PIZZA delivery woman Yvonne Edwards is prepared for some odd looks from customers tonight. Those switched on to Tyne Tees Television will see her recalling her childhood in Darlington in the 1950s and 1960s. "It'll be strange if I go to the door and they're watching the programme," she says.

Yvonne, who was born and lived in the town all her life, is one of eight people from different backgrounds in the North-East talking about growing up in a period of social change in When We Were Kids.

The times moved from the legacy of post-war Britain to the swinging, anything goes Sixties. Archive colour film, much previously unseen, and photographs are used to evoke the era as well as personal testimonies.

"Although the 1950s were austere, the war was over and there was great hope for the future," says Geoff Phillips, author of a book that ties in with the six-part series.

"We were still on rationing but it was a wonderful era to grow up in because everyone was pulling together. Gradually, decent food and clothing were coming into the shops again, and television was coming to the fore with the Coronation which sparked a lot of people to buy sets.

"Then at the turn of the decade, once we got into the 1960s and we were in our teens, there was a terrific change, an explosion of choice in terms of food, clothing, entertainment and music. And we were part of it."

Byker-born Geoff recalls family holidays at Butlins in Filey as well as games of cowboys and Indians which lasted for days during the summer holidays. "The games were like TV soaps, they would pick up next day where they'd left off the day before," he says.

Before he became an engineering apprentice at C A Parsons, he and his mates - "we were rascals" - would climb over the fence into Parsons field and play among the hundreds of wooden packing cases, from coffin-size to ones as big as double-decker buses. "This was an ideal place for kids to play as there were no green fields or children's playgrounds," he adds.

Yvonne's father was a fruit and potato merchant in Darlington, and she remembers him having to diversify to compete with the arrival of supermarkets.

Perhaps her biggest contribution to the series concerns the social change as teenagers got a voice for the first time. "I had a different upbringing to my friends and felt driven to tell people," she says of her participation in the series. "It was a chance to put the record straight. I've had a lot of criticism in my life and not a lot of people know the facts. I became pregnant at 17 and was ex-communicated by the family, which is very different to how things are today."

Her father signed the certificate for her to get married but never spoke to her again. "He died three years ago and I've always lived in hope there would be some sort of reconciliation," she says. "It was a rebellious time, everyone had new-found freedom and couldn't handle it. We didn't have the experience of handling what was affecting us, coming from quite a sheltered background."

Newcastle-born local history writer Dorothy Rand's memories of growing up are happier. The series makers took her back to the house in Burnopfield where she grew up, and to Whitley Bay where she spent her holidays.

"Whitley Bay has changed so much, it's unbelievable," she says. "I hadn't been back for 20 years and was horrified. It used to be packed out whenever we went at the weekend or holidays. Now it's just so empty, deserted and rundown."

She didn't rebel although she recalls going to Marks & Spencer at Easter in 1956 determined to buy something fashionableand returned home with a bucket bag. "I've still got it because it's symbolic of me doing what I wanted to do and sort of leading instead of being led," she says.

Her wedding reception was in the Methodist chapel hall where alcohol was not permitted. "The minister said we could have communion wine. The best man, who wasn't a Methodist, had a lot to drink and was disgusted by the communion wine. He found a maggot in the cork."

Robert Harrison welcomed the chance to relive his younger years for the TV series. He's already written of them in his novel Yesterday's Innocents about growing up in the five streets of Southwick in Sunderland.

"The world was so much different to the one we live in now," he says. "When I'm asked if my family was poor, I tell them a church mouse was a lottery winner compared with us. We were brought up in a two-bedroomed cottage and there were six of us.

"We had a very interesting, good and close childhood."

Among his memories are following a man going down the terraced streets putting chocolate samples behind every door. Young Robert and his mates pinched all the samples and ate them, only to discover that it was laxative chocolate.

His upbringing is contrasted with the more privileged background of Sir Josslyn Gore-Booth, born and raised at Raby Castle near Staindrop. He has happy memories. "The sun always shone. I had a very odd upbringing but people were enormously kind to me," he says.

There was a class divide between his family and people working on the estate but he describes it as "an extremely friendly set-up", adding: "People appeared to enjoy working on the place."

He always thinks of Raby Castle of that period as being like Gormenghast Castle in Mervyn Peake's gothic Titus Groan stories. "It was very much that sort of world. Many had worked there all their lives but the place is so large and remote."

When We Are Kids begins on Tyne Tees Television tonight at 7.30pm.

The book is available by sending a cheque or postal order for £11.95 made payable to Tyne Tees Television to When We Were Kids Book, PO Box 1AL, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE99 1AL.