David Farnor | On 23, Jan 2021

Adam Curtis is returning to BBC iPlayer with a new series of six films titled Can’t Get You Out of My Head: An Emotional History of the Modern World.

The journalist and BAFTA award-winning filmmaker has struck a chord with viewers in recent years through his experimental documentaries, Bitter Lake and Hypernormalisation. Among the first original commissions for BBC iPlayer, they are still available to stream on the Beeb’s catch-up platform and explore the consequences of simplification in politics and the media and the normalisation of the fake and corrupt nature of the modern world.

This new work charts similar territory, aiming to tell the story of how we got to the strange days we are now experiencing. And why both those in power – and we – find it so difficult to move on.

The films trace different forces across the world that have led to now, not just in the West, but in China and Russia as well. It covers a wide range – including the strange roots of modern conspiracy theories, the history of China, opium and opiods, the history of Artificial Intelligence, melancholy over the loss of empire and, love and power. And explores whether modern culture, despite its radicalism, is really just part of the new system of power.

Adam Curtis says: “These strange days did not just happen. We – and those in power – created them together.”

Produced by Sandra Gorel and Executive Produced by Rose Garnett for BBC Film, Can’t Get You Out of My Head: An Emotional History of the Modern World will premiere on BBC iPlayer on 11th February.

 

Get You Out of My Head is available on BBC iPlayer until February 2022

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