ITV - Secrets from the Workhouse (2013) Part 1 The Last Resort

In Victorian society the workhouse represented the underbelly of society, where anyone who was poor, homeless, unemployed or ill was sent to live. With no benefits system in place, destitute people were either left to starve on the streets or forced to submit themselves to the harsh conditions of the workhouse where they worked ten hours a day doing menial tasks such as breaking rocks up or picking apart ropes.

Part 1: The Last Resort

Fern Britton, actor Brian Cox, author Barbara Taylor Bradford and model Kiera Chaplin - granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin - uncover the facts about how their families went from a life of poverty to end up in the workhouse. Fern is upset to find that her pauper ancestors would have had their bodies dissected for medical science as part of their welfare debt to society when they died in the workhouse. Brian's great grandfather was a low paid Irish immigrant who moved to Glasgow in search of work but ended up in Barnhill poorhouse. Barbara is shocked to discover her mother's secret workhouse past - she went into Ripon workhouse as a child when her own mother became pregnant. Kiera is horrified by the reign of terror endured by her family in the Lambeth workhouse.

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