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 Recruit & gun-runner

This American Life

London Recruit and gun-runner Katherine Salahi (known in the book as Katherine Levine) was recently interviewed by her daughter Reya El-Salahi on the US radio show This American Life. The daughter, a journalist and presenter for TV channel "London Live" didn't know about her mother's gun-running activities for the ANC in 1971 until our book was published in 2012! She has some penetrating questions to ask.

The interview starts at 42 minutes into Act 2 of the programme.

https://m.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/613/ok-ill-do-it?act=2#act-2

 

Apartheid Activism In the 1960s & '70s - Ronnie Kasrils

Mary Chamberlain Midweek extract Radio 4

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05pntyl

Libby Purves meets wildlife presenter Steve Backshall; writer and academic Mary Chamberlain; pickpocket entertainer James Freedman and retailer Trevor Pickett. Mary Chamberlain is Emeritus professor of History at Oxford Brookes University. Her book, Fenwomen, was the first to be published by Virago Press 40 years ago and inspired Caryl Churchill's play Fen. When she was 23 Mary and her husband became involved with the anti-apartheid movement and were recruited as couriers for the ANC. The couple were part of a network of couriers around the world who, at great personal risk, smuggled anti-apartheid literature into South Africa. Her first novel, The Dressmaker of Dachau, is published by The Borough Press.

Interview on Robert Elms Radio show BBC London

8/8/2013

L to R: Stuart Round, Robert Elms, Bob Newland.

Read more: Interview on Robert Elms Radio show BBC London

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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.

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