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Rewind the 60s

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John Craven

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Susie Staples

Rewind the 60s: Episode 5: 1968-69

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Factual: History

Episode 5

Episode 5: 1968-69

1968-69

BBC One - Rewind the 60s, 1968-69

Lulu hosts a nostalgic look back at the 1960s.

Lulu hosts a nostalgic look back at the 1960s. Former newsman and Countryfile reporter John Craven joins Lulu in the studio to look back at the big stories of the time.

It’s our final episode of Rewind the 60s and we’ve reached the end of the decade, focusing on the years 1968 and 1969. On the Rewind guest couch today is John Craven, pioneer of children’s news and now a reporter on the hugely popular BBC show Countryfile. John tells Lulu about starting out in BBC local news in the north east at the tail end of the 60s, and how he got his break as a broadcaster: the newsreader rang in sick one morning, John took the microphone, and a legend was born.

The sixties was a time of enormous social change, but it was in 1968 and 1969 that some of the decade’s most important events occurred. For many women, one of these was undoubtedly the introduction of the Abortion Act. Prior to this, it is estimated that there were over 60,000 illegal abortions a year in England alone.  We meet Barbara, who was then a young student, and she tells us what it was like to have to undergo an illegal abortion.  She recalls being thrown out of her GP’s surgery when she asked to be put on the new contraceptive pill. 

In the theatre too, old rules were being rewritten. Actor Oliver Tobias, one of the original stars of the hippy musical Hair, joins Lulu and John Craven in the studio. For most of the 1960s, the Lord Chamberlain still had the right to censor every theatrical production and could refuse to give a play its licence. But his powers were abolished in 1968, and when Hair opened shortly afterwards, it had the freedom to break all kinds of taboos. Oliver recalls how the script called on him to use the f-word around 30 times in 5 seconds, to interact directly with the audience, and also to appear naked on stage. “I remember at school saying my worst nightmare would be to appear naked in front of everyone. Little did I know when I was 21, I’d be on stage doing the same thing”.  Lulu, who was in the audience on that first night, remembers that she had to close her eyes during the show’s notorious al fresco moment. 

We discover how the 1960s saw a revolution in the toy industry. Many toys had previously been enjoyed only by richer families, but with new cheaper durable plastics, they were now available to everyone. It was the time of Martin Luther King’s assassination, The Rolling Stones playing Hyde Park, and Lulu herself becoming joint winner of the Eurovision Song Contest with Boom Bang A Bang. Star Trek first appeared on British television, and the nation was glued to the Forsyte Saga. 

But there was one piece of television that eclipsed the others, and brought the world together in a mass celebration of technical accomplishment. The moon landing provided Britain’s first all night broadcast, and captured the imaginations of the millions who watched it. We meet Rob and Helen, who remember watching the Apollo landing vividly, and whose lives were changed by the experience.  As Lulu remarks, it was a moment when the world felt united, and anything seemed possible.

BBC One

Lulu presents a nostalgic look at the 1960s, with personal stories and celebrity guests.

Lulu presents a nostalgic look back at the 1960s, with personal stories and celebrity guests with a connection to the decade.

It is now fifty years since the start of the 1960s – ten years of change, innovation, excitement and creativity that revolutionised our lives. To celebrate this amazing decade, Lulu presents Rewind the 60s - five entertaining programmes that explore all aspects of the 1960s: from where we lived, to what we ate, to how we dressed, and what we listened to. With the help of some very special guests, Lulu shows us how that extraordinary decade transformed Britain and the world forever – and how much fun it was to live through.

These were the years when John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King were assassinated; when we first saw James Bond and Doctor Who on our screens; when we marvelled at England’s victory in the World Cup; and student protests filled the streets. It was the decade of the moon landing; when foreign holidays took a hold among the British, and all kinds of boundaries and taboos were broken. Each episode of Rewind the Sixties looks at two specific years from the decade, exploring the news, fashions, music, and changes in society that took place in those two years. 

Lulu is joined in the Rewind the 60s studio by various celebrity guests – people like comedian Jimmy Tarbuck, DJ Tony Blackburn and fashion designer Zandra Rhodes – to talk about their memories of the decade. And there are specially made films focussing on key events – like the rise of The Beatles, and Dr Beeching’s railway reforms – which are told through the testimony of people who were there and whose own lives were dramatically changed by what they lived through.  

So why not join Lulu on Rewind the 60s – when Britain turned it’s back on the drab austerity of the post-war years, and embraced an exhilarating new world of youth, colour, and pop music.

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