The 80s with Dominic Sandbrook

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Dominic Sandbrook

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The 80s with Dominic Sandbrook: Episode 2: Under Pressure

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Under Pressure

Episode 2

Episode 2: Under Pressure

BBC Two - The 80s with Dominic Sandbrook, Under Pressure

By the mid-80s Britain felt like an embattled nation, struggling to establish an identity.

Dominic Sandbrook looks at a dynamic decade. By the mid-80s, Britain felt like an embattled nation, struggling to establish its identity on the global stage.

The second episode sees mid-1980s Britain wrestling with two contradictory impulses - the rise of a strong nationalist sentiment and the emergence of an increasingly globalised world.

By the middle of the decade, Britain felt like an embattled nation, facing threats from enemies within as well as out - a nation struggling to establish an identity on the global stage, and also trying to re-establish what it means to be British. This was the period that forever marked the 80s as a decade of conflict and division. But not all those conflicts were obvious. Some were fought with bullets, others with money, some were fought in our homes, others in our heads.

This episode examines everything from the invasion of the Falkland Islands to the invasion of the home computer and the moral panic surrounding 'video nasties', from the Americanisation of our popular culture to the picket line skirmishes playing out nightly on our televisions, and from the spectre of Aids and the threat of the IRA to immigration and identity politics.

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Factual: History

Dominic Sandbrook takes a fresh look at a dynamic decade.

Dominic Sandbrook takes a fresh look at a dynamic decade. 1980s Britain changed in everything from politics and sport to fashion and popular culture.

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