Radio review: The Day the Wall Went Up

What an absorbing couple of programmes The Day the Wall Went Up (World Service) turned out to be. Gerry Northam explored the political context for the division of Berlin in 1961, and reality for Berliners of suddenly living with the wall. The programmes did both equally well. We heard immediate reactions to the wall's appearance: a human barrier, and then barbed wire, before breezeblocks arrived. "My goodness, how am I going to get my nylon stockings now?" worried one woman. European leaders weren't exactly rushing to get involved. Harold Macmillan was out shooting grouse when he heard what was happening in Berlin: "He carried on shooting grouse." Today's programme looked at lives suddenly altered. A boy died on his fifth birthday, having fallen into a river. "No one dared to rescue him," a contributor told Northam. "That would have been regarded as a border offence." While the propaganda machine told those in the east how much better off they were – there was ample bread, meat and no queues in hair salons which "before now were occupied by West Berlin women" – 136 people died trying to escape. One man who made it to the west went to the cinema that night: the film was The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, set at Checkpoint Charlie.