New TV

If anyone is interested in the early 1950s, the new TV series "Call the Midwife" should be a corker. I have read the books it is based on & they are such a social comment of that time in in the UK

What books are they based on?

3 books by jennifer Worth.

Call the Midwife

Shadows of the Workhouse

Farewell to the Eastend

If you are interested in social history, they are superb

Just been doing some reading on the series, looks good and it has Miranda Hart in it as well, so a nice bonus.

Will keep an eye out for it on UKnova

Well the books had me in fits & from what I have read the author had a lot of input up until her death just before they filmed the last episodes I think it was.

Well watched the first episode & I was well impressed. How bad things were, even the early 1950s.

Excellent, I shall keep a beady one open for it appearing on uknova - thanks

Oooh - I missed that. Was it on BBC Pol? If so I'll look it up on iPlayer.

Mrs C x

Yes it was, may be repeated somewhere though.

But (to paraphrase what Adrian said elsewhere) let's hope Cameron doesn't use it as a template for the new leaner NHS!!!

Finally, managed to find,download and watch

Absolutely bloody brilliant!

I need to find the books.

Warning to those who have not been through childbirth. Book contains a lot of obstetric detail Not for the squeamish

New next week
The Wartime Farm with the usual presenters, really looking forward to that, will have to keep an eye out for the DVDs.

Oooh, thank you Pol - I caught sight of the end of a trailer but didn't know whan it was. Am ordering the book for my mum for Christmas - she was in the Land Army in Wiltshire, so it should bring back memories.

On on Thursday.

Watched first episode last night with great interest. My family sold their farm in 1942 partly because they could not see how they could make a living going from dairy to arable as the government wanted them to. The ground there was not good for growing things!

Handmade Revolution with the creepy Paul Martin.
On at tea time, Robin Wood was on yesterday. All about craft people & what they make. The best craft item gets displayed at the V&A. I really enjoyed it.

Have been meaning to say that I asked my Dad what he thought of "Wartime Farm" and he said he thought it was quite representative of how things were. He is enjoying it very much.

I've been enjoying the wartime farm, even the kids sat though it and seemed to get something out of it too. Handmade revolutions looks great, but I cannot find a copy yo download yet

Says a lot about Wartime Farm that it interests kids your age and they sit through it.

looking forward to next episode

It does indeed, we have a policy of putting something on for us and if the kids join us, then thats great - on Thanksgiving, we put on My Fair lady - our 7 year was entranced by it

The Wartime Farm has triggered off lots of memories for my mum, which is great, because we've had some animated conversations. Because she's housebound , she sometimes finds it hard to think of things to talk about as there's little input daily. I've heard a few stories I've never heard her tell before (such as the fact that when it rained, the men on the farm used to say 'More rain, more rest', and if the farmer heard them and said angrily 'What did you say?' they would answer 'We just said 'More rain, more grass''!!)

I've been enjoying Wartime Farm too, on the i player. I really hadn't realised the sacrifices the farmers had to make to the war effort.

I found the Handmade Revolution rather less enjoyable. I thought the series that Monty Don did was a lot more interesting. This new programme does seem to give a lot of different crafts some exposure, which has to be a good thing - but the emphasis seems to be very much on whether or not a craft can be a commercial success. Obviously that is important for anyone earning their living from their craft, but there are many, many people who make craftwork part of their everyday life (albeit at a lower level), but without earning a living from it. I would think that most of us HMLifers are in that category.

I also took exception to the 'judge' who failed miserably to conceal his dislike of the rag rug, saying it had 'gone a step too far' and he was 'a man of taste'.

I watched the Handmade Revolution programme with Robin Wood last night. I to was disappointed. A rather scrappy effort. Why does everything need to be a competition these days ? That's not really what heritage craft is about to me; it is about personally striving to make the best result I can, and enjoying it along the way. And of the 4 pieces we saw, we weren't really shown much of the people at work, or how they made the things. What we were shown was a decent clip of the presenter turning a bowl with Robin Wood; which, whilst interesting enough, did not fit particularly with the rest of the programme.

Mastercrafts was much better.

As for the slant of whether the crafts could be a commercial success ... the answer would appear to be a flat no. So a piece of glasswork which takes 10 days to make fetches a few hundred pounds. Once you've paid the (considerable) gas bill, tax, and other overheads, you're well below minimum wage, I reckon, even if your order book is always full.
This seems to be a fundamental problem; machine made stuff is so cheap that you need a very large premium for handmade goods, which only a few will pay. Of course, the other problem is that you're up against all the people (like some of us !) who do it just for pleasure and don't charge realistically. Although Robin Wood may have helped to rescue pole lathe bowl turning from obscurity, he is by no means alone now - according to the Woodsmith's Store, parts for pole lathes are selling so fast at the moment that it must be one of the country's fastest growing pastimes !

I do agree with the comments on the competition pieces, they are not as such what I would call hobby things. What interested me more was the little people with the everyday type things, like the rag rugs. The thing is if it encourages 1 person to give an everyday hobby a go, I think it is worth it.

Realistic charges are not an option. I tried that many years ago with machine knitted picture jumpers,. It did give me some money but not what the item was worth in either time or ability.