watching through a colander

Yes, all you say corresponds to my experience here... so we are the last generation to know what a real childhood was... today's children or young people can't even imagine what they have missed!

We are lucky too that we didn't grow up in the previous centuries, where many children had no childhood at all, having to work (in England) long hours in factories or climbing chimneys. And in some countries child labour still goes on today.

Here's a wonderful example of the English accent in those days!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI8D1DmJTlE

Oh yes! Very typical, and probably the same of some other documentary I saw. I have to say that to me it's very easy to understand because each word is pronounced clearly and plainly.
On the contrary there is one kind of accent/pronunciation in today Britons which I find very difficult, I call it "cracking English" because it sounds like the cracking of small fireworks. Most of the words are cropped and you only hear single syllables difficult for me to put together. One example is this bloke here, who I know well because I've watched several boat tests made by him: youtu.be/ub22bhf3TYo despite having heard him speaking a lot of times I still can't follow his whole speech, understanding only single words here and there...

Now, I'm curious to know: which part of England is he from? And which class? Dealing with yachts he could be upper class (or upper crest as you call it), or upper middle class, but that does not fit with my experience.