TO remember those killed or injured in the Second World War Barrow Blitz, we are taking a look at the 2006 filming in the town for the award-winning drama Housewife 49.

The story of how actress Victoria Wood brought the wartime writings of Ilkley Road mum Nella Last to the nation’s TV screens was told by The Mail’s nostalgia writer Bill Myers to members of the Cumbria Family History Society at a conference at the Crooklands Hotel.

Filming at Parade Street and outside Barrow Town Hall took place in July and the drama was first broadcast in December.

Mrs Last, a helper with the Women’s Voluntary Service saw her son Cliff join the army and contributed two million words to the Mass Observation Archive — designed to record the impact of the war on those left behind.

She wrote daily about the sounds and sights as bombs fell on Barrow, particularly in April and May in 1941, leaving more than 80 dead, at least 300 injured and a quarter of the town’s housing stock damaged.

She described seeing bulging walls, gaping windows and people putting mattresses on hand-carts as they salvaged what they could from their wrecked homes.