The Wartime Kitchen and Garden, episode 6

I am making transcripts for The Wartime Kitchen and Garden, a fascinating series starring Ruth Mott and Peter Dodson, with a voiceover by Peter Thoday. This is episode six (of eight). [You’ll find the other transcripts, and other relevant posts, under the Home Front tag.]

Episode 6 transcript

00:54 [Peter Thoday] 1942, and a Lancaster bomber flies over Chilton gardens.  Heavy bombing raids against Germany now became more frequent.

01:05 [Harry Dodson] I, for one, I know I felt well, he’s getting now what he deserves, and if it will shorten the war, I think it should be done. Although, at the same time, there’s no doubt many of us felt that it was wrong.

01:23 [Peter Thoday] By November, there was a growing sense that the tide was beginning to turn. In North Africa, the 8th Army defeated Rommel at El Alamein.

02:00 [Peter Thoday] But if spirits got a lift, the stomach got no such comfort. The Battle of the Atlantic continued, and to save on wheat imports, the Ministry of Food produced the National Loaf. As Ruth Mott recalls, it wasn’t popular.

02:15 [Ruth Mott] It was so dry, always, because of course they’ve left so much more in it than when we have our bread like today. I used to rub it through a sieve sometimes, and try and get some of the husk out of it. But it dried so quickly. It was quite nice if you ate it today when it came, but the next day it was very dry.

02:40 [Peter Thoday] A greater percentage of wheat germ was left in the bread, reducing the amount of flour used. A lot of effort went into persuading people that the loaf was good for them. Chorus girls at the Windmill Theatre were photographed eating it. But to the British, brought up on a diet of fine white bread, the coarse grey loaf remained unappetising. Yet