ABSTRACT
The social and political landscape in the UK when the fi rst small video cameras were launched in the late 1980s affected the changes that then took place within broadcasting.
Politically it was the era of the ‘Iron Lady’ as the Soviet Union nicknamed the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. She was the UK’s fi rst woman in the top political job and told a conference of small businessmen and women that,
I came to offi ce with one deliberate intent: to change Britain from a dependent to a self-reliant society – from a give-it-to-me, to a do-ityourself nation. A get-up-and-go, instead of a sit-back-and-wait-for-it Britain.
