The match girls developed "phossy jaw", but MANY MANY years later the girls who worked in dial-painting factories developed radium jaw, in which the teeth fell out and the lower jaw eventually came off. People don't learn.

I’m watching this from Nashville, Tennessee. As a young married - about 20 years ago - I worked in a local assisted living home. One of our residents was an English woman who was a young woman in London during the Blitz. I encouraged her to share all of the memories about that time as she liked. Her recollections were fascinating, am I’m so lucky to have heard them.

I thought it was going to be about a person who made romantic matches hahaha

The thing about living in the countryside during the war...before I switched majors from photography to jewelry the jewelry professor was an older English gentleman. We had artists come talk about their work when it was displayed in the gallery and he had a display. He told us all about getting out of bed, the view from the bomb shelter doorway laying next to his little sister, and the Christmas that Santa brought him a real airplane. He heard a loud boom and crash and out in the snowy field was a real plane! His mother went out, and told him to put on a kettle and get some of the Christmas biscuits they had just made. So she retrieved the German pilot, sat him at the kitchen table, with the children, she called the police, and they all sat there as the sun came up sharing tea and biscuits until the police arrived. I thought...Dang his mom was bad ass! She ran out there in her housecoat to make sure that the pilot wasn't injured, brought him in from the cold, fed him, but also called the cops because he was the enemy.

Turns out 90% of this is not about Victorian match makers

Tony's such a great storyteller.

Im not british but I love this channel! Its so informative and entertaining.

What a very interesting documentary. My parents were children here in the states during the war. I remember them telling us about their experiences, but then they'd talk about the British and what they knew about their experiences and the difference was striking. My great uncles were in the war and 2 were in d-day and they were very talkative about their time in Britain but not about their actual combat experiences.

I am addicted to your documentaires , I absolutely LOVE them ! They are all so interesting, entraining and fun , thank you ❤!

I looove this show. I’m beginning to feel like I know a lot more about English history than my own (American) lol

I was happy to hear attention given to Bethnal Green. 1878 my mother's relatives lived at 11 Bethnal St, When I found out about their existence in Victorian I learned a lot. They came to Australia to work in the mines of Mt Isa, Emerald, and Mt Morgan. Hard people they were.

It must be so awesome to know your history like this, I'm literally jealous of Sarah's great great grand daughter 😩

Love this documentary, being able to look into the world of ur average victorian.😊and Tony Robinson is an amazing storyteller.

Kinda frustrating to hear bout how hard these ppl worked just to live in impoverished conditions while their employers could have cared less bout them all n forced the women to work 6 grueling days with no breaks except a lunch hour that was controlled too (forced to eat inside the factory on in the floor in a phosphorus filled environment.) crazy, man.

My grandfathers brother fought in the war sadly almost a year he was killed while guarding a bridge I think a few days before D-Day I am told he was a very smart young man I would have loved to have met him

I remember. An Incendiary Bomb went through the roof and into our bed. My Sister and I survived because my Mother woke us up one minute before to go downstairs to the air raid shelter in the garden. My Mum used to wait til the bombing was really bad to wake us up. God Bless our Mum.💕🕊

Growing up as a kid, I actually managed to keep my self very well clothed from the Army and Navy surplus store. Most of which was surplus from both WW1 and WW2. It was very good quality clothing. I remember buying a full set of woollen winter clothing for as little as $2, which I worse continuously for the next 3 winters.

The Black Beauty soundtrack brought a huge smile to my face😊. Hadn't heard it in years, and it's always been one of those uplifting tunes that draw me right back to those childhood days. I really enjoy this series you're putting out, thank you ❤

Very informative, and of course well done by Tony Robinson. Great editing as well!

I love this channel, and you are one of my favorite host. I love finding out all these cool stories. You find out little bits of your history add to paint a bigger brighter picture. On my mom's side we have family that came over on the Mayflower and I'm a descendant of William Bradford governor of the colony, our family name is in the Book of Harold, my sister's got to go see but I have not got to go there. And on my dad side he's half Italian half German and he was born here. When it always came to Family Tree stuff in school I always had to do the bigger presentation cuz I always had more of the paperwork and everything but my mom's the one that's got ahold of all that stuff and actually keeps finding out more stuff

22:20 wild that it actually went "can you make labor laws so women aren't exploited in the coal mines?" "no" "did I mention they're topless?" "say no more"

"Nothing the Victorians liked more than setting fire to things." That was cute 😄

I absolutely love these videos, they make my day a lot brighter. Thank you ❤

Tony Robinson at his best. And the rest of the team and actors in no way behind a step!! Excellent film. Special for a - non Brit - like me, to make me understand what it indeed it was in the - good old times -. Though i wonder if anyone still remembers, not me, I only have heard about it, packets of OMO washing powder in certain windows. OMO meaning -Old Man Out- and the lady of the house was ready to have some fun on the side...

"Wow, dating sounds really hard during Victorian times. What's up with that? OOHHHHHHHH, matches-matches."

My grandfather (rest his soul) went to boarding school that was in eyesight of the largest RAF training ground in the UK. It got attacked at one point when he was about 9 or 10 and remembers it as this hugely exciting thing all the boys thought was just the coolest ever (though they used different words lol). I looked back as an adult and found records of it; 57 englishmen died and over a hundred germans did, with heaps of planes being shot down or crashing into the hills/coast. Utterly horrific, but I guess my grandfather was innoculated against that? Funny thing was, his dad was a congregationalist minister (which was a 180° turn from his earlier days as a prod in northern ireland.. yeahhh), and was an PoW pretty early on in the war, where he stayed for the duration, and actually was given the opportunity to return home as part of a POW exchange, but for some reason unknown to us he never did (plot twist, we _had_ never known but have a strong suspicion we know why now....). He was allowed to tour the camps as he was the highest ranking CoE minister (or vicar? not sure what they call the clergy in CoE) but because of that under religious grounds they cycled him thru various PoW camps, including Colditz, which he was at during the escape (but had no part in it). We were always curious, so tried to get more info about his time in the war in about 2015 or 2016... but MI6 said it was all still classified?? We had to apply do declassify it, but we got a lot of info, despite heavy redactions... turns out that he was literally a spy. He was instructed, as part of his task, to pretty much let himself be captured on purpose and was then used as a vehicle to smuggle maps and attack plans and such things in his hymnbook in invisible ink, and he got away with it due to the agreed neutrality of churchmen he wasn't as vigorously searched/attacked and thus got away with it and none of us knew a thing, as he never said a word before he died. Totally wild thing to discover. We think it was classified still because it's kind of breaking the rules of war, using a churchman to participate; like how the modern CIA won't ever pretend to be journalists or clergymen... it's playing dirty and is pretty dangerous to risk such agreements that are supposed to keep both sides honest in war... But perhaps that was the sort of man he was, an angry, redheaded irishman with an accent so thick you could barely understand him, as my mother tells it. He was, unfortunately, also a very cruel man, and tormented my mother, and neglected his wife and children emotionally, and he was like that before the war but had a mental breakdown after, where he was catatonic for about 4 months and spent 8 months in a sanatorium recovering. He must've seen some horrible stuff. Funnily enough my great grandfather on my dad's side of the family was a veteran of WW1, battle of the Somme. He lay in the mud for 3 days, a bullet wedged in and almost through his sternum, mere mm from his heart (which stayed there his whole life like fekn tony stark) before someone kicked him and he groaned; he used to recount the "Oi, this one's still alive!" to my grandfather when he was a kid, but that was really all he said about the war. He was a swedish sailor, but had an english mother and was educated in britain so felt a nationalistic pride and enlisted, despite being like 42 (he said he was 37, and did look like 10 years younger than he was, I saw the pictures). He was a 6'7" giant of a man, and was a man of few words. He was also born in _1887_ and _his_ grandfather was born in _1770._ When he married my great grandmother (who I did know) when he was 47, and she was 29, and his father and grandfather all married when they were in their 40's or 50's so there are shockingly few generations (only five!!) compared to most people that link me back to the 18th century on that one line. There are a more normal amounts on my other lines (a much more normal 7 to 10 generations) across the same stretch of time. It's bananas.

What is sad is we are and have lost many that are our true historians, those who lived during some of these times, eg early war soldiers. History, now relies on theorist’s and old relics. We must learn from what we have before it’s gone.

Funny. It was in the 60s that I remember my mother referring to a girl she didn't 'approve' of as a 'shop girl'

Would have been nice to have listed the demands which were met in the match factory.

It's amazing how much information historians find

Excellent British sense of humour throughout! 😂

thank you for a daily life historical view of the common people

You always hear about the old days "when women didn't work." When was that, exactly? It seems like women have always worked...

I'm so glad of this program because there are film depictions of the London, we're from Deptford, of my English ancestors. The degrees of separation are now too great for me to feel any emotional belonging yet because we all have to be from somewhere the London Docks area suits me well and I feel the good fortune because of this.

No wonder lifespans were so short.

I was half expecting the story of Angus the ditch digger, and tunnel miner to end with something to do with a sheep 😂

It's interesting to know how women were banned from mining: that it happened after some hysteria about alleged indecency (partial nudity), and that this was neither the natural state of things nor done out of any practical concern for women's health/safety.

Actually the full quote is " The customer is always right in matters of taste" soneven if the hat ghastly you couldn't tell them that just let them buy it.

I recall Deparment Stores in the US having the floor clerks put the money and sales ticket in a vacuum tube and it was sent upstairs to the Accounting Office. Change if there was sent back the same way with the receipt. . This was the 1950s through 70s. I used to watch those tubes fly over the ceiling. Sales for many years happened like that since Victorian Times.

We would die if we had to work that hard 😂, I never realized how hard they worked, crazy, people today would not put up with that shit and I wouldn’t either.

Hubert, the man who distributed G.U.N.S. newspapers, as well as the rest of those men have my utmost respect. Glad Hubert was able to make it out of the Nazi’s grasp. Screw Nazis.

"GET STUFFED!" Wonderful retort to a higher rank.

I thought this was about matchmakers as in those who help set up people for marriage 😂😂

56:29 "I'm meeting Alex Jones, a war veteran and army historian to find out more." They had us in the first half, not gonna lie. XD

Took me way too long to realize it's not about setting people up. "Can't sleep" me is a moron.

I believe you owe every badger an apology!

LOL I thought this was about Love matchmakers and was so confused why that would give them a funny jaw 😂

Here I thought it was the Victorian Era "Perfect Match" TV show equivalent!!

I would have liked to have been a housekeeper in a country house. That sounds nice compared to these jobs!

i was think this was about the job of husband finder lol still a good show

Elizabeth such a amazing person

The horrible solution to enemies' invasion possibly could have ended from the start with poisoned bread.

For the story about the man who went on a trip to blackpool I was waiting for them to explain why his wife didn't wake up.....did anyone else think she died and he went to the beach anyway 😆🤣 like dam b*tch I had a whole day planned and you ain't gonna spoil it again! 🤣🤣🤣😅

It’s Tony!!!!! What a great surprise!

I thought when they said "matchmaker" they meant the modern term😂

You (Tony)act like you know history but then you pay out the woman that lived at the times… bless those that saw it thru her eyes..

Babs is adorable 😂

fun most likely fact this is the real life story behind the movie Enola Homes 2 I believe or at least this is what I believe the movie is about because the story seemed so similar to this real life situation that happened in history oh and this video has little if not not all to do with Victorian matchmaking

Lest we forget ❤ from 🇦🇺

I see Tony Robinson, I like it.

Renting part of a bed sounds like a great way to get no sleep.

35:31, coincidentally not much different than I am eating literally RIGHT NOW (onion soup by choice), and I am going back for a 3rd bowl, this is delicious

Lol I thought this would be about a match maker, not people who made matches.

Mining still kept using kids for another 100 years or so and even longer here in the USA. Why do we only change the most horrendous behaviors after MANY deaths of the innocent?

I knows my Queen had to be in this video. Because she was a great driver

I thought this was going to be all about the Victorian era, but that era ended in 1901. It was followed by the Edwardian era, which ended in 1910. The First World War commenced in July of 1914 and ended in November of 1918. Why is all of this being called/labeled Victorian?

I love Absolute history documentaries but the editing style of this particular one really feels more like for children than for adults, I couldn't watch it to the end, I just can't stand overuse of sound effects and whiplash editing, it completely breaks the immersion the viewer feels when watching something about an older period. Older Docus from this channel were much more easy to listen to and I really like them.

And here I thought this would be a video about matchmaking...LOL. Set her up with the wrong man and she'll be back for you!

9:40 doubtless the average person worked hard, but to ignore how colonialism (aka the empire) contributed to the wealth of the UK …. Many peoples and places around the world contributed (willingly or not) to building the wealth. I get that the harmful effects of colonialism isn’t something the average person would have been conscious of, but I guess I expect a little more critical analysis. I like learning what life was like for various people back in the day, but to describe how the UK gained wealth in these terms is really disappointing. Maybe I’m not the audience for a video like this.

21:08 That's not knitting, that's crocheting. The afghan on the back of the rocking chair was crocheted as well.

I find it very annoying that he mentions the wages of these hard working people in history without using any conversion rate as to what it would be today.

Imagine if some cataclysmic event took place and knocked out the world's electric, and people today had to work 1/2 this hard until the grids could be repaired.

33:50 "Four candles" "No... fork-handles! Handles for forks!"

I truly love the stupid questions Tony asks, “did you ever use that tube again?” And she’s like “yeah, every night”, I mean, of course you twit, use your head, it’s a bomb shelter in the middle of war during air raids, where else are they supposed to go? Don’t get me wrong, I love these historical doc shows, but man do they need a better host, he’s just awful

Fantastic video.

Maybe this is where the term “matchmaker” comes from…they would strike up a “flame” 😉

Too much drink seems to nearly always caused mean and violent behaviors.

Very interesting!

Oh a literal match maker lolol

I thought this was about a romantic match 😒.

I learn so much here,lo,thanks v your work

How could a Match Girl earn £16.00 a week? My first job at 18 years as a Secretary in London earned £4.10 shillings a week in 1954?

Enola Holmes 2 anyone? Sarah Chapman is one of the main characters and it’s all about the mistreatment in the match making factory

By the way, "shindig" was coined around the early 60's...to celebrate, party 🎉

I know and understand why my ancestors left England. Gah😱

If someone can name that song around an hour 20 I'll be happy

I improve my english and It's so interresting and funny. It's so english humor.

Matches barely light at all these days. 😂

The Victorians also loved killing things; Pheasants. (Major bird shoots, fox hunting,etc,

I love this channel, but have no idea why they geo-block the UK

My dumb ass thinking this was gonna be about people who arrange marriages

Joy beaver ?? LOL, poor girl

But like what happened to Marianne?

Oh I thought it was about a matchmaker like in woman with potions and charms

3rd world countries, many still are in these conditions, think about it.

Workers were not permitted to take lunch outdoors? Why?

Strike on Box Only matches are worthless.

Queen Elizabeth ❤

23:31 JUST LIKE QUEEN VICTORIAS WAISTLINE- STOP I JUST CHOKED ON MY CEREAL

We don't know how good we have it