The above 8-minute documentary, made by Mark Three Media, was shown on BBC1’s regional programme Inside Out on Monday 11 February 2013:
Like most reports of our story, this documentary contains a number of factual errors, but in this case we received an apology for them from Mark Three Media. The main (and very common) error was in saying that the London Recruits were all students. Ken Keable writes: "In fact, only a small proportion of the Recruits were students. Most were workers. Sean Hosey was not a student. From the evidence in the book, I estimate that there were about ten students and academics and 21 workers in that narrow five-year period 1967-71. This makes 31 (not 20 as stated in the programme). If we consider the people recruited from London over the whole period 1967-1994, I reckon there were over 60, including people not yet found.
London Recruits on BBC Radio 4
Click here to download (40MB) Radio 4’s Saturday Live podcast of Steve Marsling and Sean Hosey telling the story of their lives as undercover ANC recruits.
Interview starts at 48.48.
Alternatively visit the Radio 4 website to listen to the interview. Their part starts more than 45 minutes into the programme.
Steve and Sean were both members of the Young Communist League. YCL London District Secretary Bob Allen recruited Steve, who in turn recruited Sean. On his second mission, in 1972, Sean was arrested in Durban, tortured, kept in solitary confinement, and jailed for five years under South Africa’s Suppression of Communism Act. In this interview, he gives a very moving account of his experiences.
Buy book here
