Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.

What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.

If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC

Sounds.

The UK Prime Minister has called a snap election, taking the country by surprise.

Theresa May wants to cement her party's leading position in the run-up to Brexit,

the UK's exit from the European Union.

In that vote, a key issue was immigration, and this vote she knows will be no different.

All the major parties will have to talk about immigration in their campaigns and this is very unusual.

For years and I mean decades immigration was a subject that politicians avoided.

Only the far right made it a campaign issue.

So how did we get here?

We've discovered it's a story that's been 70 years in the

making and explains an enormous amount about the seismic political change happening

not just in the UK but across many of the world's

oldest democracies. I'm Ruth Alexander this is the inquiry and this week we're

asking how did immigration stop being a political taboo in the UK?

Part 1.

Silenced. Part 1, silenced.

...