[c0lefax]

Did anyone else catch this? It was absolutely fascinating to me. I was born in '82 so my memorys of that era are a bit hazy but I do have a memory of when the wall fell, the news on morning tv. Course I didn't know what it was all about back then.

I have a real interest in the cold war, spying, number stations from that era, so I learnt quite a bit about the stasi, 35x the size of the KGB, good god!

I was really sad for that lady who lost her son because he tried to run across the border, and the response she got from the stasi officer, so cold.

What are your memories?

[Straker]

Excellent programme. I too am a Cold War junkie and could happily watch this type of stuff all day long. Wish they’d release Jeremy Isaac’s series "Cold War" on DVD as my tapes are practically worn out!

Is it wrong to feel nostalgic for the threat of imminent nuclear annihalation?

[Fieldfare]

I didn't see the wall in Berlin but stood further up the east/west German border where it was a double row of barbed wire fence. I used to try and get the BBC on my radio which you could just about hear over the tune of the soviet blocking signal. Interesting times. I enjoyed the programme too, I thought the father and daughter talking at the kitchen table towards the end very touching.

[U96]

I'll be watching it later on during the week.
Berlin has always fascinated me,although i've never been there.
I remember seeing how the East Germans kept all the abandoned flats from WW2,as part of their 'defence' strategy.That was pretty spooky.

[QwertyGirl1771]

Where I used to work, there was a large piece of the Berlin Wall on display. Just to think of all the unnecessary bloodshed, heartache and families torn apart because of this wall.

[radish]

It was an amazing and moving programme.

[DBC]

Next Saturday on BBC2 (Nov. 14) see the start of a three-part series on the history of Berlin.

I was in Berlin in 1994 just as the last Russian troops were pulling out. We drove past a tatty looking barracks in Potsdam and saw some of these troops loading their possessions onto the back of a lorry, prior to driving back to Russia.

On that same trip I heard an excellent joke:- Evidently many of the ex-Stasi people are now taxi drivers. This is handy because all you have to to is give them your name and they already know where you live!

[Will Whitfoot]

Thank goodness for some sanity. On a Certain Other message board (*cough BBC cough*) this excellent documentary is largely being rubbished.

The pace was slow for British taste, I suppose, but there was such a lot of material and food for thought.

We were shown good people on both sides, and the unpleasant characters were given a say too. There was a lot of irony. I think the ex-Stasi guy with his pint of beer really thought he had been a Not Too Bad Stasi guy.

And wasn't it nice to hear the Germans speaking their own language with subtitles? (I am sure most Germans could have done with subtitles for the circus director's dialect ).

EDIT: LOL @ DBC. Our posts crossed.

[mad_dude]

It was amazing documentary but why was it split into parts?

[DBC]

Originally Posted by mad_dude

It was amazing documentary but why was it split into parts?

To show the different "ages" of the DDR. It started with the end of the war, the formation of the DDR, the few years of actual prosperity in the country, the gradual decline of the economy, and then the fall of the wall.

[John Dough]

Originally Posted by Straker

Excellent programme. I too am a Cold War junkie and could happily watch this type of stuff all day long. Wish they’d release Jeremy Isaac’s series "Cold War" on DVD as my tapes are practically worn out!

Is it wrong to feel nostalgic for the threat of imminent nuclear annihalation?

Let's just wait for the 'X Factor' final first eh?

[RacerWelsh]

Yeah it was really good - one of those rare old fashioned types that "Arena" used to do with no silly gimmicks or stupid cameras shots etc.

[bubbsy]

Originally Posted by c0lefax

I was really sad for that lady who lost her son because he tried to run across the border, and the response she got from the stasi officer, so cold.

Yes, that and the woman who fled from East to West Berlin with her son to be with his father - only to find he had another family. They couldn't go back because she would have been put in prison and her son would have gone into care. So sad.

It was a fascinating documentary. There's another one, "Rise & Fall of the Berlin Wall" on the History channel tomorrow night at 9pm.

[kobiashimarux]

I just spent a week there. fascinating place and you can feel the history everywhere. I want to go back and see some more.

[quisling]

I'm a 'fan' of the Iron Curtain/Cold War/East v West thing too and I loved the programme.
Yes it was slow, subjective and maybe lacking enough factual content, but it's rare for a programme to allow enough stillness to impart an atmosphere in the way it did.

The night the Wall was breached, I sat with my baby daughter on me knee watching the tv reports with tears streaming down my face and I have no idea why.
Up till then, I'd never even been to Berlin, but I felt so moved by the whole situation and the emotion of what was happening - together with a feeling of sadness that 'The West' might not live up to their dreams.

Great programme overall, and I hope that programme makers will take note and understand that they don't have to cram everything into every programme.

ps That music was damn scary wasn't it?

[NativeMoon]

Great programme. I remember staying up back home in America to watch the Wall fall. I was acutely aware that this was a great historical moment unfolding.

I hope they run this one again.

[martinamerlot]

Argh! Missed it. Hope it's on iPlayer...