Housewives' Choice

Not so long ago housewives had good reason to be desperate. Not only did they have families to look after in an age of depression, war and austerity, but they did so without the consumer durables we now consider essential.

With humour firmly in its sights, Housewives' Choice explores the lives of British housewives from the 1920s to the 1950s. While Delia Smith teaches the nation how to cheat, why not learn to cook the old-fashioned way in Rabbit Pies (1934)? Ruby Grierson's They Also Serve (1940) honours the contribution to the war effort made by Britain's 'ordinary' housewives, and in Launder and Gilliatt's Partners in Crime (1942) greedy Mrs Wilson (the wonderful Irene Handl) discovers that buying black-market meat is very unpatriotic. In British Transport Films' A Day of One's Own (1955), women from across the UK take a rare moment of 'me' time and find a rest cure in Britain's galleries, cathedrals and countryside.

Highlights include...

Hints and Hobbies (no. 12) (1926)
Who needs an iron when you have a jam jar to hand?

Rabbit Pies (1934)
Bunnies beware - how to gut, dice and cook your rabbit.

How to Tell (1935)
A mother explains the birds and the bees with the aid of some pussy willow.

They Also Serve (1940)
Touching morale-booster celebrating the stalwarts of the Home Front.

Mr. English at Home (1940)
Mrs. English is the real star of the Colonial Film Unit's day-in-the-life portrait of a 'typical' family.

Partners in Crime (1942)
A stern reprimand to housewives meddling in the black market.

Homes for the People (1945)
Housewives of Britain offer a weary insight into the dire state of their homes.

By the Fireside (1945)
An idyllic fireside scene slips seamlessly into an advert for Maypole Tea.

It Always Rains on Sunday
Googie Withers plays an embittered housewife whose past catches up with her in this gripping noir thriller.

A Day of One's Own (1956)
At last, Mum gets a well-earned break from cooking, cleaning and kids.