Edwardian Britain in Colour

PBS: Wednesday 20 & Thursday 21 December at 8.35pm

The world of our Edwardian ancestors was visually documented mainly in flickering, black-and-white images. Yet, just as we do today, those long-gone people lived their lives in full colour.

By the careful addition of colour to archive footage, this two-part documentary lends a vivid immediacy to historically distant events. From Queen Victoria’s state funeral in 1901 to that parallel world of workers eking out a living in mills, down mines and in metropolitan dock- lands and markets, or enjoying the novelty of leisure time at the seaside, a whole era is captured as never before.

Social historians and experts on the industries depicted, chart the changes afoot during this time, as the old order was challenged while war clouds gathered over Europe.