New series 1/4. James Maw investigates how unfinished historical business continues to shape the present in four different countries.

Thirty years ago Portugal was freed from dictatorship in an almost bloodless coup. But beneath the euphoria of the "Revolution of the Carnations" lies the more troubled story of the wars in its former colonies - Angola, Mozambique and Guinea Bissau - that prompted the apparently peaceful coup. In Lisbon, James Maw tries to find out what happened when the empire sailed back home and how Portugal and its former colonies have been transformed in the aftermath of the revolution.