The House the 50s Built: Season 1, Episode 2

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Professor Brendan Walker continues his exploration of the inventions that transformed drab post-war Britain into a Technicolor-drenched world of the future, focusing on the living room. A dramatic transformation reveals how science and technology banished the dark, formal, barely-used front room and replaced it with a bright, colourful beacon of 50s style that became a hub of family entertainment. Out with bulky sofas made of hessian and horse hair and in with comfortable, light chairs made of the 50s wonder material - foam. Out with lead-based paints that only came in camouflage colours and had to be mixed by a professional decorator, and in with vinyl emulsions in thrilling bright colours that could be bought off the shelf in a tin. This was the decade that offered a new democracy in colour and launched interior design. For the first time ordinary people had the materials and the money to make their homes truly their own. Along the way Brendan experiments with everything from the surprisingly simple ingredient that makes modern paint safe, to how to make your own designer chair with school glue.