1968 The year that changed the world

1968: The year that changed the world?

In this four part series, using archive recordings and music from the time, Sir John Tusa examines what made 1968 such a climactic year.

Student protests, Soviet might, assassinations, war and famine - although these dramatic events took place more than a generation ago they seem incredibly immediate and astonishingly relevant today.

Recapturing those events through the voices of those who made them, Sir John investigates if 1968 really did change the world.

Programme One - The American Election and Vietnam

If the events of 1968 turned on one focal point it was the American war against the North Vietnamese communists.

Programme Two - The revolt of the young

The reality of US involvement in the Vietnam War had hit home - it racked nations, shook politics and destroyed leaders.

Programme Three - Race and Nationalism

In America the civil rights struggle was raging, in Nigeria a brutal civil war resulted in death of almost a million people and in Britain, a Conservative MP Enoch Powell delivered an inflammatory speech that divided a nation.

Programme Four - The Communist World

The United States endured a year of almost unbroken political drama and tragedy, however the other superpower, the monolithic Soviet Union, could not escape the mood of the time.