Episode 5 Real Lives Reunited

United by disaster, never to see each other again.

-I thought I had lost him.

-Without you I wouldn't be here now.

Bonds forged by adversity and then broken by time.

I just don't know what to say after all these years.

It must be so difficult to face the people who lost what we lost.

And unsung heroes meet those they've saved.

When you see someone in trouble, you go help them.

You saved my daughter's life.

I feel honoured to meet those people.

We went through all that and then just lost each other.

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

Today, survivors of one of the country's worst mining disasters are

reunited to share memories of escape and the mates who didn't make it.

I walked up the road with him...

He didn't come back.

A new father meets the stranger who helped him deliver his baby son.

Listen to me, you need to put your hand over the baby's head

so it stops the baby delivering too fast.

Can you just get someone.

I owe the man big time.

And the people who made history on the world's first ever

supersonic passenger flight are brought back together

for the first time in more than 30 years.

All flyers wanted to know what would it feel like to fly supersonic.

I felt a thrill.

In the early 1970s, a third of the country's energy came from coal.

Working in 261 pits,

almost 300,000 miners, producing 145 million tons of coal a year.

In communities like the Yorkshire village of Lofthouse,

nearly the entire population of over 4,000

were connected to the industry.

Mostly everybody worked at pit, nearly.

You had some good times and you had some good craic with lads, like.

But it was dangerous, arduous work.

Eye to the face, it was about 22 inches,

and you were laid on your shoulder biggest part of the time,

pulling yourself through.

It were hard work. Very, very hard work.

Anybody today wouldn't do it, I don't think.

You were quite aware that anything could happen.

It were very dangerous.

But despite the risks, nothing prepared the nation for

the events at Lofthouse Colliery on the 21st of March, 1973.

The emergency started early this morning

when a powerful surge of water burst through a coalface

where 30 men were working.

When they washed them out.

I couldn't believe it.

You had to run for your lives.

You're thinking of only one thing - survival.

For friends Keith Stone and Malcolm Firth,

the shift had begun like any other.

Started work at 11 o'clock, went down to the pit.

Travelled up in the roadway on the train.

But at 2:00am, working a coalface 700 feet below ground,

everything changed.

All of a sudden there was this...vroof.

All you could see were a wall of water coming up

flushing over the men.

The men had no clue they'd been working dangerously close to

a flooded Victorian mine.

When they drilled into it,

three million gallons of stagnant water flooded into their tunnel.

You're just paralysed for a split second.

And then when water hit me, I knew I got to move.

Your mind is focused on how fast you can run

and how fast you can get out.

Further along the coalface, Arthur Beaney,

separated from the other miners,

was also desperately trying to escape the water.

My mates had gotten through these air doors to safety.

But when I got there...

the water was coming through.

You can't explain it, water coming one way

and you've got water coming another way.

Alone in the dark,

Arthur somehow managed to stumble into another mine shaft and safety.

I was lucky, very lucky, yeah.

Most of the miners managed to force their way through

shoulder-deep water and escape, but seven miners are missing.

One of them was Eddie Finnegan,

father of three and husband to Hazel.

Nicholas said to me, "Somebody's knocking at the door, Ma'am,"

I said, "It'll be your dad, he'll have forgot his key,"

and it were a man from the pit.

And he said, "Can I come in a minute because there's been an accident?"

I said to him, "Will he be out by dinner time?"

He says, "I don't know, love,

"we're just playing it by ear,

"we don't really know."

Eddie was only working at the coalface

because he had swapped jobs with a work mate.

You still remember, when you go to bed at night-time, you say,

"Them lads...I walked up the road with 'em...

"..they didn't come back."

I were affected for quite a while after.

It stops with you a little while, does that.

Survivors Arthur, Keith and Malcolm

are meeting up after 40 years to talk about their escape

and the desperate efforts to rescue their trapped friends.

I've never talked about this. Me and you, we've never talked about it.

BOTH: No.

I was lucky to get away. I was the last man out.

We know you were missing cos we had been looking for you.

As the nation watched,

a huge rescue effort was launched to reach the trapped men.

All day, over 300 men have worked virtually non-stop on the rescue.

Special pumps and pipes were brought in to help remove the water

which has flooded many of the underground tunnels.

As far as we're concerned in the Union,

we shall continue to fight to get seven men out alive.

But as the hours turned to days,

rescue efforts became even more desperate.

I understand now the frogmen are going in to see

if they can get through.

And so...

everybody is pressing on ahead as fast as they can go.

Equipment was brought in from all over the country

and diving teams worked round the clock.

So dangerous and arduous are conditions

that the divers were delayed for an hour

for a special briefing and medical tests.

When they got so far, they said, "No, can't go any further,

"somebody's going to get killed again, it's too dangerous."

After six desperate days, came the news everyone dreaded.

I would like to pay tribute to the workmen

and the management of this pit for the tremendous courage

and tenacity they have displayed...

..in attempting this rescue...

which has unfortunately been aborted.

Of the seven miners killed that night, only one body was recovered.

The others were left entombed inside the mine.

It's like going to a funeral, isn't it?

Put somebody in the grave, you fill it up, and that's what it was like.

Later, one survivor shares his guilt

when he meets the widow of the mate who didn't escape.

He changed shifts with me. I sometimes feel it's my fault.

It's nobody's fault, nobody's fault.

Don't be silly, Jack.

Britain may have been heavily reliant upon coal for power,

but its industries were on the cutting edge of technology.

The post-war generations embraced the technological revolution.

The world was getting smaller

and the battle was on across the globe to go further, faster.

The British government was racing to beat the Russians

and Americans to develop the first supersonic passenger plane.

The project was so expensive,

Britain formed an unlikely alliance with France to build the aircraft.

But arguments ensued over who was top dog.

I see that France is heading the management committee,

does that mean that France is the senior partner in this?

No, we're going into this 50/50.

To keep everyone happy,

the plane was given a name meaning union in both French and English,

and in 1962, Concorde was born.

The British public was captivated by the prospect of

travelling faster than the speed of sound while drinking champagne.

And as test flights began in the '60s,

people flocked to see its speed and beauty.

All is going well. She's airborne.

Yeah, it was amazing to see, to actually see it take off.

Pub landlord Peter Morris

and his father watched the original test flights

at Fairford Airfield from their back garden only 15 miles away.

You could see it quite plainly.

And we saw it go past us.

Father got in his car and shot over

and we got there in time to see it land.

Having worked with the RAF during the war,

Peter's father was fascinated by the idea that supersonic flight

could become a reality for fare-paying passengers.

When we got back, straight on the phone, booked there and then.

And now, what everyone wants to do is to get on with

the job of making it the finest transport aircraft in the world.

As the country waited in anticipation,

British Airways started to select the very best staff

to train for the first ever supersonic passenger flight.

We all love flying, so this was a new experience of flying.

Why me? I was lucky, yeah, go, go, go.

John Hitchcock and Francine Carville were hand-picked as part of

the crew of nine offering luxury at twice the speed of sound.

It was a different concept altogether

to normal service on an aircraft.

We were trained to take care of

the passengers as if they were

guests in your own home.

That was the idea.

But delays and spiralling costs of over £7 billion left

the public waiting for the engineering marvel to arrive.

Everybody knew that Concorde was in the making,

but nobody knew when it was actually going to fly.

The delay was to be tragic for Peter's family.

Three years after his father bought his dream ticket,

they received some heartbreaking news.

He got cancer.

He was living with us for three or four weeks,

and then just one morning and that was it.

Mum was there, we were all there, Mum and my wife.

Despite being devastated by his death,

when Concorde was finally ready four years later,

Peter knew his father would have wanted him to take his ticket.

Dad would have loved it. It's a great shame.

On January the 21st, 1967,

after more than 15 years of planning and preparation,

Concorde was finally ready to take paying passengers on

the trip of a lifetime.

Her maiden flight was Heathrow to Bahrain.

A journey that would usually take seven hours

was going to be just over three and a half at supersonic.

For a chap like me that just kept a pub,

it really was the stuff of dreams.

On the morning of the flight, I turned on the radio

and Sir Terry Wogan had an early morning show and he said,

"I am going to play a record now for all the boys and girls

"who are going to fly supersonic today."

I think that kind of set the atmosphere,

I thought, "Oh, good, this is going to be a fun day."

The entire world was watching as royalty, politicians

and war heroes all came together to wish Concorde well.

To be there on that day, it was really a dream come true.

I can remember what it was actually like.

I can hear the sounds of the band,

I can hear the noise of the people, the noise of the engine.

37 years ago, Francine and John had the honour of crewing Concorde

on its maiden commercial flight.

Today, they are meeting on one of the seven remaining aircraft

to relive the memories of that incredible day.

Look, there you are.

-This is at the press conference, do you remember?

-Oh, yes.

Look, John. Weren't you handsome?

Oh, God.

I thought you were rather gorgeous, then.

Oh, thank you, John.

Look, there are the passengers checking in.

We had three television cameras,

everybody wanted to visit the flight deck

and we served them a three-course lunch, loads of champagne.

And there was a man on board who actually sent us a crate of

Dom Perignon champagne.

Who got that, then?

Don't look at me!

Absolutely wonderful.

I think only you and I know,

we've had exactly the same experience of that day.

Yeah, that's true.

Making history.

It didn't strike us at the time, did it?

I think flyers wanted to know what it would feel like to fly supersonic.

When you actually experienced it, I felt a thrill.

Later, Peter Morris meets the crew

who helped make his flight on Concorde so special.

It would be marvellous to talk to them.

When they are very kind to you

and they chat to you, they stick in your mind.

On the Easter weekend of 2012, 38-year-old Paula Larwood

thought she was a week away from the birth of her second child.

But when her fiance Stephen Painter called home

to check what she wanted for tea, things changed dramatically.

She said she didn't want anything, she was in labour.

Stephen dropped everything and was home within 15 minutes.

He found his fiancee in the bathroom screaming in agony.

Stephen says, "We better get you in the car."

I said, "There's no way in this world that I can get into the car."

Paula's contractions were coming more and more and more.

And cos all the emotions, you think is the baby in the right position?

And things like that. So all these things come flooding into your mind.

We got her laid down and the crown was showing.

I was in a lot of pain.

It was panic, it was scary.

Stephen frantically dialled 999.

The nearest hospital was 11 miles away.

They started to fear an ambulance wouldn't make it in time.

Ambulance Service. What's the reason for your call?

My partner's just about to give birth.

The waters we think have gone.

Well, she's giving birth, mate, to be honest!

Has she got severe abdominal pain?

Have you got abdominal pain?

PAULA: YES!

On the other end of the line was

John Sedgebeer, a 999 medical advisor

with four and a half years' experience under his belt.

Does she have the urge to push?

Yes, she's pushing!

-She's pushing?

-Yeah!

Quite quickly in that call

it appeared that this is going to

happen in a short space of time

and I'm going to have to help

both Stephen and Paula deliver this baby by themselves.

I can see the head coming out.

Listen to me, you need to put your hand over the baby's head

so it stops the baby delivering too fast.

Can you just get someone?

Help's coming to you. You need to help your partner in the meantime.

He was shouting a lot and quite abrupt, which you can expect,

so I had to calm him down.

-Is somebody coming, mate?

-Yes, I told you, it's on its way.

I'm trying to give you advice on how to help her.

His head's out.

With Paula screaming in pain

and a stranger on the end of the phone talking him through it,

Stephen was about to deliver his son.

It's coming. The baby's out, mate.

Your heart's racing really up until the point

that you hear the baby crying

and that's a kind of relief then that you've done your job,

you've delivered the baby. It's an amazing feeling.

Take the baby and lie the baby on her chest.

Do not touch the umbilical cord.

-Congratulations, by the way.

-Thank you.

I don't want to do that again.

That's fine. Don't worry, you did really well, sir.

Yeah, cheers, thank you.

Baby Freddy was born at 6:27pm on the 6th of April, 2012.

I owe the man big time.

To hear that newborn baby cry...

You can't beat it.

A stranger's voice helped Stephen

and Paula through one of the most incredible moments of their lives.

Today, they can finally put a face to that voice.

First of all, I would just like to say thank you ever so much.

Yes, thank you for your help.

I must apologise to you cos I felt that I was probably very abrupt.

I can remember you being quite panicked at the start.

It took me a while to try and calm you down,

to actually get you to do what you needed to do.

It's an amazing experience and I'm glad that you were a part of it.

Having brought Freddy into the world,

John now has a chance to meet him for the first time

along with his big sister Maddie and granny Lorraine.

-There's Freddie.

-Hello.

Isn't he heavy? Isn't he big now.

BABY GURGLES

LAUGHTER

And speaking!

How does it feel having my son... on our lap?

I would never have expected to be able to hold someone

I helped bring into the world.

-Have you got children?

-No, we're expecting one.

Home delivery?

No!

I was going to say, don't be ringing me up for any advice.

In January 1976, a small group of passengers and crew

took part in one of the defining moments of the 20th century.

Concorde takes Britain and the world into the supersonic age.

Concorde was 15 years in the making at a cost of £7 billion.

From its distinctive drooped nose to the streamlined delta wings,

everything about Concorde was built for speed.

Four specially designed Rolls-Royce jet engines blasted her into

the future and higher than any other civilian plane.

As a passenger on that maiden flight, Peter Morris remembers

the crucial moment he went through the sound barrier.

Well, you felt the hit in your back

when the thing started going up

and then the dials started to spin.

It was quite amazing.

And then you're looking out the window and it's going up

and the sky's getting darker and darker.

Then it hit it.

We all cheered and clanked whatever we'd got in our hands at the time.

Yeah, but it was absolutely something.

It's the most tremendous, a very exciting experience.

Somehow you sort of feel the aeroplane means it,

It knows where it's going.

Super fast, elegant, streamlined, perfect service...

Well, nothing more.

This is indeed Concorde's day.

For Peter, it was a bittersweet moment,

his dad had bought one of the first tickets

but died before Concorde's maiden voyage.

In honour of his father's supersonic dream,

Peter decided to take the flight for him.

And so, "There you are, Dad. Cheers, we're at it."

It was a great shame, it really, really was.

He really would have loved it.

37 years ago, Peter fulfilled his father's ambition

and became a part of aviation history.

For him, the opportunity to meet the crew who looked after him that day

is a chance to relive the flight his father had dreamed of.

It was such a wonderful day, wasn't it?

-It was a brilliant day.

-Did it live up to your expectations?

Absolutely.

It wasn't until I got into the room in the Gulf afterwards,

-you're on your own...

-You realise.

..that you sit and think about it.

I've got something here to show you.

-Oh, good lord!

-This is take-off from London.

-Is this on the day?

-This is actually on the day.

-There's me!

-Yes, I recognise that haircut.

And there he is.

-Well, well. That's amazing.

-Isn't that amazing?

I never saw the news cos I stayed away for two weeks.

Of course.

-People kept telling me about it.

-That really is lovely.

What made you choose to go on it?

My father booked seats and the poor old chap died.

He was always interested in flying.

-Ah, what a shame, so you flew for him?

-Yeah.

He got me interested.

But it's amazing for John and I to meet up with you again.

-You're the first Concorde passenger we've met up with.

-That's right.

Today, when I've been talking about it, it's all come back to me,

-absolutely. I wouldn't have missed it for anything.

-No. How lovely.

In 1976, Britain and France managed to beat the world superpowers

to an engineering feat which changed air travel for ever.

Over the next 27 years,

Concorde took two and a half million passengers supersonic.

Clocking up almost 100 million air miles.

It was the most complex airplane of its time

and it's legacy lives on beyond its retirement.

I didn't think I'd ever see Concorde again,

and here I am walking up the steps.

It just brought back that day to me quite clearly.

Because I can remember turning round

and waving to the media at the top of the steps.

It would be marvellous to talk to them.

Totally different aspect to it all.

Because they've told me bits and pieces

that you don't think about at the time.

The fact that they were standing there with a glass of champagne,

serving it, not drinking it,

when we went through twice the speed of sound.

I thought they would be strapped down in the back, they weren't,

they were on their feet, serving the booze, brilliant.

We really have had a good day. Brilliant.

Reminiscing about what it was like, it's been wonderful,

absolutely terrific.

Of course it's emotional cos we went through it ourselves.

We all made history.

We really know what the passengers felt, and that's lovely to hear that.

Makes you proud to be British.

In 1973, the Yorkshire village of Lofthouse saw one of

the worst mining disasters in living memory,

devastating the community.

The emergency started early this morning when a powerful

surge of water burst through a coalface

where 30 men were working.

On shift that night was father of three Eddie Finnegan.

He loved it, it were his job

and it were his life, really. Yeah.

Eddie's daughter Nicola was 16 at the time.

He was a lovely, lovely man.

He did everything with us.

He took us places

and he was always doing things

and he was always interested.

One of Eddie's close friends was Jack Willoughby.

They were together that night when a work mate failed to show up

at the start of the shift and Jack offered to take his place.

One of the deputies, didn't turn up that night, he were ill.

I were qualified to fire delay detonators,

so I took over his job.

This left Jack's position at the coalface empty

and Eddie volunteered to fill it.

The men settled into their shift, but at 2:00am, everything changed.

I can see it now, water.

It was like a slurry.

It just come in waves.

It just washed two men out, it washed them straight out.

The miners had breached a disused and flooded Victorian mine.

In an instant, three million gallons of water surged into the shaft.

Panic stations.

Tragically Eddie was one of the seven men trapped by the water.

The rescue effort focused on the hope they made it to an air pocket.

Surveyors fixed a point on the surface, estimated to be

directly above the entombed men.

A drilling rig was called in and set up with the aid of gangs of miners.

But after a rescue bid lasting six days, hope was gone.

So there was that the initial thing that they were dead.

But then there was a time when

you still thought that they might recover the bodies.

I was almost afraid that they would cos...

..I thought my mum would want to go and see him...

..and I didn't think that would be a good thing to do.

He didn't have a burial as such, but...

..we've got a lovely memorial for him

and it'll help us be there, won't it?

Seven men killed.

Hard memories.

Ever since the disaster, Jack has been tormented by the thought

that, by swapping jobs, he was responsible for his friend's death.

You think about it, you think it's your fault.

Jack knows Eddie's widow,

but he's never been able to tell her about his burden.

Can't say to her...

.."Your husband did my job when he got killed," can I?

Today, 40 years on,

he's found the courage to talk to her about that night.

Don't, don't...

-I feel a bit guilty about it...

-Don't be.

Just that...

he changed shifts with me, I sometimes feel it's my fault.

Sometimes I think I should have stayed on me own job

and done me own job.

It's nobody's fault. It's nobody's fault.

-Don't be silly, Jack.

-No.

-Come on.

I admire this man tremendously for coming and saying what he said

because it must be so difficult to

face the people who lost what we lost.

We still miss him.

The seven men killed in the Lofthouse Disaster died when

they breached a flooded Victorian mine they had no idea was there.

Their deaths led to new mining practices to prevent

similar tragedies ever happening again.

But for those who knew them,

it's the memories of them as friends that remain.

We just try to remember how they were

and talk about the things you used to do together.

I'll never forget 'em.

Next time, survivors of one of the darkest moments in British football

meet those who saved them.

I wouldn't be here if it weren't for him.

And a cyclist reunited with the heroes

who pulled him back from the brink.

It would be absolutely superb to meet the person that dialled 999

because they started the saving of my life.