Episodes

6 episodes in this season

Cops

60 min

Fame

60 min

Now Playing

Women

60 min

Property

60 min

Teens

60 min

How TV Changed Britain

TV Series

20081h

Documentary

Now playing

Women

Season 1 · Episode 3 · Jun 15, 2008

There's a warm sense of superiority watching this archive show, as we gaze back on the hopelessly patronising image of women projected by postwar television, with wives as homemakers judged (in plummy male voiceovers) on how tasty their pies looked or how clean their whites were. Ah, how we chuckle at the follies of the past. But the feeling doesn't last long, because the images from recent TV of women being kneaded and bullied in shows like What Not to Wear and Ten Years Younger don't reflect too well on us, either. It's not hard to imagine a clip show of the future getting hold of Anthea Turner: Perfect Housewife and wondering what on earth we noughties viewers were thinking. The programme enjoyably charts the progression of women on TV via a series of heroines, including Elsie Tanner, the Liver Birds, Angela Rippon and Prime Suspect's Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren). It grossly maligns The Sweeney and skips over the 1980s altogether, but it's well worth it for the cracking clips.

More details

How TV Changed Britain

TV Series

20081h

Documentary

Now playing

Women

Season 1 · Episode 3 · Jun 15, 2008

More details