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Love and Marriage: A 20th Century Romance

Steve Humphries

Love and Marriage: A 20th Century Romance: Episode 2: To Love and Obey

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Factual: Families & Relationships

To Love and Obey

Episode 2

Episode 2: To Love and Obey

BBC Four - Love and Marriage: A 20th Century Romance, To Love and Obey

How, in the 1960s, the traditional ideals of marriage were questioned and challenged.

How, in the 60s and 70s, the traditional ideals of marriage were questioned and challenged as never before by rebellious youth, feminism and the permissive society.

This three-part series follows the ups and downs of marriage in Britain from the 1900s to the present day using the deeply moving personal stories of couples and their children, from all walks of life.

In the 1960s and 70s the traditional ideals of marriage were questioned as never before. These were decades of greater affluence, optimism and experimentation, in which rebellious youth was in the vanguard of a cultural revolution. One of the archetypal feminist rebels of this period was Rosie Boycott and the co-founder of Spare Rib describes why she once rejected marriage and how she lived the 'sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll' lifestyle to the point of self-destruction. The sexual experimentation of the period is captured by Anne Geraghty and Martin Gerrish, who joined the Orange People and lived in free love communes, but ended up marrying each other. 

Divorce was on the increase during the 1960s and 70s, made possible by divorce law reform. Convent girl Maureen Flanagan married an Irish navvy who resented her career as a model, and when she became the Sun's first Page Three girl their marriage was over. Debutante Fiona McCarthy escaped the upper-class marriage she loathed after meeting and falling in love with Sheffield silversmith David Mellor - and marrying him. 

Yet despite the increase in divorce, marriage was very popular and the majority of marriages remained quite conventional. In the so-called Swinging Sixties there were still many virgin brides like Alan and Judith Kettly, who tell the moving story of their courtship, while black Labour peer Rosalind Howells describes her successful mixed-race marriage.

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Following the ups and downs of marriage in Britain from the 1900s to the present day

Three part series following the ups and downs of marriage in Britain from the 1900s to the present day using the deeply moving stories of couples, and their children, from all walks of life.

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Love and Marriage: A 20th Century Romance

Episode 2: To Love and Obey

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