BONUS: Saving Face With Harold Gillies Part 2

History's Heroes

BBC

Society & Culture, History, Documentary

4.8 • 704 Ratings

🗓️ 8 July 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How did Harold Gillies transform plastic surgery? An interview with the actor Daniel Gillies and his father Doctor John Gillies, on their descendant’s complicated legacy.

Stories of bold voices, with brave ideas and the courage to stand alone. Historian Alex von Tunzelmann shines a light on remarkable people from across history.

A BBC Studios Audio production.

Producer: Suniti Somaiya Presenter: Alex von Tunzelmann Executive Producer: Paul Smith Commissioning editor for Radio 4: Rhian Roberts

Transcript

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0:00.0	Get closer to the action with live commentary from the world's greatest sporting events on BBC Sounds.
0:06.0	It is all over!
0:08.0	Bulls are an edge, caught behind.
0:10.0	Including cricket Super League, Women's Euro's 2025, Wimbledon, Formula One and much more.
0:17.0	It's all right to the lights and foot to the floor.
0:20.0	Oh, what's's done it!
0:21.5	Drop shots!
0:23.0	Winner!
0:23.7	On five sports extra,
0:25.1	Sports Extra 2 and Sports Extra 3.
0:27.7	Listen, only on BBC Sounds.
0:31.6	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:36.3	I'm Alex von Tunselman, and for BBC Radio 4, this is History's Heroes,
0:41.8	people with purpose, brave ideas, and the courage to stand alone.
1:17.2	Thank you. A couple of episodes ago, I told you the remarkable story of Harold Gillies,
1:21.4	a surgeon during the First World War who pioneered plastic surgery and transformed the faces of countless men who'd suffered profoundly disfiguring facial injuries.
1:28.9	We interviewed the brilliant Dr Lindsay Fitzharris, author of The Facemaker, a book about Harold Gillies. So if you're
1:34.6	joining us for the first time, or if you missed that episode, I recommend you go back and listen to
1:39.6	that one first. In this episode, though, I want to delve a bit deeper, to find out more about the real
1:45.7	man behind all the faces, and also to think properly about the legacy he left behind.
1:51.6	After the Great War was over, Harold kept on operating, moving on to genital reconstruction
1:57.3	during World War II and even gender reassignment surgeries. He also branched into
	...

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