Season 1
Historian Dominic Sandbrook explores the impact of the Cold War on British politics, culture and everyday society. Rather than focusing on missiles and summits, the series examines how the East-West conflict shaped the national imagination through spy scandals, James Bond films, protest records, consumerism vs communism, and widespread fears of nuclear annihilation—from the late 1950s through to the 1980s.
01. Red Dawn
Dominic Sandbrook takes us back to the strange years of the Cold War, a time when Britain was more secure and prosperous than ever, yet lived with the very real possibility of nuclear annihilation.
02. The Looking Glass War
Dominic Sandbrook examines the ideological frontline as newly prosperous, consumerist Britain was pitched against the Soviet ideal of communism.
03. Two Tribes
Dominic Sandbrook explores the late 1970s and 1980s, an era when the end of the world seemed a very real possibility and leaders crusaded against the threat of nuclear war.