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The Victorian Slum 9 Oclock Bb2

Hi Lyn, I'm in the UK right now and saw a few snippets of what was to be expected from Victorian Slum. Being a railway buff, I noticed that the train featured was being pulled a standard class locomotive, not produced until the advent of British Railways. I hope I was mistaken...

Dave A
 
hi dave not knowing much about trains i must admit i dont know...quite enjoyed the programme though

lyn
 
It was interesting. Did the children really have nothing to eat all day? If so, how safe or ethical was that?
The man with the amputated leg was really brave to use a "Victorian" one. And the man who did his back in....
 
Astoness said:
hi dave not knowing much about trains i must admit i dont know...quite enjoyed the programme though

lyn
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Well after watching the initial episode, I realize that it wasn't what I thought it was going to be...a Victorian slum saga. It was more like a Victorian reality show, so my comment regarding the train is void. I did not enjoy the show as it was presented as I was expecting something quite different. It's a good job really, as I'm back to Canada tomorrow and would have hated to have to leave a show behind that I really enjoyed, like I have on many previous occasions.

Dave A
 
The first programme does show how difficult it would have been for the genuine working poor to rise to any elevated status just by hard work. If you take may of the entrepreneurs, for example Kynoch and Tangye in Birmingham, and many others in the Black Country, you can see that they had a big head's start by a basic education when young.

I hope that the series portrays that there are people living a good life who are exploiting these working poor. This may just have been touched on by the mention of absentee landlords.
 
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The arrival of the Irish brother and sister (who was wearing false eyelashes!!) was interesting. My grandfather and family came over in 1900, and already had relatives in Birmingham who had come over before, so I assume had work to go to. In the programme, the pair arrived with no money at all, so had to find some work immediately. What a frightening situation.

The man who's using a walking stick (Graham?) looks very authentic.
 
Was surprised to find Carl Chinn turning up in the program. Wasn't expecting a Brummie to appear
 
According to wikipedia he was a banker and then wanted to go into psychiatry, and then soon gave that up, so his real medical knowledge, as opposed to his knowledge of the mystical (or should it be imaginary) world of psychiatry is very small. You will realise I have a pretty poor opinion of psychiatrists, as opposed to those trained to talk and council
 
I didn't realise that, Mike. He does some rather odd programmes (like the tapeworm one), but I'd assumed he was a GP who'd become a media doctor.
 
One thing that was briefly mentioned in the fourth part was the absentee landlords, who put profit above the condition of their premises. They were allowed to remain anonymous and included aristocracy, landowners, councillors and the Church of England.

I wonder how many Birmingham streets are named after some of those involved?
 
Not too different to some today, except they are now not all aristocracy, but less privileged, who are still only interested in making a quick buck
 
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