Margaret Wilkins with Christopher, Gary Wilkins, Heather, the father Terry and behind him Gary's wife Karen holding Scott, and in front of them Marian in The Family
Marian Wilkins, pictured on the right with blonde hair, has spoken about the 1974 reality show The Family (Picture: BBC)

Marian Wilkins, one of the stars of the 1970s reality TV show The Family has revealed why she believes the series wouldn’t be made today.

In 1974, the BBC released a fly-on-the-wall documentary following the lives of a family of six and their extended relatives.

The Reading-based working-class family were filmed going about their daily lives in what became an honest portrayal of life in the 1970s – including the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The footage created just 12 half-hour episodes but a fundamental backbone to television in the UK.

The series has been credited with spawning family-based reality TV shows and was a cultural phenomenon in the 70s that was parodied by the likes Monty Python of at the time of release.

The family were criticised and hailed in spoofs as ‘The Most Awful Family in Britain 1974’.

Opening up about the impact of the show 50 years on, Marian Wilkins, who is the eldest child in the Wilkins family and was 19 when the series was filmed, opened up about her time on the show.

Gary and Karen Wilkins with their son Scott in The Family in 1974
Gary and Karen Wilkins with their son Scott (Picture: BBC)

‘We had all sorts of issues and problems in our family that a lot of people could relate to,’ Marian, who is now a hairdresser, told The Telegraph.

‘All we knew at that time was your soaps, so to have real people on the TV was quite a thing and for us to be those real people was a big deal. I was totally excited by it.’

She then revealed that she didn’t believe this show would now be made for one crucial reason.

‘The BBC could not put our programme on the television now, we couldn’t be shown on TV because we’re not politically correct,’ she said.

At various points in the show, offensive moments were aired as one of the daughters Heather commented that she didn’t like Pakistani people as ‘they smell’. Additionally, during the season Heather dated a mixed-race man named Melvin and was called a ‘blackie lover’ repeatedly.

The former reality TV star also said of the controversy surrounding their show: ‘We got a lot of nasty mail. People on the street treated us with great respect, they were always kind and friendly and nobody was rude or nasty to us in person.’

Conservative activist Mary Whitehouse campaigned for the BBC to pull the series from the air because of the loose morals and allusions to pre-marital sex.

Margaret Wilkins in a grocers in the series The Family in 1974
Margaret and Terry were the parents leading the family in the series (Picture: BBC)

Margaret and Terry, the parents who led the Wilkins family in the show, went on to divorce three years after the series aired.

Both remarried but have since passed with Margaret dying in 2008 at age 73 and Terry dying in 2016 at age 82.

‘We didn’t see anything wrong with the way we lived,’ Margaret said about their controversial series. ‘We were pioneers, the first real-life family to be on TV and no one else will ever be as good.’

Marian added in her interview with The Telegraph that she had no regrets in taking part in the series. ‘I think if everyone was honest they would say that they were glad they did it and, hopefully, proud that they did it. It’s history.’

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