Signs of the Times originally came about as a collaboration between director Nick Barker and photographer Martin Parr, as a BBC fly-on-the-wall documentary in the 1990s. It is considered an early version of the reality television that is such a mainstay in today's landscape. In order to gain access to people's homes a call out was placed in the national and regional press asking for volunteers for a programme documenting people's homes and tastes. Clearly the British public weren't shy as over two thousand people applied and from that, fifty were chosen from a range of ages, races, genders and social backgrounds.