The British Film Institute lists Thora Hird Introduces How We Used to Live for 30 August 1984, describing it as "a documentary on the making of the award-winning schools series".
Part of the first series was repeated late at night in its home region of Yorkshire Television in early 1969.
The first half of the series (Episodes 1-10) centred around the Ackerley family, who move into their new home, 13 Sultan Street, Bradley in 1908.
He becomes unemployed in the thirties and he, his wife Doris and son Gerald are forced to rely on the earnings of daughter Marjorie, who works as a library assistant.
The Boothroyds move into the terraced house just before World War Two - the last five episodes describe how they cope with the varied hazards of civilian life in wartime Britain.
He gives some of his time to the Bradley Free Hospital, and, as Medical Officer of Health, is appalled by conditions in poor working-class areas.
The lifestyles of the middle class Hughes and mildly aristocratic Selwyn families is in sharp contrast to that of the Fairhurst's.
Ben and Mary Fairhurst are poor working class mill workers with more children than they can afford to feed.
First broadcast in 1981/1982, this series embraces the events during the reign of George VI as they affected the family of Arthur Hodgkins, a railwayman living in Bradley.
Along with his housewife Mabel and his four children, Patricia, Jimmy, Avril & Edward, they endure the hardships of the Second World War and the subsequent austerity period.
As they grow up into young adults, their lives become intertwined and the relationship, sometimes strained, shows the huge social changes which affected people in Britain during this time.
The series begins with he and his family (wife Joan and children Susan, Roger & Beverley) moving back to Bradley.
YTV announcer Redvers Kyle returned to narrate short segments featuring archive film footage.
The drama format was expanded in order to take in more documentary material, but the series length was cut.
Typically the notes contained: Support material for the fifth series (1902–1926) was funded via a non-broadcast sponsorship arrangement with Midland Bank.
Any form of advertising or commercial sponsorship for ITV schools programming was otherwise prohibited by the Independent Broadcasting Authority.