Good morning, we are winding up the year with something fun and frivolous for December. We are going through the Turn Back Time: The High Street series. I almost had a near panic believing that I had reviewed this series before, but when I flipped through the old blogs I saw that I did not. I merely had it listed in my suggested documentary list, so now it is time to give the series a proper review. This time the shopkeepers are going back to the Edwardian Period and they are joined by a dressmaker in this episode. The Edwardian age was characterized by etiquette, customer service, and refinement. Women were also speaking up for their right to vote. Shopping became an activity. The run time for this episode is 57:39.
The families are joined by staff to help them run their stores. The tearoom, the grocer, and the butcher have two extra members helping them out. The Devlins are in for a shock when they realize that the bakery has been turned into a tea room, so Caroline will have to bake cakes instead of bread. This poor family, did anyone actually teach them how to make cakes? Did they even get training on how to handle the ovens? The butchers are shocked to discover that they will have to hang game animals. The blacksmith is also in for a shock by running a penny bazaar. The penny bazaar would be equivalent to the modern dollar store. Simon is less than thrilled with the store. In the Victorian Age, he would have made his stock, but now with the Edwardian era, there was a shift in mass production. The Butcher’s son is bored two hours into a day in one. With the extra staff members on site, he is not able to help out in the shop as much as he would like. Mr. Sharp would like to show him that butcher He goes out in the street to drum up visits for the shop. I would have enjoyed hearing more of a conversation between the son and the two old ladies, who had experience in cooking animal game. At lunchtime, the tea shop is going to open. Caroline struggles to get to grips with baking cakes. Did someone even take the time to give her hints as to regulate the ovens? I think that would have been a big help to Caroline. The Sergison family is going to have an additional challenge in running the grocery store. A young couple is getting married and they want to have an Edwardian-themed wedding. The family works to research what those entail. The couple is feeling a bit shocked and overwhelmed with what the Edwardian expectations were. The blacksmith recruits the Baker’s son to help him in the shop because he wants to get back to the forge. He is feeling how far the blacksmith trade has declined in public perception. Judith makes a surprise trip to the tea room and is disappointed in what she found. What did she expect? Caroline does not have experience in baking cakes, maybe the producers should have helped the Devlin’s out with some additional training. By not helping them out, this series is rapidly going the way of American-based reality tv and going for the drama. There is a discussion on World War I and how the men went off to fight. In this series, the men went off and spent time away from the shops. The men talk about how they feel as if they were in the Edwardian men’s shoes. They also talk about how the war would have had an impact on the shops too, there were shortages of food. In comparison to the Turn Back Time The Family edition, I feel like someone had gone over what was expected of them in comparison to Turn Back Time The High Street. The Devlins were floundering and could have used better guidance. This show is showing how shopping has changed over the eras and how the high street changed. At the end of the episode, you get the feeling that the blacksmith is on his way out. I am sure there are better series on how shopping and shopping areas have changed over the years in comparison to this series. That said, I would rank this series higher than 24 Hours in the Past.
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The purpose of this blog is to share information on what can be used in a classroom, private school, or home school setting as well as serve as a portfolio of my personal and professional work. The reviews are my opinions and should be treated as such. I just want to provide a tool for teachers to select documentaries for their classrooms. |