Fifty Years Of Episode Guide

Episode Guide

• Fashion and Fads

  The changing face of fashion over the past 50 years, from underwear made out of World War Two parachute silk, and mini skirts that became all the rage during the 1960s thanks to Mary Quant, through the weird and wonderful creations of the punk era, to the styles of today

• Home and the Housewife

  New series focusing on the changes in British culture and society since the end of World War Two, beginning with the home, as quality council property became available and a DIY explosion took the nation by storm. Social historian Carl Chinn charts the evolution of the housewife's role as wartime munitions workers went back to the kitchen sink : until the rise of the women's liberation movement offered new opportunities

• Leisure and Pleasure

  A light-heated look at developments in the leisure industry since the end of the war, when feel-good Britain had never had it so good and seemed determined to enjoy new opportunities for travel and fun. Growing car ownership meant family trips to the coast replaced traditional village charabanc excursions, while the more adventurous booked the first package holidays abroad, and women found their own pursuits with the arrival of bingo

• Love and Marriage

  A look back at the sexual revolution which followed World War Two. As women on war service returned to the domestic hearth, advances in oral contraception, the women's rights movement, pink power and the relaxation of divorce laws conspired to ensure love and marriage would never be the same again

• The Queen

  Archive film, news reports and personal reminiscences chart the long reign of Queen Elizabeth II from the death of her father to her golden jubilee celebrations this year. In early 1952, King George VI died in his sleep while his daughter was on an official visit to Kenya : she was to return to Britain as Queen, with the coronation taking place 18 months later

• The Queen

  The 1980s saw press coverage of the royal family on an unprecedented scale with the arrival of Diana Spencer, who captured not only the Prince of Wales's affections, but also the hearts and minds of the nation. Although the fairy tale romance was not to last, the media lapped up the glamour and fun Diana brought to the monarchy, while noting the stormy relationship between the Queen and the other woman at Britain's helm, Margaret Thatcher

• The Queen

  In 1966, the Queen visited the South Wales village of Aberfan after a slag heap engulfed the school, killing 144 people and plunging the nation into shock. Her visit lifted the country's spirits, uniting the four corners of her realm in resolve, but Britain's changing society soon began to tell on the monarchy. The hardships of the 1970s highlighted the gulf between the royal family and their subjects, and the Queen authorised a documentary to address the problem, inadvertently paving the way for the intrusive and insatiable coverage of the 1990s

• The Queen

  The coronation provided a much-needed lift amid postwar austerity, bringing with it a new mood of optimism. Soon after her investiture the Queen visited the Midlands, delighting the crowds in Stoke-on-Trent and Walsall. Actor and musician Noddy Holder recalls his schoolboy memories of Elizabeth II along with the one-time head boy of Wolverhampton Grammar School

• The Queen

  A look back to 1977 and a nation awash with red, white and blue in celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee. Plus, the personal recollections of ordinary people who enjoyed a memorable meeting with their monarch

• The Queen

  Helen Lloyd chronicles the events of 1992 : the Queen's 'annus horribilis' : which saw Windsor engulfed by flames, damaging or destroying a significant part of the world's largest occupied castle, and marital strife for three of her children, all played out on an all-too public stage

• Television

  The half-century history of television, beginning with the Queen's Coronation, which was broadcast in 1952 and brought neighbourhoods together round one set, closely followed by the advent of ITV in 1955 and the first colour programme : Wimbledon : in 1967. How did people adjust to the arrival of the box in the corner that started life as little more than a piece of furniture? Last in series

• Work and the Workplace

  The evolution of employment, which has undergone greater changes over the past five decades than during the Industrial Revolution, as companies abandon the patriarchal practices of yesteryear in favour of a virtual workplace where the computer is king. Former factory hands recall the balmy days of job security before economic instability, the demise of pit communities and the rise of union power heralded the start of a more competitive era