Electric Dreams

The digital wilderness of the 1970s is decidedly low-tech, and the family face many challenges. They endure a spell without central heating and get to grips with the suburban favourite, the teasmade. They see the effects of '70s industrial unrest on their home when they experience a power cut, and home entertainment becomes even more limited when their newly-arrived colour television breaks down. But it's not all grim - the arrival of chopper bikes, the first video game, and a mix-tape expert who shows them how to create the soundtrack for their very own slide show all help to prove that life in the 1970s had its upside too.

The digital wilderness (still) of the 1980s brings iconic technology such as the Walkman, Game and Watch and the CD player, but for a modern family it remains a decade of challenges. They attempt to cook a roast dinner in a 1980 microwave oven, as consumers of the time were encouraged to do. They are faced with a bewildering choice of 1982 home computers and the arduous task of finding a rental shop that still supplies films on video cassette for their newly-arrived VHS player. Dad takes a spin in the most famous technological flop of the decade, the Sinclair C5, but the family do experience an '80s success story when New Wave icons Ultravox pay a surprise visit to demonstrate the synthesiser technology which soundtracked the era.

Amid the communication and home entertainment revolution of the 1990s, the family attempt to stay in touch using pagers and take a giant mobile phone and a rudimentary digital camera on a day trip to Paris in honour of the opening of the Channel Tunnel in 1994. Workplace technology becomes increasingly portable, but a home without access to the internet proves frustrating, and the arrival of the 1990s world wide web is a far cry from what the kids are used to. Whirlwind technological progress inundates the family with gadgets and upgrades that infiltrate every area of their home, and they are left reeling by the pace of change and surprised by the impact of 1990s tech on family life.