Living in the Past, Iron age reality (BBC, 1978)

[The Lawspeaker]

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Living in the Past, Iron age reality

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.

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.

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

[rhiannon]

Thank you for this. I just saw a Discovery Program last night about ten people who were sent out to the wilderness to live, quite literally, as our UP ancestors did some 10,000 years ago. It was probably not as well-done as I imagine this show to be, but overall, I found it fascinating.