Under Pressure

By the middle of the decade, Britain felt like an embattled nation, facing threats from enemies within as well as without; a nation struggling to establish an identity on the global stage, and also to re-establish what it means to be British.

This was the period that forever marked the 80s as a decade of conflict and division. But not all those conflicts were obvious - some were fought with bullets, others with money; some were fought in our homes, others in our heads.

This episode examines everything from the invasion of the Falkland Islands to the invasion of the home computer and the moral panic surrounding ‘video nasties'; from the Americanisation of our popular culture to the picket line skirmishes playing out nightly on our televisions; from the spectre of AIDS and the threat of the IRA, to immigration and identity politics.