
Historian David Olusoga follows the story of the house in Liverpool from 1891 to 1945, a turbulent 50-year period encompassing two World Wars and the Great Depression. He tracks the story of the Snewings, a large family of saddlers who lived in the house for over four decades, and follows their business through challenging times - death in the family, cut-throat competition, the First World War and the age of the motorcar.\n\nOn the Snewings' death, the Great Depression takes hold and Liverpool's inner city housing begins to decline. David sees the house become a shabby lodging house rented out to low-income tenants. Amongst the multiple residents who share the house at the start of the Second World War, he discovers Jack Greenall - a docker keeping a secret from his employers, who works in one of the city's most dangerous environments during the height of the Liverpool Blitz.\n\nFinally, David uncovers the poignant story of Robert and Sarah Ann Duffy. Robert, son of a lowly cotton porter, is born in the slums. His wife Sarah Ann has had an unhappy childhood with her abusive mother. But the two meet and marry, and carve out a successful career in the tailoring business, eventually transcending the tragic circumstances of their pasts.
Source: BBC 2
Series 6: Edinburgh: Episode 4
David follows the house from the poverty-stricken 1930s through the Second World War and the cultural renaissance of postwar Edinburgh, all the way to the present day.\n\nThe ep ...
09-09-2026
BBC 2
Series 6: Edinburgh: Episode 3
During the first two decades of the 20th century, life for many in Edinburgh is hard. The demolition of the slums in the Old Town has put pressure on living spaces, and the hous ...
04-09-2026
BBC 2
Series 6: Edinburgh: Episode 2
In the Victorian era, the residents of the house on Calton Hill include Thomas Mains, a maker of expensive shoes whose customers won’t pay. His wife, Ann, eventually takes ...
28-08-2026
BBC 2
Series 6: Edinburgh: Episode 1
The house's first residents are the Rev William Fitzsimmons, an 18th-century Episcopal Church minister who is arrested for helping French prisoners escape from Edinburgh Castle; ...
21-08-2026
BBC 2
Series 5: Two Cities At War: Episode 4
David Olusoga traces the residents’ stories from winter 1942 to the end of the war. In the shattered ruins of Berlin, not all the residents survive.\n\nAs the Berlin resid ...
27-01-2026
BBC 2
Series 5: Two Cities At War: Episode 3
It’s 1940, and in London, the threat of invasion by Germany has become very real. Montagu Mansions resident Timothy Corsellis begins training as an RAF pilot, but begins t ...
21-01-2026
BBC 2
Series 5: Two Cities At War: Episode 2
By 1936, the ruling Nazi Party is transforming the lives of the residents at the building in Berlin. One new resident, academic Paul Dittel, has returned to Germany to join the ...
13-01-2026
BBC 2
Series 5: Two Cities At War: Episode 1
David Olusoga traces the lives of residents of two apartment blocks - Montagu Mansions in Marylebone, London, and 72 Pfalzburger Strasse in Wilmersdorf, Berlin - to tell the sto ...
06-01-2026
BBC 2
Series 4: Episode 4
The final episode opens at the outbreak of the Second World War, and our house is home to the Wood family. While father John serves as an ARP warden, teenage son Geoffrey joins ...
13-06-2024
BBC 2
Series 4: Episode 3
By 1913, Number 5 is home to respectable couple Frederick and Louisa Pryce Lewis. From a clue in the family photo album, David follows the trail of their younger son Walter, tra ...
30-05-2024
BBC 2
Series 6: Edinburgh: Episode 3
During the first two decades of the 20th century, life for many in Edinburgh is hard. The demolition of the slums in the Old Town has put pressure on living spaces, and the hous ...
04-09-2026
BBC 2
Series 6: Edinburgh: Episode 2
In the Victorian era, the residents of the house on Calton Hill include Thomas Mains, a maker of expensive shoes whose customers won’t pay. His wife, Ann, eventually takes ...
28-08-2026
BBC 2
Series 6: Edinburgh: Episode 1
The house's first residents are the Rev William Fitzsimmons, an 18th-century Episcopal Church minister who is arrested for helping French prisoners escape from Edinburgh Castle; ...
21-08-2026
BBC 2
Series 6: Edinburgh: Episode 4
David follows the house from the poverty-stricken 1930s through the Second World War and the cultural renaissance of postwar Edinburgh, all the way to the present day.\n\nThe ep ...
09-09-2026
BBC 2
Series 3: Episode 1
David Olusoga sets out once more to uncover the history of a single house, discovering remarkable stories along the way – of piracy, a foundling baby and a runaway slave.\ ...
18-05-2023
BBC 2
Series 5: Two Cities At War: Episode 4
David Olusoga traces the residents’ stories from winter 1942 to the end of the war. In the shattered ruins of Berlin, not all the residents survive.\n\nAs the Berlin resid ...
27-01-2026
BBC 2
Series 4: Episode 1
David Olusoga discovers our house’s first resident - idealistic Victorian lawyer William Bruce, who tries and fails to save the life of a man convicted to hang for murder. ...
16-05-2024
BBC 2
Series 1: Episode 1
This series tells a story of Britain spanning a period of seismic social change from the 1840s to the present day, through the prism of a single-terraced house in Liverpool. Pre ...
04-07-2020
BBC 2
Series 5: Two Cities At War: Episode 1
David Olusoga traces the lives of residents of two apartment blocks - Montagu Mansions in Marylebone, London, and 72 Pfalzburger Strasse in Wilmersdorf, Berlin - to tell the sto ...
06-01-2026
BBC 2
Series 2: Episode 4
The final episode begins in 1946. The householders are John Walter and Florence Smyth. They live here with their daughter Myra and rent rooms to lodgers. A collection of family ...
04-11-2021
BBC 2