The 1990s had a lot to live up to. At the tail end of the 1980s, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, thawing of Cold War tensions, and symbolic fall of the Berlin Wall gave the following decade the charge of a new era – or at least the end of an old one. Political scientist Francis Fukuyama went one further, declaring what he saw to be the definitive victory of liberal democracy to be 'the end of history' itself.

Rather than closing the book on history, though, the 1990s passed the baton between the centuries, seeding themes still relevant today across politics, technology, culture and society at large, from the blanket, up-to-the-minute coverage of the Gulf War, to a growing concern for the environment, to revolutions in science that transformed the food we eat.

In Westminster, almost two decades of Conservative rule gave way to the charismatic optimism of New Labour, which was buoyed by the pop cultural moment of “Cool Britannia” on screen, in galleries, and on the airwaves. Yet, even during this period of puffed-up national pride, the union itself was a topic of debate, with devolution processes underway in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – where the historic Good Friday agreement to put an end to the Troubles was signed.

Elsewhere, the perfect marriage of consumerism and technology continued, as our lives became increasingly digital and connected. The boxy desktop PCs, snail’s-pace dial-up modems and Y2K ‘Millennium bug’ hysteria may now seem quaint, but they pointed towards our current, always-online era. History, as ever, marched on.