What's in a 1977 HANDBAG? | That's Life! | Voice of the People | BBC Archive

Have you every found yourself pondering; what did women keep in their handbags back in the 1970s? Well this is the clip for you, as Esther Rantzen conducts some vox pops asking 1970s women that very question.
The results may shock you - if you've never owned a handbag, and are easily shocked.
Originally broadcast 13 March, 1977.
You have now entered the BBC Archive, a time machine that will transport you back to the golden age of TV to educate, entertain and enlighten you with classic clips from the BBC vaults.
Make sure you subscribe so that you never miss a single stop on our amazing journey through the BBC Archive - kzbin.info?...

[@winterbas8927]

That wasn't a handbag, it was the TARDIS.

[@tombeasley4769]

Yes. It must have been.

[@lifestapestry2968]

This womans handbag is the contents of everyone's spare drawer in their house

[@r.a.c.h6172]

Brilliant hahahahaha

[@jeffrey44]

In those days if Esther Rantzen asked you to empty your handbag in the street, you did it, no questions.

[@markbumford8076]

Every Sunday night our family used to sit down and watch That's Life! Makes me think of my dear late mum and dad, bless their beautiful hearts.

[@stevenjohnson7442]

Likewise.

[@markbumford8076]

@@stevenjohnson7442 that's good to hear

[@atomictraveller]

the one i still remember 40+ years and god knows how many thousands of miles, was from the illegible signatures feature.. name "rudy cock"

[@Greenwillow]

Half expecting a coat stand and the kitchen sink☺️

[@thatcandont]

The fact that this ended up on KZbin years later 🤌

[@EdinburghSquirrel]

In the good old days, when someone having a knife in their bag was funny.

[@r.a.c.h6172]

😐😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@puffypuff9779]

My Mum until her death aged 94 last year always carried a knife. She said she could never find the cutlery in McDonalds.

[@kmanyrivers]

before the internet..I actually sort of envy the intimacy of this voyerism. lol

[@TheConorsmithusa]

this is like a comedy sketch haha

[@vitothepizzaguy7475]

Shes Mary bloody Popins

[@angelaegan7511]

And not a mobile phone in sight!!!!!!🤣

[@kristofferhellstrom]

haha.. Such a lovely video. The BBC has some real treasures in their archive

[@arsenalfan9892]

I've been binge watching these n loving it

[@kristofferhellstrom]

@@arsenalfan9892 Mmm. A window to the past!

[@b3ans4eva]

The real life bag of holding.

[@ShaunakHub]

"Why you have so many screws ?" - she asks. I ask - Why she has so many knives ? 😱

[@matthewprince9705]

Was the first one a flick knife 😮Or a butter knife?

[@rachelcookie321]

Probably took them to work to eat her lunch with then forgot about them.

[@lewistremonti7827]

We worry about youths of today carrying knifes! I think we should worry about 30+ women 😂

[@jacquelinehillson9589]

Ha ha ha absolutely

[@AlisonBryen]

Facts. Society needs to fear us!

[@sandradee131]

that lady at the end already has the lady Di hair style 🤗🖒

[@Dboss74]

everyone was terribly posh 45 years ago 🤣

[@Pobotrol]

I don't suppose they interviewed working class women.

[@scottsutton140]

It’s like the generation game in that bag.

[@handsfree1000]

That was a great program, very imaginative. Esther Rantzen was great

[@andrewlilley3660]

Esther Rantzen and the word great don't go together.

[@adailydaughter6196]

I love this channel. Cause I love humans 😍... And can we take a moment to appreciate the GORGEOUS afros the young lads are sporting 😁✨👍

[@digitalmediafan]

What a lovely woman and certainly the first one also...from a safer better nicer world

[@swiggsoclock]

Thinking that the 70s were safer, better and nicer is naïve, fallacious and sentimental

[@digitalmediafan]

@@swiggsoclock They were, less people less crime think about it

[@mollyfilms]

@@digitalmediafan this isn’t actually true. There was as much crime but different crime back in the 70s. Security for houses, cars etc was woeful. Burglary was a lot more than today. The other small item was media wasn’t as it is today. Today things are reported which back in the 70s may have not been because it’s so much easier to report online etc. If you look at the national crime report todays crime is so much different in scope than back then. Also laws have been introduced to make things a crime which weren’t then also. Very hard to get your head around it’s changed so much.

[@digitalmediafan]

@@mollyfilms yes ok well I'd like to think it was better back then but no probably not. A lot went on which would never have been reported unlike now. Even the most trival crimes are read or heard about these days

[@oddities-whatnot]

@@mollyfilms Do you have the crime figures from the 1970s then, to show us there was as much crime as today ? Probably not.

[@MarcoNegrisEye]

Wish she took a letterbox out after the apple and said to Esther "Go on then prove it!"

[@ucheucheuche]

Everyone's reaction is what's interesting.

[@silverkitty2503]

i love this

[@rachelcookie321]

My mum’s handbag is exactly the same. I bet she’s got a bunch of cutlery in there right now. She always brings it to work and then forgets it’s in there. My mum definitely has a lot more rubbish in here though. And a lot more pens.

[@Sugi1971]

She is Mary Poppin... I was waiting for the lamp to be pull out of her handbag. She is worst than me, she got the kitchen sink too.

[@wibblywobblytimeywimey4669]

Bigger on the inside 😂😂

[@atomictraveller]

saw this, we left for arizona in 1980, now i work chainsawing in the desert. larfing then i think, i carry a "murse" and it's about as bad :) comb for cactus.. little pliers for cactus.. little mirror.. for cactus.. magnifying glass et c that was a fun write i just started riffing on that cactus thing

[@summerrr1]

Interests piqued and ready to pounce at 0:20

[@jacquelinefoote8081]

And my sink 🤣

[@chap666ish]

Goodness knows why we laughed at That's Life. But, at the time, we did. Every Sunday night...

[@junipercosmic6841]

"sausages" 🐶

[@stephenguppy8886]

Trouble was, in the era of 3 channels, there was bugger all else on. Fester Bloody Rancid.

[@atomictraveller]

we moved to the states in 1980 no "that's life" but "that's incredible!" no "the goodies" but "the bugaloos" part of me basically did and has been dead since i saw the bugaloos and realised americans watch this

[@Mayo501]

That baby behind them is probably older than most of us watching.

[@SA-de4lc]

Ms. Bean lol

[@lizaluk]

Those are mine screw felt somewhere in airport haha

[@SiouxieSioux]

This is why people say women have everything but the kitchen sink in their handbags😅! That was alot of unessacary rubbish but impressive 👏🏼 👏🏼👏🏼😅

[@bargepoled]

Mary Poppins

[@moaningpheromones]

I was 31 days old - hmmm

[@johnathandaviddunster38]

Mrs macgyver.....

[@eminanbar4700]

everyone laughed at the knife in those days but now it’s usual thing

[@mirahsamiyahrajwan7903]

I hope it was plastic knives that woman had . Looks like she carried a heavy handbag...

[@Loumains]

No children for the women who has a lot of screws 🙈

[@Iska70]

Where is iPhone?

[@sallyosullivan5717]

I had wallet, coin purse lipstick biro old tickets pictures etc and other junk!today wallet coin purse cell fone folding umbrella shopping bag-sm tissues in holder 🐹

[@SimirJohnson]

Where do they carry their iPhone??

[@TheConorsmithusa]

haha funny or their ipods

[@SimirJohnson]

@@TheConorsmithusa or their vibrators

[@kiki__-ch2em]

I wonder who that lady was/is? So poised reminds me a little of Princess Diana. Those were the days before mobile phones and internet. See? They thrived. Bring back the good old days!

[@karmasutra4774]

She might be passed by now. But really Interesting to see this like a time capsule

[@Maxlump]

Todays hand bag ,credit card ,phone ,lipstick, earbuds, bottox appointment card, paracetamol.

[@jemmajames6719]

Typical woman’s handbag

[@jasondavis8886]

Was she a cleptomaniac?

[@spider-ham7140]

Crack 🤔 💼

[@kaitlyn__L]

When she says she was previously feeling quite good about the umbrella 🥲 This really shows how never emptying a bag is not new at all!