A Family At War - Series 1 [DVD]

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All these events take place against the backdrop of the political conflict leading to the Second World War, which will have a major impact on their lives. It’s the realistic touch, or the brilliant acting, or the interesting story, though probably all of them together. Liverpool 1938 is the starting point for this drama series depicting the World War II experiences of the fictional Ashtons, Jean and Edwin, and their five children.

It might be worth adding that the vast majority of the original audience will probably have first watched it in black and white.

This was to do with the direction that the series went for involving the family and character dramas, especially in the period setting of the Second World War. The closing theme and shot of the sandcastle on the beach with the tide coming in was very evocotive. The programme opening titles show a scene of a beach with a child's sand castle, with Union Flag flying, slowly being approached by the encroaching tide, symbolic of a beleaguered Britain standing alone in 1940–1941. People generally waited until their old set gave up the ghost before switching, and in those days sets could last a long time.

Margaret Stuart's compilation of her extraordinary family's experience of the First World War is based on copious contemporary articles, letters and photographs.Looking back, the quality of television output by both BBC and ITV at that time is staggering, a golden era indeed.

The latter is a hard businessman who appoints his son Tony as the new manager of the workplace, rather than the experienced Edwin. I was intrigued to find out what would happen to these two since their happy marriage was threatened by the declaration of war.

We protested that there were more of them, but as they pointed out, they all understood English almost perfectly. I remember sitting down to watch AFaW with my mother, expecting somethjng along the lines of a war film or something similar to the Colditz series about prisoners of war from the same period. Margaret, the eldest Ashton daughter, marries John Porter, but she has a troubled relationship with her mother-in-law Celia. My own, family fairly typical of a working class family of the era, didn’t get a colour set until 1975.