Tell me how it happened), usually shortened to Cuéntame and also known in English as Remember When, is a Spanish prime-time television historical drama series that originally ran on La 1 of Televisión Española for twenty-three seasons, from 13 September 2001 to 29 November 2023.

With a stable cast led by Imanol Arias and Ana Duato as Antonio Alcántara and Mercedes Fernández, more than three thousand performers have appeared in the series.

Cuéntame cómo pasó was conceived by producer Miguel Ángel Bernardeau [es] with the idea of reviewing the near past from the present.

They offered the project to all the television networks in Spain for eight years, which continually rejected it because it talked about Francoism, until Televisión Española (TVE) finally picked it up.

The series begins in April 1968 with the arrival of television to the house of the Alcántaras just in time to watch the victory of Massiel at the Eurovision Song Contest.

The most prolific were Eduardo Ladrón de Guevara, Sonia Sánchez, Jacobo Delgado, Alberto Macías, Ignacio del Moral [es], Patrick Buckley, and Joaquín Oristrell.

[17] The series has recreated many historical events in which the Alcántaras have been involved, for which purpose-built full-scale period sets, real locations, or CGI techniques were used for filming.

In post-production, the footage filmed was given a chromatic range based on grey and sepia similar to an old faded color photograph, which gives the series its characteristic early look.

[29] Antonio Alcántara and Mercedes Fernández are a married couple that have emigrated in the 1960s from Sagrillas, a –fictional– small village in the province of Albacete,[b] to San Genaro, a –also fictional– working-class suburb in Madrid, along with her mother Herminia and their three children, Inés, Toni, and Carlos seeking a better life away from the hardships of an impoverished countryside.

Inés works at Nieves' hair salon across the street along with Pili, Toni is starting a law degree, making him the first Alcántara going to university and Carlos spends his school days with his best friends Josete and Luis.

With great effort and hard work they are able to purchase in instalments their first television set, their first washing machine, their first car –a SEAT 800– and even spend their first vacations at Benidorm where they see the sea for the first time.

One of them, the building company Construcciones Nueva York turns out to be a large fraud planned by Don Pablo and his partners in order to embezzle the funds and blame Antonio.

With his new position and with the printing house running well, the family is able to move their residence from the humble San Genaro to the upper class Salamanca neighbourhood.

He sells the printing house, is removed from the position in the Ministry and he starts a flags and banners factory named Estandartes y Banderas alongside his best friend Desi.

The sales go well, so she teams up with Nieves to open a boutique named Meyni in the hair salon premises, hiring Pili as shop assistant and using the back room as a workshop.

Meyni reaches its peak of success when they run a fashion show in front of Carmen Polo, but the company does not outlast the economic crisis and they eventually have to close the factory.

After giving birth to María, the Alcántaras' fourth child, she decides to finish her secondary school studies and even completes a degree in Economics.

When released, whilst awaiting court and pregnant, she decides to escape to France with Eugenio, where their son Antonio Oriol is born and where they break up.

Afterwards, he works as a journalist for Diario 16, is PSOE's campaign manager for the 1996 general election, and starts an online newspaper with Samuel, a long-time colleague and Juana's husband.

Josete and Marcelo join them in Sagrillas and they all help Carlos to start a rural tourism small lodging at the cottage of his deceased paternal grandmother Pura.

The Alcántaras are also direct and indirect witnesses of the historic events occurring those days, including, among many others, when Antonio, Mercedes, Carlos and Miguel witness the car bombing that kills Prime Minister Luis Carrero Blanco; when Toni chronicles the Portuguese Carnation Revolution from Lisbon; when the whole family queues for hours to see Franco lying in state; when Toni experienced the 23-F coup d'état attempt while inside the Congress building; when Carlos, Karina and Josete get trapped in the Alcalá 20 nightclub fire; when Antonio and Mercedes take part in the famous game show Un, dos, tres... responda otra vez; when the whole family leaves El Descanso restaurant just as it suffers a terrorist attack; when Antonio proudly attends, at the Royal Palace, the solemn signing of the agreement by which Spain and Portugal joined the European Economic Community; when Inés, Marcos and Oriol come out of the Hipercor bombing unscathed; when Toni reports live from Berlin the fall of the Wall; when Toni and his cameraman are kidnapped in Iraq during the Gulf War; when Antonio, Mercedes, Toni and Oriol attend the opening ceremony of the 1992 Summer Olympics; and when the whole family demonstrates against the kidnapping and murder of Miguel Ángel Blanco.

[2] Many established actors, or who had a breakout role later, have had recurring or guest roles throughout the series, including Susana Abaitua, María José Alfonso, Anna Allen, Héctor Alterio, Javier Ambrossi, Ángel de Andrés López, Álex Angulo, Enrique Arce, Raúl Arévalo, Carmen Balagué, Elena Ballesteros, Carlos Bardem, Pilar Bardem, Miguel Bernardeau, Icíar Bollaín, María Botto, Pedro Casablanc, César Camino, Carles Canut, Óscar Casas, Pilar Castro, Víctor Clavijo, Adrià Collado, Luis Cuenca, Gemma Cuervo, Juan Díaz, Ruth Díaz, Israel Elejalde, Asier Etxeandia, Fiorella Faltoyano, Fernando Fernán Gómez, Greta Fernández, Alba Flores, Nacho Fresneda, Elena Furiase, Ginés García Millán, Andrés Gertrúdix, Ariadna Gil, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Aizpea Goenaga, Bárbara Goenaga, Agustín González, Fernando Guillén, Carlos Iglesias, Itziar Ituño, Chete Lera, José Lifante, Charo López, José Luis López Vázquez, Mikel Losada, Manuel Manquiña, Kiti Mánver, Cristina Marcos, Juan Margallo, Sílvia Marsó, Maria de Medeiros, Melody, Natalia Millán, Juli Mira, Irene Montalà, Guillermo Montesinos, Álvaro Morte, Sergio Mur, Marta Nieto, Nancho Novo, Francesc Orella, Antonio Pagudo, Diana Peñalver, Javier Pereira, Blanca Portillo, Brendan Price, Juanjo Puigcorbé, Jordi Rebellón, Miguel Rellán, Antonio Resines, Mabel Rivera, Paco Sagarzazu, Susi Sánchez, Bárbara Santa-Cruz, Carlos Santos, Alejo Sauras, Julieta Serrano, Manolo Solo, Emma Suárez, Adriana Torrebejano, Claudia Traisac, Unax Ugalde, Antonio Valero, Manuela Velasco, Pastora Vega, Juan Carlos Vellido and Luis Zahera.

[30] The only three people who have played their thirty years younger selves have been politician Santiago Carrillo,[31] film director Fernando Colomo[32] and musician Ariel Rot.

[56] Subsequently, the series was distributed in more than fifteen countries including Argentina, Austria, Finland, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, and Uruguay.

Cuéntame cómo pasó has received critical acclaim throughout most of its run with much of the praise reserved for the cast and their performances, the script and its dialogues, and the setting and its fidelity to the period.

It recovered until reaching 4.724 million and 23.8% share in season twelve, after which figures gradually decreased significantly due to the increase in the number of channels on DTT and the arrival of streaming services, which led to a fragmentation of the market, and the change in television consumption habits.

[81] The series has been adapted in 2006 in Italy by RAI as Raccontami starring Massimo Ghini and Lunetta Savino,[82] in 2007 in Portugal by RTP as Conta-me como foi with Miguel Guilherme and Rita Blanco,[83] in 2017 in Argentina by Televisión Pública Argentina as Cuéntame cómo pasó with Nicolás Cabré and Malena Solda [es][84] and in 2020 in Greece by ERT as Ta Kalytera mas Chronia with Meletis Elias [el] and Katerina Papoutsaki [el].

[86][87] In 2010, an attempt was made to create a stage musical directed by Jaime Chávarri based on the series, for which TVE and Grupo Ganga developed a talent show called Cántame cómo pasó (transl.

The show was hosted by Anne Igartiburu, had Daniel Diges and Lluvia Rojo as advisors, and Eduardo Ladrón de Guevara and Chávarri himself as judges.

[90] On 14 May 2015, Jacobo Delgado and Carlos Molinero, two scriptwriters of the series, published the novel Toda una vida that goes back in time to narrate the origin of the love story between Antonio and Mercedes.