In the final Time Crashers episode, our time travelers are heading back to the Iron Age.  They will have to start a fire, prepare chickens, and construct a wicker man.  How will our celebrities handle life in the Iron Age?  The run time for this episode is 46:23.

The Time Crashers are shocked to find themselves in the Iron Age.  It is AD 43 and Rome has just conquered the southern half of England.  They are poised to take over more and more of England.  However, they have not reached where the Time Crashers are camped.  Kristie immediately says that she does not know about the time.  She is ready to try it.

They gather at the fire pit and look at the Time Crashers’ guide.  They will eat, cook, and sleep in the roundhouses.  They learn that they are members of a Celtic tribe.  The first job for the Time Crashers is the election of the tribe leaders.  They will pick one man and one woman to lead the tribe.  Meg and Greg are elected as tribe leaders based on their efforts in previous time crashes.  The Time Crashers are going to put on the feast later.  Everyone looks forward to putting their new skills to work.

Germaine and Louise are in charge of lighting the fire, which will prove to be a challenge for the pair.  Once the fire is lit they will need something to cook.  Kristie and Keith look at the food stores to see what they have.  Fern and Charlie are tasked to prepare the meat.  Fern is confident to pluck it but not to gut it.  They look at the deer that is provided, which will prove to be a bigger challenge for the pair.  They look for a knife to start skinning the deer.  What will they have to use to gut the deer?

Chris explores the outskirts of the camp and discovers a person working with iron and they go to him to resolve their skinning a deer problem.  Back at the fire making, Germaine is still struggling with trying to make the fire.  However, they do not know what they need to do when there is smoke.  However, Greg solves the problem by getting embers from the blacksmith.  The fire is started and now the Time Crashers have heat.  He felt like a failure for not getting the fire going.

There is fire but no food, and Fern works to pluck a chicken.  However, the problem is gutting the chicken.  Chris and Charlie work on the knife with a bone handle at the Forge.  They will have to skin the deer and give the pelt to the blacksmith for payment.  Keeping your word was important In the Iron Age.  If a person did not keep their word, then there could be conflict.

The people are getting restless.  The food is not ready.  Keith jokes that he may ask for reelection if things go up.  It will be a tough day for the Time Crashers.  They will have to come together to put together the feast.  Fern has disappeared from the fire.  Meg goes out to track her down.  However, living in the Iron Age has proven too much for Fern’s pluck and tenacity.  She has learned a lot about herself by living over Time Periods.  I am sorely disappointed in Fern for leaving the show early.  The Time Crashers come together to talk about Fern’s departure. 

After dinner, the Time Crashers go to sleep in the round houses.  The women take charge of the fire and take turns throughout the night.  The next morning is wet and raining.  It may be a challenge to keep morale up during these conditions.  They wake up and work on the morning tasks in order to prepare for the feast.  Will they be able to complete their tasks in time for the feast?  Will any of the other Time Crashers drop out?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more.

What was the purpose of the social historian again?  With all his experience, Tony could have handled this episode on his own.  It was an interesting episode to see how the celebrities handled the Iron Age.  This would be an interesting episode to show to a history class.

Good morning the Time Crashers are transported to the Georgian Period and to a farm.  How will the Time Crashers handle what the farm must throw at them?  The run time for this episode is 49:37.

The year is 1796.  King George is on the throne and he loves farming.  Wealthy landowners are building their farms to follow the king.  The Time Crashers are transported to one of these farms.  Kristie is immediately displeased at being in the kitchen once again.  The Time Crashers immediately dive into their guides.  The first pair that discover their Georgian roles is Charlie and Greg.  They are farm hands and they fill take orders from the Bailiff.  Louise and Kristie are kitchen maids.  Meg and Fern are dairymaids.  Keith, Chris, and Germaine are shepherds.  Zoe will be working in the kitchen.

The Time Crashers have eight hours to make the farmhouse immaculate.  The farm owner the Viscount and Viscountess are making their way to the farm for their inspection.  The dairymaids will have to show off the produce of the farm while the kitchen maids will have to make food for the visit.  The farm inspection was important because it showed off their wealth to their friends.  They were showing off the ideal farm.

Fern and Meg are going to milk the goats and make cutters.  Kristie and Louise are going to make bread as well as biscuits and cake.  Fern, Meg, Kristie, and Louise will be answering the bailiff’s wife.  The first step is milking.  However, milking the goat is proving to be a challenge.  If the girls do not get enough milk, they will not have enough to make cheese to impress the viscount.  Louise struggles to get the oven started with the tinderbox.  Kristie has no problems getting the oven lit.  They work to get the bread made.

Greg and Charlie are working in the mill and making flour.  The model farm would have a mill on sight.  Making flour was one way to show off the progress of the new model farm.  While Greg and Charlie are enjoying life in the mill, Keith, Chris, and Germaine are finding shepherding difficult.  Chris is butting heads with the bailiff.  The boys fail at their task and the bailiff must step in.

Fern and Louise work on making the goat’s cheese.  The Bailiff’s wife is glad to see that the cheese is being made.  Kristie oversees the meal for the farm hands.  Louise is struggling to get the bread made.  Louise jokes that she and Kristie are the only two of the Time Crashers that have never made bread.  The oven is very hot.  The Georgian ovens were so hot that they burned the dresses of the kitchen maids.  It was reported that a woman had burned to death.

The shepherds work on getting the sheep clean.  Chris wants to redeem himself with the bailiff.  However, he is a man that takes his cleanliness very seriously.  Chris has a go with clipping the dirt off a sheep.  Greg and Charlie work to coax the pig out of the pen to wash the pig up to a comedic effect.

Zoe returns to the Time Crashers.  Everyone is thrilled that Zoe is back.  She had been sacked from the previous episode.  She returns to work in the kitchens once again.  She sets to work grating sugar.  Zoe is having a hard time.  Fern and Meg are not having any luck with the butter.  The bailiff’s wife inspects their progress and tells the ladies that they had filled the butter church too much.  Louise is having a challenge making bread.  Kristie inspects the bread and discovers that the oven was not hot enough to make the bread. 

Will the Time Crashers clean up the farm in time to pass inspection?  Will Louise be able to make the perfect loaf of bread?  Will Fern and Meg manage to make butter in time?  Will the farm hands pass the inspection?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more about the Georgian Farm and the Time Crashers.

This episode was particularly good because of the idea of the rich gentleman farmer.  This would be one episode to show for a fun history day.

Good morning and the Time Crashers are transported to 1913 and an Edwardian house party.  How will the celebrities handle Edwardian Etiquette?  Will it be like Downton Abbey?  Or will the Time Crashers be in for a rude awakening?  The run time for this episode is 46:12.

This time the Time Crashers are servants serving in a country house.  The boys are immediately disappointed to discover they are servants.  It is 1913 and World War I is just around the corner.  The elite are throwing up one last hurrah before the war and everything changes.  The Time Crashers are going to be preparing for a weekend shooting party.  Shooting parties demonstrated wealth and status.  Edwardians got together for a weekend of hunting, socializing, and showing off.

Each of the Time Crashers has a different status and each has a different guide to help them navigate the world.  Bottom of the pile is Zoe Smith and Olympian Greg Rutherford.  The downstairs staff is immediately greeted by the housekeeper and she oversees reviewing the rules and training for staff.  The housekeeper could sack a staff member with no reference.  I enjoyed seeing her thoughts on the staff.  From the looks of it, she will be commenting on the staff throughout the episode.

Kristie Alley and Keith Allen have more senior roles.  However, they still run afoul of the butler.  The butler was the highest-ranking member of staff.  He expects obedience and working to the highest standards.  Keith is the valet and Kristie is the ladies’ maid.  Both have a giggle over their guides. 

The staff members turn in for the night and wonder how they are going to handle their lives as Edwardian servants.  They wake up in the morning.  Greg is already at work clearing the chamber pots.  Greg wants to do a good job as the hall boy.  Zoe struggles with the morning routine and begins struggling with the work.  The housekeeper is not happy with Zoe’s efforts.  The footmen start preening in the morning.  Footmen were hired for their good looks and footmen, and the taller the better.

The hierarchy was strictly observed in the Edwardian household.  The housekeeper reminds them of the rules of the house.  The servants were to be addressed as William or Jane.  The servants were to be invisible as well.  Staff worked 80 hours per week with half a day off.  They got their news while ironing the masters’ newspapers.  After breakfast, everyone sets off to work.

The footmen are setting up a tent for an outdoor dinner.  However, setting up the tent and the table is going slowly for the men.  The tent is a bit of a challenge to put up.  Inside the maids are cleaning the house and prepare the reception rooms.  The maids are finding the corsets difficult to work in.  Fern struggles with keeping things cleaned up.  The housekeeper interrupts them to remind them that they needed to clean in silence.  Zoe refuses to pluck pheasants and is immediately dismissed without a reference.  The maids look at Zoe’s leaving and comment on it.  Being dismissed without a reference means she would never be able to find work again.

The work is done, and the servants are ready for the party.  The ladies serve tea to the mistress of the house and that does not go well.  Fern gets a ticking off.  The footmen are busy serving the shooting party outside.  How will the famous people handle life as Edwardian servants?  Will the shooting party go well?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out about life in the Edwardian period.

After watching Manor House, I wondered how actors and famous people would handle the life of Edwardians.  It was not surprising to see them feeling overwhelmed by the experience.  The only person that was missing from this episode was Mr. Edgar, the butler from Edwardian Country House.  I would have enjoyed watching him handle those celebrities.  I also enjoy hearing the reflections everyone had on their experiences.  Overall it was a fairly good episode of the Time Crashers and one that could have been a little bit longer.  This would be one episode to show in the history classroom for a fun and frivolous day.

Good morning, the Time Crashers are going to take part in a Medieval Jousting Tournament.  The run time for this episode is 46:17.

The year is 1468 and it was a year of peace in England.  It was one of the few years of the Wars of the Roses that did not have fighting in it.  The Time Crashers find themselves in Derbyshire and at a jousting tournament.  They are squires serving the knights.  The ten Time Crashers are divided into two teams: Red and Black.  They are competing with each other to prepare the knight for the tournament.  The tournament allowed knights to practice their war games.  War games were not a sporting spectacle.  It was a way for young men to flex their muscles.  Even the King participated in these tournaments. 

Keith Allen takes charge of the Red team and reads out the Time Crashers’ guide.  It is here that they learn they will compete for the Black Team.  Chris Ramsey of the Black Team sizes up the competition.  Being a squire was a man’s job.  So women are going to be considered as men for this period.  Kristie Alley is delighted that she is in a masculine role because her status would have been raised. 

The team meets up with the men who will be in charge of them.  The boss will make sure that everything is followed.  The Blacks and the Reds compete with each other, and the team that wins the competition will be treated to a feast.  The losers get nothing.  The Time Crashers then meet up with the Knight.  The Time Team signs the indentures.  Germaine is taking his new role seriously.  Kristie is liking the period.  1468 would have given the people a chance to lift their lot.

The squires’ work is at the heart of the Knight’s success.  It was not just the joust itself that determined the winner.  How the knight behaved.  How the people beneath the knight behaved.  How clean the armor was.  How the knight looked on his horse.  There were plenty of factors that determined the winner of the joust. 

The Reds immediately set to work.  The Time Crashers will have five hours to prepare the knight.  They are preparing the lance and it is twelve feet long.  The blacks are struggling to divide up the jobs.  Louise and Fern will work with the horses and it is here that Louise takes charge.  Germaine will work with the knight’s kit. 

Kristie works on the knight’s shield and she is trying to match the Knight’s crest.  The Reds are coming together well.  They each have a different set of skills and are voicing their concerns when necessary.  The Blacks are working on polishing the knight’s armor.  The boys chat about the life of a squire and the knight.  Louise and Fern are at loggerheads over cleaning the horse.

Time continues to go on.  However, there is a concern in the camp that the knight is not well enough to take part in the joust.  One of the men will have to take the jar of urine to the barber-surgeon.  Barber surgeons cut hair, pulled teeth, and cut off limbs.  Urine played an important role in determining health.  The barber-surgeon determined that the knight is well enough to fight.  The Red team works on cleaning the horse.  Kristie is in her element cleaning the horse.  Keith and Greg take the Red Knight’s armor in for maintenance. 

The Time Crashers worked through the morning without eating and they come to eat.  Eating was a communal affair.  Knights and Squires lived by a strict code.  Keith goes off to find fruit for the vegetarian on the team.  However, the theft did not go unnoticed and Keith is told off by the knight.  Meg enjoys her ill-gotten fruit.  Knights and squires were required to live by the code of chivalry.  In two hours the joust will begin.  The reds have raced ahead while the Blacks have fallen behind.  Will the Blacks manage to catch up?  Who will win the tournament?  Which team will emerge victorious?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more.

This was a fascinating look at knights and tournaments.  It was good to look at the life of squires.  This would be a good episode to show in the classroom.

To kick off the summer, we are going to explore Time Crashers.  Time Crashers is a history meets reality TV series hosted by Tony Robinson.  Ten celebrities go back in time to explore six different periods of British history.  The different periods include the Elizabethan Era, the 1460’s, 1913, the Georgian Era, the Victorian Era, and the Iron Age.  The ten celebrities are Keith Allen, Kristie Alley, Fern Britton, Charlie Condou, Meg Mathews, Jermaine Jenas, Louise Minchin, Chris Ramsey, Greg Rutherford, and Zoe Smith.  Can they survive what history has to throw at them?

In this first episode of Time Crashers, the ten celebrities go back and experience life as servants in the Elizabethan Era.  This episode has a run time of 46:31.

The scene for this first-time crash is Haddon Hall.  It was one of the greatest houses in English History.  Kristie Alley finds herself in the kitchen.  Greg Rutherford finds himself sitting in a cart with dead chickens.  They are joined by Charlie Condou, Fern Britton, and Zoe Smith.  It is 1588 and the height of Elizabethan England.  The elite are building grand manor houses and to run those houses they needed servants.  The Time Crashers are given a guide as to how to live in the 1588s.  The Time Crashers are servants in the kitchen.  Kristie gets told off for eating an apple.  The staff will produce a Tudor Feast.  Tudor Feasts were expensive with a variety of different meats.  These feasts were to show off the wealth of the manor owner.  It would have taken weeks of planning and would have had 100 different dishes.

The second group of Time Crashers arrives at the manor: and they are Keith Allen, Louise Minchin, Meg Matthews, Jermaine Jenas, and Chris Ramsey.  This group will be household servants and they are allowed to be upstairs.  This position would have been of respect.  Tony Robinson and Cassie Newland are keeping an eye on things.  The household steward and head cook will keep an eye on the servants and will reward them or punish them according to the standards of the day.

Fern and Zoe’s first task is to strip a boar’s head and stuff it.  Zoe is finding that task a challenge.  Meg and Louise are going to wash the lady of the house’s clothing and will be using urine to wash the clothes.  Urine was used for cleaning because it contained ammonia.  Meg and Louise are shocked at what they are using to wash the clothing.

Tony talks with Cassie about the novelty of women servants.  Women were employed as servants for the first time and they were paid much less than men.  So the nobility would have wanted to hide them because they did not want people to know that they were hiring cheap labor.  Fern takes the lead in working on the boar’s head.  Zoe is still feeling squeamish about the head.  Kristie helps Fern with the boar’s head. 

The feast will take place in the great hall, where the master showed off his wealth.  Only the most trusted servants would have prepared the hall.  The household steward gives the household staff a lesson in manners, etiquette, and deference.  Chris is finding the instruction challenge.  Tony and Cassie talk about the etiquette books of the day and the rules that were involved.

The Lord and the Lady arrive and the household servants are confused as to where to stand.  The house steward is not impressed with their manners.  Kristie and Fern are working on sewing the boars in order to stuff the boars’ heads.  The pair manage to break the only needle that is strong enough to sew the head together.  Boars head is official off the table.  What will the kitchen serve? 

How will the Time Crashers handle life as Elizabethan Servants?  How will the Kitchen staff cope with the tasks?  Will the household staff learn their manners and etiquette?  Will there be a rebellion among the kitchen and household staff?  Who will rise to the challenge of being an Elizabethan Servant?  Who will crash and burn?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out.

This was a series on my list of reality-based history to show, especially since it was hosted by the delightful Tony Robinson.  It was cool to see how celebrities handle living in a different historical period.  Time Crashers would be something fun to show in a classroom, not something for serious research nor serious watching.