Tunnel 29 - Ep3: The Deal

Intrigue

BBC

True Crime, Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.6 • 4.6K Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2019

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“We have a tunnel.” The diggers are on the hunt for money and make an unlikely alliance. Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Helena Merriman tells the extraordinary true story of a man who dug a tunnel into the East, right under the feet of border guards, to help friends, family and strangers escape. The series is based on original interviews with the survivors as well as thousands of documents from the Stasi archives and recordings from the tunnel. Producer & Presenter: Helena Merriman Sound Design: Eloise Whitmore Translation and additional research: Sabine Schereck Editor: Richard Knight Joachim Rudolph's original interviews voiced by Mark Edel Hunt #tunnel29

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:22.0	We've been dreaming about this for weeks and now we've done it.
0:26.0	I will entirely consent to actively support the security forces of the GDR.
0:31.0	In the right place.
0:33.0	And I heard a knock on the door.
0:38.0	They wanted to build a tunnel.
0:45.0	From BBC Radio 4, this is Tunnel 29.
0:48.0	I'm Helena Merriman.
0:50.0	Chapter 3. The Deal.
0:53.0	Question.
0:56.0	How do you build a tunnel under the most heavily guarded bit of land in the world?
1:01.0	How do you build a tunnel when you can't use any machines in case you're heard by the Stasi?
1:06.0	One of the most powerful secret police forces on earth.
1:09.0	How do you do it when you have no crew?
1:12.0	How do you know which direction to dig in?
1:14.0	How do you find people in tools when you have no money?
1:16.0	How do you do it when you've got no one in the west to dig from?
1:19.0	How do you avoid bursting one of the water pipes that run you see when you're digging?
1:22.0	When there's no light, you breathe when the air runs out.
1:24.0	Somehow you do all this and you get to the other end.
1:28.0	What if the Stasi are waiting for you?
1:31.0	Answer.
	...

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