Features

Munich minutes

Rita Smith was working as a copy-taker for the Manchester Evening News on the day of the disaster. She describes how the 'stop presses' on the paper were halted as news began to arrive and how, as a United fan herself, she felt as though she had lost members of her family in the crash.

Peter Gaston

Manchester City were still playing at Maine Road in the 1950s and Peter Gaston managed a cinema close to the old stadium, coincidentally where Manchester United played many post-war games after bomb damage to Old Trafford.

He recalls how the news of the crash began to filter through to the audiences at his cinema and the shock they displayed, despite it being in a City 'heartland.'

Alice Gregan's son was born just three weeks before the air crash. Brought up in Salford, it's inevitable that he would go on to be a Red Devil. But tragedy was to strike as he made his way home from an away game in the 1970s.

Here, Alice tells the poignant story of how her son and United were bound together.

In the final 'Munich minute', we hear from a man who had to wait weeks to hear the whole, agonising story. Bryan Farlow was at sea with the Merchant Navy and had to rely on sporadic radio updates as the story unfolded.