What Really Happened in the Nineties?

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Robert Carlyle takes us back to moments we missed in the '90s that shaped the world today.

Cancel culture, Brexit, identity politics. How did we get here? Did we miss something? Robert Carlyle is here to show us that we did. And it happened in the '90s.

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What Really Happened in the Nineties?: 7. Hong Kong

7. Hong Kong

BBC Radio 4 - What Really Happened in the Nineties?, 7. Hong Kong

Robert Carlyle takes us back to moments we missed in the 90s that shaped the world today.

Robert Carlyle returns to the Hong Kong Handover in 1997 to see how an opportunity was lost.

Here we are in 2022 navigating cancel culture, Brexit, identity politics, war in Europe.

How did we get here? Did we miss something? Robert Carlyle is here to show us that we did. That the world we live in was shaped by the forgotten decade: the 1990s.

From Hong Kong to Moscow, Cool Britannia to No Frills flights, we travel back in time to key moments in the '90s that reverberate today in unexpected ways.

Episode 7: the Hong Kong Handover

In this programme Robert explores to the Hong Kong Handover of 1997 when Britain returned the colonial territory to China. He sees how it was an opportunity lost, as China took back Hong Kong during a relatively progressive point in its modern history, but one which was not to last. 

The last Governor of Hong Kong Chris Patten gives a behind the scenes glimpse of the ceremony that would be watched around the globe and reflects on how the hopes and dreams for Hong Kong in the 1990s have been steadily eroded.

Historical Consultant Rana Mitter
Music and Sound Design Phil Channell
Producer Neil McCarthy

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What Really Happened in the Nineties?

7. Hong Kong

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