General Chat

They certainly seem to draw in the viewers George.

Emma :-)

My gran, and her 9 siblings were born in the Workhouse.
No, they weren't illegitimate - well, they were, but the father was around, in a goodish job - he was a ship's steward.
Gran called herself, and was known as 'Mrs P'

G gran was very canny.

She had her children in the Workhouse hospital because the doctor was free :-D

I remembered.

Emma :-)

I read that Felicity Kendal's family is featured. Looking forward to it :-D

Me too Lynda. :-)

Nudge

Nudging for tonights episode..... :-D

mine to andrew
the pickering workhouse in north yorkshire :-(

Watched this tonight and have to agree with lots of members who say celebs act up for the camera.
Brian Cox has to be the worst :-| the poor woman by his side looked a bit terrified when he spoke to her in his stern voice about the injustices of the workhouses.......for one brief moment I thought she was about to say 'it wasn't my fault honest' lol ...sheesh he looked annoyed :-S

imo I don't think the programme will have given us anything new to learn, but I was very surprised at Barbara Taylor Bradford's reactions! is it just me or did she not appear to know anything about workhouses? thought with her writing rags to riches stories she would have researched them.

Always sad to hear of the poor wretched folk who ended their days there, and often through no fault of their own.:-(

Mau, I thought exactly the same as you about Brian Cox! He really did give the poor woman a hard time.

I will be watching the second part with interest.

Yes i'll be watching second part next week. kandj

Lynda the look on her face :-0.....Brian Cox (in my mind) is 'my Thomas Cromwell' ....rough and ready ;-)

I really enjoyed this , I too agree with Brian Cox reaction poor women, talk about play for the camera I do hope he cringes when he watches it back... however very interesting I thought. Now Fern looked geninue to me . Cant wait for next weeks. And poor Barbra looked absoloutely clueless :-D

I wondered where Fern Britten had been living when she was surprised by Victorian attitudes.

Well would like to think that particular history will never be repeated Joan, of course governments are supposed to learn by mistakes....are they not? :-(......unfortunately some power crazed leaders in third world countries still exist in the dark ages and keep their people down. :-|

I was shocked when Fern learned that her ancestor Jesse Carter was sent for dissection because his family couldn't afford his burial.

I never knew they did this.

Really enjoyed it and looking forward to next week.

Hayley I agree - it was pretty darned cringe material.

But good TV lol

I think it was the cutting up of dead bodies Fern found hard to take, she did look really upset, well I would have been too if it had been one of my ancestors.

But then again that is why we have such clever surgeons today and people do, in this day and age, leave their bodies to Medical Research.

I watched tonight and enjoyed most of it. Brian Cox should be ashemed of himself, shouting like that at the person giving him the news. He seemed like a bully to me, it is a wonder that the poor woman didn't walk away and leave him to rant straight to camara.

I thought that BTB would know more about the workhouse systens too, but not all together surprised that her mother had kept it a secret.


The photos that Felicity saw of the papers that were being dissected was shocking.
I think that the info. without the photos would have been more acceptable, i.e. dissecting helped the cause of medical science. But seeing parts of human bodies (several of them) in a large room, especially when you could still see the faces of the dead, was quite shocking.

Looking forward to finding out what happened to BTB aunt and uncle, who had been born in the workhouse.

By the way, if I was a betting woman, I would bet that her grandmothers first two childern (Freda and Fred) had the same father, probably called Fred. I wonder wht happened to him.