Eyewitness accounts from the BBC Archive are at the heart of this unique history of the latter half of the 20th Century, narrated by Tim Pigott-Smith. The events of 1950-1999 are described by the people who saw them happen, from the Festival of Britain in 1951 through to dawn of a new millennium at the end of 1999. In between are the eras of the Angry Young Men, the Teddy Boys, and the Punk Rockers; the arrival of rock and roll and the permissive society; the advent of industrial strife in England and sectarian unrest in Northern Ireland; the rise to power of Margaret Thatcher; the miners' strike, three day week, and Winter of Discontent; the Queen's Silver Jubilee; the IRA's campaign of bombing and the eventual Good Friday agreement; the marriage of Prince Charles and the death of Princess Diana; the Poll Tax riots; and the British participation in wars in the Middle East and Bosnia. Events both joyful and sorrowful are illustrated with fascinating and rarely heard archive recordings, with a linking narration by the historian Joanne Bourke. Thought-provoking and moving, these are the voices of the past speaking to the present day.