![](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/640x360/p041k8mh.jpg)
1966 - 50 Years Ago Today
Documentary marking the year pop music and popular culture ripped up the rule book, as restless experimentation and the search for new forms of expression took hold.
Based on Jon Savage's book 1966: The Year the Decade Exploded, Arena marks the year pop music and popular culture ripped up the rule book in articulate, instinctive and radical new ways.
This was the year of Jonathan Miller's Alice in Wonderland, Morgan - A Suitable Case for Treatment, and the year that Strawberry Fields Forever was recorded. Television was still in black and white, but the world outside was bursting with colour and controversy. In America, in London, in Amsterdam, in Paris, revolutionary ideas slow-cooking since the late 1950s reached boiling point. In popular culture and the mass media, 1966 was a year of restless experimentation and the search for new forms of expression - particularly in pop music.
Written by Savage and director Paul Tickell, Arena's film takes viewers back to that moment in a vivid celebration of the music, films and TV that shaped the 1960s.
Last on
More episodes
Clips
-
Twiggy - the face of '66
Duration: 02:41
-
Vietnam War
Duration: 01:55
-
Rise of LSD use
Duration: 01:56
-
Fear of Imminent Nuclear War
Duration: 00:49
Music Played
Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes
-
00:03
Brian Eno
Another Green World
-
00:21
Japan
All Tomorrow's Parties
-
00:27
Plastic Bertrand
Sha La La La Lee
-
00:40
The Byrds
Eight Miles High
-
00:56
The Kinks
Dead End Street
-
01:02
The Beach Boys
Good Vibrations
-
01:04
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Stone Free
-
10:00
Brian Eno
Another Green World
- Another Green World.
- Island Records.
-
10:00
The Beatles
Strawberry Fields Forever
- Single.
- Parlophone.
-
10:04
The Rolling Stones
Get Off of My Cloud
- December's Children (And Everybody's).
- Decca.
-
10:05
The Rolling Stones
19th Nervous Breakdown
- Single release.
- Decca.
-
10:07
Love
Mushroom Clouds
- Love.
- Elekra.
-
10:09
The Ugly's
The Quiet Explosion
- The Quiet Explosion.
- Sanctuary Records Group.
-
10:10
Weston Gavin
I Am A Rock
-
10:11
Al Stewart
Pretty Golden Hair
- To Whom It May Concern.
- Universal Music Group.
-
10:15
Mick Softley
The War Drags On
- Songs for Swingin' Survivors.
- Columbia EMI.
-
10:17
The Velvet Underground
All Tomorrow's Parties
- Explosive Rock.
- Polydor.
-
10:22
The Kinks
I'm Not Like Everybody Else
- Single release.
- Sanctuary Records Group.
-
10:23
Small Faces
Sha-La-La-La-Lee
- Single release.
- Warner Music UK Ltd..
-
10:26
Sandie Shaw
Nothing Comes Easy
- Single release.
- EMI.
-
10:27
Sandie Shaw
Tomorrow
- Single release.
- EMI.
-
10:28
Norma Tanega
Walkin' My Cat Named Dog
- Single release.
- EMI.
-
10:29
Dusty Springfield
Little By Little
- You Don't Have To Say You Love Me.
- Mercury Records.
-
10:31
J.J. Barnes
Day Tripper
-
10:32
The Great Society
White Rabbit
- Conspicuous Only In Its Absence.
- Columbia EMI.
-
10:36
The Byrds
Eight Miles High
- Fifth Dimension.
- Sony Music.
-
10:37
The Who
Substitute
- Single release.
- Polydor.
-
10:39
The Who
I'm A Boy
- Single release.
- Polydor.
-
10:40
Velvet Underground
Love At Psychedelic Velocity
-
10:42
The Yardbirds
Happenings Ten Years Time Ago
- Single release.
- Columbia EMI.
-
10:43
Jim Reeves
Distant Drums
- Distant Drums.
- Sony Music.
-
10:44
James Brown & The Famous Flames
Tell Me That You Love Me
- James Brown Sings Raw Soul.
- King Records.
-
10:46
The New Vaudeville Band
Winchester Cathedral
- Single release.
- Mercury Records.
-
10:47
James Brown
I Got You (I Feel Good)
- I Got You (I Feel Good).
- King Records.
-
10:47
Wilson Pickett
Land of 1000 Dances
- Single release.
- Atlantic.
-
10:48
Otis Redding
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
- Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul.
- Universal Music Group.
-
10:48
Four Tops
Reach Out I'll Be There
- Reach Out.
- Motown.
-
10:52
The Kinks
Dead End Street
- Single release.
- Pye.
-
10:53
Dusty Springfield
Goin' Back
- Single release.
- Mercury Records.
-
10:56
The Rolling Stones
Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow
- Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass).
- Decca.
-
10:58
The Beach Boys
Good Vibrations
- Single release.
- Capitol records.
-
11:00
Jimi Hendrix
Stone Free
- Single release.
- Polydor.
Credits
Role | Contributor |
---|---|
Narrator | Paul Tickell |
Director | Paul Tickell |
Series Editor | Anthony Wall |
Writer | Jon Savage |
Writer | Paul Tickell |
Broadcasts
- Sun 24 Jul 2016 22:00
- Mon 25 Jul 2016 03:00
- Thu 15 Nov 2018 23:00
Featured in...
My Generation
Charting the history of pop music across the decades starting with the mid-50s to mid-60s
Music Stories
Get the inside track on some of music's most influential songs, albums and personalities.
±«Óãtv Music: My Generation
Programmes, playlists and features charting the history of pop music across the decades.