Living in the Past, Iron age reality .

[fishfish]

Living in the Past was a fly on the wall documentary programme aired by the BBC in 1978 which followed a group of 15 young volunteers recreating an Iron Age settlement, where they sustained themselves for a year, equipped only with the tools, crops and livestock that would have been available in Britain in the 2nd Century BC.
Produced at BBC Bristol by John Percival for BBC Two it consisted of twelve fifty minute episodes airing from 23 February to 11 May 1978. [1]
A follow-up programme aired in the same year Living in the Present discovered what the participants had thought of the experiment and how they were adjusting back to modern day living.

anyone know where we can find the original series?

In 2008, BBC Four's What Happened Next revisited participants in the original series thirty years on from their year living together.

http://youtu.be/zRs-zRoBIc4

 

[rik_uk3]

There is or was some of the series on youtube. It was broadcast around the same time as 'Survivors'.

 

[Elen Sentier]

I think Youtube is about it. I found some of them last year for the director of our Iron Age archeology project (digging our promontory fort). I couldn't find the whole series, tried emailing the BEEB but didn't get any sensible response. We followed the series when it first came out and I still remember bits of it. I've a couple of friends who work at the centre on Cranbourne Chase. If you'd like to speak with them, Fish, I can put you in touch ...

 

[xylaria]

That what happened next made me want to watch the original series as well. It also made me SO want to live like that for real, not a daft pipe dream live like that, proper live like that. The only modern thing they missed was wellys.

 

[crosslandkelly]

Knowing the BBC, they probably wiped the tapes as part of a cost cutting exercise. If the series still exists, then it would be best to contact BBC Bristol directly.

 

[Stew]

This reminds me that when i was a young kid, there was a little iron age village near to where I lived. I vaguely remember actually visiting it inside once but was too young to really grasp much of what it was about. It ended up being burned down by arsonists son they abandoned working on it.

 

[sandbender]

I remember the series, I was just a kid but enjoyed it tremendously, I'd certainly buy the DVD if one ever became available.

 

[MissJo]

I've been looking for this show for AGES, as it looks like it was the first of its kind.
It is at the top of a growing list of 'living history reality' tv shows;
https://historicalrealitytv.wordpress.com/2016/02/13/list-of-all-known-historical-reality-tv-shows/

If anyone knows where to find it, please let me know.