Back in Time for Dinner

A British family experiences 1950s life: a poky kitchen and a diet including dried eggs. The family's own home becomes their time machine and, in this first episode, travels back to 1950 - so it's goodbye open-plan living, hello formal dining room and poky kitchen with the most basic facilities. Guided by presenter Giles Coren, food historian Polly Russell and the National Food Survey (an extraordinary collection of food diaries from the last 50 years), the family can only consume the food of the period - cue a diet of dried eggs, national bread, dripping and liver. 'We've just eaten the grimmest meal I've ever tasted.' And taking on the roles of the period, it's mum doing all the cooking, while dad is banished to the hearthside with a pipe and slippers... The family mood is lightened by the end of rationing in 1954, heralding the consumer boom of the late 50s - Mary Berry sells them an electric oven on hire purchase (a job she actually used to do in the 1950s!) and mum discovers that, with all the new food, fads and gadgets on offer, cooking gets a lot more complicated...

In this second episode, the family and their home are transported to the space-age 60s, with a gleaming fitted kitchen and the arrival of a host of new tastes and flavours. Presenter Giles Coren and food historian Polly Russell use the national food survey, an extraordinary collection of food diaries, to guide the family's diet and introduce them to the culinary treats of the decade, from the first spaghetti bolognese to Chinese restaurants and the excitement of their very first TV dinner, an oh-so-glamorous Vesta meal. Hairy Biker Dave Myers delivers the family their long-awaited fridge, along with his memories of the transformative effect of the appliance on his own childhood. There's a family trip to the new-fangled self-service supermarket, and Giles discovers how chicken went from an expensive treat to an everyday staple.

The family and their home strut into the 70s, and culinary innovations come thick and fast. In this episode, the family and their home strut into the 70s. Mary Berry is on hand to help the family stock up their brand new chest freezer, and mum is liberated from the kitchen and gets a job for the first time, discovering how frozen and convenience food became a lifesaver for time-pressed working women. Giles meets the two hippies whose 70s adventures in health food spawned our national addiction to houmous, and the family go all Good Life and discover that milking a goat is nowhere near as simple as it looks. But the 70s wasn't all hippy food. Rapid developments in food technology see the culinary innovations come thick and fast, from powdered orange juice to Pot Noodle and boil-in-the-bag cod, while the birth of artificial-flavour technology sees the children's favourite crisps arrive just in time for their silver jubilee street party.