Wartime Farm: last night's telly

Ruth, Peter and Alex from Victorian Farm and Edwardian Farm are back, and they've taken another leap forward in time, this time to the years of the Second World War, so the programme is called (no surprise here) Wartime Farm. I very nearly missed it, but luckily Charly (Landgirl1980) mentioned on Twitter that it was on.

Another era means a new farm, this time in Hampshire, with the massively important ports of Portsmouth and Southampton on the coast, so right in the thick of the British war effort. This first programme saw the trio settling into Manor Farm and also getting to grips with life in the early part of the war, the 'Phony War'. Labour-saving devices came in, from paraffin stove to the electric iron to easy-to-clean lino, to free Ruth up for the war effort. Having seen the mountain of scrubbing and water carrying Ruth did on the Edwardian Farm, it's nice to see her getting a few more gadgets to help out. (I loved the kitchenette Ruth got; out kitchen here at Casa Mechanica is the same shade of yellow with very similar handles, and I picked it out precisely because I'd wanted a vintage-looking kitchen.) Pastures were turned over to arable. The team took on secret wartime duties. Alex wore more than one fabulous fair isle knit, which makes me wonder if I should have another go at persuading Mr Robot to consider a tank top.

I'd loved both the other ...Farm series, but had enjoyed the Victorian one more than the Edwardian, and had feared that things might be like the Supersizers, where I enjoyed the first show, Edwardian Supersize Me, had been happy with The Supersizers Go... and The Supersizers Eat..., where they did a different decade or era in each show, but had found the Good Life programme very shallow and not at all as much fun. Happily, it looks like Wartime Farm is going to be an excellent series. Will they get women's land army volunteers stationed with them, or have to take on some evacuees? Will some GI's arrive? I look forward to seeing how they get on in forthcoming episodes.

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