TVO program answers the question
By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com
A show on TVO, Ontario’s publicly-funded educational television station, is combining the topics of agriculture and life during the Second World War.
Wartime Farm re-enacts managing a British farm during World War II, when supplies may have been scarce and the threat of a Nazi bombing was looming.
The show may be on TV, but the characters aren’t necessarily actors. Historian Ruth Goodman, along with archaeologists Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn, immerse themselves by using period equipment, wearing period clothing and even dealing with army recruitment all while trying to run a farm.
“To avoid defeat, one battle would become more important than any other,” the narrator, John Simm, says as the first episode airs. “The battle to produce food.”
At the time, most of the food coming into Britain was imported and due to Nazi activity, farmers were under enormous pressure to try and double the amount of food produced.
Currently seven episodes are available for viewing:
Episode 1 – The team reclaim badlands to grow new crops
Episode 2 – The team faces the challenges associated with rationing and the threat of a Nazi raid
Episode 3 – Goodman, Langlands and Ginn celebrate Christmas in the 1940s
Episode 4 – The team realizes the government will repossess their house and land if they aren’t productive enough
Episode 5 – Hitler’s U-boats bombard British ships, cutting imports and creating major shortages across the country
Episode 6 – As tasks on the farm increase, the team turn to young children to help out on the farm
Episode 7 – Britain has been at war for five years and the fields are filling up with troops, making it increasingly difficult to farm