Want to know what it was like for civilians in WWII? I found this preview of my local PBS station offering (I live in Virginia). I am sure it will be shown all over the U.S. but perhaps at different times. I expect it will be well worth watching. Consult your local listings or go to www.pbs.org in whatever area you live in. I don't know if it will also be shown in the U.K., but I would think it was made there. Members of my family in England and Wales lived through this in their childhoods. 1940s House - London, England WHRO - TidewaterVA (ch.15 or 5) November 06, 2002 8:00pm November 07, 2002 1:30am One modern family takes on the challenge of domestic life on Britain's home front in 1940s HOUSE, a re-creation of a World War II household. This time-travel experiment covers the period from the outbreak of the war in 1939 to Victory Day in 1945, compressing the events of six wartime years into two months. Though the military threat is metaphorical, the privations are real and the pressures create tensions nonexistent in modern society. 1940s HOUSE airs on PBS Wednesday, November 6, 2002 (check local listings). Geoffrey Palmer ("As Time Goes By," "Mrs. Brown") hosts. The three-generation Hymers family -- mother Lyn, father Michael, daughter Kirstie and her sons Ben, 10, and Thomas, seven -- learns to exist on ever-diminishing rations and builds and takes refuge in an air raid shelter. In the wartime shop, they find that severe shortages are the order of the day: coal, cigarettes, toilet paper, even soap and toothpaste are subject to limited supply. A "war cabinet," composed of historians and scientists with special knowledge of the war, monitors the family's progress and steers the course of the experiment. 1940s House (parts one, two and three of three) Wednesday, November 6, 2002 8 - 11:00 pm Meet the Hymers, a modern family traveling back in time (a la "Frontier House") to live in a World War II-era household in London, from the outbreak of the war in 1939 to Victory Day in 1945. Though the military threat is metaphorical, the day-to-day elements of World War II life are real and the pressures create tensions nonexistent in modern society. Follow the family's struggles with blackouts, food rationing, antiquated household appliances and more. (CC, Stereo) Betty Pace