Shifty (TV series)

Shifty: Living in Britain at the End of the Twentieth Century is a 2025 five-part British documentary television series created by Adam Curtis. It was commissioned by the BBC and aired on BBC iPlayer on 14 June 2025.

Synopsis

Shifty is, according to the Guardian columnist Lucy Mangan, a "purely UK-focused dissection of recent history, built around the idea that the growing atomisation of society has ushered in an age in which the concept of a shared reality on which we can all depend has dissolved – and with it any hope of a functioning democracy." The overarching theme is that Britain is haunted by its past, constantly replayed through the media, which prevents it from going forward with a vision for the future.
Shifty depicts the changing landscape of Britain under Margaret Thatcher, including a shift of focus from politics to finance that saw the collapse of industry in the UK. Curtis argues that this shift towards individualism and consumerism has incurred a dismantling of democracy over the last 45 years.