What Really Happened in the Nineties?

Here we are in 2022 navigating cancel culture, Brexit, identity politics, war in Europe.

How did we get here? Did we miss something? Robert Carlyle is here to show us that we did. That the world we live in was shaped by the forgotten decade: the 1990s.

From Hong Kong to Moscow, Cool Britannia to No Frills flights, we travel back in time to key moments in the '90s that reverberate today in unexpected ways.

Episode 10: No Frills Air Travel

Today Robert touches down on the first days of budget air travel in the mid 90s. The industry had just been deregulated and entrepreneurial disruptors were ready to radically reinvent the way we travel. No longer the preserve of the rich or a once the year treat, soon millions of us would be taking to the skies and life would never be the same again.

Historical Consultant Simon Calder

Here we are in 2022 navigating cancel culture, Brexit, identity politics, war in Europe.

How did we get here? Did we miss something? Robert Carlyle is here to show us that we did. That the world we live in was shaped by the forgotten decade: the 1990s.

From Hong Kong to Moscow, Cool Britannia to No Frills flights, we travel back in time to key moments in the '90s that reverberate today in unexpected ways.

Today Robert hears about a think tank that came together in 1997 calling on President Clinton for the removal from power of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Its members were to become President George W Bush's inner circle and, after 9/11, their long term goal was to be acheived.

Historical Consultant Margaret MacMillan

Here we are in 2022 navigating cancel culture, Brexit, identity politics, war in Europe.

How did we get here? Did we miss something? Robert Carlyle, who played the wildcard Begbie in the '90s hit Trainspotting, is here to show us that we did. That the world we live in was shaped by the forgotten decade: the 1990s.

From Hong Kong to Moscow, Cool Britannia to No Frills flights, we travel back in time to key moments in the '90s that reverberate today in unexpected ways.

Episode 8: Race Relations

As Robert Carlyle discovers, for some people in the 90s, Britannia wasn’t so cool. Racially motivated attacks increased, the British National Party won its first ever election, and the enquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence concluded that the Metropolitan Police was institutionally racist, something that many Londoners already knew. Professor Jason Arday and Dr Halima Begum explain why the 90s was also the decade when the term Islamophobia was coined, and for a very good reason.

Producer: Stephen Hughes

Here we are in 2022 navigating cancel culture, Brexit, identity politics, war in Europe.

How did we get here? Did we miss something? Robert Carlyle is here to show us that we did. That the world we live in was shaped by the forgotten decade: the 1990s.

From Hong Kong to Moscow, Cool Britannia to No Frills flights, we travel back in time to key moments in the '90s that reverberate today in unexpected ways.

Episode 7: the Hong Kong Handover

In this programme Robert explores to the Hong Kong Handover of 1997 when Britain returned the colonial territory to China. He sees how it was an opportunity lost, as China took back Hong Kong during a relatively progressive point in its modern history, but one which was not to last.

The last Governor of Hong Kong Chris Patten gives a behind the scenes glimpse of the ceremony that would be watched around the globe and reflects on how the hopes and dreams for Hong Kong in the 1990s have been steadily eroded.

Historical Consultant Rana Mitter

Here we are in 2022 navigating cancel culture, Brexit, identity politics, war in Europe. How did we get here? Did we miss something?

Robert Carlyle, who played the wildcard Begbie in the '90s hit Trainspotting, is here to show us that we did. That the world we live in was shaped by the forgotten decade: the 1990s.

Episode 6: The Maastricht Treaty In this programme Robert returns to the controversial Maastricht Treaty of 1992 which transformed Europe into a political union rather than just an economic one. This unleashed a civil war in the Conservative Party which has echoed down the ages and arguably resulted in Brexit. David Davies MP was in the thick of that battle as Chief Whip to Prime Minister John Major. He takes us back to pivotal moments of that drama when the future of the country hung in the balance and the consequences of which we're living with today.

Historical Consultant Anand Menon

Here we are in 2022 navigating cancel culture, Brexit, identity politics, war in Europe.

How did we get here? Did we miss something? Robert Carlyle, who played the wildcard Begbie in the '90s hit Trainspotting, is here to show us that we did. That the world we live in was shaped by the forgotten decade: the 1990s.

From Hong Kong to Moscow, Cool Britannia to No Frills flights, we travel back in time to key moments in the '90s that reverberate today in unexpected ways.

Episode 5: Tech

Robert Carlyle uncovers a conflict in the 90s that we may not have been aware of – the crypto-wars between the so-called cypherpunks and the United States government. The fight was over online privacy and it was won by a computer programme called Phil Zimmermann, who faced four years in jail for releasing software called Pretty Good Privacy. As Jamie Bartlett, the author of The Missing Cryptoqueen explains, if it wasn’t for Phil, we wouldn’t be able to communicate securely online today.

Producer: Stephen Hughes

Here we are in 2022 navigating cancel culture, Brexit, identity politics, war in Europe.

How did we get here? Did we miss something? Robert Carlyle, who played the wildcard Begbie in the '90s hit Trainspotting, is here to show us that we did. That the world we live in was shaped by the forgotten decade: the 1990s.

From Hong Kong to Moscow, Cool Britannia to No Frills flights, we travel back in time to key moments in the '90s that reverberate today in unexpected ways.

Episode 4: Internet

As a new bill goes through parliament that hopes to ensure online safety, Robert Carlyle takes us back to a time when the internet seemed like a force for good, an online utopia where friends could re-unite. But, as he reminds us, the 90s was also the decade that witnessed the first prosecution for cyberstalking and when the term trolling was coined. Professors Helen McCarthy and John Naughton take us back to the days of AltaVista, Ask Jeeves and the cyber-cafe. We hear from Keith Teare, one of the people behind the world's first cyber-cafe called Cyberia, who explains why they never made a profit, despite having coffee shops across the world and online dating site.

Producer: Stephen Hughes

Here we are in 2022 navigating cancel culture, Brexit, identity politics, war in Europe.

How did we get here? Did we miss something? Robert Carlyle, who played the wildcard Begbie in the 90s hit Trainspotting, is here to show us that we did. That the world we live in was shaped by the forgotten decade: the 1990s.

From Hong Kong to Moscow, Cool Britannia to No Frills flights, we travel back in time to key moments in the 90s that reverberate today in unexpected ways.

Episode 3: Gender

When Harry Styles donned a dress for the cover of Vogue Magazine it caused a storm in an online teacup. Some commentators said it was the end of masculinity as we know it. Pretty much the same thing was said when David Beckham wore a sarong in public in 1998. Robert Carlyle asks if gender politics has changed much in three decades, as he takes us back to the era of the New Lad and Ladette. Along the way he hears from journalist Sean O'Hagan, who coined the term New Lad, Natasha Walter, author of The New Feminism and Professor Helen McCarthy.

Producer: Stephen Hughes

Here we are in 2022 navigating cancel culture, Brexit, identity politics, war in Europe.

How did we get here? Did we miss something? Robert Carlyle, who played the wildcard Begbie in the '90s hit Trainspotting, is here to show us that we did. That the world we live in was shaped by the forgotten decade: the 1990s.

From Hong Kong to Moscow, Cool Britannia to No Frills flights, we travel back in time to key moments in the '90s that reverberate today in unexpected ways.

Episode 2: Russia

Robert Carlyle reveals how talks between Russia and the West in 1990 about Germany's re-unification has lead to the war in Ukraine. Was President Gorbachev really promised that NATO would not move one inch east, as Vladimir Putin recently claimed ? We hear from historians Margaret MacMillan and Mary Sarotte, author of Not One Inch, and from eye-witness Bob Zoellick, former United States Deputy Secretary of State.

Producer: Stephen Hughes

Here we are in 2022 navigating cancel culture, Brexit, identity politics, war in Europe.

How did we get here? Did we miss something? Robert Carlyle, who played the wildcard Begbie in the '90s hit Trainspotting, is here to show us that we did. That the world we live in was shaped by the forgotten decade: the 1990s. From Hong Kong to Moscow, Cool Britannia to No Frills flights, we travel back in time to key moments in the '90s that reverberate today in unexpected ways.

Episode 1. Cool Britannia

As government ministers promote the Levelling Up agenda, redistributing investment from London and the South East to the North and Midlands we return to the capital in the 1990s when 'Swinging London' started to become a symbol of unequal Britain. Cultural and economic forces converged as London reinvented itself in the '90s. Britpop, Young British Artists, fashion designers, gastro pups, coffee culture all propelled the capital into what Vanity Fair coined "Cool Britannia".

Robert guides us through this tumultuous decade when competing visions were unleashed about what the cities and the country should become.

Featuring Geoff Mulgan, Iain Sinclair and Helen McCarthy

Historical Consultant Helen McCarthy