Several moments from the miniseries:
- In one scene in "1964", as Nicky and Eddie are campaigning for Labour they visit an old man in his run-down house with his bedridden wife. The man then tells her that they've come to collect their vote. Nicky later laments that she won't survive the winter.
- Geordie's abuse by his father.
- The ending to "1967" where Benny Barrett, knowing that Geordie is having an affair with his mistress, shows him through a two-way mirror her having sex with another man for money. Geordie just looks on devastated.
- The breakdown of Tosker and Mary's marriage.
- The ending to "1970" is all kinds of sad. Geordie gets framed and arrested, Nicky gets disowned by his father after he finds a machine gun under his bed and Mary's disabled brother Patrick dies.
- Geordie's situation is made worse when in the same episode, he befriended a woman who ran a seaside bed and breakfast with her son. He even told her to wait for him. And he never got to see them again.
- The episode ends with Patrick's funeral. Fittingly, this is the only episode that doesn't end with a pop song of the year, but the hymn from the funeral.
- Geordie tearfully confessing that nobody came to visit him in prison in "1974".
- Tosker crying over losing his hair.
- Felix goes to complain to Christopher Collins' stepfather about his son harassing him and Florrie. They get into an argument that results in Felix being assaulted by the man and his dog. Christopher Eccelstone explained why this scene hits - Felix is essentially destroyed by one of the people he tried to help as a socialist.
- Felix's descent into Alzheimer's Disease.
- Geordie ending up a homeless derelict and Nicky's guilt at not being able to help him. And if that wasn't enough, Geordie gets life imprisonment for setting fire to a bed.
- Eddie Wells' death.
- Geordie and several other prisoners are in a van en route to prison that gets hit by the storm. Every convict takes the opportunity to escape, except a frightened Geordie, who can't face life on the outside and goes back inside. To see the former confident man-about-town reduced to such a state is heartbreaking. Just what happened to him between 1979 and 1987?
- Nicky confessing to his senile father that he always wanted to please him ever since he was a boy. And it doesn't register with him.
- Sean Collins being brusquely ignored and treated with contempt by his father. Geordie, seeing parallels with himself, is moved to intervene and gets headbutted for his trouble.
- An angry and upset Sean stealing a car and then killing himself in a crash and Mary's reaction to it.
- Nicky breaking down in tears at his mother's funeral.
- The last time all four friends are together, it's for Florrie's funeral. And despite all that's happened between them over thirty-one years, nothing is spoken.
