In the tradition of earlier miniseries such as Edwardian Farm (VL-9/13), this five-part PBS-aired BBC series places a group of modern-day folk in replica housing from an earlier period—in this case an East London neighborhood remade to resemble a 19th-century slum—where they attempt to survive without outside assistance. The episodes are arranged chronologically by decade, beginning with the 1860s and continuing into the early 1900s, an arrangement that illustrates how the plight of the urban poor changed over time—sometimes for the worse when the economy took a nosedive but gradually improving as workers began to organize and the government initiated social-welfare programs. Nevertheless, the general impression conveyed is that of a positively Dickensian life of endless penury, toil, and struggle. Inevitably, there is an element of dress-up here (especially when participants interact with contemporary people), but the series does effectively bring home the drudgery of sweatshops, the prevalence of child labor, and the obstacles faced by immigrants, the disabled, and those injured on the job. Yet helping others also sometimes backfires, as in the case of a single mother who skips out on her debts, leaving neighbors and shop-owners in the lurch to come up with rent. The show also offers some unusual historical detail, such as the fact that the well-to-do actually paid for tours of slums to see how the other half lived, leading to the coining of the term “slumming.” Viewers are here essentially taking that very tour, fortunately without the lack of amenities suffered by those onscreen. Recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (F. Swietek)
Victorian Slum House
(2016) 2 discs. 300 min. DVD: $29.99 ($59.99 w/PPR). PBS Video. ISBN: 978-1-5317-0159-8. Volume 32, Issue 5
Victorian Slum House
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