大象传媒

There was a powerful moment at the end of the very first episode of The Reunion featuring the medical team whose work resulted in the birth of the first IVF baby, Louise Brown. One of the nurses, Muriel Harris, turned to her colleagues:

“For me, it was 10 years of hard work, with ups and downs, but it has allowed millions of babies to be born and be part of a family, and I’m proud of that.” Her 20-something-self would never have realised what an impact her work could have made, but now was her chance to say how she felt about it.

An episode from 2021 features a reunion of Tiananmen Square protestors, who gathered against the might of the Chinese state in an epic standoff.

The programme includes a moving exchange between Wuer Kaixi, one of the lead activists and the brave French diplomat Jean-Pierre Montagne who had smuggled him out of China to safety in 1989.

At the time of the recording Jean-Pierre had only a few weeks to live and joined us from his home in France. Within a few days of the studio session, Wuer was on a plane to visit his old friend to say a personal thank you at his bedside.

The 1968 Ford machinists strike wasn’t much more than an academic case study on equal pay when we decided to feature it. Tracking down surviving women who’d taken part wasn’t an easy job, but eventually we found Rosie, Violet and Lil Grisley (aka “Ginger Lil”).

Kirsty is joined by Jo Eardley, Michael Rosen, Hugh Montgomery, Ally Auladin, and Amanda Macaskill Stewart.

“We didn’t think we did anything special,” Violet told Sue MacGregor while Lil confessed that she’d seen the protest march to London as an excuse for a day out. She also admitted having difficulty with her “We Want Sex Equality” banner. As the strikers were marching down Whitehall, she realised that it was only partially unfurled.

“There I was, walking to parliament with a sign saying ‘We Want Sex’.” Film producer Stephen Woolley heard the programme, and five years later, their story was immortalised in the hit movie Made In Dagenham – and yes, Lil’s banner was there.

4. Unforgettable moments from the Covid pandemic with Michael Rosen

Kirsty Wark took over presenter duties in 2020 with her first programmes recorded in lockdown. I’ll never forget the poignancy of the episode we did with staff from London’s Whittington Hospital intensive care unit reflecting on the first weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The poet and broadcaster Michael Rosen had been one of their patients, and even in the depths of an induced coma, he responded to chatter about his favourite team Arsenal, and turned away when one of the nurses talked about her love of Derby County.

“It’s the kindness of strangers at the heart of the NHS that blows you away,” said Rosen of his near-death experience. “It’s such a unique way of caring, which is at the same time both anonymous and intimate.”

5. Shocking first hand memories of a devastating terror attack

More recently Kirsty went back to the town of Lockerbie in the Scottish borders where she’d been one of the first reporters on the scene after the wreckage of Kirsty remembered the acrid smell of burning aviation fuel that hung over the town as well as the tiny scraps of paper, remnants from the plane, that swirled around.

In the weeks that followed, a team of volunteers worked to return property to family members in the U.S. Annie Lareau remembered a father being sent a deerstalker hat – a Christmas present from his daughter who died on the flight.

It takes weeks of research, and lots of producer charm and guile to get people to take part in The Reunion. Occasionally things don’t go to plan. A reunion of Labour spin doctors was unspun by Peter Mandelson, but we did eventually persuade him to take part in a memorable episode on the creation of “New Labour” a few years later.

He talked about the famous “prawn cocktail offensive”, admitted to haranguing Today programme producers – “but I was always a pussycat really” – and told the inside story of how he brokered the famous deal between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, made in the fashionable Islington eatery Granita, about who would lead the party. “The restaurant deal was a nonsense,” he said, “but the positioning paper, which I wrote after that dinner, was carefully calibrated to keep both Gordon and Tony happy.”

7. Sharpe and the fall of the Soviet Union

Anyone who’s been to a school reunion will know that it’s the stories that everyone remembers. A recent episode on the historical TV series Sharpe was a revelation. It was shot in the Crimean Peninsula, but little did the producers know that they would be sending the cast and crew to film in a rapidly disintegrating Soviet Union.In the studio, our guests piled on as they recalled food and water shortages, uncontrollable horses, extras recruited by the local mafia. At one stage, the actors even went on strike because of a lack of bacon, but despite it all, the series was an international hit, and ran for 15 years.

Actor Michael Cochrane, who played cavalry-man Simmerson in the series, was given a horse to ride. "Britta was good as gold", said Michael, "but on one occasion the effects people set off an explosive charge a bit too close to us, and she bolted. I just clung on to her mane for what seemed like ages as she galloped along the ridge-way. No-one seemed very concerned, and by the time we got back, the whole crew had wrapped for the day."

8. It’s love – actually

There was a lovely moment in the Love Actually reunion when Martine McCutcheon, fresh from EastEnders and a traumatic run in My Fair Lady, confessed about how nervous she was walking into the rehearsal room with fellow cast members Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth and Bill Nighy round the table.

“The director Richard Curtis made us all wear name badges – like no-one knew who anyone was!” she laughed, “I was shaking and sweating, and gorgeous Alan Rickman just whispered to me:

“Don’t worry dear, we’re all nervous, we’re just acting like we’re not.”