The first programme looks at the cinematic birth of a new working-class hero in the north of England. John Schlesinger, Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall, Alan Sillitoe, Richard Harris, and Tom Courtenay revisit the locations of their early films, while Rita Tushingham and Julie Christie talk about the new kind of girl who came on to the scene.

As the 60s progressed, British cinema turned its attentions away from the class struggles of northern realist films and focused on the glamour of the capital as it crashed into the "permissive" era. Film-maker Richard Lester presents clips from the key "swinging London" films of the period including Darling starring Julie Christie, Michael Caine's Alfie, Morgan: a Suitable Case for Treatment, and Poor Cow. Terence Stamp, Rita Tushingham, Dirk Bogarde, Julie Christie, John Schlesinger, and Frederic Raphael are among those recounting the heady days of swinging cinema.