Pass It On: funny, fascinating and useful retro household tips from the 1950s

Steve sets out to help everyone’s households run better, with a selection of tips culled from across the Sunday Post, which show special, secret ways of doing things – true life hacks! There’s a massive tangent on playground games, and Chris get perplexed about a matchbox.

You can get 20% off the Pass It On books themselves – as a gift for a friend or even yourself! – at dcthomsonshop.co.uk, using the discount code ‘vinegar’ at checkout; that code is valid till 20 November 2019! Let us know what you think of the show at twitter.com/ThePassItOnPod or facebook.com/PassItOnTips, and if you know anyone who’d enjoy the podcast as much as you do – pass it on!

Agreement dawns around the mics as Connie, Steve and Chris all say they’d like to see life skills taught in schools, Chris is perplexed by why a tip for using a brush which has become worn in the middle would be necessary, and we discover that there’s something about life in the 1950s that Steve doesn’t know!

You can get 20% off the Pass It On books themselves – as a gift for a friend or even yourself! – at dcthomsonshop.co.uk, using the discount code ‘vinegar’ at checkout; that code is valid till 20 November 2019! Let us know what you think of the show at twitter.com/ThePassItOnPod or facebook.com/PassItOnTips, and if you know anyone who’d enjoy the podcast as much as you do – pass it on!

As they look back at some of the adverts that appeared alongside the Pass It On tips in the 50s, Connie, Steve and Chris discuss whose job it is to polish shoes, the economic independence women gave themselves with Ann Summers and Tupperware, and they wrestle with the complex moralities of real versus faux fur. Connie also gets terribly confused about roller-skates. 

You can get 20% off the Pass It On books themselves – as a gift for a friend or even yourself! – at dcthomsonshop.co.uk, using the discount code ‘vinegar’ at checkout; that code is valid till 20 November 2019! Let us know what you think of the show at twitter.com/ThePassItOnPod or facebook.com/PassItOnTips, and if you know anyone who’d enjoy the podcast as much as you do – pass it on!

Harking back – or droning on, depending on your perspective – once more to the ‘Make Do And Mend’ attitude of the Second World War, Steve rhapsodises about repairing stuff, Chris quotes Socrates as evidence that the kids are alright, and Connie wonders what everyone's favourite emoji is.

You can get 20% off the Pass It On books themselves – as a gift for a friend or even yourself! – at dcthomsonshop.co.uk, using the discount code ‘vinegar’ at checkout; that code is valid till 20 November 2019! Let us know what you think of the show at twitter.com/ThePassItOnPod or facebook.com/PassItOnTips, and if you know anyone who’d enjoy the podcast as much as you do – pass it on!

The trio’s manly triple bill ends in suitably manly fashion, with not just a tip about stowing razor blades in a child’s money box, but also Steve’s point-blank refusal to entertain the idea of complimenting a man on his clothes. Plus – the Scottish word that sounds like standard English.

You can get 20% off the Pass It On books themselves – as a gift for a friend or even yourself! – at dcthomsonshop.co.uk, using the discount code ‘vinegar’ at checkout; that code is valid till 20 November 2019! Let us know what you think of the show at twitter.com/ThePassItOnPod or facebook.com/PassItOnTips, and if you know anyone who’d enjoy the podcast as much as you do – pass it on!

Fleming, Finan and Phin get stuck into more manliness this episode, including electric safety tips (and why one correspondent is talking about plugging things into lamps), an al fresco laundrette, and how the robots are taking our jobs. Plus! Connie is delighted to discover that she already swears by one of Steve’s tips!

You can get 20% off the Pass It On books themselves – as a gift for a friend or even yourself! – at dcthomsonshop.co.uk, using the discount code ‘vinegar’ at checkout; that code is valid till 20 November 2019! Let us know what you think of the show at twitter.com/ThePassItOnPod or facebook.com/PassItOnTips, and if you know anyone who’d enjoy the podcast as much as you do – pass it on!

Cower! Quake! Be in awe of the manliness of Steve Finan as we delve into tips from The Sunday Post that were all about the boys. Well, they were still written in by women, on the whole, and some of them might still encode some dodgy gender politics, but heigh-ho – listen and decide for yourself!

You can get 20% off the Pass It On books themselves – as a gift for a friend or even yourself! – at dcthomsonshop.co.uk, using the discount code ‘vinegar’ at checkout; that code is valid till 20 November 2019! Let us know what you think of the show at twitter.com/ThePassItOnPod or facebook.com/PassItOnTips, and if you know anyone who’d enjoy the podcast as much as you do – pass it on!

In a special extended edition of the podcast, Connie, Steve and Chris are joined by the editor-in-chief of the world’s longest-running women’s weekly magazine to mark the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II. It’s a complex subject – WWII is the deadliest military conflict in history – but it spurred the emancipation of women, exemplified the Pass It On spirit of improvisation and thrift, and generated a strong community spirit. Join the team as we pick out tips and more from The Sunday Post and The People’s Friend to get inside the heads of people living 80 years ago.

You can get 20% off the Pass It On books themselves – as a gift for a friend or even yourself! – at dcthomsonshop.co.uk, using the discount code ‘vinegar’ at checkout; that code is valid till 20 November 2019!

Plus, we’ve got a special discount for The People's Friend 150th Anniversary Special, telling the story of the Friend through a century and a half of history; quote ‘homefront’ at dcthomsonshop.co.uk to get 15% off until 2 October 2019.

Let us know what you think of the show at twitter.com/ThePassItOnPod or facebook.com/PassItOnTips, and if you know anyone who’d enjoy the podcast as much as you do – pass it on!

Steve suggested today’s topic – sensible advice for sensible women – with some trepidation, but will it be as unreconstructed and misogynistic as he fears? Join us to find out!

You can get 20% off the Pass It On books themselves – as a gift for a friend or even yourself! – at dcthomsonshop.co.uk, using the discount code ‘vinegar’ at checkout; that code is valid till 20 November 2019! Let us know what you think of the show at twitter.com/ThePassItOnPod or facebook.com/PassItOnTips, and if you know anyone who’d enjoy the podcast as much as you do – pass it on!

The bland, vapid ‘Thought For Today’ messages that were published in The Sunday Post are the springboard for a conversation that more than ever reveals the generational divide among Connie, Chris and Steve, covering corporal punishment, the police and – you knew it was coming, even if we didn’t when we started recording! – political correctness.

You can get 20% off the Pass It On books themselves – as a gift for a friend or even yourself! – at dcthomsonshop.co.uk, using the discount code ‘vinegar’ at checkout; that code is valid till 20 November 2019! Let us know what you think of the show at twitter.com/ThePassItOnPod or facebook.com/PassItOnTips, and if you know anyone who’d enjoy the podcast as much as you do – pass it on!