Cool Britannia

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, who played the wildcard Begbie in the '90s hit Trainspotting, 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 1. Cool Britannia

As government ministers promote the Levelling Up agenda, redistributing investment from London and the South East to the North and Midlands we return to the capital in the 1990s when 'Swinging London' started to become a symbol of unequal Britain. Cultural and economic forces converged as London reinvented itself in the '90s. Britpop, Young British Artists, fashion designers, gastro pups, coffee culture all propelled the capital into what Vanity Fair coined "Cool Britannia".

Robert guides us through this tumultuous decade when competing visions were unleashed about what the cities and the country should become.

Featuring Geoff Mulgan, Iain Sinclair and Helen McCarthy

Historical Consultant Helen McCarthy Music and Sound Design Phil Channell Producer Neil McCarthy