Tales from the Green Valley

That'll Teach 'Em

November 2024 •English

That'll Teach 'Em is a British reality television documentary series produced by Twenty Twenty Television for the Channel 4 network in the United Kingdom. Each series follows around 30 teenage students as they are taken back to a 1950s/1960s style British boarding school. The show sets out to analyse whether the standards that were integral to the school life of the time helped to produce better exam results, to the current GCSE results and to compare certain contemporary educational methods with modern ones. As part of the experience, the participants are expected to board at a traditional school house, abiding by strict discipline, adopting to 1950s diet and following a strict uniform dress code. After four weeks, the students then take their final exams, produced to the same standard as contemporary GCE O Levels. There were three series of the show, the first airing in 2003, the second in 2004 and the third and final series in 2006.

Texas Ranch House

November 2024 •English

Texas Ranch House is an PBS American reality television series that premiered in May 2006. Produced by Thirteen/WNET New York, Wall to Wall Media Limited, and PBS, the show placed fifteen modern day people in the context of 1867 Texas. Show participants attempted to run a ranch for two and a-half months using 19th century tools and techniques. The historian Alwyn Barr, professor emeritus at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, was the consultant on the program.

Troca de Família

November 2024 •Portuguese

MTV's The 70s House

November 2024 •English

MTV's The 70s House is an American reality television show created by Aaron Matthew Lee. The show premiered on MTV on July 5 and ended September 6, 2005. The show featured twelve contestants who thought they were participating in a The Real World-type reality show, but instead were thrust into a 24/7 simulation of the 1970s. They were required to part with all modern technology including cell phones, laptops, and MP3 players, as well as all modern clothing and lingo, only to adopt their cultural equivalents of the 1970s. It was billed as a competition to see who can "be the most 70s." The twelve contestants were: Andrew Severyn, Ashley McCarthy, Corey Hartwyk, Geo Herrera, Hailley Howard, Jami Stallings, Joey Mendicino, Lynda Khristine, Lee Wireman, Peter, Ruben, and Sarah Bray.

The Edwardian Country House

November 2024 •English

An Edwardian Country House in Scotland is to be brought back to life. One family will take on the mantle of privilege and 12 individuals the yoke of service. For the next three months they've volunteered to immerse themselves in a world of social inequality and rigid class distinctions as they move through time from 1905 to 1914. Everything is quintessentially British: a magnificent house and boating lake, model dairy and tea room, croquet and tennis in the garden, a stable full of horses and carriages - and a group of people utterly divided and ruled by class.

La grande traversée

November 2024 •French

Aboard a replica of an 18th century ship, ten participants set sail from the port of La Rochelle, France. Their destination: Quebec City. Dressed in period attire, fed the typical fare, and obliged to travel as their ancestors once did.

Electric Dreams

November 2024 •English

A family of six and their home are stripped of all their modern technology to live a life of decades past. In each episode, the family lives through a given decade at a rate of a year per day. They have their own Technical Support Team to source and supply them with the vintage technology that would have been available to British households during the decade.

Edwardian Farm

November 2024 •English

Edwardian Farm is an historical documentary TV series in twelve parts, first shown on BBC Two from November 2010 to January 2011. It depicts a group of historians trying to run a farm like it was done during the Edwardian era. It was made for the BBC by independent production company Lion Television and filmed at Morwellham Quay, an historic quay in Devon. The farming team was historian Ruth Goodman and archaeologists Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn. The series was devised and produced by David Upshal and directed by Stuart Elliott. The series is a development from two previous series Victorian Farm and Victorian Pharmacy which were among BBC Two's biggest hits of 2009 and 2010, garnering audiences of up to 3.8 million per episode. The series was followed by Wartime Farm in September 2012, featuring the same team but this time in Hampshire on Manor Farm, living a full calendar year as wartime farmers. An associated book by Goodman, Langlands, and Ginn, also titled Edwardian Farm, was published in 2010 by BBC Books. The series was also published on DVD, available in various regional formats.

Time Crashers

November 2024 •English

Ten celebrities are about to leave their 21st century lives and everything they know behind to become time travellers. Our ten intrepid travellers will crash into six very different eras of British history and have no idea where – or when – they're going. They will spend a day immersed in each era, living, working, dressing and eating as the ‘lower' classes did whilst attempting to follow orders and fulfil a task set by their superiors. Will they be able to survive history and will they be able to leave their smartphones behind?

Liberty!

November 2024 •English

Dramatic documentary about the birth of the American Republic and the struggle of a loosely connected group of states to become a nation.

The American West

November 2024 •English

From the Executive Producer Robert Redford, THE AMERICAN WEST tells the story of the aftermath of the CIVIL WAR and how the United States transformed into the “land of opportunity" spanning the years 1865 to 1890. Transporting into the violent world of cowboys, Indians, outlaws and law men, the story chronicles the personal, little-known stories of Western legends such as Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. The series features exclusive interviews with notable names from classic Western films, including Robert Redford, James Caan, Burt Reynolds, Tom Selleck, Kiefer Sutherland, Mark Harmon, Ed Harris and more.

The 1900 House

November 2024 •English

The 1900 House is a historical reality television programme made by Wall to Wall/Channel 4 in 1999. The show is about a modern family that tries to the live in the way of the late Victorians in 1900 for three months in a modified house. It was shown on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom and PBS in America. The series was accompanied by a book titled 1900 House: Featuring Extracts from the Personal Diaries of Joyce and Paul Bowler and Their Family by Mark McCrum and Matthew Sturgis.

The Machines That Built America

November 2024 •English

The stories behind innovations such as TV, radio, phones, airplanes, motorcycles and power tools as well as the inventors including Nikola Tesla, William Harley, Alexander Graham Bell, Duncan Black and Alonzo Decker.

Quest for the Bay

November 2024 •English

Quest for the Bay was a Canadian documentary television series which aired on History Television and the Public Broadcasting Service in 2002. It is the second entry of producer Jamie Brown's "Quest series", which includes Pioneer Quest: A Year in the Real West, Klondike: The Quest for Gold, and Quest for the Sea. Frank and Alana Logie, a couple who had previously participated in Pioneer Quest, made a cameo appearance during the first episode. It was the highest-rated program on History Television in 2002 and received favourable reviews from newspapers -- most notably, the Edmonton Journal. RoseAnna Schick, the sole female crew member, wrote a personal account of the journey for Manitoba History later that year. The five-part series was produced by Winnipeg-based Frantic Films and was filmed during the summer of 2001. It followed an eight-person volunteer team as they attempted to recreate the journey made by fur traders of the Hudson's Bay Company during the 1840s by travelling from Winnipeg to Hudson Bay. The trip covered a distance of 800 miles and took the team though the heart of the Canadian wilderness. The crew members possessed only equipment used during the period, down to their food and clothing, and included a replica of a 40-foot wooden York Boat.

The French Revolution

November 2024 •French

This is the “embedded” French Revolution that we want to share: an exceptional, immersive experience seen through cameras that dive into the heart of history, following its every jolt. It's the story of the fall of the world's most glorious, most powerful ad most ancient monarchy.

Coal House

November 2024 •English

Coal House is a Welsh television series made by Indus Films for BBC Wales, and broadcast on BBC One Wales, with a subsequent UK wide repeat of both series on BBC Four. Series 1 was set in the depressed economic coalfields of 1927, while Series 2 was set in 1944 as World War II draws to a close. Series 2 was broadcast on BBC across the UK from October 2009

Hugh’s Vlog

November 2024 •English

Documents the progress of RedBlue, a video technology startup, as well as the daily life of its founder, Hugh Guiney.

Le lot du diable

November 2024 •French

Fais un homme de toi

November 2024 •French

The Ship

November 2024 •English

The Ship: Retracing Cook's Endeavour Voyage is a documentary film about a 21st-century voluntary crew on a six-week journey from the east coast of Australia to Jakarta, Indonesia retracing the famous voyage of Lieutenant James Cook aboard a replica of HM Bark Endeavour. The 55 men and women on board - among them the director, producer & cameraman Chris Terrill - came from several different countries and nationalities. The crew traced Cook's footsteps from one historical landmark to another. All of the volunteers lived and worked as 18th century sailors, but were not required to wear period costumes. The Ship had some modern conveniences: a satellite phone for emergencies, and a flush toilet in the lower deck for use while sailing in the Great Barrier Reef. The show originally aired on the BBC from 20 August to 24 September 2002. The trip was filmed a year earlier and the episode where the crew were informed of the 9/11 attacks was shown on 10 September 2002.