Forum for former BBC staff

Forum for former BBC staff
http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl >> History >> film maker seeks help http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1069250807 Message started by Forum Admin on Nov 19^th, 2003, 2:07pm

Title: film maker seeks help
Post by Forum Admin on Nov 19^th, 2003, 2:07pm

As a TV film production company in Berlin, Germany, we are currently making a film about the rebuilding of German cities after World War II by order of the channels Südwestrundfunk and the Rundfunk Berlin Brandenburg. Among others we wish to adress the question what the major concerns of the British were in the rearchitecturing of Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne.
We consulted the website featuring the BBC radio correspondents with great interest, wondering whether you could help us to find out the name of the BBC TV correspondent who worked in Berlin after World War II. He is supposed to have made a BBC news report in front of the Brandenburger Tor, saying "There will never be any more life around here."
In order to carry out a research in the BBC archives, we do need the name of the reporter.
We would be very grateful to hear from you and thank you very much in advance.

Yours sincerely,

Jessica Cohen
Schmidt & Paetzel Fernsehfilme GmbH
Niedstr. 28
12 159 Berlin-Friedenau

email: jessica@schmidt-paetzel.de

Title: Re: film maker seeks help
Post by Ian_Mitchell on Nov 28^th, 2003, 8:06pm

It's hard to be precise about which BBC correspondent made the remark.

The resident correspondent in Bonn in the early 1950s was Douglas Stuart. In 1956, he was succeeded by Richard Williams.

Norman Macdonald was correspondent in Berlin in 1948.

It is more likely - since this was a BBC TV programme - that this would have been someone sent from London. There's a possibility that this might have been Richard Dimbleby.

Someone who might know more is Charles Wheeler, who joined the BBC after serving with the British forces in the capture of northern Germany and who is still broadcasting.

Good luck with your researches.