The Reunion (radio series)

Last updated

The Reunion
GenreFactual
Running time41 minutes
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Language(s) English
Home station BBC Radio 4
Hosted by Kirsty Wark
Sue MacGregor (former)
Produced byDavid Prest
Original release27 July 2003 [1]  
present
Opening theme Franz Liszt - "Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa" from Années de pèlerinage [2]
Website The Reunion

The Reunion is a radio discussion series presented by Kirsty Wark which reunites a group of people involved in a moment of modern history. [3] [4] It has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 since July 2003, with 163 episodes presented by the first presenter, Sue MacGregor. [5]

Contents

The series brings together four or five participants, sometimes from opposing sides. The first episode reunited the team behind the world's first IVF baby, Louise Brown. [1] Other examples include Robben Island prisoners in Cape Town, South Africa, representatives from Labour and BBC to discuss the Hutton Inquiry, [6] perpetrators and victims of the Brighton hotel bombing, and maids of honour from the 1953 Coronation. [5] The panel discussion is interspersed with archive audio and narration of the event by the presenter.

MacGregor announced that the series of 2019 would be her last. [5] Kirsty Wark was appointed as the new presenter in May 2020, and her first episode, bringing together participants in the Black Wednesday exchange rate crash of 1992, was broadcast on 16 August 2020. [4]

The format for The Reunion was conceived by the series producer David Prest and is owned by Whistledown Productions, who license the programme to BBC Radio 4. The programme won a gold award for the Best Speech Programme at the 2007 Sony Radio Academy Awards [7] and was also voted radio programme of the year at the 2016 Broadcasting Press Guild Awards. [8] In a Radio Times poll in February 2019, The Reunion was voted the 27th greatest radio programme of all time. [9] [10]

The Reunion has inspired two feature films. Made in Dagenham (2010) was based on an episode broadcast in September 2003 featuring the women machinists who went on strike at the Ford factory in Dagenham in 1968. The film's producer Stephen Woolley heard the programme, and his company, Number 9 Films, optioned the script from Whistledown Productions, who became consultants to the film and were credited as Associate Producers. [11] Misbehaviour (2020) was similarly inspired by a particularly tense 2010 edition of the programme that brought together the women's liberation protesters who disrupted the 1970 Miss World competition, with former tournament host Michael Aspel, Mecca employee Peter Jolley, and that year's Miss World, Jennifer Hosten. [12]

Programmes

NoBroadcast date
TitleGuestSourch
127 July 2003 First "Test Tube Baby"
[13]
23 August 2003 Chariots of Fire
310 August 2003 Concorde
417 August 2003 Iranian Revolution
524 August 2003 Festival of Britain
631 August 2003 Margaret Thatcher's 1979 election campaign
712 September 2003 Ford Dagenham equal pay strike
819 September 2003 Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior
98 August 2004 Britain's hydrogen bomb tests
[14]
1015 August 2004 First women vicars in the Church of England
1122 August 2004 Everyman Theatre, Liverpool
1229 August 2004 Raising the Mary Rose
135 September 2004 1975 United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum
1412 September 2004 Terrence Higgins Trust
1526 December 2004 1960s supermodels
1624 July 2005 1980 Summer Olympics
1731 July 2005 Not the Nine O'Clock News
187 August 2005 Abortion Act 1967 campaigners
1914 August 2005 Child Internees in Japan
[15]
2021 August 2005 Today newspaper
2128 August 2005 Siege of Sarajevo
224 September 2005 Twyford Down protest
2311 September 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe
242 April 2006 Gulf War
259 April 2006 Serious Fraud Office
2616 April 2006 The Family
2723 April 2006England at the 1966 FIFA World Cup
2830 April 2006 Wedding of Charles and Diana
293 September 2006 Privatisation of British Rail
[16]
3010 September 2006 Robben Island
3117 September 2006 TV-am
3224 September 2006 Marchioness disaster
338 April 2007 Last Debutantes, 1958
3415 April 2007 EastEnders
3522 April 2007 Milton Keynes
3629 April 2007 British Antarctic Survey
376 May 2007 Brighton hotel bombing
3826 August 2007 Royal Opera House
392 September 2007 1976 Race Relations Act
[17]
409 September 2007British veterans of the Korean War
4116 September 2007 NME Writers
4223 September 2007 Bhagwan Rajnees
436 April 2008 Bletchley Park code-breakers.
4413 April 2008 National Lottery
4520 April 2008 D.C.Thomson comics
4627 April 2008 Strangeways Prison riots of 1990
474 May 2008 Withnail and I
4824 August 2008 Transglobe Expedition
497 September 2008 Hitler Diaries
[18]
5014 September 2008 Windsor Castle fire 1992
5121 September 2008Construction of the Channel Tunnel
5221 September 2008 The Navy Lark
535 April 2009 National Theatre
5412 April 2009 Hillsborough disaster
5519 April 2009 Brit Art
5626 April 2009 Thalidomide scandal
573 May 2009 Beirut hostages
5823 August 2009 Kerry Packer and the World Series Cricket 1977
5930 August 2009 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia
[19]
606 September 2009 Iranian Embassy Siege
6113 September 2009 Nelson Mandela Release
6220 September 2009 Stonewall
634 April 2010 London Marathon
6411 April 2010 Brideshead Revisited
6518 Apr 2010 Maze Prison
6625 April 2010 Dunblane school massacre
672 May 2010 The Tonight Programme
6822 August 2010 Millennium Dome
6929 August 2010 Hurricane Katrina
[20]
705 September 2010 Miss World 1970
7112 September 2010 Kindertransport
7219 September 2010 Play School
736 March 2011 UNHCR Bosnia
7413 March 2011 Comic Relief
7520 March 2011 Brixton Riots
7627 March 2011 British Rock and Rollers
777 August 2011 Barings Bank Collapse

Alan Bloom, administrator of Barings

7814 August 2011 Courtauld Institute
7926 August 2011 Zeebrugge Ferry Disaster
[21]
8028 August 2011 Boys from the Blackstuff
814 September 2011 Hunting Ban
8211 September 2011 Les Miserables
831 April 2012 1948 Olympic Games
848 April 2012 Greenham Common
8515 April 2012 HMS Sheffield
8622 April 2012 Globe Theatre
8729 April 2012 Hong Kong Handover
8819 August 201260s Girl Singers
8926 August 2012 Ugandan Asians
[22]
902 September 2012 Poll Tax
919 September 2012 Dolly the Sheep
9216 September 2012 Big Brother
937 April 2013 Doctor Who
9414 April 2013 King's Cross fire
9521 April 2013 Coronation Maids of Honour
9628 April 2013 The Centre for Alternative Technology
975 May 2013 Hutton Inquiry
9818 August 2013 Goodness Gracious Me
9925 August 2013 Lib Lab Pact
[23]
1001 September 2013 Assassination of John F. Kennedy
1018 September 2013 Jersey Occupation
10215 September 2013 Spare Rib magazine
10325 December 2013 The Fast Show
1046 April 2014 UK miners' strike (1984–85)
  • Kim Howells, former research officer for the South Wales NUM
  • Mel Hepworth, labour
  • Barbara Jackson, organiser
  • Ken Clarke, former Health Minister
  • Bill King, Bedfordshire Police
10513 April 2014 Four Weddings and a Funeral
10620 April 2014 Life on Earth
1074 May 2014 Omagh Bombing
10817 August 2014 Berlin Airlift
10924 August 2014 Sun Newspaper
[24]
11031 August 2014Independence of Zimbabwe in 1980
1117 September 2014 James Bond
11219 September 2014 New Labour
11325 December 2014 Wallace and Gromit
1145 April 2015 Spycatcher
11512 April 2015 Fastnet Race Disaster
11619 April 2015 Hit Factory
11726 April 2015 Far East Prisoners of War
1183 May 2015 Peter Brook's A Midsummer Night's Dream
11916 August 2015 Guantanamo Bay
[25]
12023 August 2015Food writers
12130 August 2015 Foot-and-Mouth Disease
1226 September 2015 Alan Bennett's Talking Heads
12313 September 2015 Birmingham Six
1243 April 2016 Nuclear Submarines
12510 April 2016Disability Campaigners
12617 April 2016 UEFA Euro 1996
12724 April 2016 Maastricht Treaty
1286 May 2016Arrest of Augusto Pinochet
12921 August 2016 Yorkshire Ripper Investigation
[26]
13028 August 2016 Glastonbury Festival
1314 September 2016Launch of Private Eye
13211 September 2016 Contaminated Blood
  • David Watters, director of the Haemophilia Society
  • Colette Wintel Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C patient
  • Peter Jones, Head of the Newcastle Haemophilia Centre;
  • Janette Johnson, relative of the AIDS and Hepatitis C patient
13323 September 2016 Tate Modern
1342 April 2017 Vietnamese Boat People
1359 April 2017 Libyan Embassy Siege
13616 April 2017Women of Punk
13723 April 2017 Challenger Disaster
13830 April 2017 Climbie Inquiry
13913 August 2017First all-female Round the World Yacht Crew
[27]
14020 August 2017 Wapping Dispute
14127 August 2017Eighties Fashion Designers
1423 September 2017 Solidarity
14310 September 2017 Northern Rock crisis
1441 April 2018 Battle for Basra
1458 April 2018 Enfield Poltergeist
14615 April 2018 Kyoto Protocol
14722 April 2018 Baader-Meinhof
14829 April 2018 The Young Ones
14912 August 2018The Rise and Fall of the SDP
[28]
15019 August 2018 Auschwitz Survivors
15126 August 2018 Murder of Georgi Markov
1522 September 2018 Chickenshed Theatre
1539 September 2018 Sierra Leone Civil War
1547 April 2019 French Resistance
15514 April 2019 Parliamentary Expenses Scandal
  • Heather Brooke, FOI campaigner
  • Andrew Walker, head of House of Commons finances
  • Ann Cryer, former Labour MP for Keighley
15621 April 2019 Gulf War Aircrew POWs
15728 April 2019 Scottish Parliament
1585 May 2019Pioneering Women Newsreaders
15918 August 2019 York Minster fire
[29]
16025 August 2019 Death on the Rock
1611 September 2019When Rugby Turned Pro
1628 September 2019 Alder Hey Organs Scandal
16315 September 2019 Cats - The Musical
16416 August 2020 Black Wednesday
16523 August 2020Collapse of British Leyland
16630 August 2020 Bid for London 2012
1676 September 2020 GM Crops Debate
16813 September 2020 Virago Press
16924 December 2020 Strictly Come Dancing
[30]
17030 December 2020The COVID-19 ward
1714 April 2021 Finding Richard III
17211 April 2021 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
17318 April 2021 Litvinenko Poisoning
17425 April 2021 The Romanian Orphanages
1752 May 2021 Madness
17613 August 2021 Same-Sex Marriage
17720 August 2021 The Day Today
17827 August 2021 Tiananmen Square Protests
1793 September 2021Pioneers of Women's Football
[31]
18010 September 2021 Trial of the Mangrove Nine
18124 December 2021 Love Actually
1821 April 2022 Boxing Day Tsunami
1838 April 2022 McLibel Trial
18422 April 2022 Opening Ceremony of the London Olympics
18529 April 2022 Dale Farm Evictions
1866 May 2022 Silver Jubilee
  • Dickie Arbiter, veteran Royal commendator
  • Hugo Vickers, Royal biographer
  • Mary Pearson, daughter of the Martin Charteris who was the Queen's Private Secretary
18719 August 2022 Grange Hill
18826 August 2022 London Occupy
1892 September 2022 Deep Blue v Kasparov
[32]
1904 September 2022 Island Records
1911 October 2022 Maidan Uprising
1922 April 2023British Runners of the 1980s
1939 April 2023The Good Friday Agreement
19416 April 2023 Sharpe
19523 April 2023 Abu Ghraib
1965 May 2023 Eurovision Song Contest
19718 Aug 2023 Jerry Springer: The Opera
19820 Aug 2023 Lockerbie Bombing
19927 Aug 2023Final Years of John Major's Government
2003 Sep 2023 Spitting Image
20115 Sep 2023 BLK Art Group
20229 Dec 2023 Band Aid
20312 April 2024 That's Life!
20414 April 2024 1996 Mount Everest disaster
Lene Gammelgaard, a mountaineer
20521 April 2024 Passion of Port Talbot
Michael Sheen, actor
20628 April 2024 Bush v Gore 2000

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References

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  5. 1 2 3 "Sue MacGregor stands down as host of Radio 4's The Reunion". BBC Media Centre. 23 October 2019.
  6. Carr, Flora (19 August 2018). "'The space shuttle disaster Reunion was heartbreaking': Radio 4's Sue Macgregor recalls her most memorable The Reunion moments". Radio Times .
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  8. "The 42nd Broadcasting Press Guild Television and Radio Awards". Broadcasting Press Guild. 12 March 2016. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
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