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The Reunion

I am delighted that The Reunion is back on air every Sunday and repeated today. For those who do not know the programme, its theme is a significant event in which those involved in it reconvene and discuss some years later.

Two weeks ago there a reunion of holocaust survivors which Jeremy Corbyn would do well to listen to and last Sunday the assassination of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov on Waterloo Bridge in 1978.

Here’s a link to the programme – THE REUNION

Once again it was astonishingly topical, given  the Skripal poisonings.

It was bit scary that the Bulgarians and Russians used language like “James Bond “ fantasy and offered their help (refused).

In the week we had our annual lunch with our web designer, always an enjoyable occasion, though the technical side lasts 5 minutes if that. The web designer referred to some of the oddities of the poisonings. Namely that 2 people of different size, age and health should fall ill at precisely the same moment.

I was left wondering if we had the correct version of the facts but after listening to this programme which highlighted the KGB’s experience and capability in poisonings little doubt remained as to who was the perpetrator of the crime.

Markov himself – you may recall – was stabbed by a point of a umbrella. There was a similar such attack in Paris when the surgeon removed the source of the poison, a metal pellet. However Markov’s assassin was never caught let alone brought to justice. Probably all files have now been destroyed.

Sue McGregor presents the programme magisterially.

She begins with a lengthy introduction describing the event, then introduces her personalities: Markov’s surgeon, a senior person in the BBC external service where Markov worked, his brother who was warned of the assassination, and a friend.

She finishes the programme by bringing it up to date. I f’ind the programme compulsive listening.

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About Bernadette Angell

After cutting her journalistic teeth in Boston USA, Bernadette met and married an Englishman, whom she followed back to London. Two decades and three children later, they divorced. She now occupies herself as a freelance writer (credits include television soaps and radio plays) and occasional amateur gardener. More Posts