvey Wallbanger for you,

there we are, excellent.

And I accidentally put too much cucumber, so it's sunk.

The problem with that is there's too much cucumber in it?

I'll give it a go.

Oh!

So, how was the '80s from a kid's point of view?

-Good.

-Awesome.

-Enjoyable, lots of technology. Fun.

-Awesome, I loved it.

-Really, it's all that good?

-Yeah, I loved it.

I did my dad's hair, as you can see, it was lovely.

Raves. I dressed up like Madonna.

I was really Madonna-ing up and I really loved it.

The '80s is so cool, do whatever you want, and get away with it.

What was it like for you as a family?

We didn't spend a lot of time together.

Unlike the '70s where we were always together doing fun stuff,

in the '80s, this is all about have it all, a full-on lifestyle,

-and appearance being really, really important.

-Image, yeah, image.

Here's the lounge.

But no '80s bash would be complete without breaking out the karaoke.

# Don't leave me this way

# I can't survive... #

I'll be sorry to leave '80s television

because, for me, that was the best television ever.

Um. But the '80s, for me, was the time for just buying lots of stuff

that you don't need.

You had to have it, keep having it, have more, have the new one.

You don't need to do that.

-ALL:

-# Because I've had the time of my life

# And I've never felt this way before. #

I've got a full-time, meaningful job. I've got my own car.

'I am allowed to go out on my own with my friends.

'So, a bit more freedom. But it feels to me there is less leisure.'

And what there is, is compressed into quite a short amount of time.

SAXOPHONE MUSIC

Well, having it all is not all it seems.

They've had so much choice, so much more freedom, so much more to do.

And yet, at what cost to family life?

# Karma, karma, karma, karma, karma chameleon...

'In the '80s, it feels as though we're going off on separate paths.'

And we need a way to get us back together again.

# You come and go. #

# Don't tell my heart, my achy breaky heart

Next time...

# I just don't think he'd understand. #

..the Ashby Hawkins launch into the '90s.

Oh, my God! It's amazing!

A decade when technology gets personal.

THEY GASP

I've got a mobile!

One, two.

I'm going to put this in my bedroom.

-Can we get a photograph of you before you go?

-Yes! It's a Game Boy.

MUSIC: Sweet Dreams by Eurythmics

# Sweet dreams are made of this Who am I to disagree?

# I travel the world and the seven seas

# Everybody's looking for something. #