The recent history of health in Wales, including the impact of the new National Health Service, the battle against tuberculosis and the onslaught of stress-related illnesses in the 21st century, is explored in the first of a new series of The Welsh Way of Life.

Combining archive footage with anecdotes and commentary from eye-witnesses and historians, the programme asks why, almost 60 years on from the founding of the NHS in 1948, Wales is still a sick nation.

Retired nurse Margaret Lloyd thinks we've never had it so good and says people today assume they will have good health, blaming others for any deterioration and demanding instant cures.

Before Aneurin Bevan formed the NHS, health care in Wales was a patchy affair - you either paid for a doctor or threw yourself at the mercy of charitable institutions.

"The idea that when you were born you were expected to live for 70 years, wasn't a widely held belief in the 20s and 30s," says historian John Davies, a familiar face to BBC Wales viewers.

As such the tuberculosis outbreak hit the poorer, more rural areas of Wales hard, killing 10% of the population.

GP Dr Ian Millington recalls how the population of one row of houses in his home town of Connah's Quay was severely hit by TB.

"My father lived in a terrace which consisted of 10 houses and over 100 children. The poverty in those terraces was very marked and he remembered one family with 10 children, none of whom lived on into adult life because of the scourges of TB."

The onslaught of World War II ended up solving many of the health problems associated with poverty. The population found itself fully employed in the war effort and rationing ensured diets were healthy. And in an atmosphere of social inclusion after the war, Aneurin Bevan's vision of a free health service became a reality with the formation of the NHS.

The NHS had an immediate effect on poor peoples' lives, as well as subsequent advances made in the development of vaccines, penicillin and antibiotics.

But, as well as being a trip down memory lane for many, The Welsh Way Of Life brings the story of health in Wales right up to date, illustrating the problems of stress, binge drinking and eating disorders in our 21st century world.