Painful memories
As BBC Radio 4’s The Reunion has long proved, there’s real power in listening to those who were there recalling their part in significant historical events. That’s often especially true when people meet again those with whom they had lost touch: stories untold for years come tumbling out, and small details suddenly take on a new significance.
Such encounters lie at the heart of
Not Forgotten, a new TV series presented by Anita Rani, whose work on documentaries exploring her family’s sometimes tragic experiences during the partition of British India means that she has first-hand understanding of this emotional territory. In each episode, Rani joins someone who is looking back at what they went through, and searching for someone important to them at the time whom they have lost contact with.
Subjects covered in the series include the 7/7 terrorist attacks of 2005, when London was subject to a series of coordinated suicide attacks; the Aids crisis; the 1982 Falklands War; the Holocaust; and the almost-four-year conflict in Bosnia that followed the break-up of the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.
Each programme features investigative research and the perspectives of experts. The overall aim is to celebrate moments of kindness and humanity that can be found in even the most challenging of times.
Not Forgotten BBC Two / April