A diverse group of fifty people were selected from across the UK, given training in the use of camcorders and invited to record aspects of everyday life during the course of a year. From their recordings the team drew material for a range of programmes, of which the best known are the Shorts which were broadcast before BBC Two's Newsnight current affairs programme. Contributors had a right of veto over their material so that nothing was broadcast without their consent.
The original project was created by the Community Programme Unit with output intended for broadcast on BBC Two. Jeremy Gibson and Tony Steyger developed the original concept with Steyger drawing inspiration from the Mass-Observation Archive to propose 'an anthropology of everyday life.' The project was co-produced between 1993 and 2001 by Chris Mohr and Mandy Rose.