Living in the Past

Living in the Past was a fly on the wall documentary programme aired by the BBC in 1978 which followed a group of 15 young volunteers recreating an Iron Age settlement, where they sustained themselves for a year, equipped only with the tools, crops and livestock that would have been available in Britain in the 2nd Century BC. ^[1]

Produced at BBC Bristol by John Percival for BBC Two it consisted of twelve fifty minute episodes airing from 23 February to 11 May 1978. ^[1]

A follow-up programme aired in the same year Living in the Present discovered what the participants had thought of the experiment and how they were adjusting back to modern day living. ^[2]

In 2001 the BBC repeated the experiment with Surviving the Iron Age, which included three children of Living in the Past's volunteers.

In 2008, BBC Four's What Happened Next? revisited participants in the original series thirty years on from their year living together.

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