Long live the 1980s!

How MTV, Walkmans, politics and drum machines influenced the unique music of the 1980s…

- HANNAH DAVIES, JUDY EWENS, IAN MACEWAN

FACTUAL

The 80s – Music’s Greatest Decade? with Dylan Jones Saturday, BBC2 HD, 8.55 pm

NEW

Music from the 1980s is often dismissed as a bit of a joke, full of naff tunes, synthesisers, big hair and shoulder pads. But in a new four-part BBC2 series The 80s – Music’s Greatest Decade? with Dylan Jones, the music journalist celebrates the decade as the most influential in the history of pop.

The first episode takes a look at the impact politics, super producers and nightclubs had on the 1980s music scene and how the launch of the Walkman and the arrival of American cable channel MTV in 1981 changed everything.