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Archive on 4: A Sympathetic Eye

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14/11/2015

A Sympathetic Eye

BBC Radio 4 - Archive on 4, A Sympathetic Eye

Simon Farquhar examines how Man Alive reflected changing TV and social values in the 1960s

4 Extra Debut. Simon Farquhar examines how BBC 2’s Man Alive uniquely reflected changing TV and social values during the 1960s. From 2015.

Welcome to the 1960s and the earliest days of a new TV channel, BBC2, determined to explore the ordinary and extraordinary fringes of a rapidly changing society.

With its new documentary strand Man Alive, it set out to bring "human affairs, not current affairs" to our TV sets, with all the candour and emotion that statement promised.

In this programme, Simon Farquhar examines how TV, social hierarchies and norms were rapidly evolving in front of our eyes.

As the generation gap yawned, class divisions became blurred, traditional relations between men and women were challenged, and questions were asked about attitudes to sex and sexuality, Man Alive documented it all with a sympathetic eye and its trademark question: How do you feel?

Contributors include Sir David Attenborough, Dame Esther Rantzen, Twiggy, David McGillivray, Vivienne Barton and Dr Jill Singer.

Producer: Adam Bowen.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2015.

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