The Reunion is a radio discussion series presented by Kirsty Wark which reunites a group of people involved in a moment of modern history. It has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 since July 2003, with 163 episodes presented by the first presenter, Sue MacGregor.
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. Other examples include Robben Island prisoners in Cape Town, South Africa, representatives from Labour and BBC to discuss the Hutton Inquiry, perpetrators and victims of the Brighton hotel bombing, and maids of honour from the 1953 Coronation. 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. 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.
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 and was also voted radio programme of the year at the 2016 Broadcasting Press Guild Awards. In a Radio Times poll in February 2019, The Reunion was voted the 27th greatest radio programme of all time.
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. 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.
Programmes
No Broadcast date TitleGuestSourch127 July 2003First "Test Tube Baby" 23 August 2003Chariots of Fire 310 August 2003Concorde 417 August 2003Iranian Revolution 524 August 2003Festival of Britain 631 August 2003Margaret Thatcher's 1979 election campaign 712 September 2003Ford Dagenham equal pay strike 819 September 2003Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior 98 August 2004Britain's hydrogen bomb tests 1015 August 2004First women vicars in the Church of England 1122 August 2004Everyman Theatre, Liverpool 1229 August 2004Raising the Mary Rose 135 September 20041975 United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum 1412 September 2004Terrence Higgins Trust 1526 December 20041960s supermodels 1624 July 20051980 Summer Olympics 1731 July 2005Not the Nine O'Clock News 187 August 2005Abortion Act 1967 campaigners 1914 August 2005Child Internees in Japan 2021 August 2005Today newspaper 2128 August 2005Siege of Sarajevo 224 September 2005Twyford Down protest 2311 September 2005Edinburgh Festival Fringe242 April 2006Gulf War 259 April 2006Serious Fraud Office 2616 April 2006The Family 2723 April 2006England at the 1966 FIFA World Cup 2830 April 2006Wedding of Charles and Diana 293 September 2006Privatisation of British Rail 3010 September 2006Robben Island 3117 September 2006TV-am 3224 September 2006Marchioness disaster 338 April 2007 Last Debutantes, 1958 3415 April 2007EastEnders 3522 April 2007Milton Keynes3629 April 2007British Antarctic Survey376 May 2007Brighton hotel bombing 3826 August 2007Royal Opera House 392 September 20071976 Race Relations Act 409 September 2007British veterans of the Korean War4116 September 2007NME Writers 4223 September 2007Bhagwan Rajnees436 April 2008Bletchley Park code-breakers. 4413 April 2008National Lottery 4520 April 2008D.C.Thomson comics 4627 April 2008Strangeways Prison riots of 1990474 May 2008Withnail and I 4824 August 2008Transglobe Expedition 497 September 2008Hitler Diaries 5014 September 2008Windsor Castle fire 1992 5121 September 2008Construction of the Channel Tunnel 5221 September 2008The Navy Lark 53 5 April 2009National Theatre 54 12 April 2009Hillsborough disaster 5519 April 2009Brit Art 56 26 April 2009Thalidomide scandal 573 May 2009Beirut hostages 5823 August 2009Kerry Packer and the World Series Cricket 19775930 August 20091983–1985 famine in Ethiopia60 6 September 2009Iranian Embassy Siege61 13 September 2009Nelson Mandela Release6220 September 2009Stonewall634 April 2010London Marathon6411 April 2010Brideshead Revisited6518 Apr 2010Maze Prison6625 April 2010Dunblane school massacre672 May 2010The Tonight Programme6822 August 2010Millennium Dome6929 August 2010Hurricane Katrina705 September 2010Miss World 19707112 September 2010Kindertransport7219 September 2010Play School736 March 2011UNHCR Bosnia7413 March 2011Comic Relief7520 March 2011Brixton Riots7627 March 2011British Rock and Rollers777 August 2011Barings Bank Collapse7814 August 2011Courtauld Institute7926 August 2011Zeebrugge Ferry Disaster8028 August 2011Boys from the Blackstuff814 September 2011Hunting Ban8211 September 2011Les Miserables831 April 20121948 Olympic Games848 April 2012Greenham Common8515 April 2012HMS Sheffield8622 April 2012Globe Theatre8729 April 2012Hong Kong Handover8819 August 201260s Girl Singers8926 August 2012Ugandan Asians902 September 2012Poll Tax919 September 2012Dolly the Sheep9216 September 2012Big Brother937 April 2013Doctor Who9414 April 2013King's Cross fire9521 April 2013Coronation Maids of Honour9628 April 2013The Centre for Alternative Technology975 May 2013Hutton Inquiry9818 August 2013Goodness Gracious Me9925 August 2013Lib Lab Pact1001 September 2013Assassination of John F. Kennedy1018 September 2013Jersey Occupation 10215 September 2013Spare Rib magazine10325 December 2013The Fast Show1046 April 2014UK miners' strike (1984–85)10513 April 2014Four Weddings and a Funeral10620 April 2014Life on Earth1074 May 2014Omagh Bombing10817 August 2014Berlin Airlift10924 August 2014Sun Newspaper11031 August 2014Independence of Zimbabwe in 19801117 September 2014James Bond11219 September 2014New Labour11325 December 2014Wallace and Gromit1145 April 2015Spycatcher11512 April 2015Fastnet Race Disaster11619 April 2015Hit Factory11726 April 2015Far East Prisoners of War1183 May 2015Peter Brook's A Midsummer Night's Dream11916 August 2015Guantanamo Bay12023 August 2015Food writers 12130 August 2015Foot-and-Mouth Disease1226 September 2015Alan Bennett's Talking Heads12313 September 2015Birmingham Six1243 April 2016Nuclear Submarines12510 April 2016Disability Campaigners 12617 April 2016UEFA Euro 1996 12724 April 2016Maastricht Treaty 1286 May 2016Arrest of Augusto Pinochet 12921 August 2016Yorkshire Ripper Investigation 13028 August 2016Glastonbury Festival 1314 September 2016Launch of Private Eye 13211 September 2016Contaminated Blood 13323 September 2016Tate Modern 1342 April 2017Vietnamese Boat People 1359 April 2017Libyan Embassy Siege 13616 April 2017Women of Punk 13723 April 2017Challenger Disaster13830 April 2017Climbie Inquiry13913 August 2017First all-female Round the World Yacht Crew14020 August 2017Wapping Dispute14127 August 2017Eighties Fashion Designers 1423 September 2017Solidarity14310 September 2017Northern Rock crisis1441 April 2018Battle for Basra1458 April 2018Enfield Poltergeist14615 April 2018Kyoto Protocol14722 April 2018Baader-Meinhof14829 April 2018The Young Ones14912 August 2018The Rise and Fall of the SDP15019 August 2018Auschwitz Survivors15126 August 2018Murder of Georgi Markov1522 September 2018Chickenshed Theatre1539 September 2018Sierra Leone Civil War1547 April 2019French Resistance15514 April 2019Parliamentary Expenses Scandal15621 April 2019Gulf War Aircrew POWs15728 April 2019Scottish Parliament1585 May 2019Pioneering Women Newsreaders15918 August 2019York Minster fire16025 August 2019Death on the Rock1611 September 2019When Rugby Turned Pro1628 September 2019Alder Hey Organs Scandal16315 September 2019Cats - The Musical16416 August 2020Black Wednesday16523 August 2020Collapse of British Leyland16630 August 2020Bid for London 20121676 September 2020GM Crops Debate16813 September 2020Virago Press16924 December 2020Strictly Come Dancing17030 December 2020The COVID-19 ward1714 April 2021Finding Richard III17211 April 2021Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill17318 April 2021Litvinenko Poisoning17425 April 2021The Romanian Orphanages1752 May 2021Madness17613 August 2021Same-Sex Marriage17720 August 2021The Day Today17827 August 2021Tiananmen Square Protests1793 September 2021Pioneers of Women's Football 18010 September 2021Trial of the Mangrove Nine18124 December 2021Love Actually1821 April 2022Boxing Day Tsunami1838 April 2022McLibel Trial18422 April 2022Opening Ceremony of the London Olympics18529 April 2022Dale Farm Evictions1866 May 2022Silver Jubilee18719 August 2022Grange Hill18826 August 2022London Occupy1892 September 2022Deep Blue v Kasparov1904 September 2022Island Records1911 October 2022Maidan Uprising1922 April 2023British Runners of the 1980s 1939 April 2023The Good Friday Agreement19416 April 2023Sharpe19523 April 2023Abu Ghraib1965 May 2023Eurovision Song Contest19718 Aug 2023Jerry Springer: The Opera19820 Aug 2023Lockerbie Bombing19927 Aug 2023Final Years of John Major's Government2003 Sep 2023Spitting Image20115 Sep 2023BLK Art Group20229 Dec 2023Band Aid20312 April 2024That's Life!20414 April 20241996 Mount Everest disaster20521 April 2024Passion of Port Talbot20628 April 2024Bush v Gore 200020710 May 2024London Olympics: Super Saturday20823 August 2024Blair government's first 100 days20923 August 20242012 Paralympics 210 1 September 2024Clutha Helicopter Crash 2118 September 2024Fall of the Berlin Wall
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