Documentary-maker Phil Tinline continues his series exploring how conspiracy theories and fictions work as stories, and what they claim to tell us about how power works.

Drawing on new research, he finds out how ‘narrative graphs’ reveal telling differences between real and bogus conspiracies. And he explores this casts a different light on the anxious world of post-war America, from McCarthyism, through the assassination of President Kennedy, to Watergate. Are all those 'paranoia' movies of the 1970s actually telling two very different stories? And if so, what might this tell us about how we think about conspiracy narratives today?

Series contributors include: Michael Butter, Bryan Cheyette, Paul Cobley, Karen Douglas, Sir Richard Evans, Beverly Gage, Pamela Hutchinson, Dennis Kelly, Rick Perlstein, Whitney Phillips, Vwani Roychowdhury, Tim Tangherlini Show less