Series Two
The second series, subtitled "To the Manor House", began transmission on CBBC on BBC One at 17:00, 17 January 2008. This time, the children were 'evacuated' to a posh country estate called Pradoe Hall, and learned about the difference in wartime social classes. The Lord and Lady lived upstairs, and the evacuees lived downstairs with the servants. In this series none of the adults were actors though they may have extended their everyday roles - the gamekeeper was actually the local shoot captain and the 'lord' merely a local country gentleman.
The children who were 'evacuated' to the manor house were:
- Nishith "Nish" Hegde
- Jack Smith
- Samir "Sam" Sayah
- Sean Williams
- Scott Dunstan
- Daniel Rushton
- Shaaron Somasanduram
- Olivia Barry
- Rachel Hardy
- Mary Ellen Jones
- Jade Hitchmough
- Annabella Jacobs
- Sade Philpotts (who only appeared in the final four episodes)
The adults were:
- Lord and Lady Olstead, who own the manor house
- Miss Young, the school teacher
- Mr. Henderson, the butler
- Mrs. Dobinson, the housekeeper
- Cook (never named on-screen)
- Mr. Goodall, the gamekeeper
- Miss Victoria, the kitchen hand
- Sergeant Rae
- Nurse Durkin
- Colonel Fanthorpe, of the Home Guard
- Mr. Lewis, the ARP Warden
- Mr. Jackson, the Fire Warden
- Mr. Pugh, the shepherd
- Mr. Ward, the farmer
In both series, the children lived exactly as wartime evacuees would have done: they ate 1940s food, attended 1940s school lessons, and – if they misbehaved – got a 1940s-style punishment. In the first episode of both series, the children had to hand over all of their 21st century items (mobile phones, iPods, jewellery, make-up, hair straighteners etc.) and these were only returned when they went home at the end of the series. They were all given 1940s-style haircuts, as well as clothing of the period – a school uniform, a Sunday best, pyjamas and work clothes – which they would wear over the next two weeks, and when outside had to carry gas masks and ID cards. The children had a go at wartime tasks and activities – such as building an Anderson shelter, pheasant-shooting, rounding up sheep, attending the village fete and disposing of an unexploded (replica) incendiary bomb to name but a few.
Even when the cameras weren't rolling, the adults still stayed in character and the children still behaved as evacuees.
Read more about this topic: Evacuation (TV Series)
Famous quotes containing the word series:
“Every man sees in his relatives, and especially in his cousins, a series of grotesque caricatures of himself.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“Depression moods lead, almost invariably, to accidents. But, when they occur, our mood changes again, since the accident shows we can draw the world in our wake, and that we still retain some degree of power even when our spirits are low. A series of accidents creates a positively light-hearted state, out of consideration for this strange power.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)