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00:00Over the last 40 years, technology has developed with dizzying speed.
00:07But how has it changed us?
00:11How has it transformed our homes?
00:14And altered family life?
00:17To find out, the Sullivan-Barnses are taking part in a unique experiment.
00:22They've been stripped of all their modern technology,
00:25including three games consoles, three DVD players,
00:28five mobile phones, six televisions and seven computers.
00:32It'd be fantastic at the end of it,
00:34if we're slightly less hooked on all the techno stuff.
00:38Their own home has been turned into a time machine.
00:42What on earth have they done with our kitchen?
00:44What do you think of the colour scheme?
00:45They've fast-forwarded through the years at the rate of one a day,
00:48from the digital wilderness of the 1970s,
00:51Black or white?
00:54To the prehistoric electronics of the 80s.
00:57Wait, wait, wait, why can't you be more patient?
01:00Nothing ever works.
01:03Now they're going to experience the communication revolution of the 90s.
01:08It works!
01:10It's embarrassing, it just makes it look like we've spent our entire time watching television.
01:15But as the gadgets come thick and fast...
01:19You've got a new one there.
01:21Oh blimey, not another one.
01:23What price family life...
01:25Hamish won't speak to us again, because he won't need to.
01:28Change!
01:31Has progress always been for the better?
01:35And how has it changed our electric dreams?
01:53Back to life, back to reality.
02:05The Sullivan-Barnes family are having their last breakfast of the 1980s.
02:10Back to the here and now.
02:13After a decade of technological disappointments,
02:16gadget freak Adam is enthusiastic about the 90s.
02:20There'll be more games, there'll be more computing stuff,
02:23there'll be better TV,
02:26and we'll be back to the old world of hardly speaking to each other, probably.
02:32Mum Georgie is worried about the impact of ever more technology on her family.
02:36There's bound to be more distractions that pull people further away.
02:41Toddler Jude is too young to comment,
02:43but Adam's daughter Steph and Georgie's children Ellie and Hamish
02:47are about to return to the decade in which they were born.
02:50Not that they actually remember it.
02:52I've had the experience of the 80s, I've had the experience of the 2000s,
02:55so basically it's just in between.
02:57So I do kind of know what it's going to be like.
03:04But the 90s may hold surprises for them all.
03:11Throughout their experience, the family have had their very own technical support team.
03:17They've arrived to take the technology in the house from the 80s to the 90s.
03:23And they've got their work cut out.
03:30Sociologist Dr Ben Highmore specialises in the history of domestic technology.
03:35It's the decade of the gadget.
03:37An ever-increasing array of consumer technologies
03:40demanding more and more attention from families.
03:43Tom Wriglesworth is in charge of all their audiovisual devices.
03:47In a decade where there were ever more possibilities for home entertainment,
03:50he's going to be busy.
03:52All this technology meant there were more reasons for the kids to stay in the room,
03:56playing with the world's biggest remote controller.
04:01Gia Milinovic is a lifelong computer geek and technology writer.
04:06For me, this decade is going to be quite difficult keeping up with the pace of change with the computer
04:12because software and hardware just changed constantly.
04:18With the crucial kit in place, there's just time to add a few period flourishes.
04:24The house is all set to relive the 1990s.
04:31The family have been transformed too, with dressed-down 90s clobber.
04:37But they have no idea what's now waiting for them behind their own front door.
04:47Oh, look.
04:49I like this.
04:50There we go, look.
04:53This is much nicer than the 80s.
04:56The 80s chintz has been well and truly chucked.
05:02Minimalist, that's the word I'm trying to think of.
05:05Photographs of pebbles on the beach were very 90s.
05:08There's a lot of new gadgets, a lot of technology.
05:11Wow, what a big telly.
05:13Big black telly as well.
05:15But progress is still slower than the kids were hoping for.
05:19Four channels.
05:20We had four in the 80s.
05:22It's quite funny how only 19 years ago there was only four channels,
05:27and now we have like, you can get like 600 or something.
05:31The kitchen's no longer by Laura Ashley.
05:34But there's something even more exciting than a style makeover.
05:38Whoa, it's bigger.
05:40It's really weird.
05:44Over the years, the kitchen has evolved from a functional workspace
05:48to a more sociable family hub.
05:54The girls, of course, have no memory of the early 90s,
05:57but they're pleased to see that not everything changes.
06:01Take that!
06:02Yes!
06:04Let's see who I can recognize.
06:09In a decade when technology was spreading into every corner of our homes,
06:14Wow, that's a remote!
06:16one object had become so cheap it was multiplying.
06:20Oh, blimey.
06:22Wow!
06:24Far eastern labor, cheaper parts, and expanding global economies
06:28meant TVs cost 95% less than the model the family had in the 1970s.
06:34We have this one.
06:35Georgie and I will have this one.
06:37Do we need a telly in our room?
06:39You've got a video camera.
06:40Just because we've got one?
06:42We don't need one, do we?
06:45We've been saying how nice it's been to be together as a family.
06:51Have I missed not having a telly?
06:54Yes!
06:55Yes!
06:56Yes!
06:57Okay, fine, let's have it then.
06:59Okay, that's fine.
07:03By the end of the decade, TVs had moved into the rooms of two-thirds of British kids.
07:08Bedroom culture had taken over.
07:11But the shared experience of family viewing is something Georgie would love to hold on to.
07:17I'm hoping the TV reception will be so poor with the aerials they've got
07:21that they won't actually choose to sit up here and watch telly.
07:24They'll want to come down for the bigger screen that's in the sitting room.
07:27So, fingers crossed.
07:30The fax machine had also become cheap enough to spread from the office into the home.
07:37Wait, don't answer it. It might be a fax machine.
07:40Now a home phone line could be used to telly work,
07:43a popular 90s concept that promised we could all work from home.
07:48Oh, here it goes.
07:50It's time to bang.
08:03Their first fax is from the tech team.
08:05We look forward to celebrating the new millennium with you at the end of the decade
08:09and suggest that you use all the 90s technology at your disposal
08:13to plan your own millennium party.
08:16What's a millennium party?
08:18It's like the biggest ever New Year's Eve party.
08:21People spent a lot of money making it a really exciting night.
08:2890s consumer culture was driven, more than ever before, by exhaustive market research.
08:33In the spirit of the times, the tech teams turned the family into a focus group.
08:38They're being asked what gadgets they'd like to have delivered to their door.
08:42The thing to do would be to shout out things that you think, technology-wise,
08:47we should be having in the 90s.
08:50Cars and boats and planes.
08:52Rollerskates.
08:53Games consoles.
08:55Electric scooters.
08:56What about computers?
08:58Mobiles.
08:59Satellite TV.
09:01Though the children can barely remember the decade, they know exactly what they want.
09:10Hamish attempts to fax their list to the tech team.
09:15Never sent a fax before.
09:19Thanks to the explosive growth of email, it's something he probably won't ever have to do again.
09:26On the other side of Reading, the tech team are in their workshop.
09:33Here it comes. It's from the house.
09:37On the list is mobile phones, satellite TV, the internet,
09:41and a request for handheld games from gaming fan Hamish.
09:45The 90s was the point at which the games industry just massively took off.
09:50And now, it's overtaken music sales, and it certainly gives Hollywood a run for its money.
09:55The tech team get a first taste of just how demanding the family is going to be in the coming decade.
10:01Please remember we know where you live.
10:04Slightly sinister.
10:05Into a facsimile there.
10:12Early evening, and time to settle down to watch some television.
10:17Good evening, and welcome.
10:19Tonight, Margaret Thatcher left 10 Darling Street for the last time.
10:29Madam, which...
10:31After eleven and a half wonderful years,
10:34that we leave the United Kingdom in a very, very much better state
10:39than when we came here eleven and a half years ago.
10:43As 1990 draws to a close, the family has mixed feelings about their higher-tech home.
10:48We all got, like, tellies in our rooms and stuff,
10:52which I think's quite nice,
10:56but then, in some ways, it's probably a bad thing to know.
11:04I think I'm going to enjoy the 90s a lot more than I did the 70s or the 80s.
11:09Now that I have a TV and a video player,
11:12I think I will be spending more time in my bedroom.
11:28A new day, and for the Sullivan-Barnes family, it's 1991.
11:32So now I think you have to write when.
11:36Oh, nice one.
11:42Attacked military targets in Iraq and Baghdad last night.
11:47Britain is at war.
11:49But escape from the grim news came from an altogether more harmless conflict.
11:54Species like these fluffy bunnies face a new threat.
11:58The threat of a new war.
12:01Species like these fluffy bunnies face a new threat.
12:05The predator disturbing their dreams is an electronic hedgehog.
12:09This was the year Sonic the Hedgehog was born,
12:12to combat the market dominance of an Italian plumber called Mario.
12:18They were the number one video game characters of Sega and Nintendo,
12:23who were cashing in on Britain's insatiable appetite for electronic imports from the Far East.
12:29Christmas parcels!
12:31The Japanese giants were battling for control of the handheld gaming market.
12:36Game Boy! That's yours, I believe.
12:38Oh, they're both mine.
12:40Both now offered cartridge-based portable consoles.
12:44Who remembers Sonic the Hedgehog?
12:46Me!
12:47Sega's Game Gear was in colour.
12:49But it was a pricey £200 in today's money,
12:52twice the price of their rival's Game Boy.
12:55I don't want to do that.
12:57Nintendo's knockout punch was to include the notoriously habit-forming Tetris.
13:02This will keep me entertained for many a days.
13:06The nation agreed, and by the end of 1991, 800,000 Britons had one.
13:13We'd never known technology so portable, addictive and antisocial.
13:18I think it is pretty sad, don't you?
13:21I don't know, I'm just now, I'm just noticing.
13:24Hamish won't speak to us again.
13:26Because he won't need to.
13:29Apart from when he needs to eat or drink.
13:31Isn't that what you've been hoping for, though?
13:33Well, it is quite pleasant sometimes,
13:35but it's been quite nice talking to him the last few weeks.
13:45It's 1992, and even more home entertainment is on the way.
13:52This was the year B-Sky B bought up the Premiership.
13:55And for the first time, Britain started signing up to satellite TV in significant numbers.
14:011992, and I've got you a satellite TV.
14:05Wow, look at the size of that.
14:06Satellite TV, yeah.
14:07It's huge.
14:08Where should we put it?
14:10You want to make a statement, don't you, with it?
14:12A statement? No, God, I don't want it on the side of the house.
14:14Really?
14:15No.
14:17It's a big council house.
14:18That's a problem.
14:19Really?
14:20Yeah.
14:21You're worried about the Navy?
14:22Yeah.
14:23It was very typical of the time.
14:25We call them architectural acne down here,
14:28and when they sprout out, as acne does, they are very unattractive.
14:35In the 1980s, technology was a status symbol,
14:38and showing it off told the world you were rich.
14:41But 90s high tech was increasingly affordable for everyone,
14:44and suddenly your choices could tell a different story.
14:49It's totally out of place.
14:51I really don't believe it should be there in front,
14:53full frontal of a period building.
15:00What's going on there?
15:04It just says couch potato to me.
15:06Really? Right.
15:07I'm slightly embarrassed that it's in full view of the road.
15:11It's a lot bigger and uglier than I actually remember.
15:16I think this is definitely the slippery slope.
15:20Satellite telly is just such a mind drain waste of time.
15:28Georgie needn't worry.
15:29The giant dish has changed the house on the outside,
15:32but it won't change their viewing habits on the inside much just yet.
15:36In 1992, it would deliver Amiga 5 extra channels.
15:44I'll get it.
15:45The family's fax to the tech team also requested mobile phones,
15:49but in 1992, mobiles were still far too expensive for the non-business user,
15:54so they've been sent a cheaper alternative.
15:57The pager.
15:58What are pagers?
15:59They're just beeps.
16:00What are they?
16:02Already a workplace success,
16:03this messaging technology looked like it might catch on for personal use too.
16:08That's quite neat, isn't it?
16:10Makes me feel like a drug dealer.
16:13Come on!
16:16The family need to go shopping for their millennium party.
16:19They pile into their family-friendly 90s people carrier,
16:22taking their pagers with them.
16:31Most of Britain's pager network was turned off in 2004,
16:35so Tom has set up his own inside the tech team van,
16:38which is parked next to the local shopping centre.
16:43So, we've got a list of things to do.
16:45Shall we split up, divide and conquer?
16:47When we've found something, we'll let you know.
16:49Quick!
16:52Each group has the same shopping list,
16:54and they've agreed to page each other whenever they find something.
16:58Pens, pens, pens.
17:00The dot ones are quite 90s.
17:04Right, we need to find a phone, guys.
17:06To page, the family have to phone Tom and dictate their message to him,
17:11but there's a limit on how much they can say.
17:14We've got 20 characters, and then we'll have to send another message
17:18to tell them what else we've got.
17:20Got space.
17:22Balloons.
17:23Napkins, space, balloons.
17:25It says thing on valid.
17:27But modern 12-year-olds aren't au fait with payphones.
17:32Put the other 20 back in.
17:34Good, go.
17:350-7-9-2-9.
17:37Hello, can I send a message to pager number one?
17:40Of course you can, it sounds like Georgie.
17:43Got space, napkins, space, balloons.
17:47Got napkins, balloons.
17:49Tom acts as operator, sending the message on.
17:52It's a one-way radio.
17:54So when you type in the message in the pager number here,
17:57you press send, and it just sends radio one way to the pagers.
18:01So all the pagers are little radio receivers.
18:11I think they've made you go, hmm.
18:15Napkins, balloons, and they've got ribbons.
18:19We need to find a phone and phone them and let them know we've got the Blue Tackle stuff,
18:22otherwise they'll go and buy it again.
18:25Argh!
18:27I won't get them.
18:29Wait, wait, wait, no, no.
18:33I'll just use a credit card.
18:35Credit card.
18:38Piece of junk.
18:40Let's go and find another pay phone.
18:43In the 90s, there would have been a whole bank of phones there.
18:48It's gone communication mad in here.
18:50Got space, Blue Tackle, space, scissors.
18:53The girls are having no problem with the system.
18:56Or they've got Blue Tackle and scissors, which is what we've got.
19:00Oh, no.
19:01It says, please buy crepe paper and pipe cleaners.
19:05Where are we going to get those from?
19:12Oh, got credit, hooray.
19:14Oh, hello, could I send a page, please?
19:16Adam!
19:18Hello, what's your message?
19:20Got to sell a tape.
19:22Excellent, thanks for your message, Adam. That's winging its way over immediately.
19:25Thanks, Tom.
19:26Things that make you go, hmm.
19:28It just reminds me that when we didn't have mobiles, we used to be a bit more organised.
19:33Pages did grow and grow in popularity throughout the 90s,
19:36but they were pretty much killed off as far as the general public was concerned
19:39when the GSM network got extremely reliable, a lot cheaper,
19:44and then ultimately, of course, text messaging kicked off.
19:48Hi, where have you been?
19:50You said pipe cleaners. We got...
19:53Martini glass, times two.
19:55You said crepe paper.
19:57We got...
19:59Shot glass, times two.
20:01But the fiesta resistance is still to come.
20:04We got cocktail shaker.
20:07Why? None of that's on the list. Why have you got all that junk?
20:10We don't need any of that. You can take that back.
20:13All afternoon, you've gone and got beer glasses.
20:16You complete twits.
20:18If you haven't got a phone accessible...
20:20You meant to go to High Street.
20:22We couldn't find one.
20:24There was eight on High Street.
20:26I think we've discovered it's not a very good system.
20:28I think we've discovered that you're not very good at paging.
20:31Just wait.
20:4190s technology gave us more and more choices for entertainment at home,
20:46and 90s families spent more and more time indoors.
20:50One advantage seemed to be that parents could keep a watchful eye on their children.
20:56It just makes me feel sad that we don't let them out more,
20:58we don't make them go out more.
21:00Maybe that's the answer.
21:01But we know they're safe.
21:03They're in the home, we know they're safe.
21:05And that's not how I was brought up.
21:08With screen time for kids at an all-time high,
21:11tragic events in 1993 called into question exactly what they were watching
21:17and how it was affecting them.
21:20Good evening.
21:22We're now gathered this morning outside the courtroom on Merseyside
21:25where two ten-year-old boys were formally charged
21:28with the murder of a toddler, James Bulger.
21:31The idea that John Venables may have been influenced by violent videos
21:35was fuelled by the judge's remarks today.
21:37He said that exposure to violent video films may in part be an explanation.
21:42Neil Venables, his father, did rent out Child's Play 3,
21:46which shows a demonic doll being killed,
21:48but denies the boy ever saw any violent videos.
21:52The horror of the murder has triggered paroxysms of moral panic
21:55and national self-doubt.
21:57It wasn't just movies that got drawn into the debate.
22:00Now video nasties could be interactive.
22:04Gory games were seen as a new high-tech culprit for juvenile delinquency.
22:09Some children are having an increasing difficulty
22:11in telling the difference between fact and fiction.
22:13Playing computer games can lead to addiction.
22:16It can lead to heightened heights of aggression immediately after playing.
22:20It may provide an adrenaline rush for people who like punching buttons very quickly,
22:24but I think it's no more sophisticated than the game of ping-pong, it seems to me.
22:37Although this morning's delivery of gaming consoles may seem harmless...
22:42Sega.
22:44Oh, we have a Sega!
22:4516-bit.
22:47Can I have one of those?
22:48Possibly.
22:50..the tech team have felt the need to send in a parental advisory note.
22:55We feel that it's our responsibility in 1993
22:59to ask you to take a look at the games we've included
23:02and make sure you are happy with their content
23:05before you give them to the children.
23:08You might want to check out Mortal Kombat. That doesn't sound great.
23:22It's not got guns or knives or anything like that in it,
23:27so you could argue that it is just cartoon violence,
23:30which has been around forever.
23:32It pales in comparison to a modern computer game
23:36which is so real that it's almost cinema quality.
23:40You know, I'm actually not worried about this, to be honest.
23:43The graphics are almost comical, whereas in the games now,
23:47you know, there's blood flying and bruises and cuts and whatever left.
23:52It does look very real.
23:54So we'll pass that, shall we?
23:56Yeah, I'm happy with that.
23:57OK.
23:59Though the games look tame now,
24:01in 1993, violent videos and video games were discussed in Parliament.
24:06The following year, age ratings were applied to games.
24:09Kids! Kids!
24:14You can have all the games in your rooms,
24:17but you need to decide which room you want to go in.
24:21There's a console for each bedroom, but they're completely incompatible.
24:26Sonic and Mario were once again battling for children's hearts
24:29and a share of a market that would sell over two million consoles in 1993.
24:34So you both want the Nintendo?
24:36Yes.
24:37In this family, the plumber's clearly winning.
24:40OK.
24:41I don't know how we're going to decide which games console's going to go in whose room.
24:45Why don't we have one in Hamish's room and one down here, then?
24:48We're not having one down here.
24:50Why not?
24:51Because I say we're not having one down here.
24:53If you don't want them, fine, just give them to Hamish.
24:56I don't care who has them.
24:58Doesn't that all mean that whenever people come in our room,
25:00all they want to do is play on the games?
25:02Why don't you just have one each,
25:04and then you can decide if it's working or not and change it around if it's not?
25:07We'll have to do a fair draw.
25:09Flip a coin.
25:10We'll have to flip a coin, but who wants it, who gets it?
25:13We are.
25:14Heads, please.
25:16It's a 50-50 chance.
25:18I'm going to call.
25:19No, don't do flip coins, Robert!
25:21Look, Hamish, if you're going to be difficult, I'll just give it to the girls.
25:24No, you can't.
25:25I can.
25:26You're acting like a little brat.
25:28Now, stop it.
25:29We are going to have a coin.
25:30Don't flip a coin, then!
25:31We are flipping a coin.
25:32I'm not going to have a coin.
25:33Heads.
25:34If they win or not.
25:35Heads.
25:36It's a head.
25:37He's not letting you have it.
25:38Well, that's the decision, so you don't have a choice.
25:40No, you can't.
25:41You need a hand setting it up.
25:42Heads, please.
25:43Okay.
25:44Look, don't start.
25:45Hamish, don't start fighting over it.
25:47I'm sure if you ask the girls, they'll let you use it.
25:50No, they won't.
25:51Yes, they will.
25:52I don't like it when people flip coins.
25:55Bye, then.
25:56Goodbye.
26:00See, this is the sort of trouble these things cause.
26:04More choice doesn't necessarily make for a happier family,
26:07but it can create a more possessive one.
26:10He's very bad-tempered sometimes.
26:13I think he needs some anger management classes.
26:16She'll need the video player because it's not really helping.
26:19And then when the doorbell rings and there's a parcel,
26:22it's something we haven't had for ages.
26:24You can just tell, oh, no, it's a whole new argument coming.
26:30People get more kind of argumentative,
26:33people get more possessive, people start splitting up more.
26:37He can't live without a games console, really.
26:40And although he got a bit tizzy about which one he was going to have,
26:44as soon as he gets one of them, he'll be quite happy, I think,
26:46especially when he gets his friends around.
26:53You're not supposed to go in there.
26:58You've got me trapped against the wall.
27:00It's cheating.
27:01Yeah.
27:07Yeah, it's nice to have some, just be with my friends
27:11and do just something that we enjoy, which is nice.
27:17Yes! Instant random head-butt.
27:19Yes!
27:23Work for 1993 still isn't over for the tech team.
27:29Tom's sorting out yet another delivery.
27:32Now it's time to give the family their first genuine, real, proper mobile phone.
27:36And we've picked this beauty.
27:39These would have been the toy of the execs and the yuppies and the flashy people.
27:47In the era of pre-digital mobile phones,
27:50owning a brick was as much about looking the business as making business sense.
27:55The phones were expensive, heavy and offered limited coverage.
27:59Great for showing off, rubbish for reception.
28:04In 1993, Britain's mobile network went digital, but calls remained costly.
28:09Up to 50 pence per minute in today's money.
28:14So high-end business users still dominated.
28:18As Georgie's a senior manager, she gets the first digital mobile phone.
28:24Oh, look, we've got a gift.
28:26Wow.
28:28Georgie, as you are the high-flyer of the family, you can have the first mobile phone.
28:35Wow, look at that phone.
28:36I think you'll find that's mine.
28:39That's your user manual.
28:41Wow, look at that.
28:43Does it have an aerial?
28:44Oh, yes.
28:46The Motorola 3200 cost £1,400.
28:50£1,400.
28:59It works.
29:02Oh, wow.
29:05How scary.
29:06How much do you think that cost?
29:09What's it like having a mobile again?
29:11It looks different, it feels different, and it feels exciting,
29:15because we've had nothing equivalent to a mobile at all,
29:20so it feels really exciting.
29:23But do you know what I most love?
29:25What?
29:26Having something that you're a little bit jealous of.
29:30No.
29:31The early 90s mobile is living up to its reputation as a status symbol.
29:36You most like being called a high-flyer, don't you?
29:38No, you really resent that, don't you?
29:40No, I don't, no, I don't.
29:43But Adam's got his own gadget to gloat over,
29:46one of the first ever consumer digital cameras.
29:50Nothing like a digital camera of today.
29:54And he's about to get the perfect opportunity to use it.
30:00Tomorrow is 1994, the year Britain was connected to France,
30:04and the family are going to Paris.
30:07Yes!
30:09Really, really, really, really, really exciting.
30:11Where are you going?
30:12I'm going to Paris tomorrow.
30:13Paris, Paris, all right.
30:14Hollywood on Thursday?
30:17The Channel Tunnel was one of the most ambitious engineering projects
30:20Europe has ever seen,
30:22opening in a blaze of glory and huge optimism
30:25about European integration.
30:28A really lovely atmosphere here, fantastic sort of festival evening.
30:31And I just had a chocolate cake.
30:33And it's really nice.
30:45Adam and Georgie now possess early versions of modern must-haves.
30:52Can I get that?
30:53Select service.
30:55But they are a far cry from today's slim, slick and ubiquitous cameras.
30:59No-one's phoned me.
31:01I think maybe that big metal thing is interfering with it.
31:03It might get at a reception somewhere else.
31:06Actually, she won't.
31:08The tech team have made sure of that,
31:10because in 1994, no-one could automatically make calls from abroad.
31:17Will Adam fare better with the camera?
31:20You have to go that way.
31:22You have to go that way.
31:24It's a bit of a challenge,
31:25You have to go that way.
31:26You have to go that way.
31:29It's hard to believe, but just 15 years ago,
31:31the digital camera was almost unheard of.
31:39Though it's easier to understand when you realise
31:41that mid-90s models like this Apple QuickTake
31:44can store a grand total of eight pictures.
31:53There's no preview screen.
31:56And the resolution is half a megapixel,
31:59a tenth of the picture quality of an average modern camera.
32:07All this for a whopping £740 in today's money.
32:17It's very hard to tell if you're taking the picture.
32:20It's very hard to see, and you can't preview it.
32:23The camera's rubbish.
32:25He looks quite French.
32:27Excusez-moi.
32:32Bye-bye.
32:35That's it now. All eight gone.
32:37Really?
32:38That's eight taken.
32:39What the hell?
32:40All done.
32:42At home, there's a replacement computer waiting for them,
32:45so they can take a look at Adam's handiwork.
32:50Oh, here we go.
32:52Look at that.
32:53It could be us, even.
32:57As 1994 draws to a close,
32:59it's clear that the pace of change is becoming pretty exhausting.
33:11And there's no letting up in 1995.
33:17Thought we'd run out of new stuff to get.
33:20Before Georgie and Adam can leave for the office...
33:24...the office has come to them.
33:27Feeding the dream of flexible working,
33:29business technology was becoming portable.
33:32It was hoped that you could work anywhere.
33:49But Adam's aerial's just for show,
33:51because it was thought that consumers wouldn't buy a phone without one.
33:57But did laptops and mobiles mean Britons worked more flexibly,
34:00or did they just work more?
34:03By 1995, we worked longer hours than anyone else in Europe.
34:08That night, there's another delivery,
34:10to add to the four computers they've already received since 1990.
34:14It's really heavy.
34:15Adam, there's a parcel for me.
34:17It's Stephen Hamish, but it's very heavy.
34:19Can you help us?
34:21This is the decade of unending upgrades.
34:24Computing power was the new normal,
34:26but it wasn't enough to keep up with the pace of change.
34:30It was time for a change.
34:33This is the decade of unending upgrades.
34:36Computing power was growing exponentially,
34:38the only certainty being that your new machine
34:41would fall in price a few months after you'd bought it,
34:44and need replacing fairly soon after that.
34:48It's working.
34:49The Sullivan Barnes' latest pride and joy has new software,
34:53but it's still not what they want.
34:55It's got the internet.
34:56Internet tools.
34:58It's got internet.
34:59It won't have the internet because it's not connected to a phone line.
35:03Instead, the girls will have to make do
35:05with interactive CD-ROMs for their homework.
35:08That's for how to survive in the desert
35:10because I need to do a leaflet on it.
35:13They were once hailed as the future of reference materials,
35:16but for kids who are used to the web,
35:18they're not that impressive.
35:20It's got six pages of deserts.
35:25Boring.
35:26How can you say that is boring?
35:29Georgie's also finding the lack of the internet frustrating.
35:33It's forced her to stay late at work.
35:37I needed to finish something that I could otherwise have emailed to myself.
35:41There I still was at quarter to six at work,
35:44and I was really glaring at the clock thinking,
35:46this is when I should be home now,
35:48it's almost six o'clock and I should be with my family.
35:52In a way, it was almost better to have nothing at home like in the 70s
35:56than feel like there was...
35:58There's a bit of technology, but it doesn't do what I want it to yet.
36:02It's annoying, really.
36:06Technology's changing fast and moving closer to what they're used to,
36:10but it's also making the family more aware of what they're missing.
36:16It would be great to get the internet.
36:18It would be so great to get the internet.
36:20It would make life so much easier.
36:23I'm looking forward to the end of the whole thing when I get my phone back.
36:27Can we have the internet quite soon, please? Thank you very much.
36:30Goodnight.
36:39We're not creative enough and we're not positive enough.
36:43It's 1996. Britain's reaching fever pitch.
36:48And laddish behaviour wasn't confined to football.
36:51It was all over popular culture.
36:56Hello. Hi, Adam.
36:58Today's delivery was the favourite gadget of the 90s new lad.
37:02And it comes with its own expert, technology journalist Keith Stewart.
37:07So I brought with me a Sony PlayStation. Wow!
37:11And lots of games.
37:13It's about time the adults got some fun as well.
37:15Right, I don't know how to work your ancient television.
37:19The little grey box wasn't cheap, costing over £500 in today's money.
37:25But 20-somethings in the mid-90s were marrying and having kids later than ever before.
37:31Leaving them with more money and more time to play.
37:35Tomb Raider was a really important game.
37:37Obviously it's a female lead character.
37:39She's a well-proportioned girl, isn't she?
37:43What Lara Croft was doing was tapping into this kind of idea of kid adulthood.
37:4720-something lads who were reading Loaded and FHM
37:51weren't really interested in plumbers with moustaches or blue hedgehogs.
37:57Though Sony were complete newcomers to the games industry,
38:00by marketing the console as a lifestyle accessory to adults,
38:04they soon outsold Sega and Nintendo.
38:08The PlayStation now makes more money for the electronics giant
38:11than all their other consumer products combined.
38:14Yeah, Hamish, what do you think?
38:16It's better than the Sega.
38:18This is my console, though.
38:20But you're alright with that, aren't you, if this is mine?
38:23No.
38:24What?
38:25No, it's not fair.
38:26Why isn't it fair?
38:27I have to share.
38:28Adam won't share with Hamish,
38:30but he does want to show off his retro toy to some other boys.
38:33Anyone in?
38:35Why don't you guys start and I'll get you some beer.
38:37Sir, we don't have to be man-united.
38:41Hang on.
38:42That's me, that's me doing that.
38:44I'm not doing anything.
38:45Am I? Or am I?
38:46Well, what do you have to do to actually kick the ball?
38:49It slowly dawns on them that they're not actually playing the game at all.
38:53It's still in demo mode.
38:55Hamish!
38:57Ah.
38:58Hamish!
39:00Hamish was just a year old in 1996,
39:03but he knows how to sort out the problem.
39:05Ah!
39:07So your answer is switch it on and off?
39:09Now you.
39:10OK, now you.
39:11Ah!
39:12Yes.
39:13OK.
39:14Loading game.
39:15Right, bring it on.
39:16I will be the Germans.
39:19I'll lose.
39:20Wunderbar.
39:21Oh!
39:26All right, Hamish, it's lads' night now, so you can clear off, all right?
39:30Hamish, haven't you got homework to do?
39:33Life in the 70s was a bit of a mess.
39:36Life in the 70s, 80s and 90s has given the family
39:39something they don't normally have in modern life,
39:42a shared living room.
39:44No, we're having pizza, so we'll see you later.
39:46But Adam seems to be reintroducing 21st-century protocol,
39:50where the living room is an adults-only space
39:52in which he keeps his own games console.
39:55This isn't an adults' room.
39:57Yes, it is. It is tonight, cos it's...
39:59It's not an adults' room.
40:00..it's me and me mates.
40:02Thank you. Goodbye.
40:03I was trying not to say.
40:05I definitely don't want to have a games console in the sitting room.
40:10And it does feel quite exclusive, Adam being in there
40:14with his mates having a good time.
40:17I guess to a degree this is what I've been dreading.
40:20Lots of different entertainment media choices around the house
40:23and everybody being off doing their own thing.
40:27Cos we've got loads and loads of new technology
40:29and loads of different things.
40:31Everyone's going off to their own rooms
40:34and they're not mixing everyone.
40:44It's 1997 and a wave of optimism is sweeping the nation.
40:49A new door has broken, has it not?
40:54The UK has its youngest Prime Minister
40:58and while Tony's entertaining cool Britannia,
41:01the family are entertaining themselves.
41:09The house is becoming saturated with technology,
41:13but for them it's still not enough.
41:21Hello, tech team.
41:22Hi, it's Ellie.
41:23Oh, hello, Ellie.
41:24Hi, I'm calling to say that I would like to get a mobile phone
41:31before the end of the 90s.
41:34You need to know, Ellie, that even by the year 2000
41:36only 17% of youngsters had mobile phones.
41:40If we were to give you a mobile phone now,
41:42people would just think that you've mugged a yuppie.
41:45The kids are impatient for the technology
41:47they know must be just around the corner.
41:51Hello.
41:53Ellie and me would really like the internet.
41:56Are you really missing it?
41:58Yes.
41:59I had some homework and I really needed the internet
42:02and I couldn't use it, so...
42:03What year do you reckon we'll get it in?
42:06I might spring it on you.
42:11Steph has asked for the internet,
42:12but what she really wants is the websites
42:14that make up the World Wide Web.
42:17In 1997, the number of Britons online was gathering pace
42:21and 6 million were already surfing.
42:24Although that's a far cry from the 45 million internet users today,
42:28Gia thinks it's time for the Sullivan-Barnes family
42:31to get connected.
42:35So she heads to CERN in Geneva.
42:37The world-famous research centre for physics
42:39also happens to be where the World Wide Web was born.
42:43This is the corridor in which it all happened.
42:46Robert Caio worked here alongside British scientist Tim Berners-Lee.
42:50Tim's office was here.
42:52Together, they developed a system
42:54that would allow everyone to use the internet.
42:57I see the plaque there where the web was born.
42:59Of course, very, very few people who visit CERN ever come here.
43:03Exactly.
43:04But it's here.
43:05And we know it's here.
43:08The internet was born in the 1960s in America,
43:11out of a military plan to link up computers
43:14in order to withstand a nuclear attack.
43:17E-mail began in the 1970s.
43:19But until the 90s,
43:21it was used almost exclusively by the academic community.
43:25Berners-Lee had a vision for a service
43:27that would hide the underlying complexity of the internet
43:30so that anyone could use it.
43:33We called it World Wide Web
43:35before the first line of code was written.
43:38As a service on the internet,
43:39it was either going to take off and become worldwide de facto,
43:43or it was going to be a complete flop.
43:46Caio saw the potential in Berners-Lee's original proposal,
43:49but others at CERN weren't so sure.
43:52This was Tim Berners-Lee's...
43:54Original.
43:55...first proposal.
43:56Yes. Tim's boss, Mike Sandel,
43:58had quite some difficulty understanding what it was about.
44:02You know, there is even one part here where it said,
44:05I don't understand what this interface is,
44:07and stuff like that.
44:08Here's another note that says, I'm not convinced, you know.
44:11And then he summed it up with the comment,
44:15There were alternatives to the World Wide Web,
44:18but you had to pay to use them.
44:20If we had patented this and asked for royalties,
44:24it would have become just yet another network system
44:28alongside all the other unsuccessful network systems.
44:31But precisely because it was not just completely free,
44:35but also published and open,
44:38everybody could join.
44:39Everybody could look at the code.
44:41Everybody could try it out, modify it, add to it.
44:44It puts the entire web technology into the public domain
44:48for the whole world to use.
44:49And I think that was crucial.
44:55Yeah, that's it.
44:56Mr.
44:58Hello.
44:59Hello.
45:00What are you doing here?
45:01How lovely to see you.
45:02Nice to see you.
45:03You made it.
45:04I've got a present for everyone.
45:05It might not look like much.
45:09Cable.
45:10Internet.
45:11Oh, yeah.
45:12Oh, yeah.
45:16Put it in there.
45:17OK.
45:18Go.
45:23What does that noise sound like?
45:25Fudge.
45:26We are giving you the Internet circa 1997.
45:33And we've slowed it down,
45:35so it's not going to be fast like your normal broadband.
45:40There are now over 230 million websites on the Internet.
45:45In 1997, there were barely one and a half million.
45:49I've just searched in Bebo,
45:51which is like a social networking site,
45:53and it's come up with some weird stuff.
45:56Very weird stuff.
45:57You're not as excited as you were, are you?
46:00Was the Internet rubbish, do you think?
46:03Yes.
46:04While commerce seized on the web
46:06and dot-com millionaires were made overnight,
46:08it allowed everyday users to do something new,
46:11to express themselves in a way the whole world could share.
46:15Whatever you type onto the screen,
46:17it will turn it into a web page.
46:20This is really, really easy to use.
46:22It is really easy to use.
46:24Good luck and have fun.
46:31OK, it's time for this fax machine to be consigned to the garage
46:35because we don't need it anymore.
46:37Email has arrived.
46:44The arrival of the Internet
46:46has brought them one step closer to modern life,
46:48but Georgie doesn't want them totally sucked back
46:51to where they were in 2009.
46:54There's technology all over the house.
46:56There's a games console in the sitting room.
46:59I thought that was like our final bastion of no technology,
47:04because there wasn't going to be a games console in here.
47:07You know how I feel about it. I feel really let down.
47:10Yeah, but this isn't just a games console.
47:13This is a PS1.
47:231998 is here,
47:25and the tech team have taken pity on the children.
47:29I'll get it, I'll get it!
47:35Oh, yay! Got loads of phones.
47:38Even in the late 90s,
47:40few pre-teens got their hands on a mobile.
47:43I'm guessing we've all got a new one then.
47:46But the arrival of pay-as-you-go
47:48meant that under-18s could go upwardly mobile.
47:52It's a very exciting moment, this.
47:54I'm sending the family the first text.
47:56Look what you can do.
47:59The text was originally just a free bonus feature.
48:03Now, more texts are sent per day than there are people on the planet.
48:07The popularity of SMS took the mobile phone industry by surprise,
48:12but the nation's children would take it to their hearts.
48:16Oh, I have a message from the tech team.
48:20Look what you can do now. What does that mean?
48:23Oh, we can text now?
48:25That's what they mean.
48:27That's pleasant.
48:30Someone at the door!
48:33The tech team want to give the family
48:35a taste of the consumerist boom years of the late 1990s.
48:39It's a smoothie maker.
48:41When imported, technology grew more abundant
48:44and everything that came into our homes now had a microchip.
48:47Can we just get it inside?
48:50And that means delivery after delivery.
48:54BELL RINGS
48:57Oh, blimey, not another one.
49:00Have you got the instructions?
49:02Yeah.
49:04Oh, three quarters of a cup.
49:06Isn't it important to get the ingredients just right in bread?
49:09Then you need to twist it in and then I think we just go start.
49:13But the boom in cheap electronics had its downside.
49:17I've got smoothie makers, I've got steamers,
49:20I've got little chopping things.
49:23It's horrendous.
49:25What advantage is that then?
49:28Apart from me having to do more plastered washing up.
49:32And now it can go. Thanks very much.
49:34Off to the garage with it.
49:37The family's garage has become a museum of obsolete technology.
49:43With the biggest contribution coming from the most recent decade.
49:48During the 90s, electronics plummeted in price.
49:51Even computers were getting cheaper by 25% every year.
49:58Britain may have stopped making much in the way of electronics,
50:01but it became great at chucking them away.
50:04Now the average modern gadget has a lifespan of just over a year.
50:09And the knife block behind you?
50:12That looks all right, actually.
50:15With only two days left in the 1990s,
50:18the children are keen to know whether they'll be allowed to use
50:21the adults-only living room when they return to normal life.
50:25I think it should be a family room.
50:27That's why you feel so hard done by.
50:29You've got your own room with your own TV and your own sky.
50:31Why do you want to come into the adult room?
50:33Because for the whole thing you've been saying that it's nice
50:36that we've been doing things together.
50:38Mum's been saying that. So have you, so have you.
50:41Are you in favour of a family in the previously known as adult room?
50:44Yes. So when there are adults around.
50:46Four. Four in favour.
50:48And if I'm allowed in the adult room?
50:50The only condition I'd attach is that Georgie and I decide
50:54what we're watching in there if there's something on television we want to watch.
50:57I'm not backing down from that.
50:59No, I think it's a family decision.
51:01No way. I'm not backing down from that.
51:03Because I'm not going to want to watch Hannah Montana, am I?
51:06Neither are we.
51:08If you're just watching things that the rest of us don't want to watch,
51:11then it's going to just turn into an Adam room.
51:13I think we need to talk about it after we get through this.
51:19Considering how much time and resources we actually dedicate to all the children,
51:26it's nice for us to have somewhere that belongs to us, really.
51:30It's not a job we do.
51:32No, I know it's not a job, but it still happens.
51:35And without wanting to sound selfish, and maybe it does sound selfish,
51:39but I think it's important to have your own little space and time.
51:47It's 1999.
51:49The family's experience is nearly at an end.
51:52But so was the world if some computer experts were to be believed.
51:56The millennium could be a disaster for all industrial societies.
51:59Every electronic device could act irrationally.
52:03It's been the computer industry's dirty little secret for years.
52:06The problems have arisen because, to save space,
52:09computers have always stored dates as two digits instead of four.
52:13It worked fine until now, but come the year 2000,
52:16computers may think it's 1900 and simply fail.
52:19If we don't act, then the result will be loss of money, of power,
52:25and influence, perhaps, on a disastrous scale.
52:28We'd become so reliant on technology
52:31that the thought of losing it all really did feel like the end of the world.
52:36If the family got the millennium bug,
52:39it would be a bit like them going back to 1970.
52:43And our family would actually be able to cope rather well,
52:46as they've been able to cope without computers.
52:49But, you know, it was a big deal at the time.
52:53A very, very big deal.
52:56Of course, 2000 came along without all our computers crashing,
53:00leading many to question what all the fuss was about.
53:08The Sullivan-Barnes family know that their millennium party
53:11won't be spoiled by global technological meltdown.
53:15To entertain tonight's guests,
53:17they're cherry-picking from the 30 years of retro gizmos they've accumulated.
53:22The widest choice clearly comes from the decade they've just lived through.
53:26Getting into the 90s was just gadget after gadget,
53:30but technology of the 90s has not been a disappointment to me.
53:34It's done what it was supposed to do, you know,
53:36accurate stuff, worked reasonably well,
53:39and, you know, some of the design was a little bit shonky in modern standards,
53:43but generally I thought it was all right, actually.
53:47Cheers, Adam!
53:49Hello?
53:50It's amazing how it's all changed,
53:52like, from the first mobile phone to being about that big
53:56to them now being about that big, or smaller.
54:03Technology moved through the house and sort of started off in one room
54:07and then kind of ferreted its way out to various other parts of the house
54:13and people kind of moved with it.
54:15All of a sudden we, like, split up quite quickly.
54:19Still not as much as we did before it.
54:23It has become progressively more a question of territory and ownership
54:29and, you know, this is my domain.
54:32Hello!
54:33The tech team don't just bring a bottle to the party,
54:36they're making one final delivery, another toy for the grown-ups.
54:41It's the ultimate 90s party accessory.
54:43Oh, no, it's a karaoke machine!
54:46The 90s was the time when there was this blurring between
54:49childhood and adulthood, work and home,
54:52and it's not really necessarily that there became more of a work-life balance,
54:56it's just that work and life and family all came together.
55:08For the Sullivan-Barnes family, it's not just the end of the 90s,
55:12it's the end of a truly unique journey,
55:15through three decades of technological progress.
55:24The tech team's work is done.
55:27We've had a blast, haven't we? It's been amazing.
55:30Thank you, Beth.
55:31Have fun in the future.
55:32Thanks so much, everybody.
55:35Now that it's over, it's just like,
55:38well, it's all going to go and we're just going to be a normal family again.
55:45But when they wake up in 2009,
55:48will their technological journey have changed the Sullivan-Barnes family?
55:53Bring it on, baby!
56:06It's now been a month since the family, and their home, have returned to 2009.
56:13It's great to have all my technology back, I've got to tell you.
56:16I like my gadgets, I've always liked my gadgets, I still like my gadgets.
56:19It's nice to be back in the 21st century.
56:22The family's trip to lower-tech times
56:24has shown them that they actually like spending time together.
56:32To preserve this spirit of togetherness,
56:34they've hung on to something from the home's layout in those earlier decades.
56:40I was saying that we should make the adult room into a family room,
56:43and we've done that to see how it works,
56:46and I think we're going to keep it like that.
56:49I think that I'll go and spend more time downstairs doing things with everyone else,
56:55mainly because I think it's just because my mum wants me to do it, and I think I should.
57:03Georgie, despite herself, has come to see how integral technology is to modern childhood.
57:10This whole experience has absolutely made me realise
57:12how important technology is to the kids, and in particular to Hamish.
57:16I've seen how I've let the children evolve into children that need that technology.
57:25Kids, come in, we're watching film.
57:30Seeing the impact of 40 years of technological change has brought the family together.
57:37Even techno-sceptic Georgie and gadget-lover Adam have reached a new understanding.
57:43I think Georgie and I have got closer together in terms of our viewpoints of technology.
57:49She's come a little bit closer to me in terms of realising that technology is quite important,
57:56but it has a useful place in the world,
57:59and I've come a bit closer to her viewpoint,
58:02which is that it's nice for us to spend time together doing stuff together,
58:06even if it is technology-related.
58:13And you can continue your journey through the decades online with the BBC and The Open University.
58:20Visit bbc.co.uk slash electricdreams
58:35Don't miss the story of the inventor of the silicon chip, Robert Noyce.
58:39The Podfather is on later this evening here on BBC4 at 25 past 11.
58:43Next tonight, though, we revisit Bulgaria's abandoned children.