MovieChat Forums > The Hour (2011) Discussion > Throwing away food in 1957

Throwing away food in 1957

posted 11 years ago by southwestern71
6 replies | jump to latest

There was a scene in the first episode 2nd season (air date 14/11/12 BBC) where a woman, I forgot her name, is seen dishing left over food into the bin. Britain completely came off rationing on July 4th 1954 after fourteen years of rationing. In fact rationing in the immediate post-war years was worse than during the war & without American aid there would have been the real threat of starvation. I doubt three years later in 1957 even a member of the middle-class as this woman was would have been gingerly chucking a lorry load of food into the bin.

This is my first post since 23/5/11.

[–] likeadeer 11 years ago

It was a plate full of food Marnie had made for her husband, Hector, and she was chucking it in a fit of anger because he wasn't coming home. Moreover, she's hardly middle-class and comes from money, so she's a bit more privileged than most house-wives of the era.

[–] ib011f9545i 11 years ago

Was post war rationing really worse than during the war?
I am sure you can convince me of that I don't claim to be an expert on the details,you are certainly correct in one way it was worse because bread was rationed after the war because Britain had to feed so many people in occupied Germany.
They made a special information film to show in Britain because people were so upset about bread rationing.

If period dramas like THE HOUR make people interested in British history I am pleased,but don't read Dominic Sandbrook he is a shallow populist who is never off the telly or out of the papers.
I prefer Hennessey or KO Morgan.

[–] therealshapeshifter 11 years ago

If there was rationing in 1957, even though she was wealthy, throwing away food would underscore her anger at her philandering husband--and it would fit with her walking out on him in anger in the restaurant scene too.

[–] Squeeth2 11 years ago

~~~~~Dominic Sandbrook he is a shallow populist~~~~~

How well put. Try Paul Addison's trilogy.

Rationing officially ended in 1954 but for us poor it's a permanent part of life. Musn't grumble though, those guns and bombs have to be paid for somehow....

Marlon, Claudia and Dimby the cats 1989-2005, 2007 and 2010.

[–] ib011f9545i 11 years ago

Yes well we could let nazi Germany take over the world,but of course rationing was good for poorer people because it was fair.
I have read ADDISON's ROAD TO 1945 and WHEN THE WAR WAS OVER but what was the 3rd book?

[–] chicago85 11 years ago

Years ago I read 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff and watched the movie. The book is based on her letters for over 20 years to a bookseller at that location. She lived in New York and bought second hand books from them. In the movie Anthony Hopkins would visit old estates being broken up to buy classic books at a pittance from their libraries. Her book begins in 1949 with her unable to find many classic texts in Nw York.

She also ordered boxes of gift food from Scandanavian countries sent to them at holiday times due to the continuing rationing in England in the 1950's.

I would recommend the book and movie to anyone interested in that period in England and the US.