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Greg Jenner looks at a 1962 clip of the government laboratory Porton Down and asks Guardian journalist Rob Evans whether it tells the whole story, explores the medical ethics of the cold war era with Agnes Arnold-Forster, and looks at how more deferential times helped secrets to be kept for so long

Marking the centenary of the Â鶹ԼÅÄ, Past Forward uses a random date generator to alight somewhere in the Â鶹ԼÅÄ's vast archive over the past 100 years. Public historian 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 sometimes the speakers themselves, decades later - along the way. What he discovers are stories, big and small, that reveal how the people we were have shaped the people we have become.

Produced by Megan Jones for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Wales