Jan Lindenbaum

1953 - this is the year when Frank Sinatra tours Sweden and Stockholm celebrates 700 years with the entire air force in the air. The American way of life spreads in bottle form, when Coca-Cola makes its entrance. And there will be documentary film in color. The world is troubled with wars in Korea and Indochina. The US participates in both and Sweden has both doctors and nurses in Korea. Sweden becomes world champion in ice hockey for the first time.

1955 - the year when The rip hunter is buried in snow for eight days before his ski pole with a movie ticket is discovered. Ingrid Bergman gets bad reviews as Joan of Arc, and James Dean dies in a 185 km/h car crash. The knappupgänget, with Povel Ramel and Gunwer Bergkvist, go to Nairobi to shoot a film that will never be finished. Sweden votes no to right-hand traffic and the "Motbok" disappears in October. Charlie Norman writes film music and gets a job in the US, while Sigge Eriksson becomes a world figure skating champion in Moscow. Anita Ekberg visits after years in Hollywood and Louis Armstrong gives concerts in Stockholm. Luleå is building the world's first indoor shopping center, and Viggen Viggo is visible on the TV screen.

1956 - the year when Elvis Presley breaks through and Grace Kelly celebrates a fairytale wedding in Monaco. In Ställdalen, a rail bus carrying schoolchildren is crushed and off New York m/s Stockholm collides with Andrea Doria. Frances Bulwark runs its last race and Swedish UN soldiers are flown to Suez. But most of all, it is the year of the Hungarian refugees.

1957 - this is when the space age begins. The Soviets send up Sputnik 1 and 2. The whole world searches the sky for moving stars and the radio amateurs listen in their headphones for beeps from space. Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries are shown in cinemas. Stockholm gets its first female parking attendants and Tommy Steele comes to visit.

1951 - the year when Snoddas plays bandy and the naval spy is exposed. Stålfarfar rides a bike, Pär Lagerkvist receives a Nobel Prize and Tage Erlander and Karl Gerhard are getting older. Out in the world there's a cold war and in Sweden there's the big Västgöta maneuver. There's a plastic fashion and new hairstyles for a new age.

Each episode tells the Swedish history of the 20th century from a different aspect. The first episode is about domestic politics, the second about fashion, the third about work and unemployment, the fourth about children and teenagers, the fifth about revolutionizing inventions, the sixth about vacation, the seventh about the royal family and the eighth about foreign politics.

1954 - this is the year when Marilyn Monroe wave to the American soldiers in Korea. In Sweden, a black hurricane takes the forest with it and the cargo boat Nedjan goes down with seventeen men. The sooty glasses emerge when the sun is completely eclipsed. And there is competition to look like Audrey Hepburn. Radiotjänst broadcasts television and the author Stig Dagerman dies.

1952 - he year when Gösta Snoddas Nordgren sings Flottarkärlek on the radio and it becomes a hit. Gustaf VI Adolf turns 70. A Swedish DC-3 disappears and a Catalina plane is shot down by Soviet fighter aircraft. A Swedish spy business is being rolled out. Fritjof Enbom has given information to the Soviet Union. It is also an Olympic year - Winter Olympics in Oslo and Summer Olympics in Helsinki.