Episode 1 Real Lives Reunited

Ordinary people who made history together.

You see those faces in front of you as if it was yesterday.

Bonds forged by adversity and then broken by time.

Nicky became my rock. I don't know what I would have done without her.

And the everyday heroes who risked everything.

It would have been quite easy for her to go into hysterics, get herself out. Human nature. Survival.

People are nice, people are good, people's humanity shone through.

Brought together by fate, separated by life. Real Lives Reunited.

Today, survivors of a landslide that killed 116 schoolchildren

are reunited with the teacher who saved them.

I am very, very grateful. At the end of the day, I'm here to tell the tale.

Without you being there and the quick thinking, we wouldn't be here today.

The young mum whose newborn child was abducted meets the woman

who helped her survive 17 days of hell.

Never been able to sit down and say, "Thank you, Nicky, for what you did.

"Thank you for keeping me going. Thank you for everything."

I just want to tell them both that, you know, I love them both to bits.

And the newlywed whose life was saved by an off-duty fireman

and an army doctor.

If Brian wasn't there, I would be dead.

If you didn't come along I would be dead. It's that simple.

They think it's all over! It is now.

1966 will always be remembered for England's World Cup glory

and for John Lennon's controversial claim that the Beatles

were more popular than Jesus.

But for many, a horrific disaster in a Welsh coal-mining village

is the overriding memory of that year.

A very, very loud noise and it got louder and louder.

The next instant, bricks started flying through the wall.

I don't remember a thing. Everything went black.

It is now feared that nearly 200 lives were lost

when the coal tip at Aberfan near Merthyr Tydfil slid forward today.

Some of the helpers tore at the rubble

with bare hands in their desperate efforts to get at the children.

Is there any hope at all for the people buried there?

No, I think there is no hope at all.

In the mid-60s, over 100,000 men worked in the South Wales mining industry.

In the small village of Aberfan, four miles south of Merthyr Tydfil,

80% of the men worked in mining, many at the Merthyr Vale pit.

Classmates Gareth Jones, Brian Williams and Elizabeth Jones

were seven-year-olds who attended the local primary school.

Aberfan was a lovely community, still is.

A very close-knit community.

Everyone looked out for everybody else.

Nobody had any money, but everybody was happy.

Aberfan's primary school had around 240 pupils

and 11 members of staff.

33-year-old Rennie Williams had been at the school for

a year, teaching six and seven-year-olds.

It was October and it was a very misty day

and the mist always hangs in that part of the valley.

We walked to school as we did every day with my sister and her friend.

I remember going into school and taking my blazer off

and hanging it up on the hook.

The children attended morning assembly in the school, which

sat in the shadow of the slag heap on the mountain above.

It was their last day of term.

24-year-old Hetty Williams taught 7-8 year olds.

Always used to have a chat with the children in the morning,

find out what they did the night before.

The children were in the Wendy house, drawing, doing different things,

I had a few around my desk.

I put the register out, ready to mark the register

-and there was this horrible sound.

-Loud, loud, terrific noise.

And I've never heard anything like it since.

The teachers had no idea a 30-foot-high landslide of coal

and mud was tearing down the mountain, heading directly for the school.

I shouted to the children, because I thought it was from above,

"Get under the desks, you must get under your desk."

We saw the classroom wall split, from bottom to top.

With the pressure.

And then it just came through.

All of a sudden there was just this black dust, timber.

I realised something dreadful had happened.

Two days of heavy rain had loosened the slag heap on the mountain

above Aberfan, sending a landslide of waste

hurtling towards the village.

At 9:15 it smashed into the school.

Classrooms on the mountainside were instantly destroyed

while on the other side of the school, Rennie's pupils were

trapped by thousands of tonnes of mud and slag.

One of them, Elizabeth, had left the classroom seconds before impact

and was buried alive in the corridor.

Everything went black.

I don't remember a thing then until I actually woke up

and found that I was covered in this black stuff.

Teacher Rennie had no idea what had happened

but knew she had to get her children out.

I passed the children out through the window,

I stood on the chair because the window was very high up.

We got up on some desks, the teacher, she got us out.

When we came out of the classroom window and I looked up and I could

see the top end of the school where my sister was and the classrooms

were gone, so, I obviously knew from that moment on my sister was dead.

I mean, we realised there was going to be a lot of deaths.

In the corridor outside, Elizabeth was alive but trapped,

both her legs broken.

All of a sudden there was a hole in this mud

and you could see daylight through it.

And somebody is shouting "There's one here. We got one."

As the horror began to sink in, Rennie

and Hetty became part of the rescue effort.

For us it was better, definitely for me, to be doing something.

Otherwise you would be sitting thinking about it.

At least I know I did as much as I could, you know?

They set up a mortuary in the school yard and we just would go

and identify these children.

It was horrible.

It was horrible.

The landslide hit just after nine.

The last survivor was pulled out at around 11.

But it was almost a week before the final body was recovered.

144 lost their lives. 116 were children.

Why didn't it happen the following week

and there were no children in the school?

Some of the children were so bright, they were clever,

what would they have done? We'll never know that.

It was a privilege to be with them. That is all I can say.

In the years that followed,

the community struggled to talk about the disaster as

they tried to protect surviving children from further pain.

If you walked into a room and adults were talking, everybody would go quiet

and you sort of knew what they were talking about but you never asked.

Now, after more than 40 years,

two of the survivors have the chance to talk to the teacher who saved them.

It would have been quite easy for her to go into hysterics

and get herself out, human nature, survival.

-Mrs Williams!

-How are you, Gareth?

-How are you, my darling?

-I'm fine, how are you?

I am very, very grateful.

I knew as soon as you got us outside,

I knew that my sister wasn't coming home.

-As soon as we looked up there. It was a builder's yard with all the rubble.

-I could see all

the slurry built up there

but what I didn't realise was part of the school was under there.

Personally we would like to thank you.

Without you being there

and the quick thinking, we wouldn't be here today.

You can't always talk to your nearest and dearest, you can't.

So it is good sometimes to talk to everyone. And share your thoughts.

Any time, boys. I'm there.

Later, a father remembers the daughter he lost in the disaster.

Ann was actually a delight.

Everybody thinks their child was perfect but I always thought she was absolutely perfect.

1990 was a tumultuous year.

Margaret Thatcher was clinging to power, the two sides of the Channel Tunnel

were just months from meeting and the Berlin Wall had not long fallen.

CHEERING

Everybody wanted to find out how far the new freedom would stretch.

But in January that year, the headlines were dominated by

a nationwide hunt to find a baby snatched from her mother's arms.

There is no trace this evening of the newborn baby girl who was

abducted from a London hospital.

The parents of a two-day-old baby girl have appealed for her safe return.

Police say they are becoming increasingly concerned for her safety.

It is just the worst,

worst nightmare that any mother could ever go through.

21-year-old new mum Dawn Griffiths gives birth to baby Alex

in St Thomas's Hospital in central London on 11th January 1990.

I don't think you know exactly how you will feel until that baby

is born and when the baby is born the instant bonding, it was amazing.

Dawn's daughter was only 36 hours old, but she was about to become

the most famous baby in Britain, for all the wrong reasons.

A lady came to the foot of my bed and she said, "Griffiths,"

and I said, "Oh, yeah." She said "Hello, I'm your health visitor."

She said, "I need to take her and weigh her" so I thought nothing of it.

I looked in the crib and I picked Alex up and I passed her over.

The woman masquerading as a health visitor vanished with baby Alex,

leaving Dawn completely traumatised.

Within hours,

more than 50 police officers were hunting for the missing baby.

Rookie police officer 24-year-old Nicky Pearse was

assigned as Dawn's liaison officer.

When I first met Dawn she was obviously absolutely distraught.

We very quickly formed a bond.

Nicky became my rock. I don't know what I would have done without her.

Less than 24 hours after the abduction, Dawn made

an appeal on national news.

Maybe she's lost a baby herself, I don't really know,

but I just feel sorry for her and I know that she probably needs help.

She would physically shake next to me, so

I would cling on to her a little bit tighter, but, yes, it was hard.

-Hard for her.

-She was beside me the whole time.

I don't think I could have done it without her.

I just want my baby back.

But Dawn could only wait as days passed into a week with no news.

Throughout every minute of her ordeal,

Nicky refused to leave Dawn's side.

She wasn't just doing nine till five.

She didn't take the off. She became a very, very, very good friend.

Very good friend. She just tried to make things easier for me.

She used to bring a hairdryer in, make me sort my her out.

Things that a best friend would do.

I made sure I was there before Dawn woke up, I made sure I was there

when she went to sleep.

Only time she was not there was to go home to go to sleep.

I would go home after my day and ring my parents in floods of tears.

That got it out of me and then switch back on and back into work mode again.

But in the middle of the night,

17 days into the hunt for missing Alex, everything changed.

I was asleep, got a phone call and all I heard was shouting and cheering.

This police officer starts walking down with a Moses basket. And...

She went..."It's Alex."

I looked in and it was her.

All I wanted to do was Take her to show Nicky.

To say, "This is Alex."

"This is what you have been looking for, this is Alex."

They walked in and Dawn was just,

literally the smile went round the back of her head, it was so big.

Big burly policemen, crying. It was amazing.

-How are you feeling?

-I can't describe it in words.

With mother and daughter back together and the baby snatcher

in police custody, the case was closed, but Nicky was still there for Dawn.

We became such good friends that she was part of my life at this point

and I asked her to be godmother to Alex at the christening.

What a huge honour and a surprise, a lovely surprise.

Despite the incredible bond they'd shared,

they lost touch when Dawn moved away from London and Nicky left the country.

It's one of those things you think, "I'll write tomorrow"

and tomorrow becomes a week, becomes three months,

becomes six months, becomes a year.

We lost contact, which is really, really sad.

Because she was such a major part of my life.

Later, the woman who lost her baby and the police officer who

became her best friend meet for the first time in over 20 years.

To be able to sit down and say "Thank you, Nicky for what you did,

"thank you for keeping me going, thank you for everything."

For newlywed 30-year-old Sara Baxter,

Friday, 13th July 2012 started like any other day.

But within minutes of beginning her commute to work,

her life was to change in the way she could never have imagined.

It was my six-month wedding anniversary to the day,

and I was travelling to work at a the local supermarket

and that is all I remember about that day.

Part-time handyman Brian Lynch was working for his friend, Wendy Bugg,

-and her family.

-All of a sudden there was a thud.

CRASHING

We both looked at each other and said, "That is an accident."

Brian and Wendy raced to the road.

Tell me exactly what happened?

"There has been a car crash, it is very serious. She needs immediate attention"

Sara had lost control of her car and ploughed into a stationary tractor.

Her vehicle had been crushed by the impact, pinning her to her seat.

Luckily for Sara, Brian is a retained firefighter.

Wendy stayed on the phone while Brian started CPR in a desperate

bid to keep Sara alive.

'Her airway is clear, he's got her breathing.'

All three emergency services raced to the scene.

But Dr Leon Roberts also took the call that day.

On the morning of the accident, I was at home with my family about to

go to a children's party.

Lieutenant Colonel Roberts is a doctor in the Royal Army Medical Corps

and a volunteer for the East Midlands Immediate Care Scheme,

a charity specialising in serious trauma emergencies.

Here we go. You have emergency services on their way now.

Let me know who it is as soon as they arrive.

-It's a doctor.

-It is a doctor.

-Romeo Delta 0-5, Doctor Roberts.

Romeo Delta 0-5, Doctor Roberts.

-Serious injury. Helicopter, please.

-Helicopter has been dispatched.

When I got to Sara it was obvious she was critically injured.

She was in a semi-coma. Her breathing was laboured and her pulse was weak.

Every second counts and thanks to Dr Roberts, Sara

received critical care ten minutes before the first ambulance arrived.

She was flown to hospital in Coventry where

she was in a coma for three days.

They told me I had broken my right arm, they also told me

I had broken my pelvis in four places and they said

I had done some damage to my brain and had a little bit of a bleed on my brain.

The accident happened outside the gates of Grimsthorpe Castle and today,

just yards from the crash scene,

Sara is meeting the two strangers who helped save her life.

How are you? Give me some love!

After leaving hospital, Sara tracked down and thanked Brian

but she's never met Wendy and together

the three are about to relive the moments immediately after the crash.

-'There has been a car crash. It's very serious.

-Is she awake?

'No, she's unconscious.

'You will have to send the ambulance quick because she is very serious.

-'How is the patient doing now?

-Her breathing is getting far worse,

'Her breathing is getting far worse?

'OK, I'm organising help for you now.'

It's extraordinary.

-I wouldn't have recognised my own voice.

-No, hear that panic in your voice.

-Did I try and talk to you?

Not at all.

-In actual fact, every time your head went back we lost you.

-Yeah.

-Hello!

One other person Sara has come to thank is Dr Leon Roberts.

I must be honest, it is great for us to be here

but it is great that you have been brave enough to do it

because we very rarely get to follow it up

so today means a huge amount to myself and all the other

people that were there, to see someone doing so well.

There's not enough thank yous that you can say to people.

At the end of the day, if Brian wasn't there, if Wendy wasn't there,

I would be dead. If you didn't come along, I would be dead. It's that simple.

The kindness of strangers kept Sara alive

but a painful consequence of the accident is memory loss.

There is large chunks of my life that I simply don't remember.

And one of those chunks is her wedding day.

But she's going to do something about that.

When you marry somebody, that is a massive commitment.

And when you can't remember taking those vows and saying,

saying to that person that they will be there for ever, it is horrible.

I have already spoken to my husband and we are going to renew our vows.

And that'll be good because that would be a memory that I can remember and I can keep and I can have.

And it will be mine.

Children account for over two-thirds of all missing persons cases reported each year.

Thankfully, most are found within 48 hours.

But in 1990, new mum Dawn Griffiths' life was shattered when her daughter was the first baby ever to be

abducted from a British maternity ward.

She took her to weigh her and said she would be back

but she never came back.

Dawn's ordeal lasted for 17 days.

It is just the worst,

worst nightmare that any mother could ever go through.

You don't know if she's dead, you don't know if she's alive.

It's just a feeling of emptiness.

Beside throughout was police liaison officer PC Nicky Pearse.

It was hard sometimes to remain positive in front of her,

but that was my job.

She must have been drained as well but she never showed it.

After two weeks, police got a tip-off that a woman matching

their sketch of a suspect was in a Cotswold village.

Janet Griffiths had taken baby Alex in an attempt to prevent her

married lover leaving her by claiming the child was his.

She was found guilty of child abduction

and sent to a psychiatric hospital.

After the ordeal, Dawn moved to America for a short time,

while Nicky left the police and made a new life in the Middle East.

Despite everything they had been through, the pair lost touch.

I think the bond that we built because of what happened,

I don't think those can ever be broken, ever.

Just want to thank her. I have never thanked her.

Never been able to sit down and say "Thank you, Nicky, for what you

"did, thank you for keeping me going.

-"Thank you for everything."

-I just want to tell them both that I love them both to bits.

You know.

Throughout every minute of those horrendous 17 days,

Nicky was by Dawn's side.

It's been over 20 years since they met.

-You're all grown up! How many years?

-Too many years.

There's only one thing missing, though. Do you want to see her?

She is here.

-Nice to meet you!

-Nice to meet you!

This is your godmother!

It is really nice to meet you.

Dawn and Nicky have over two decades to catch up on.

I so much wanted you to see Alex as a grown-up person - that's

who you were all looking for.

That was my thing straight away. "We have got to find her." For you.

Immediately, no matter what.

To think that you weren't going to get your baby back.

You never let me believe that.

Did you ever think that she might not come back but never told me?

It entered my head but I wouldn't let it stay long.

You never ever let me believe for one moment that she was not

going to come back.

I look back now and I think, God, how did we manage to do it for 17 days?

Four years later, the unthinkable happened again.

Police in Nottinghamshire have set up roadblocks to stop a woman who

abducted a newborn baby.

Five-hour-old Abbie Humphries was

snatched from the Queen Elizabeth Medical Centre in Nottingham.

Dawn offered words of comfort to Abbie's distraught parents.

Don't give up.

The baby will be returned.

Nobody takes a baby unless they are going to look after it.

Abbie was found by police 15 days later.

Since Alex and Abbie's abductions, the NHS has improved

security on maternity wards.

with staff identification, CCTV and alarmed mattresses.

-In 1990, all Dawn had was Nicky's support.

-Thank you. So much...

for being there for me.

I do need to thank you because you gave me a reason to get out of bed.

Nicky was my rock, and I have missed her a lot. I needed to see you again.

I needed to say thank you.

Just after nine in the morning of 21st October 1966, the small Welsh village

of Aberfan was hit by a disaster that left the world in shock.

One teacher said she heard a big rumbling sound

and shouted to the children to get under their desks.

Split seconds later, the classroom walls cracked and collapsed.

A sudden and devastating landslide sent thousands of tonnes

of coal waste, rubble and mud hurtling down the mountain.

The local primary school, with around 240 pupils inside, was

directly in its path. 144 people died.

116 of them were children.

Brian Williams is one of the survivors.

The tips actually slid and came at an angle

so they came across the school like this. The corner of the school there took the brunt.

So all of this area of the school, the top classes,

they were totally engulfed.

All the children up this end would have had no chance whatsoever.

One pupil at the end of the school was Arthur O'Brien.

His younger sister, six-year-old Elizabeth, was pulled from the rubble alive.

Arthur and I were only three years apart in age and we were very close.

We played together.

It's hard to accept that my brother was gone and I'll never see him.

And I really do miss him.

Brian Williams lost his ten-year-old sister, June, that day.

There was nobody in Aberfan that wasn't affected by what happened,

whether it be direct siblings, sons and daughters,

cousins, nephews - it was such a small community.

In the panic and confusion that followed, parents desperately searched

for their children, clawing at the black mud with their bare hands.

Ray Lee was a father searching for his daughter, Ann.

On the Friday evening you were given out a list of all the people

who they found. They were safe.

One of the names was Ann Lee which was my daughter's name.

I thought, "Thank God for that, she's OK." But it was another Ann Lee.

She was saved and my Ann died.

40 years on, he still struggles with the loss.

I don't like talking about it. It is still very painful when you think about it.

You think, "She would be 55 now," you think to yourself,

"She would have kids, grandkids."

You can't do anything about that.

In the wake of their loss, the men of the village found their voice.

CHOIR SINGING

The tragedy prompted an outpouring of support

from all over the world. Over £1.6 million was donated to the

village, 25 million in today's money.

For the Ynysowen choir, singing became not only

a release but a way of giving thanks to those who helped.

Welsh choirs are emotional things to be in, it is

a good way to get your feelings out into the open.

It is the friendship that you get around it that helped you.

If you ever needed anyone to talk to, they were always there to talk to.

And I think that was part of the healing process as far as I was concerned.

The remaining spoil tips on the mountain above Aberfan were removed.

The wreckage of the school is long gone.

Those who died will never be forgotten. Members of the Ynysowen choir

put all their emotion and passion into their singing.

When people say to me, "Have you ever won the lottery?"

I said "Yes, October 21st, 1966. Because I came out."

That's what it was. It was a lottery.

If you're in it and you came out, you were very, very lucky.

It just wasn't your time, basically.

Next time, survivors of Britain's worst oil rig disaster.

It was the last option. To jump or, well, there was no other option.

And reunited, the nurses who launched the NHS.

We saved thousands of lives in the first 12 months.

How many have been saved since? I just couldn't calculate.