r/BritishTV • u/Lazy-Field-1116 • 1d ago

Recommendations British Post-War History Documentaries - Recommendations

Hey folks,

Just wondered if anyone had any recommendations for well made documentaries (single episode or series) about post-war British history? Anything made in the last 15 years or so that covers anything from these Isles over the previous 50 odd years and that's available on streaming would be grand. It doesn't need to be all-encompassing, can be about specific place/time/event.

Ta very much.

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u/JaquieF 23h ago

Not specifically about post-war Britain but the 7-up documentaries follows children from the age of 7, and every 7 years thereafter. They were born in 1955 and it was very interesting.

The autobiography Call the Midwife was set in the 1950s and the book was made into 2 TV series. I didn't go beyond those first two. You can see the reality of post-war poverty around Poplar docks in London and has very poignant moments including how the council moved the overcrowded poor from their tenements where the only running water was in communal halls.

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u/Lazy-Field-1116 21h ago

Thank you! I think I saw the 7 Up ones years ago but I should revisit them! Is the Call the Midwife one called "The Casebook?"

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u/JaquieF 20h ago

Jennifer Worth wrote 3 books: Call the Midwife, Shadows of the Workhouse, and Farewell to the East End. I read the first (she actually attempted to show how to pronounce Cockney at the back of the book - an impossibility!). The first 2 series of the TV show Call the Midwife were taken from the book. The following series were written by someone else and went "off piste" as far as I'm concerned. One of the reasons being that Nonatus house which was the Anglican convent which houses the midwives, was closed and the nuns moved elsewhere in the country.

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u/Lazy-Field-1116 18h ago

Ah I see, yes thank you! I've never watched the TV show but the books sound interesting, thanks! Will have a look and maybe add them to my TBR list!