Radio 4’s The Reunion celebrates 200th edition with restored archive
All editions of The Reunion broadcast since 2003, including some episodes that haven’t previously been available in digital form, are on BBC Sounds.
This comes as the BBC Radio 4 programme celebrates its 200th edition and the latest series launches on the station this Sunday, 13 August. A special 200th anniversary episode will be broadcast on 3 September, featuring an on stage gathering of the cast, crew and creatives behind the TV satirical show Spitting Image.
The Reunion reflects on modern history and cultural moments with the people who were there at the time and is presented by Kirsty Wark. Kirsty took over from Sue MacGregor who presented 163 editions of the programme between 2003 and 2019.
The new release on BBC Sounds includes restoring 28 episodes, featuring the team behind the first IVF baby, Margaret Thatcher’s 1979 election campaign, the crew of the Greenpeace ship, Rainbow warrior, and the cast of Chariots of Fire. Other newly restored episodes cover the Christmas Island H bomb tests, the launch of Concorde, the marriage of Charles and Diana, and the fall of the Shah of Iran.
Also available for the first time since its original broadcast is the episode featuring a gathering of women who took part in the 1968 Dagenham Machinist strike at Ford.
The episode, originally broadcast in 2003, famously inspired the film producer Stephen Woolley to make “Made in Dagenham”.
A later edition of The Reunion on the controversial Miss World competition of 1970, also inspired the 2020 film Misbehaviour.
Presenter Kirsty Wark says: “I thank my lucky stars that I am the host of The Reunion. It is both a privilege and a responsibility to bring together a group of people to relive significant moments of modern history – cultural, political, national and international – from the 35th anniversary of Lockerbie to The Fall of John Major’s government and, for our 200th edition, the reunion of the talented funny and caustic bunch behind Spitting Image.
“I inherited the programme from Sue MacGregor, and all our 200 episodes are, for the first time, available on BBC Sounds. So please dive in and enjoy some extraordinary conversations – we’ll never run out of things to talk about, events to revisit, moments to savour.”
Series producer David Prest adds: “The programmes are unique gatherings of the people involved in a story from the last 50 years or so – often they are meeting again for the first time – or what they know will be the last time.
“Emotions can be raw, there may be scores to be settled, or things to be said. Listening back to these early editions, where many of the participants are no longer with us, adds a real poignancy to the episodes.”
All editions of The Reunion from 2003 onwards, are available on BBC Sounds now.