Back in Time for the Factory – BBC2

Documentary in which a group of modern workers go back in time to learn what life was like for factory women in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s

Stepping back into the 1960s is nowhere near as fun as it sounds according to this series, presented by Alex Jones.

Twenty modern women volunteer to sample life as it would have been on the production line of a clothes factory in 1968.

Forget the Swinging Sixties, this is about doing a hard day’s work then going home to the cooking and housework.

Volunteers like Yasmin, Haifa and Ella throw themselves into their new roles with impressive gusto.

But they are pulled up short by the era’s inequalities – less-skilled men getting paid more.

'It absolutely floored me that a cutter could be paid more than a skilled machinist,' explains Maryjane Sullivan, 58, one of the women taking part in the experiment.

'Everybody should have been on equal pay but that wasn’t the case. I was furious about that.'

Meanwhile, 19-year-old Tamar gets a shock when she's given the job of factory receptionist…

The manual typewriter she has to use might as well be from outer space.

TV Times rating: *****