1x3 - Women

June 15, 2008

There's a warm sense of superiority watching this archive show, as we gaze back on the hopelessly patronising image of women projected by postwar television, with wives as homemakers judged (in plummy male voiceovers) on how tasty their pies looked or how clean their whites were. Ah, how we chuckle at the follies of the past. But the feeling doesn't last long, because the images from recent TV of women being kneaded and bullied in shows like What Not to Wear and Ten Years Younger don't reflect too well on us, either. It's not hard to imagine a clip show of the future getting hold of Anthea Turner: Perfect Housewife and wondering what on earth we noughties viewers were thinking. The programme enjoyably charts the progression of women on TV via a series of heroines, including Elsie Tanner, the Liver Birds, Angela Rippon and Prime Suspect's Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren). It grossly maligns The Sweeney and skips over the 1980s altogether, but it's well worth it for the cracking clips.