The Week We Went to War

The Week We Went To War pays tribute today to Home Front hero Thomas Hopper Alderson, who won Britain's first George Cross when he saved 11 lives after a German air raid on Bridlington, North Yorkshire. Presenter Katherine Jenkins talks to Alderson's daughter, Pamela, about her memories of her father. Twenty-one-year-old student and Masterchef contestant Ben Ellison spent a month for the progamme living on wartime rations to see if it really is healthier. Katherine says: "I have found the whole thing fascinating and I just felt that, with things like the rations, how easily we now throw stuff away. You can see why older people are so careful not to be wasteful." And evacuee John Bargewell, from Belfast, goes back to his wartime home in rural north Ulster for the first time since the war. John and his two brothers were evacuated 48 miles to a home that had none of the modern conveniences that they were used to in their city life. The programme also takes a look at how and what people ate as well as the games they played as children.