It's only since the Second World War that the Olympic Games have grown into the world phenomenon they now are. Before that they were ignored by many and opposed by many others - most importantly by the socialist workers' sports movement that from the early 1920s set out to use sport to further the cause of peace and international understanding. Accusing the 'official' IOC-run Games of encouraging links between sport, nationalism and big business the movement organised alternative Olympiads in Frankfurt in 1925, Vienna in 1931 and Antwerp in 1937. Of these 1931 was the big one - a showcase for the social and cultural achievements of 'Red Vienna'. (There was also a 'Marxist Counter-Olympics' held in Chicago in 1932.) And in July 1936 a 'Popular Olympiad' in Barcelona - a protest against the 'Nazi Olympics' to be held in Berlin the following month - were cancelled at the last minute because of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.

The workers' sports movement was strongest in Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and France. In Germany alone it had more than a million members. Started as a protest against the slaughter of the First World War (the IOC banned Germany from 'their' Games in 1920 And '24) it took on new meaning as fascist regimes learned to exploit sport for their own ends. Mussolini led the way : Hitler followed. In Britain the movement was weakened by bitter rivalry between the British Workers' Sports Association (Labour Party / TUC) and the British Workers' Sports Federation (Communist Party). But both were hampered by behind-the-scenes government encouragement of sporting links with fascism and discouragement of any with the Soviet Union.

The programmes uses taped memories, original documents and contemporary newspaper reports as well as interviews - in Britain, Austria and Germany - with leading historians. For those who think the Olympic Games now encourage nationalism, commercial exploitation and drug abuse this programme resurrects a mass movement that put forward a very different relationship between sport, society and the state.