In 1948, George Orwell wrote his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, an imaginary account of what life in Britain might be like in that year. Of his book, Orwell said: ‘I do not believe that the kind of society I describe will arrive, but I believe that something resembling it could arrive.’
The visually striking documentary, Forty Minutes: 1984: Voices in a City, considers the reality of living in Britain in 1984. With automation on the rise, mass surveillance of the population in effect, advertising propaganda on every available surface, a growing gulf between rich and poor, and the collection and processing of more and more information about the populace – is the real 1984 really so different from Nineteen Eigthy-Four?