The conventional view of 1930s Britain is of slag heaps, unemployed men hanging round street corners with nothing to do, hunger marches and economic depression. George Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier has set the tone for an era that is now seen in a predominant shade of grey. 

This is only part of the truth.  The 1930s for Britain was a period of transformation. While most of the world suffered from the depression, the UK was able to shrug off the worst effects, thanks to prudent management of the economy by the National Government and a degree of protectionism.   Areas of high unemployment remained, a stain on the conscience of the nation, but they were isolated from the general trend. 

For many, it was a time of rising prosperity. Consumption increased as new gadgets came on the market: everybody had to have a vacuum cleaner, a cooker and a fridge. Car ownership increased massively and, as leisure time grew, so did travel as people took holidays – many for the first time. Millions went to the cinema two or three times a week, and eating out became commonplace. To back up the increase in consumption new forms of credit emerged, with Hire Purchase the most popular (those who took advantage of HP, however, kept their borrowing a secret – it was still taboo to be in debt).  

Using interviews with people who remember the decade, this documentary for BBC4 will offer an alternative vision of Britain in the ’30s. It will show that, after the recovery from the slump that followed the crash of 1929, life was good for a large proportion of the country. It will celebrate the growing market for entertainment and consumer goods. It will show how a boom in housing transformed the lives of millions of slum dwellers, and how new towns grew up near centres of economic growth. And it will challenge the view that the period was one of national gloom and austerity.  

There has been a considerable amount of recent historical research that has shed new light on the period. Historians like Peter Scott, Richard Overy, Juliet Gardiner and Martin Pugh will underpin the film’s thesis, which will both surprise and cheer many viewers who have lived under the shadow of the bleak 1930s.

DIRECTOR: ALEXANDER LEITH

ASSISTANT PRODUCER: REBECCA BURRELL

CAMERA AND SOUND: COLIN SKINNER

PRODUCTION MANAGER: SUSIE GORDON

EDITOR: ANDREW MANSON