KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON

Lucy Worsley meets people who lived through the Blitz

- SEAN MARLAND, IAN MACEWAN

NEW HISTORY

Blitz Spirit with Lucy Worsley

Tuesday, BBC1 HD, 8.30pm

On 7 September 1940, the streets and suburbs of Britain were turned into a wartime battleground as the Luftwaffe began a devastating eight-month bombing campaign of London and other strategic UK cities, which became known as the Blitz.

Some 40,000 people were killed by German bombs, and more than two million houses damaged or destroyed, and the spirit of the ordinary people who carried on in the face of such adversity continues to be celebrated to this day. Now, in her new documentary, historian Lucy Worsley tries to separate fact from fiction.

SEARCHING THE ARCHIVES

‘Lots of people think everyone pulled their weight during the Blitz and that helped us win the war,’ says Worsley. ‘Others think the “Blitz spirit” was a propaganda device created by the British government to encourage the Americans to join the war. The truth is somewhere in the middle – because while lots of people volunteered and put themselves in harm’s way, it certainly wasn’t a blanket thing.’

In a bid to discover the truth, Worsley went through the archives to find six people who served on London’s front line, including Barbara Nixon, who volunteered as an ARP [air-raid precautions] warden.