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From the establishment of the Department of the Environment, in 1970, to the launch of the Green Party in 1973, the first few years of the 1970s saw environmental issues move to the centre of British society. This article discusses environmental awareness in this period, with specific reference to the BBC science fiction series Doomwatch. Placing this series within the wider context of 1970s Britain, it argues that this series was part of a burgeoning environmental discourse. First airing in February 1970 and considered “years ahead of its time,” Doomwatch was popular with the public, regularly receiving over 10 million viewers. Using Stuart Hall’s “encoding and decoding,” the impact of the programme on the public is assessed in this paper. The BBC Audience Research Reports reveal viewers’ feelings and show that the programme did strike a chord with the public and reflected concerns about contemporary environmental problems. This article thus analyses the contribution of the series to environmental awareness in Britain, and highlights the importance of considering television, and the public’s response, when assessing the “greening of Britain”.