Sunderland Echo
·Aug 2026
A House Through Time review: Forget your kings and queens, history comes alive from the stories of ordinary people
David Olusoga’s new BBC2 series examines a house on Edinburgh’s Calton Hill through the lives of its ordinary residents around the turn of the 19th century. The review highlights stories of bankruptcy, political surveillance, French prisoners of war, craftsmanship and debt, including Post Office employee Francis Ronaldson’s efforts to intercept radical correspondence. It praises the programme for revealing how major historical changes such as the French Revolutionary Wars and Industrial Revolution affected everyday people, and concludes that its compelling storytelling makes history vivid and accessible.