The first episode sees Kirsty Wark looking at the 1970s and the start of the 1980s, revealing that while this period is often remembered for miners’ strikes, three-day weeks and power cuts, it was also a time of new shopping centres, urban renewal and an oil boom in the north east.

These were the years when Scots discovered new leisure activities, when Highland yards constructed engineering marvels, and when Scotland began to see itself, and sell itself, as distinctively Scottish.

Kirsty visits Irvine to look at the ambitious plans that were devised for Scotland’s new towns and discovers how installing indoor toilets in Govan tenements revolutionised our approach to urban living. She also reveals how the coming of oil changed communities, how theatre roused the Highlands, and how the new Scottish Tourist Board rebranded the country.

The stories of these years are told through the memories of those who experienced them and feature individuals and families from across Scotland, along with a host of familiar faces. Kirsty hears from Val McDermid and Ian Rankin on the culture that shaped them, from Bill Paterson and Alex Norton on their revolutionary theatre tour of the Highlands, and from Roseanna Cunningham and Alistair Darling on the political changes of the era.

Full of the sights and sounds of the 70s, this programme reveals that despite the unrest of the time it was also a period of optimism and ambition. Show less