Turning back time

Following a recommendation I started watching the Turn back Time series on the BBC. As well as fitting in nicely with one of my university projects; looking through the website that accompanies it and some of the blogs, it is curious how this series is encouraging more people to shop locally.

The series follows a group of people who are swapping their normal trade shops to a whistle-stop tour through the shopping ages of Britain. They start off in the victorian times making and selling goods the Victorian way to a village that predominately shops at its local supermarket. Even though the participants in the programme already own bakeries, butchers etc in 2010; it documents very well the struggles they ensure throughout history and the difficulty of convincing a modern audience to buy handmade food.

Although the villagers in the programme are reluctant at first to shop in the local stores and are very critical of the produce available, it is curious how the online community who are watching the series are very keen to enhance this phenomenon and are filling the online world with talk of shopping at their local delicatesens etc.

The main interest of the programme appears to have come from the processes of baking and butchering etc. Although skeptical about the meat and the parts of the pig to be sold there is a large interested audience watching the butcher make sausages the traditional way. So although the world nowadays are obsessed with health food and value for money and this is coming through in their purchasing (or not purchasing) choices of traditionally prepared food; there is a great interest in the processes used and the lifestyle not just for the village on the programme but also demonstrated through the buzz of the online community. Is this the section of history people are interested in?

A way for history to come to life in a way people want to see it?