Tonight, a group of 15 volunteers will be transported back to Victorian England and spend three weeks living and working in a recreation of the Old Nichol slum in London’s East End. All the members of the group are between ages 10 and 59, and all will struggle to acclimate to this new, or rather old, world.
Thirteen.org writes, “If you like the idea of reality shows but just can’t get with all the screaming, duplicity, and bad plastic surgery, Victorian Slum House will be right up your street.” In the show, an East End tenement will be recreated with historical accuracy, and its modern-day inhabitants must learn how to adjust their lives to suit the Victorian Era– spoiler alert: there are outdoor toilets.
And how were the lucky 15 chosen? A casting call was put out asking for people with ancestral connections to the East End, who were interested in living history as opposed to the often-scripted and set-filled actuality of reality television. Among these people, writes Thirteen.org, are a brother and sister who turn up with nothing but the clothes they’re wearing.
Interested in watching the new, educational reality series? Read on to find out how to watch it.
DATE: Tuesday, May 2, 2017
TIME: 8-9 pm ET/PT
DURATION: 1 hour
TV CHANNEL: PBS (To find out which channel PBS is for you, click here to go to TVGuide.com. Then, change “Provider” to your cable/satellite provider.)
SYNOPSIS: The series, which features modern-day people recreating 19th-century life in London’s East End, begins with the participants moving into an 1860s tenement that includes sparse rooms, a shared water pump and outdoor privies. They seek to make a living by matchbox making, wood turning and the rag trade, work once done by their impoverished forebears.