Getting to grips with the coming IT revolution in the workplace, in science, in schools and in the home.

1981, and the technological revolution is gathering pace. With polls suggesting that fewer than 20% of Britain's population recognise the term 'information technology', the government panics that the nation may fall behind in a global modernisation race. It decrees the following year an 'Information Technology Year', with a £3.5 million awareness-raising exercise across print, radio and video.

In this introductory episode of an eight-part video series, presenters Tom Vernon (better known from his radio and TV series as the 'fat man on a bicycle') and Griselda Cann explain that 'the revolution in information technology isn't just happening to somebody else - it's happening to all of us.' With the help of fictional son Peter, they lay the ground for topics covered in more detail in later videos, including satellites, lasers and fibre-optics.

There's a potted history of the computer age, from the first valve-operated machines - as big as a house - to their modern ancestors, powered by microchips and small enough to fit on a desktop. An entertaining beginners' guide to counting in binary features some very patient schoolboys being hit over the head with an enormous mallet (apparently with no ill effects). There's a striking performance, bathed in laser beams, from dancer Seeta Indrani, while Tom is shrunk down in size (using a computer, of course) to fit on to a circuit board.

The video concludes with an urgent warning: the US and Japan have between them already carved out 50% of the new market created by IT, while Britain lags behind with just 5%: 'in what is being called the second industrial revolution, we are in danger of being left at the starting gates.'

Warning: the video includes images of a newborn baby on life support, which some viewers may find distressing (2:45 - 3:05 and 21:34 - 21:41).

The eight videos made for the 'IT82' campaign offer an accessible guide to the kind of developments beginning to be felt in the workplace, in healthcare, in services and at home. The series was produced by independent production company SPO Films and commissioned by the Department of Trade and Industry's Information Technology Awareness Programme.

Though they inevitably show their age, the videos in the series are entertaining and slickly produced. The engaging scripts explain complex technology clearly, without unnecessary jargon. Despite evidence of tight budgets (notably the Spartan studio sets), much of the footage looks great, too, thanks to a surprisingly illustrious crew - including legendary cinematographer Wolfgang Suchitzky, whose credits include Get Carter (1971), and designer Anton Furst, later to work on Company of Wolves (1984), Full Metal Jacket (1987) and Batman (1989). The fine electronic score is by Alejandro Viñao and Richard Attree, who demonstrate their approach in another video in the series.