Episode 1

On Sunday 13 August 1961, East Berliners awoke to find telephone wires cut and the beginnings of a wall which ultimately extended for over 100 miles and separated them from family, friends and jobs for 28 years.

In so doing, it became a potent symbol of the Cold War.

On the 50th anniversary of the Berlin Wall going up, Gerry Northam examines the wall’s political context and re-visits the day which signified the peak of the Cold War, the constant threat of nuclear war, and the human price paid for yet more failed ideologies.