The impact of influential British figures of the 1980s on politics and culture across the world, from advertisers who shaped the tastes of the nation before triumphing in Hollywood, to the women who face down the American military and a spy who prevented oblivion. The first episode pieces together the story of how Britain's internal divisions influenced the course of world history.

The story of creative forces challenging the status quo of the 1980s, examining the work of Hanif Kureishi and Holly Johnson, as well as the birth of Channel 4. As Britain fell into social division, defiant new voices brought about a cultural explosion that changed not just the attitudes of the country, but the world.

Britain's influence on technology in the 1980s. In Cambridge, a chance discovery leads to the creation of a chip so powerful it found its way into billions of mobile phones. A new generation of computer-literate kids built the foundations for an industry now worth billions, while Tim Berners-Lee staked a claim for the biggest discovery of all.