The Corncrake and the Croft

Greg Jenner watches a clip from the 1970s containing dour predictions for the future of the Outer Hebrides and seeks help in explaining its prognosis from Professor of Sustainable Rural Development Frank Rennie and the co-founder of the North Uist Distillery Kate Macdonald.

Marking the centenary of the BBC, Past Forward uses a random date generator to alight somewhere in the BBC's vast archive over the past 100 years. Greg Jenner hears an archive clip for the first time at the top of the programme, and uses it as a starting point in a journey towards the present day. The archive captures a century of British life in a unique way - a history of ordinary people’s lives, as well as news of the great events. Greg uncovers connections through people, places and ideas that link the archive fragment to Britain in 2022, pulling in help from experts and those who remember the time, and looking at how far we've come since then.

Producer: Martin Williams