Cold War Spies in the 1980s – a dangerous era
1985 saw two double agents exposed. KGB agent Oleg Gordievsky and US Navy officer John Walker were not what they seemed. Tony McMahon reports
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Corporal punishment in 1970s schools
Corporal punishment was a constant feature of 1970s schools reducing children to a terrorised state as TV historian Tony McMahon remembers
Police raids of clubs in the 1980s and 1990s
Night clubs in the 1980s and 1990s were often subjected to police raids for various reasons as TV historian Tony McMahon recalls
New Years Eve in Glasgow in the 1980s
In 1989, TV historian Tony McMahon spent the last New Year’s Eve of the decade in Bellshill just outside Glasgow and it was a culture shock!
Night out clubbing in the 1990s
Clubbing in the 1990s meant when you left your front door, you had no idea when you’d return home as Tony McMahon remembers
Coventry heroes escaping the Ghost Town
In 1981 – Coventry really was the Ghost Town but local heroes like Neville Staple and Errol Christie were trying to make a difference – as Tony McMahon reports
Clifford Olson – Canadian serial killer
Clifford Olson was a notorious Canadian serial killer and yet has slipped into obscurity compared to some American mass murderers as Tony McMahon reports
Short Sharp Shock – nightmare prison regime
Short Sharp Shock was a military-style prison regime for young offenders that wrecked lives and didn’t work as Tony McMahon discovers
Mods and Rockers clash in Tamworth – 1979
Mods and Rockers were at each others’ throats again in the late 1970s in the town of Tamworth in England as Tony McMahon discovers
1967 – when abortion became legal in the UK
From the 1960s to the 1990s, abortion became a culture war issue that is hugely divisive down to the present day as TV historian Tony McMahon reports