The Reunion (radio series)

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The Reunion
GenreFactual
Running time41 minutes
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Language(s)English
Home stationBBC Radio 4
Hosted byKirsty Wark
Sue MacGregor (former)
Produced byDavid Prest
Original release27 July 2003[1] –
present
Opening themeFranz Liszt - "Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa" from Années de pèlerinage[2]
WebsiteThe 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]

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[edit]

No Broadcast date
Title Guest Sourch
1 27 July 2003 First "Test Tube Baby"
[13]
2 3 August 2003 Chariots of Fire
3 10 August 2003 Concorde
4 17 August 2003 Iranian Revolution
5 24 August 2003 Festival of Britain
6 31 August 2003 Margaret Thatcher's 1979 election campaign
7 12 September 2003 Ford Dagenham equal pay strike
8 19 September 2003 Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior
9 8 August 2004 Britain's hydrogen bomb tests
[14]
10 15 August 2004 First women vicars in the Church of England
11 22 August 2004 Everyman Theatre, Liverpool
12 29 August 2004 Raising the Mary Rose
13 5 September 2004 1975 United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum
14 12 September 2004 Terrence Higgins Trust
15 26 December 2004 1960s supermodels
16 24 July 2005 1980 Summer Olympics
17 31 July 2005 Not the Nine O'Clock News
18 7 August 2005 Abortion Act 1967 campaigners
19 14 August 2005 Child Internees in Japan
[15]
20 21 August 2005 Today newspaper
21 28 August 2005 Siege of Sarajevo
22 4 September 2005 Twyford Down protest
23 11 September 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe
24 2 April 2006 Gulf War
25 9 April 2006 Serious Fraud Office
26 16 April 2006 The Family
27 23 April 2006 England at the 1966 FIFA World Cup
28 30 April 2006 Wedding of Charles and Diana
29 3 September 2006 Privatisation of British Rail
[16]
30 10 September 2006 Robben Island
31 17 September 2006 TV-am
32 24 September 2006 Marchioness disaster
33 8 April 2007 Last Debutantes, 1958
34 15 April 2007 EastEnders
35 22 April 2007 Milton Keynes
36 29 April 2007 British Antarctic Survey
37 6 May 2007 Brighton hotel bombing
38 26 August 2007 Royal Opera House
39 2 September 2007 1976 Race Relations Act
[17]
40 9 September 2007 British veterans of the Korean War
41 16 September 2007 NME Writers
42 23 September 2007 Bhagwan Rajnees
43 6 April 2008 Bletchley Park code-breakers.
44 13 April 2008 National Lottery
45 20 April 2008 D.C.Thomson comics
46 27 April 2008 Strangeways Prison riots of 1990
47 4 May 2008 Withnail and I
48 24 August 2008 Transglobe Expedition
49 7 September 2008 Hitler Diaries
[18]
50 14 September 2008 Windsor Castle fire 1992
51 21 September 2008 Construction of the Channel Tunnel
52 21 September 2008 The Navy Lark
53 5 April 2009 National Theatre
54 12 April 2009 Hillsborough disaster
55 19 April 2009 Brit Art
56 26 April 2009 Thalidomide scandal
57 3 May 2009 Beirut hostages
58 23 August 2009 Kerry Packer and the World Series Cricket 1977
59 30 August 2009 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia
[19]
60 6 September 2009 Iranian Embassy Siege
61 13 September 2009 Nelson Mandela Release
62 20 September 2009 Stonewall
63 4 April 2010 London Marathon
64 11 April 2010 Brideshead Revisited
65 18 Apr 2010 Maze Prison
66 25 April 2010 Dunblane school massacre
67 2 May 2010 The Tonight Programme
68 22 August 2010 Millennium Dome
69 29 August 2010 Hurricane Katrina
[20]
70 5 September 2010 Miss World 1970
71 12 September 2010 Kindertransport
72 19 September 2010 Play School
73 6 March 2011 UNHCR Bosnia
74 13 March 2011 Comic Relief
75 20 March 2011 Brixton Riots
76 27 March 2011 British Rock and Rollers
77 7 August 2011 Barings Bank Collapse

Alan Bloom, administrator of Barings

78 14 August 2011 Courtauld Institute
79 26 August 2011 Zeebrugge Ferry Disaster
[21]
80 28 August 2011 Boys from the Blackstuff
81 4 September 2011 Hunting Ban
82 11 September 2011 Les Miserables
83 1 April 2012 1948 Olympic Games
84 8 April 2012 Greenham Common
85 15 April 2012 HMS Sheffield
86 22 April 2012 Globe Theatre
87 29 April 2012 Hong Kong Handover
88 19 August 2012 60s Girl Singers
89 26 August 2012 Ugandan Asians
[22]
90 2 September 2012 Poll Tax
91 9 September 2012 Dolly the Sheep
92 16 September 2012 Big Brother
93 7 April 2013 Doctor Who
94 14 April 2013 King's Cross fire
95 21 April 2013 Coronation Maids of Honour
96 28 April 2013 The Centre for Alternative Technology
97 5 May 2013 Hutton Inquiry
98 18 August 2013 Goodness Gracious Me
99 25 August 2013 Lib Lab Pact
[23]
100 1 September 2013 Assassination of John F. Kennedy
101 8 September 2013 Jersey Occupation
102 15 September 2013 Spare Rib magazine
103 25 December 2013 The Fast Show
104 6 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
105 13 April 2014 Four Weddings and a Funeral
106 20 April 2014 Life on Earth
107 4 May 2014 Omagh Bombing
108 17 August 2014 Berlin Airlift
109 24 August 2014 Sun Newspaper
[24]
110 31 August 2014 Independence of Zimbabwe in 1980
111 7 September 2014 James Bond
112 19 September 2014 New Labour
113 25 December 2014 Wallace and Gromit
114 5 April 2015 Spycatcher
115 12 April 2015 Fastnet Race Disaster
116 19 April 2015 Hit Factory
117 26 April 2015 Far East Prisoners of War
118 3 May 2015 Peter Brook's A Midsummer Night's Dream
119 16 August 2015 Guantanamo Bay
[25]
120 23 August 2015 Food writers
121 30 August 2015 Foot-and-Mouth Disease
122 6 September 2015 Alan Bennett's Talking Heads
123 13 September 2015 Birmingham Six
124 3 April 2016 Nuclear Submarines
125 10 April 2016 Disability Campaigners
126 17 April 2016 UEFA Euro 1996
127 24 April 2016 Maastricht Treaty
128 6 May 2016 Arrest of Augusto Pinochet
129 21 August 2016 Yorkshire Ripper Investigation
[26]
130 28 August 2016 Glastonbury Festival
131 4 September 2016 Launch of Private Eye
132 11 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
133 23 September 2016 Tate Modern
134 2 April 2017 Vietnamese Boat People
135 9 April 2017 Libyan Embassy Siege
136 16 April 2017 Women of Punk
137 23 April 2017 Challenger Disaster
138 30 April 2017 Climbie Inquiry
139 13 August 2017 First all-female Round the World Yacht Crew
[27]
140 20 August 2017 Wapping Dispute
141 27 August 2017 Eighties Fashion Designers
142 3 September 2017 Solidarity
143 10 September 2017 Northern Rock crisis
144 1 April 2018 Battle for Basra
145 8 April 2018 Enfield Poltergeist
146 15 April 2018 Kyoto Protocol
147 22 April 2018 Baader-Meinhof
148 29 April 2018 The Young Ones
149 12 August 2018 The Rise and Fall of the SDP
[28]
150 19 August 2018 Auschwitz Survivors
151 26 August 2018 Murder of Georgi Markov
152 2 September 2018 Chickenshed Theatre
153 9 September 2018 Sierra Leone Civil War
154 7 April 2019 French Resistance
155 14 April 2019 Parliamentary Expenses Scandal
  • Heather Brooke, FOI campaigner
  • Andrew Walker, head of House of Commons finances
  • Ann Cryer, former Labour MP for Keighley
156 21 April 2019 Gulf War Aircrew POWs
157 28 April 2019 Scottish Parliament
158 5 May 2019 Pioneering Women Newsreaders
159 18 August 2019 York Minster fire
[29]
160 25 August 2019 Death on the Rock
161 1 September 2019 When Rugby Turned Pro
162 8 September 2019 Alder Hey Organs Scandal
163 15 September 2019 Cats - The Musical
164 16 August 2020 Black Wednesday
165 23 August 2020 Collapse of British Leyland
166 30 August 2020 Bid for London 2012
167 6 September 2020 GM Crops Debate
168 13 September 2020 Virago Press
169 24 December 2020 Strictly Come Dancing
[30]
170 30 December 2020 The COVID-19 ward
171 4 April 2021 Finding Richard III
172 11 April 2021 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
173 18 April 2021 Litvinenko Poisoning
174 25 April 2021 The Romanian Orphanages
175 2 May 2021 Madness
176 13 August 2021 Same-Sex Marriage
177 20 August 2021 The Day Today
178 27 August 2021 Tiananmen Square Protests
179 3 September 2021 Pioneers of Women's Football
[31]
180 10 September 2021 Trial of the Mangrove Nine
181 24 December 2021 Love Actually
182 1 April 2022 Boxing Day Tsunami
183 8 April 2022 McLibel Trial
184 22 April 2022 Opening Ceremony of the London Olympics
185 29 April 2022 Dale Farm Evictions
186 6 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
187 19 August 2022 Grange Hill
188 26 August 2022 London Occupy
189 2 September 2022 Deep Blue v Kasparov
[32]
190 4 September 2022 Island Records
191 1 October 2022 Maidan Uprising
192 2 April 2023 British Runners of the 1980s
193 9 April 2023 The Good Friday Agreement
194 16 April 2023 Sharpe
195 23 April 2023 Abu Ghraib
196 5 May 2023 Eurovision Song Contest
197 18 Aug 2023 Jerry Springer: The Opera
198 20 Aug 2023 Lockerbie Bombing
199 27 Aug 2023 Final Years of John Major's Government
200 3 Sep 2023 Spitting Image
201 15 Sep 2023 BLK Art Group
202 29 Dec 2023 Band Aid
203 12 April 2024 That's Life!
204 14 April 2024 1996 Mount Everest disaster
Lene Gammelgaard, a mountaineer
205 21 April 2024 Passion of Port Talbot
Michael Sheen, actor
206 28 April 2024 Bush v Gore 2000

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "The Reunion:Louise Brown". BBC Genome. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  2. ^ Mahoney, Elizabeth (25 April 2012). "The Reunion: an unmissable radio show that gets better with every listen". The Guardian.
  3. ^ "The Reunion". BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  4. ^ a b "Kirsty Wark to host Radio 4's The Reunion". BBC Media Centre. 17 May 2020.
  5. ^ a b c "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.
  7. ^ "Sony Radio Academy Awards 2007". The Guardian. 1 May 2007.
  8. ^ "The 42nd Broadcasting Press Guild Television and Radio Awards". Broadcasting Press Guild. 12 March 2016. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  9. ^ O'Hagan, Simon (16 February 2019). "The 30 Greatest Radio Programmes of All Time". Radio Times.
  10. ^ "Commercial radio ignored in Greatest Radio Shows list". RadioToday. 12 February 2019. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
  11. ^ "Whistledown Productions". BFI. Archived from the original on 22 April 2019. Retrieved 19 February 2021.
  12. ^ Moorhead, Joanna (26 February 2020). "'I heard the signal – and threw my flour bombs': why the 1970 Miss World protest is still making waves". The Guardian.
  13. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - The Reunion - Available now". BBC. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
  14. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - The Reunion - Available now". BBC. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
  15. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - The Reunion - Available now". BBC. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
  16. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - The Reunion - Available now". BBC. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
  17. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - The Reunion - Available now". BBC. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
  18. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - The Reunion - Available now". BBC. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
  19. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - The Reunion - Available now". BBC. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
  20. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - The Reunion - Available now". BBC. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
  21. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - The Reunion - Available now". BBC. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
  22. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - The Reunion - Available now". BBC. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
  23. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - The Reunion - Available now". BBC. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
  24. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - The Reunion - Available now". BBC. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
  25. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - The Reunion - Available now". BBC. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
  26. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - The Reunion - Available now". BBC. Retrieved 23 August 2023.
  27. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - The Reunion - Available now". BBC. Retrieved 23 August 2023.
  28. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - The Reunion - Available now". BBC. Retrieved 23 August 2023.
  29. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - The Reunion - Available now". BBC. Retrieved 23 August 2023.
  30. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - The Reunion - Available now". BBC. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  31. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - The Reunion - Available now". BBC. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  32. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - The Reunion - Available now". BBC. Retrieved 25 August 2023.

External links[edit]

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